Turns out titles don’t always have to be completely obscure. This time, I think it actually pertains to the post quite well.
A few months ago I got my palms on the latest iMac: shiny, sexy, and smooth. This was the first time that I began to fiddle with the new OS, Leopard. The new features were great, though I couldn’t put use to all of them. In particular Time Machine, since I don’t use an external hard drive, or Stacks—which to this day continues to house an annoying bug, and the whole fan layout is relatively annoying (I enjoy my cluttered desktop). I do, however, make good use of Spaces and Quicklook. It’s new features like those that make life convenient. But does convenience always equate with good? You’d think so until you open up iMovie ‘08 (which came with the new iLife ‘08 included on my iMac).
Back when I got the computer, I became aware that videos created in iMovie HD (the previous version) could not be imported into the newer application. That was problem one, since I’ve made a few movies and started many projects in the past that would now take more effort to edit or finish. Since then I’ve avoided the application—mainly with school and other priorities as my excuse. When I finally cracked it open this past week I found an appreciation for complexity, as well as problem two.
iMovie ‘08 is completely dumbed down. Since the beginning of time, Apple has attempted to make things easy for it’s users. Now though, they’ve finally pierced so far into simplicity it’s causing hemorrhaging. iMovie ‘08 is actually so simple, it’s technically more complex for someone who actually knows how to edit videos. There’s no timeline, layers, easy-to-manage transitions or effects. It’s a borderline mess. Sure there are some okay features, but sticking with it is simply not worth it for those who like to edit a lot, and not just string a few clips together.
Now, some would say that if you can’t manage the new-found simplicity, you should perhaps purchase better software. Well, I’m no professional video editor, so Final Cut Pro is simply something I wouldn’t buy—to me it’s a waste of money being that I won’t actually be raking in any doe through the videos I make. But as a hobby, I found iMovie HD the best free application for what I need. I’m not the type of person who is always excited about change (heck, it took me a couple of years to finally want to touch OS X, and now that I have, I would never go back to Classic), so maybe I’m a little resistant about inching near the new version of iMovie. I doubt it though. Thankfully, the folks at Apple aren’t dicks, and they actually allow you to download the previous version—it apparently works on Leopard, so I’m content. It still would’ve been nice if they originally took the care to not mutilate the dignity of a great program.
Filed under: Rant, Technology | Tagged: apple, ew, imovie, imovie 7, leopard, mac
There is this quote of mine you should know Christina, “Some times I think computers should be command line only, but I would be screwed.”
Why the command line only?
Because it keeps people who don’t know what they are doing from trying stuff, since you actuly need to know a thing or two to get something done, heck I will settle with C:/Windows start type thing….
GUIs when dumbed down allow almost any one new to the program to start it off with out a hitch, but it is at the expense of power users, I was fine with windows until Vista, were I had to relearn many things dued to the “noobie friendly” placement of things. Heck I hate it that CtrlAltDel does not bring up task mang at first but a list of options of what to do. Or the fact that when I go to Computer->properties I don’t get the simple yet filled with information window any more, but something that looks like Fisher Price made.
half the fun of programs is learning what things do on your own, making things more user friendly is somewhat good thing, provided you don’t remove things that are essicental to the program like a timeline in iMovie.
Also I am thinking about getting a Mac Mini what would you say to that?
W00t, do it.
You’ve used Macs before, right? I say get one, so long you already know what you’re getting and like it. To me it’s simple to use (though I’ve been using it all my life, so Windows would probably be simple too had I used it from the beginning). But it’s not as dumbed down as something like iMovie. 
And at least you still do have control (ie. via terminal) if necessary.
Yoga’s pretty fun. I recommend it if you’re reasonably flexible