I agree with what you said about the negative publicity that people are giving on iMovie. I was reading all this stuff about iMovie being crap now, etc. and really made me think twice about my Mac purchase. Thankfully I continued to research and found your podasts and learned that iMovie HD is available for free if you want it!

I am still undecided on Macbook or Macbook Pro, but I know I’ll be happy with either. Keep up the great work!

I follow advice when it smells right

For those of you who say to stick with ’06, yea right…who wants to bet Apple will never update that as time goes on? It will become more unstable as Mac OS X gets patched and upgraded.

I’m really concerned that the K-12 education market will suffer too. Many grade school kids created their first movies using iMovie, and this version will require their teachers and the kids to re-learn a new application…and realize that they can’t do all the cool stuff they could do in the previous version.

Glad to hear you’re following my advice.

I AM voting with my dollars. I’m not upgrading after learning the lack of features.

What are you going to write if Apple decides to add those features back?
I expect you to write something like “Apple is great. If you NEWBIES don’t like the cool features just SHUT UP”

I wrote because your banner said “Your ultimate guide to thinking different.” but you told people “SHUT UP” when they voiced their opinions – differently than yours. Are you living in Iraq?

Perhaps you should change the banner to “Your ultimate guide to thinking like Michael – or SHUT UP!!!”

You too. Stop bitching about people of different opinions! They’ll always be there – get over it.

Then vote with your dollars.

I do not think Apple is trying to FORCE anyone into buying Final Cut Express or Pro.

iMovie is supposed to easy to use for a casual user. iMovie HD does a ton of things, including that plugin support, that most users simply trying to construct a home movie will never need.

If you already have iMovie HD then you’ve got what you’re looking for…if you bought iLife ’08…you get iMovie HD FOR FREE!!!

So you don’t HAVE to use iMovie ’08. If it doesn’t have features you NEED then the application wasn’t designed FOR YOU.

…and yes, the whining online about this is a bitch. It’s pure bitching plain and simple.

They have provided a solution for both kinds of users for the same price.

Get over it.

You didn’t mention that it doesn’t support third party plug-ins.

Apple is weening features and forcing people to buy the pro or semi-pro products. If that strategy fails – they will add those features back in.

I’m a long time Mac users. Not every complain about Mac is a bitch! I’m not an advanced user by any means. I will NOT use 08 because it lacks features I need!!

See, I think that’s a large part of the problem. iMovie ’08 IS a completely new app…they just kept the name of the old app.

@pakkman781 -

I think that’s what Final Cut Express is supposed to be, but I wouldn’t mind an iMovie Pro.

I think a lot of the aggravation is because iMovie HD is not going to be upgraded (iMovie ’08 is not iMovie HD–as you’ve pointed out they’re two different products). So the bugs in iMovie HD are the bugs we’re going to live with.

It’s an obvious statement, but it would be a good idea for Apple to incorporate those absent iMovie HD features (the timeline, themes, better titles, etc.) into iMovie ’10 (or whatever it’s going to be called).

Just my $0.02.

no…my point is still valid. You don’t agree with it, but it’s valid. Your point is valid too. It would have been nice if they could have made it so that the previous plugins and things worked. Unfortunately they couldn’t because the program is completely re-written from the ground up – so they continue to support the functional and very well done iMovie HD, even going so far as to make it FREE to iLife ’08 users.

They didn’t make iMovie HD no longer functional, they simply introduced a new way to handle movies and edit them.

And I’m not sure you understand what the word arrogant means. Short-sighted I can see…but arrogant? How does having two applications that are mostly incompatible “making claims or pretensions to superior importance”?

I’m tired of hearing people complain about the shortcomings of the iPhone, or the iMac, or the new keyboard, or iLife 08. You know what? If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

Don’t people do the research before they buy a product? I mean, if you go out on a whim and pick up a product, I don’t think you have the rite to complain about it when you get it home and it’s not what you thought it was.

That’s why I don’t have an iPhone. I’ve played with it. I’ve read about it. I’ve researched the plans. It’s an amazing device, but it’s not for me. I wouldn’t dream of dropping $600 on it then bitch because it can’t do XYZ. I’d make sure it could do XYZ before I bought it.

I can see where this is going, so I’ll stop before I get out of hand….err!!!

Simplification is not easy for everyone to understand.

For me iMovie 8 is a new paridigm that takes relearning but it is so much easier and faster once the learning is out of the way. Plus you got to love the new way it manages your video files.

Complex movies are bettered made in FCP, Express, and now iMovieHD.

When you want to make a feature length home movie, I guess you would use iMovie HD, which is a free download for iLife 08 users.

I don’t think a majority of people want to do that, though and even if they did, I see no reason why they couldn’t quickly do it in iMovie ’08.

I’ve used the software, and while I agree it favors short videos, which I think is what the majority of people using it will make with it, I don’t see why it would be impossible, or even hard, to make a longer movie.