Cloud mania strikes again! There are rumors that Apple is moving iMovie, among other applications, into an online format. Seems like a strange idea to me. An online application for dealing with content that is local sounds like a bit of a mismatch; after all, along with the rise of things like the Mino and Zi6 for shooting straight to YouTube, real HD video workflows are getting simpler and closer to home as well. And if your content is to large to be stored or distributed online, why would you want the tools for editing it to be web-based?
Video is going in two directions at once currently, and it’s hard to say what will be a winning solution. 720p and 1080p video is increasingly easy to create and edit, but storage is difficult and so is distribution. On the other hand, poorly encoded streaming video like most of YouTube’s content is easy to edit and easy to distribute. Somehow we need to combine the benefits of HD with the usability of streaming video, but putting the editor online doesn’t seem like a step in that direction at all. And since the latest iMovie and online developments by Apple haven’t been exactly well-received, I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for a truly amazing cloud app.
I can’t imagine that there wouldn’t be caps on clip file size or resolution or something…
Exactly. The web is a versatile platform, but its limitations are especially bad for something as complicated as video editing. Still, they could surprise us, or just have it be an option, or whatever. There’s nothing wrong with having more tools available to us.
We want the funk? I mean, yeah, Jumpcut was pretty cool, but the idea of uploading all of my video to Apple’s servers and then editing it online sounds less fun than pulling my nails out with a pair of pliers.
It would be way to slow. You usually end up with a ton of raw footage which you reduce drastically for the final product. Not to mention ISP companies are capping bandwidth…
Actually Adobe has done this with Premiere, there is a light version built on Flex for the Web, I think it was part of a YouTube contest once.. but I cant remember
1. Not going to work, except perhaps low-res (i.e., a toy)
2. Please, enough with the “cloud” already. That is soooo 2008:
http://agitationist.com/101-web-business-cliches-that-must-die-in-2009
This is not going to happen. Apple doesn’t have the web application expertise to make something like this a reality. They won’t use flash, flex or javaFX so they’re left with javascript… good luck.
Remember only a few years ago, people were saying “you cannot have an office application in the browser”? Although I have a bad feeling about the “cloud” frenzy overall, (similar to http://www.azurejournal.com/2008/12/i-have-a-bad-feeling-about-windows-azure/ ). iMovie n the cloud will happen but it will a few years to mature. Like anything else.
I never thought an office suite would be impossible in a browser. A word processor, spreadsheet editor, and presentation manager can comfortably fit in a couple megabytes. But when you’re talking about making dynamic changes to gigabytes of data, an all-online option is ridiculous. Perhaps a hybrid, where online tools work with local content, but why have it be online in the first place then?
Rendering an HD clip using iMovie 2008 can take 30 minutes to do a 5 minute clip. If I was able to split that out to a rendering farm, I’d do it, especially if it auto uploaded it to vimeo for me.
I couldn’t imagine uploading video so I can edit it. That would take forever. Getting a faster connection would be expensive.
Cheaper to get a newer Mac and render it locally. Better for Apple too.
This sounds more like a rumor than anything else.
There is quite a gap between online providers (downloads, streaming, editing, VOIP…) and the ISPs offering.
The only way I get Internet here is through Verizon Wireless with a cap at 5gb a month. I know a lot of people still on dial up because DSL is not available to them. And I know many people on DSL but with poor Quality of Service.
Even if this particular news is a false rumor, I am sure someone somewhere is seriously thinking of offering online video editing.
Anyhow, just editing photos with Shutterfly is quite challenging and/or limited. I cannot even imagine for videos.
I shot an HD video, edited it with iMovie 08 and uploaded it to YouTube without a hitch. The video is less than 2 minutes, and the file is less than 20 mb (surprised me there). I did not render the video in very high bitrate, but on YouTube it looks fine in its wide-screen HD glory, if not as sharp as other YouTube HD videos that are obviously compressed in very high bitrate.
If Apple does put a version of iMovie online, it signals that they are serious about this trend of ascension to the “cloud” sphere. My guess is they are aiming to attract and convert Windows users to their camp. The logic is: iTune and Safari are being used by the Windows PC crowd, why not iMoive?
It’s also about being forward-thinking. If the future is about more people on broadband and the pipes getting fatter, not the other way around, Apple wants to be there when it’s an everyday reality that people write online, do spreadsheet online, and make videos online.
Take a look at aditall, they have an interesting concept. It`s not just about editing online but the site also offers a huge library of footage and music clips to choose from. It enables agencies to produce video ads online and get immediate approval from the advertisers.
It goes to show you that these analysts do not quite know what the technology behind iLife is all about. The process of creating the movie file requires moving a lot of large multimedia files, therefore making it awkward to do so on the cloud. Once the project is done and rendered into a much more compact file, the file itself can be posted on the web. Nah, I do not see iLife making the transition to cloud computing. iWork perhaps even though Keynote may not be a candidate given that you can handle huge movie files within a slide. Another thing that Power Point users will have trouble to fathom. Page and Numbers therefore are the likely candidates for Cloud computing, the rest will stay desktop bound for the near future, although their end products can be sent to the Cloud.
IMHO, Apple is moving to the right side. Just imagine iMovie in Amsterdam. FiberPower, for example for barely $40, allows 720MB each month. CityNet, near 1Gig. It is for home users. Apple is working for the next future.
Come on, let’s be realistic now. An online iMovie will be aimed at cell phone users with low quality content. Otherwise online video editing is simply not possible. And how low will you go in an era that cell phones have 8Mp camera’s. Ouch!
Example: the result of my last project was a product of almost 2 minutes and just under 600Mb as a final product in HD H.264. For those 2 minutes I used 15 minutes raw material in uncompressed HD = >15Gb.
I live in The Netherlands, with the best type of connection one can get and uploading of the 600Mb took 15 minutes (or so), limited by the destination webserver (not my connection). Can you imagine what uploading 15Gb would cost in time and resources? And then we are talking only one user here …
I don’t think it’s likely that Apple will release ‘iMovie in the Cloud’ for one reason: Bandwidth.
For anything other than simple low-res web video editing it would be completely impractical for even the fastest available broadband.
I wrote a wee post about it here: http://suburbia.org.uk/blog/2009/01/03/055107.html
Ahh, my #1 Web Peeve strikes again:
“And if your content is to large to be stored…”
Dear Devin,
The word is TOO, not TO.
too |toō|
adverb
1 [as submodifier ] to a higher degree than is desirable, permissible, or possible; excessively : he was driving too fast | he wore suits that seemed a size too small for him.
• informal very : you’re too kind.
2 in addition; also : is he coming too?
• moreover (used when adding a further point) : she is a grown woman, and a strong one too.
Ahh, MY #1 Web Peeve strikes again as well:
“Grammatically anal a$$holes!!”
I could see the application for touch-up editing after already uploading your movie to your mobile Me cloud. Thus not having to re-up an entire movie again.
Maybe it is just a rumor!
The brandwidth is the most important factor.
I often use a streaming video recorder to free download streaming videos from internet , then
create my own version.
http://www.flash-on-tv.com/streaming-video-recorder.html#124
I think its a great idea for Apple to do this, when it is possible. Think about it, most Window’s users are unable to use iMovie and Windows Movie Maker is not the best editing software out there. With putting iMovie onto a browser, the window’s users can finally use the wonderful features of iMovie and make quality videos onto Youtube!
I’d personally love to see a video editing software built in online format. The problem with jumpcut was you couldn’t download your finished product. If they make an editing application it needs to be open (which apple isn’t known for) so you can do other things with it when you’re done editing.
This may not happen
This isn’t exactly novel. JumpCut and eyespot made very capable online video editors. If Apple doesn’t do it, Adobe will.
I’m on Ubuntu and the only app I have to run on Windows (virtualized or on my Windows lappy) is Movie Maker. Linux just doesn’t have a great quick and dirty video editor yet. So an online video editor is particularly attractive to me. The web is a common platform that doesn’t need to distinguish between Mac users, Window users, etc. Developers can write an app once and not need to worry about porting it to every platform.
A dumb, dumb idea. It can’t be true, especially for Apple which prides itself on building local software clients.