I don’t feel everything has been dumbed down, in some cases it’s simply a matter of making it easier for those who aren’t as advanced, while still making things accessible for the users who wish them

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/virtualapple.orghttp://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=virtualapple.org
http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=virtualapple.org

The redesign of iMovie caused it’s deletion from my hard drive and a migration to Final Cut Express and later Pro. When I upgrade next time I will look at what Avid and Adobe have to offer as Apple has totally pissed me off with it’s never ending dumbing down and lock down of the Mac OS.

Note to Apple- stop removing features (QuickTime X vs real QuickTime), hiding formerly open UI preference settings (try getting around the setup wizard for Mail if you wish to configure G-Mail as a POP account on your Mac, for instance) and screwing around with the basics of the UI (hiding the system folder on 10.7, reversing the default scrolling behavior). Stop trying to fix what is not broken.

I own an iPad and it’s a nice toy- it sucks as a computer and is compromised as a Kindle (glossy rear lit screen vs e-ink). It in no way is a replacement for a real computer- it’s an oversized iPhone.

Apple’s approach has the potential to piss everyone off, but also to lead people in a new – possibly better – direction. The simplicity of the timeline in FCPX is long overdue (we really don’t need to be mimicking linear edits like we used to). But then, the backwards compatibility of Avid and Adobe is what allows people to move forward without losing any past work. That’s what scares people, and whether it’s right or wrong, being scared is not what most of us are in this business for. We’re only human, after all, and we like to stay comfortable as often as we can. FCPX has some worthwhile features and good speed improvements beyond FCP7, but it doesn’t compare any better in many regards to Avid or Adobe. So if you’re choosing for speed, all of them are fast now. If you’re choosing for the most compatibility, you really can’t choose FCPX yet.

I waited 7 months to determine if my company moves with Avid (again) or Adobe.  When you are not sure, don’t move.

3 weeks ago, we decide to install the FCPX trial version on 1 editing station.  Like you said, we hated FCPX at first.  But after a couple of tutorial, Bang!  We saw a future for this software.  Not exactly the same we was hoping for. I thought Apple will deploy a FCP 8 or whatever. 

Doesn’t matter now!
I love FCPX better than I thought I would do.  I’ve also gained speed in my workflow.

Apple reinvent the editing and I’m glad they did it.

i agree that Adobe likely didn’t plan an ambush, but i’m sure the discount bundle nature of the production suite always had a “maybe if they have it, they’ll try it component.”

excellent points.

doesn’t sound so bad to me

I know this isn’t available for anything but Twitter and a few other services so far, but in the end the solution has to come from Apple itself, as other browsers have no problem unwrapping URLs before logging them in the browser history.

I hope this helps.

do you feel FCPX offers anything that the latest version of Avid and Premiere do not?

Obviously once FCPX hit, many of the FCP people I know who had Premiere Pro installed but had still yet to try it started giving it a run. That’s the thing that has hurt Apple the most I think. Many people already had Creative Suite because of the price discount versus buying After Effects and Photoshop independently, and so many folks really didn’t have to make an active purchasing decision when they decided to dump FCP7 and FCPX, they just had to click an icon and open an application that was already installed on their computer.

I’m not sure that’s how Adobe planned it, but it’s the equivalent of having a sleeper cell ready to go on the attack, just waiting years for the right moment to do it. Again, I wouldn’t credit Adobe with having planned it that way (really, who could have predicted what was going to happen when FCPX came out?). Sure FCPX is only $300. And sure, many kids will be cutting their teeth on FCPX this year in a school editing lab. But they will also probably have Creative Suite installed, which means Premiere Pro is still an option. With the interconnected nature of the Adobe apps and the “no rendering” mantra, it’s not very farfetched to believe that some of these kids will give Adobe a go on that late night project when they don’t have time to keep rendering comps out of After Effects.

It’s everyone’s surprise all these months later that Apple ever made it possible for any of this to happen.

That’s just the thing…I keep hearing “FCPX is going to be fully featured soon.” The reason it doesn’t entirely matter to this particular discussion is because some users (currently unquantifiable) have already jumped ship. Not so much to spit on FCP’s grave as to look out for #1. Like I mentioned, many users – including some very large houses – were patiently waiting to upgrade to new systems when/if the release of FCP8 came about. The purchase plan was already in effect…it was just a matter of finding out what Apple was going to do. When Apple appeared to shun the professionals and their requirements and shave off major functions from the initial release with little more than a “we’ll fix it later…possibly” in response to the uproar, many people decided that was it and put their upgrade plans into effect with Adobe or Avid instead of FCPX.

Vladimir, you ask “what will happen when FCPX gets every single option Premiere or Avid have” and you propose it will be soon (maybe, maybe not). But to suggest that this will be history repeating itself as Apple steals back the NLE crown from Avid or Adobe. I just don’t think that is true or really even possible. When FCP stormed the industry 12+ years ago, it offered something that Avid could not, which was desktop editing. Avid was a million dollar solution, and FCP was at most a $5,000 solution, maybe $10,000 with every bell and whistle. As for Premiere, FCP and Premiere had been cut from the same cloth and what really won the day for FCP more than anything was the Apple support for creative professionals, whereas Adobe (in the pre-Macromedia merger days) was really more of a business software company that also sold Photoshop. Nowadays, Adobe is effectively “all-in” on the creative software (Creative Suite) and the Adobe argument is particularly strong on the price point. If you’re going to buy Photoshop (likely) and After Effects (maybe, maybe not) then you really ought to go ahead and buy the Creative Suite, because you’ve more than paid for it by those two applications alone.

If Apple had never bumbled the FCPX release, then everything Adobe and Avid have been doing might have been for nothing. As it stands, nobody can assume safety in the Apple world for professional video like was once the case. Now the options – very good, as they are – have become eminently clearer.

I have many friends working at a very large news organization and any of them will tell you that Adobe reps have been in their building for over a year (preceding even the FCPX release, which should tell you something about their satisfaction with their 3-4 year old FCP7 solution at the time). Point being, it will cost them quite a bit in the near term to migrate to new machines and software but they’re planning to do it anyway. Adobe is providing and promises to provide support for even the most unique situations they may encounter in the workflow, whereas Apple has basically said all along “here’s the software, good luck.”

My point here, summed up as I can make it, is that comparing the situation facing Apple, Avid and Adobe today to the lay of the land 12+ years ago is not a accurate comparison at all. No one company has the sway to take over the edit bays by storm. Apple did have something close to that a year ago, but it’s gone and won’t likely come back. That’s not to say that Apple will disappear because they won’t, but they will not likely find the domination in the pro video realm that they once had.

As awesome as that is, what are folks successfully using it for?

sorry.

i do think a lot of people think the time “re-learn” is a resource they can’t afford, and that may be true for some larger houses, or small houses that are busy, busy, busy (is there one like this right now? if so, can i have some of your work?!?).

but i have always said, if you’re going to get FCPX, do this: download the free 30-day trial, and risk $50 or so on the ripple training (or other reputable) instructional videos. go all the way through them, trying the techniques with some of your own videos.

if you don’t like it at that point, you’ve wasted a couple of days and $50. if you can’t spare that, you have business problems larger than which NLE you’re using. my guess is, even if you decide not to use FCPX as your main NLE right away, you will see what an amazing leap forward it is in so many ways.

It might be pretty cool; Apple, once again the ‘underdogs’ — I reckon they could use a smudge more of the ‘Think Different’ mentality in this day and age. 

But these are more nostalgic ramblings, rather than practical suggestions … Apple won’t move to ARM unless they absolutely have to.

So no, many users were NOT required to upgrade by any means, but they had needs that looked to not be filled for some time once FCPX launched, when they felt they had already waited a long time for various solutions. So they looked around and gave Adobe and Avid another shot. What they are finding now is that Adobe and Avid are very capable solutions available on cheaper hardware and with better support for the professional video producer.

FCPX was mishandled in my opinion and while it may not cost Apple in the long-term (yet to be seen how many actually jumped ship for good), it has certainly given Avid and Adobe an opportunity that they probably never should have gotten. From all appearances, Avid and Adobe have done their part to make the most out of this situation. It’s awfully hard to try to put the toothpaste back into the tube.

What will happen when FCPX gets every single option Premiere or Avid have, and in this pace it will be very soon ? The same what happened with the launch of FCP 1.0.

Where’s the study on iOS’s crash reporting capability and reliability vs Android’s? That’s my question. :P

Until all the kids will find that another company is the new ‘cool’, and won’t be buying their iToys anymore.