Take that, Apple! Avid has just released an iPad iMovie competitor called Avid Studio. The US$4.99 app is a scaled-down version of Avid's pro video editing tools.

Avid Studio features a timeline and storyboard, plus some iPad-friendly gestures so you can scale images and videos. You can arrange your edits on the timeline for special effects like picture-in-picture.The app also offers 3D animations and transitions, and video tracks can be composited.

Avid Studio lets you export a project to the Avid Studio app for the PC via iCloud, and you can share your finished project via YouTube, Facebook or email. Videos not shot with the iPad camera can be imported with the iPad Camera Connection Kit.

While Avid's new iPad app is clearly a consumer tool and not a pro video editor, it does show some commitment from the company to Apple's platforms, and may serve as a 'gateway drug' for pros who are considering the Avid suite as an alternative to Final Cut Pro X. The initial poor reception for the release of Final Cut Pro X for the Mac last summer, which dropped many features and angered several professional customers, has provided an opening for alternative products.

Avid (and also Adobe, with its Premiere Pro product) stepped into the FCPX breach and offered discounts to FCPX users who wanted to switch to the pro products on the desktop. Avid's desktop suite runs only on a Windows PC and costs $169. Final Cut Pro X is $299 and requires an App Store-friendly version of Mac OS X.

Apple updated FCPX this week to bring back some features that were lost in the FCP7 to FCPX transition, but I think some video professionals and serious hobbyists feel the momentum is swinging away from Apple. [Award-winning editor Walter Murch isn't among the naysayers, at least not anymore. -Ed.]

Avid Studio for iPad will be $4.99 during a 30-day introductory period, and $8.00 after that. The app is a 30 MB download, and requires an iPad running iOS 5.0 or greater. Apple offers its own iOS version of iMovie for $4.99, which has been generally well reviewed.

Gallery: Avid Studio

Avid Studio takes iPad video editing to the next level originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ever get bombarded by messages or miss out on something important because you had your nose in your computer? If you can answer "yes" to either question, then you will likely enjoy Digitals, a short film by Chris Crutchfield that portrays our busy digital life. Crutchfield says this about his video short,

One day I got an email, an sms, a phone call, a Facebook message and two tweets all within about 5 seconds of one another. This video is a re-manifestation of my brain's interpretation of that event. #trustory

I won't spoil the clip for you by revealing the plot, but I will say that Crutchfield does an excellent job capturing the cacophony of alert sounds that bombard us each day. Check out the video below and let us know what you think.

[Via The Daily What and Parislemon]

Indie video portrays the crazy, notification-driven life of an Apple user originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are a lot of Runmeter users on the TUAW staff, and when Abvio invited us to take a look at the upcoming Runmeter 7.0 (along with Cyclemeter and Walkmeter, which are the same app geared toward different users) at Macworld | iWorld 2012, we gladly took the chance to see what's in store.

The app update, coming later this quarter, has an updated stopwatch that shows more than 150 data items, a new history navigation, social media interaction and more. My favorite feature was the ability to use the remote on Apple headphones to stop and start the app as needed. It's great for pausing at red lights or to take a quick break. CEO Steve Kusmer also showed me the Wahoo Fitness Blue HR Heart Rate Strap, which the app now supports for capturing heart rate data via Bluetooth.

Check out the video below to see Kusmer demonstrate the new features. Runmeter is $4.99 in the App Store.

Macworld | iWorld 2012: Abvio reveals new features for Runmeter 7.0 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner Cable released an official iOS app early last year that let subscribers watch live TV. Despite some early issues with channel agreements, the app is still going strong, and appears to be popular with customers. So popular, in fact, that the company has just updated the app to also work with the iPhone and iPod touch, so now no matter what iOS device you have, as long as you're a TWC subscriber, you can tune in to some live television.

The app is called TWC TV, and it's a free download on the App Store. As you might guess, it requires a good, reliable Internet signal, so you'll need a Wi-Fi connection for streaming. You can also browse through program schedules and information, and even set your compatible DVR to grab your favorite shows.

The Time Warner app was a nice surprise when it appeared, and it's one of the best things that old media companies have done to work with iOS. It's good to see that it's not only popular enough to support with an update, but that Time Warner is getting dedicated about making its content available even on Apple's platforms for customers.

Time Warner Cable's app goes universal originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner Cable released an official iOS app early last year that let subscribers watch live TV. Despite some early issues with channel agreements, the app is still going strong, and appears to be popular with customers. So popular, in fact, that the company has just updated the app to also work with the iPhone and iPod touch, so now no matter what iOS device you have, as long as you're a TWC subscriber, you can tune in to some live television.

The app is called TWC TV, and it's a free download on the App Store. As you might guess, it requires a good, reliable Internet signal, so you'll need a Wi-Fi connection for streaming. You can also browse through program schedules and information, and even set your compatible DVR to grab your favorite shows.

The Time Warner app was a nice surprise when it appeared, and it's one of the best things that old media companies have done to work with iOS. It's good to see that it's not only popular enough to support with an update, but that Time Warner is getting dedicated about making its content available even on Apple's platforms for customers.

Time Warner Cable's app goes universal originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple has posted a video of the education event it held earlier today. The video is available for streaming on Apple's site, or you can download a higher quality version from iTunes.

This is Apple's first public event since October's introduction of the iPhone 4S. In this video you'll see the debut of iBooks 2.0, iBooks Author, the iTunes U app, and Apple's partnership with textbook publishers to offer electronic textbooks directly to students for just US$14.99.

Apple posts video of education event originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A new company that debuted at CES is looking to figure out a way to give users of web video (both content owners and viewers) exactly what each of them wants without ruining the experience for either side.

Shodogg wants to be the middleman of the video experience, tapdancing on the line between protective content owners and content-hungry users. What might that look like? Well, if you have a web-enabled television (and if CES was any indication, that's a question of "when," not "if"), and you are playing a video on your iPad, you can send that video to the TV easily and as securely as possible.

I am an optimist, so to me this is a very exciting thing because everybody wins and I have hope that all parties involved will be interested since it strikes a balance that seems to meet everyone's requirements.

Full disclosure: This particular company caught my eye because Seth Green was there representing them, because he is a Shodogg investor and advisor. We went to find out what they were about, and in speaking with Seth, it turns out they are trying to do something really interesting. Other advisors include the CEO of JibJab and an NBCU exec, so it is entirely possible this could be the thing that tips the scale for video consumption. You can check out the demo video below.

Shodogg - Video's Best Friend from Shodogg on Vimeo.

Shodogg makes a grand debut at CES originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Paramount Pictures, the company that brought you The Ten Commandments, Saturday Night Fever, the new Mission Impossible movie and hundreds of other cinematic treats.

In recognition of this milestone, Paramount100 has arrived on the App Store. P100 is a free, rather massive (376 MB) app with info on most of the Paramount films made in the last century. The app contains a reasonably complete history of the studio, loads of stills and clips from selected Paramount movies, and even some selections from the movie scores.

Unfortunately there are a lot of films missing. Seven Days in May, for example, a classic Oscar-nominated film released by Paramount, is nowhere to be found.

Some of the photos have never been seen before, and make for an interesting browsing experience. The app also contains a studio tour, but it is mainly a map and you can't click on locations to see some of the movie sets and studio interiors, which seems a rather large missed opportunity.

Adding to the misery is that every so often you click and the app demands a Flash player! Uh, this is an iPad app, right? Probably a port.

The app also gives you a chance to watch the movies, providing a helpful link to the iTunes store. Of course, they don't have all the movies Paramount has produced, so sometimes the link goes nowhere. There is also no search function, which, given the amount of material in the app, is downright silly. The app also says you can share content, so I tried to send a still from Forrest Gump to my email account. Noting ever arrived in my in-box. When I looked at the message I tried to send it didn't contain the still, simply a link to the app at the Apple Store. That's not quite what the app implies you can do.

For all its faults, the app is loaded with information. Casts, crews, Oscar lists and a nice collection of rare stills are there for the browsing.

If you're a movie fan and have an iPad, Paramount100 is a fun trip down memory lane. I'm hoping it will get more complete, add some features, and eliminate any dependence on Flash.

The app is iPad only and requires iOS 4.0 or later. I have some screen shots in the gallery below.

Gallery: Paramount100 iPad app

Daily iPad App: Paramount100 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are plenty of video sharing services online these days -- from the enormously popular YouTube to Apple's own video integration with Twitter, it's quite easy for almost anyone to upload and share video with the public. But Givit's CEO Greg Kostello, who previously worked for both Apple and NeXT, has a different goal in mind: He wants to take on video sharing in the private arena. Givit, as we saw at CES this week, isn't about uploading a video from your iPhone or iPad for the world to see. Rather, it's about uploading a video, and then sending it out to a limited list of your friends, family, acquaintances or co-workers, for only them to see and respond to.

On first glance, the app is almost just a messaging service, and in fact, Kostello showed me an example video where he asked his team a question, and each of them were able to respond to the video from their own place and time. The biggest benefit of Givit appears to be that it's easy to share and interact with a video once it's uploaded, and Kostello points out that the company is really trying to have a universal experience -- whether you're on any iOS device, a PC or a Mac, or any Android device or other tablet (the company is introducing an Android app here at CES this week), you can hit the Givit site or download an app and use the service easily.

The iOS version even integrates with your address book (though there's no iCloud integration -- yet, says Kostello), so once you've got a video in the system, sharing it with your friends and family in a secure way is as easy as just choosing their names from a list and hitting go. Even if they don't use Givit, they'll get an email saying there's a video waiting for them, and they'll just need to hit a link to open up a browser and see it.

Unfortunately, there is one big hitch: Users who see your shared videos will need to register with Givit. Kostello says this is more of a security concern than anything else -- you can't truly share private videos unless you know who's watching, so if you send a nice birthday video off to your aunt, she'll have to sign up for the Givit service before she can actually see it. It's not like YouTube, where there's just a URL that's obscured from the public. Here you're more aware of who has seen your video, and they must go through a quick registration to ensure only they can see it.

But once users are registered, they can see any videos that have been shared with them, and even respond to those videos with text comments or even video replies. Kostello says that while his company can't see what the videos are that are uploaded (they are private, after all), they're noting that about half of them are recorded with a mobile and/or iOS device, and about half come from PC video files, which means they were either taken with a webcam directly, or edited and then uploaded.

Anecdotally, Kostello says just simple video blogs are a big part of the service, as videos of users kids' playing sports, then shared with family and friends. He's seen businesses (including his own) use the service as well, and he even tells one story of a military family with a brother serving in Qatar, who used the service to send video both to and from the soldier away from home. Skype, says Kostello, often means you need to be in both places in the world at the same time, but a service like Givit means families can see and respond to shared videos on their own time.

Currently, Givit is free to use, but in the next month or so, Kostello says they'll announce plans for monetizing it. He says ads probably aren't a part of the equation, since all of the shared videos are still users viewing their own content, but instead Givit will likely charge for premium services, like more room to save videos, and possibly other features. There will always be a free service there, says Kostello, similar to Dropbox, but heavy users will be asked to pay.

Givit seems like an interesting solution to the issue of sharing videos privately with a smaller group. There are services out there that will do this already, but many of those make it hard to specify exactly who can see the video, and ensure that's what happens. Once it's set up, Givit's a quick and easy way to post a video, and make sure that only the people you want to see it can do so.

Givit makes private video sharing from iOS quick and easy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The second trailer for the upcoming Dark Knight Rises (which I'm really looking forward to, as both a huge Batman fan and a big fan of Christopher Nolan's work) has broken records on Apple's iTunes movie download site, boasting a full 12.5 million downloads in just 24 hours, topping the previous record by 2 million. That's a pretty solid debut for the "exclusive" trailer (exclusive, in this case, meaning it's popped up on other video sites after its debut).

That previous record was held by none other than Marvel's The Avengers preview, which came out earlier this year. Obviously downloads like these don't make any money for Apple -- they instead cost a lot more money, both in bandwidth and in things like technical support and oversight. But of course releasing free trailers like this promotes both the movie and the iTunes download service -- that's 12.5 million people who, when they want to go and download or rent a full movie, know where iTunes is and how it works. From Apple's point of view, that kind of promotion is well worth it.

The Dark Knight Rises trailer breaks iTunes download record originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As you can tell from our quiet start this morning, it's a slow day around the TUAW HQ -- most of us are still in the holiday mood, and with much of the United States off work today anyway, things aren't too crazy. But we're still here, and while some of us are buried under snow, we can still at least remember that somewhere on Earth, there are sunny skies and tropical breezes.

In fact, you can see both in the video posted below, which was shot by a band called Passion Pit, completely on an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4. The team used the ReelMoments app (and presumably the official Camera app as well) to shoot all of the footage, and then edited it together with iMovie on the iPad. It's well done -- I wouldn't say it's super groundbreaking (we've seen music videos put together like this before), but there is some really good stuff in there. That last shot is especially great, and, if you are like us and working today after the holiday, might remind you that at least someone's on vacation this afternoon.

Music video created with iPad and iPhone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Funny thing about video cameras: you can spend an arbitrarily large amount of money on them, if you want. The line between the kind of equipment used exclusively by professionals and the stuff you might find in the gear bag of a weekend Scorsese has become so blurred that an $8,000 Canon HD camera no longer seems completely inappropriate for an Amazon wishlist.

Well, maybe that's a trifle exaggerated; the high-end Canon, Sony and RED Digital Cinema cameras are certainly out of reach for even the most dedicated hobbyist. (We can dream.) Nevertheless, with prosumer & consumer cameras converging in the $1,000+ range and Flip-style compact HD devices found for less than $100, which ones should you focus on if your post-production process includes editing in iMovie?

Apple's consumer editing app, part of the $49 iLife '11 suite (but available as a $14.99 standalone buy from the Mac App Store, and shipped with every new Mac today) has a lot more in common with the company's flagship editing tool than it used to. Final Cut Pro X has moved closer to iMovie's editing metaphors and control approaches, compared to Final Cut Pro 7, so that the transition up to the $299 FCP X from iMovie is a smaller jump now (the previous midrange editor, Final Cut Express, has been discontinued). Both programs are fairly agnostic about what kind of source material they'll work with, too.

Older versions of iMovie were happy to work with DV cameras and some tapeless models, but they were picky; some would work only with specific settings, and some not at all. iMovie '09 noticeably expanded its camera support, as it included an import/transcode option for the AVCHD recording format; it didn't work on PowerPC machines, but on Intel Macs it did the job by converting the AVCHD footage to an editable native format, the Apple Intermediate Codec. This opened up the camera landscape dramatically, but it meant chewing up quite a bit of hard drive space for the transcoded video clips (AIC is a beast when it comes to drive space, gobbling 50GB per hour of footage -- see Divergent Media's hilarious blog post on editing in native formats) and also plenty of time to convert the video before editing. The import also needed to take place directly from the camera.

Now we have iMovie '11, which has camera fever; it works with scores of them. So many models are friendly with the current version of iMovie, in fact, that Apple's replaced the static support chart from '09 with a filtered list that allows you to search by storage media, recording format, manufacturer and more. All of the cameras on this list should be supported well, and there are footnotes indicating any gotchas (for instance, iMovie doesn't handle 1080p60 footage, even though some of the listed cameras do). Just like '09, to handle AVCHD content iMovie '11 will transcode it to AIC before editing.

So which cameras should you choose? My suggestion is: follow the format. AVCHD cameras are popular and readily available, but because of the transcode requirement they will definitely slow you down when working with iMovie -- even with a fast and capable Mac you would be hard-pressed to turn around a family cocktail hour highlight reel before the Cool Whip hits the pumpkin pie after dinner. Instead, look for cameras that support H.264, MPEG-4, HDV or iFrame formats. The iFrame format is actually just a special case of H.264, locked to 30 frames per second, progressive scan mode and 960x540 resolution. That's lower-res than both common HD formats (720p = 1280x720px, 1080p = 1920x1080px) but still looks quite good on high-def TVs and conforms to the 16x9 HD aspect ratio. The smaller frame size helps keep the files manageable, although you'll still burn through your memory cards faster with iFrame than with conventional compression. About 42 minutes of iFrame video fit on an 8GB SD card, versus almost 2 hours of 720p MPEG-4 video, as the iFrame format reduces or eliminates predictive frames to make editing faster and less resource-intensive.

iFrame support in a camera manufacturer's product line serves another purpose; frankly, it's a kind of shibboleth for identifying the companies that are willing to at least make a gesture in the direction of Mac-specific capabilities. That's not to say you'll get better service or more clueful iMovie tech support from Panasonic than you would from other vendors, but consider this: historically, one of the best ways for the Mac-using community to show its support for compatibility efforts from vendors (back in the dark days where Mac support was neither a given nor a likely circumstance) was to vote with its dollars. Nowadays the buying power of Apple users is orders of magnitude more than it ever was, and every OEM out there knows it, but it still doesn't hurt to look carefully at who's making the effort to play nice.

I'd recommend sticking to flash memory as a storage medium, rather than an HDD-equipped camera. Although the larger onboard storage capacity of a hard drive-based camera may be tempting, it's going to be heavier and more battery-hungry than an equivalent SD-based unit, and you can't pull the drive out of the camera. SD cards are cheap enough now to make it economical to stock up on them -- and the MacBook Pro, 13" MacBook Air and iMac all sport SD slots for rapid import of footage.

When it comes down to specific models, there are so many variations of features, format and style that it probably pays to visit your nearest camera retailer or Apple store and play with a couple of units before making a final choice. Personally, I've been using the Flip-style Panasonic HM-TA1 for a year, and I like it a lot; it's cheap, it takes great video (including this iMovie-edited TUAW interview with Jeff from Voltaic Systems), and it's relatively indestructible. Drawbacks include a rather odd USB connector and a seeming inability to charge from anything other than my computer. It also speaks native iFrame, which is very handy for rapid turnaround projects. The TA1 has two successor cameras with larger screens, the rugged HM-TA20 and the stylish HM-TA2; both are worth a look.

Panasonic also bought the camera business that used to be Sanyo's, so the popular Xacti brand of handgrip-style cameras also come under the big P's umbrella now. The HX-DC1 and DC-10 models both support iFrame, with a handy flip-out screen and 12x zoom; the more expensive DC-10 adds higher still-shot resolution, intelligent scene exposure control and a full-quality max zoom setting (the DC-1 lets you flip a switch to go between 1x-6x zoom range and 2x-12x). The DC-1 can be found for less than $180, and it should not disappoint; the DC-10 is going to be $260 or more if you can find it, as it sold quite well during the early part of the shopping season.

Moving up the quality line to full-featured HD cam models, Canon's Vixia cameras consistently get great reviews and deliver great quality. You will pay for what you get; the Canon gear is not cheap, but you should decide how much your lucky shooter will be using the camera and figure out if it's worth the investment. (They will love you for it.) Sony's pro and consumer cameras also deliver a lot of bang for the buck.

If your beloved shutterbug is equally interested in still photography along with the video jones, it might be worth considering a still-centric camera as a video device. I have a Canon S95 point-and-shoot which works excellently for clean, 720p24 video, although like many P&S models it cannot adjust the optical zoom during a video shot. That's a bygone restriction in the successor S100 model, which allows optical zoom and adds a 1080p mode to boot; also, the presence of the newer unit will help lower the price of the S95 now. If your gift recipient craves an interchangeable lens system for a compact camera, the two Nikon 1 models look extremely tempting; both support iMovie-friendly H.264 files and add the ability to intermix still captures with movie recording on the fly. (Note that many still cameras will import video to iPhoto or Aperture rather than iMovie, but it's easy to get to from there for editing.)

Of course, Canon and Nikon's still camera lines go way beyond the point & shoot universe. Canon's EOS-7D, 5D Mark II and forthcoming 1DX set the benchmark for HD video-capable SLRs, and if you've ever seen the kind of astonishing footage that comes off these suckers you'll know why (and you'll also know why the 7D body starts at $1,200, never mind the lenses). The 5D MkII shows up on Apple's iMovie compatibility list, though oddly not the 7D; still, if you're even considering getting an SLR for video use, save a few dollars for FCP X too. For all things SLR/video, don't miss Philip Bloom's idiosyncratic and delightful site (his story of demoing the Canon cameras for the denizens of Skywalker Ranch is unforgettable).

Don't forget, too, that some of the most convenient cameras for iMovie are already bundled inside Apple's bestselling smartphone and music player. The iPhone 4S and the iPod touch are dandy for iMovie video capture, when you need the camera that's already in your pocket. After all, the best camera is the one you have with you.

If you do decide to go with a camera that defaults to AVCHD video, it should be noted that you aren't strictly limited to iMovie's built-in conversion routine, although that's the least-effort approach. Shedworx makes the $39.99 VoltaicHD converter app, which can transcode AVCHD content into other QuickTime formats. Divergent Media's ClipWrap can 'rewrap' the AVCHD content (or HDV, or other formats) into an edit-friendly bundle, with optional transcoding; it's $49.99. If you'd like to roll your own converter, there's the open-source hdffxvrt script, which does AVCHD transcoding via the ffmpeg library.

There's a lot more that goes into great moviemaking than a great camera. Sound, lighting, a solid tripod; even the iMovie missing manual might make a wonderful gift for the filmmaker in training. (By the way, there's a Joby 20% off sale on all GorillaPod models through midnight PST on December 19, so get cracking!)

If you've got a favorite (or feared) gear recommendation for iMovie '11 shooting, share it in the comments below. Happy holidays!

Holiday Gift Guide: iMovie-friendly video cameras originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.