Apple took to the stage in San Francisco this morning to reassert its dominance over the tablet market with the iPad 2 -- but the real story may be with the company bringing two of its popular iLife components to the new tablet, including iMovie, which promises “very independent filmmaking.”
After first debuting on the iPhone 4 last June, iMovie is set to make a splash onto the iPad 2 when it hits stores on Friday, March 11 at 5pm. The $4.99 universal app (which also works on the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch) claims to help you “turn the HD video you shoot into a masterpiece worth of the red carpet” while taking full advantage of the bigger multitouch display.
The real question is, just how powerful will iMovie for iPad be? With Apple’s introduction of the super-sized version (as well as a new GarageBand for iPad coming on the same date, also $4.99), can would-be filmmakers now skip the computer entirely and go straight for the iPad 2?
While iMovie’s shift to a universal app capable of running on the iPad 2 as well as the smaller display of the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch is a welcome move, there’s little doubt that the best experience will come from using the iPad 2 to create your mobile masterpieces.
Apple has taken advantage of the larger screen to introduce the Marquee View, where editors can browse, play and open their iMovie projects from one central place. Once you’ve put the wraps on your latest epic, you can premiere it by publishing the movie straight from iMovie to a host of sites, including YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and even CNN iReport.
Sharing your iMovie projects may be simple, but it’s powerful as well -- you can add full descriptions and even keywords to your projects before you export them, as well as set viewing access to limit a project to only the viewers you choose.
Finally, you also have the option to send a finished movie to your Camera Roll (where it can be exported to your Mac or PC or even imported into a new mobile iMovie project), publish it to a MobileMe gallery, attach it to an e-mail or even send it as an MMS on the iPhone 4.
Mobile iMovie has offered a handful of themes since it debuted on the iPhone 4 last year, but Apple is now adding three new themes to the mix with Neon, Simple and CNN iReport. As always, the built-in themes include their own custom titles, transitions and even a musical soundtrack, if you don’t have one of your own.
On the iPad 2, fine-tuning your edit is even easier thanks to a new Precision Editor mode -- simply pinch open any transition and you’ll have the ability to hone each edit with pinpoint accuracy, right in the timeline.
Finally, you can master slideshows like a pro with iMovie, just by taking new photos from your iOS device or dropping existing ones right into a project. Each photo is customized with a Ken Burns-style panning effect which takes advantage of facial detection so your subject’s mug is always kept in the frame. Graphics and text can also be used to spice up iMovie slideshows.
Just like the desktop iMovie ’11, iMovie for iPad is about to rock your ears with amazing ways to enhance the audio of your mobile productions. The mobile iMovie now adds a collection of more than 50 fun sound effects which can be used in up to eight different audio tracks.
Visual editing also comes to mobile iMovie, with the ability to drag, delete and rearrange your audio clips at will. Volume adjustments are a snap, as well as the ability to add multiple background songs or even loop a single track so it’s timed perfectly to the length of your project.
Perhaps the biggest step forward for iMovie on the iPad 2 is the ability to actually see your audio in waveform view, which allows editing with precision you’ve never seen on a mobile device before.
If you prefer to narrate your finished project or even add a bit of dialogue replacement to the fun, iMovie now allows you to record audio directly into your timeline using the microphone on your iOS device -- a live level meter makes sure you’re always getting the best possible recording, and it’s easy to review, discard, re-record and accept individual takes, just like the pros do it.
Apple has wisely introducing file sharing to compatible iOS devices with the new iMovie, which means you’ll be able to shoot 720p HD video using the superior iPhone 4 camera, rough out an edit while out and about, then shuttle the whole thing to your iPad 2 via iTunes to finish it on a more luxurious amount of screen real estate.
Regardless of which iMovie-compatible device you choose to use, thanks to iOS 4.3 (which will also be released on March 11) you’ll be able to use Apple’s AirPlay technology to beam it directly to the Apple TV in your living room -- or if you prefer, the $39 Apple Digital AV Adapter will allow a high-resolution HDMI hookup from your iPad 2 to an HDTV or even big-screen projector, perfect for premiering your work as Cecil B. DeMille always envisioned.
All in all, Apple appears to have upped the ante significantly with their new iPad 2-compatible version of iMovie. For a bargain price of only $4.99, App Store buyers will get a powerful mobile editing system that works on three different devices -- and presumably, the new universal app will be free for existing owners when it debuts on March 11, although Apple has yet to confirm this.
Coupled with the faster, thinner, lighter iPad 2 and its dual cameras, iMovie’s announced feature set should pave the way for some exciting updates to come -- along with a veritable flood of new video content taken on the spur of the moment.
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