In fact, it looks and works a lot like iMovie, all dark gray, with “skimming” available you run your cursor over a clip without pressing the mouse button to play it. The new Final Cut has been radically redesigned. You can’t change the settings of your exported QuickTime movies without the $50 Compressor program. You can use a second computer monitor, but you need new TV-output drivers to attach an external video monitor. They say the new program is missing high-end features like the ability to edit multiple camera angles, to export to tape, to burn anything more than rudimentary DVDs and to work with EDL, XML and OMF files (used to exchange projects with other programs). Some professional editors are already insisting that Apple has made exactly the same mistake with Final Cut X they pointed out various flaws with the program after an earlier version of this column was posted online on Wednesday.
Didn’t Apple kill off iMovie, too, in 2008, and replace it with an all-new, less capable version that lacked dozens of important features? It took three years of upgrades before the new iMovie finally surpassed its predecessor in features and coherence.
Apple veterans may, at this point, be feeling some creepy déjà vu.
