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iMovie

The leading movie production and video-sharing platform for Mac users who want to make high-resolution clips

8.6

297 Votes

The iMovie suite is a video editing software package that's designed with simplicity in mind. All of it's features are laid out in buttons and pull-down menus, which makes it possible for even inexperienced users to find them. Some might go so far as to say that iMovie is a great package for those who've never edited digital video before.

By emphasizing simplicity and ease of use, iMovie has become extremely popular with those who post content to social video sharing services. Those who'd like to make their own online television show can do so with nothing more than a copy of iMovie and the camera that's attached to their phone. The rendering process doesn't take very long either, which should reduce the amount of frustration experienced by new users.

That being said, this emphasis on developing an uncomplicated product has not in any way diminished it's feature set. Everything that you'd expect from a video editing product is included here. You can modify and enhance colors with iMovie while also rotating clips and cropping them. Stabilizing shaky videos is as easy as accessing a single function from a menu. Adding transitions to a video and fading out is also possible, though newer users might be a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of options related to those functions. Fortunately, it's possible to simply ignore many of these advanced features whenever they're not immediately necessary.

Power users will appreciate iMovie, though, in spite of the fact that it's normally considered a lower-tier video editing product. The app includes a number of sophisticated keyboard shortcuts that should make it possible for power users to get work done efficiently even if they would normally have preferred something more complete. Since the shift, command and option modifiers are all used, iMovie has been able to offer far more keyboard shortcuts than an overwhelming majority of other programs. Those who can't remember them all can take advantage of the simple help screen or check out the text next to each function in the drop down menus.

A number of media formats are supported by the platform, though some like Cinepak and Windows Media Video have now been deprecated. While this may disappoint some individuals who have to work with older movie files, a majority of people shouldn't know the difference. In fact, those who are converting older ones over to a newer standard may find that increased compression ratios allow for lower file sizes.

Since iMovie can run on iOS devices as well as Macintosh computers, those who are heavily invested in Apple's proprietary ecosystem can share files between their devices. They might even find that they can take care of all of their editing chores right from their phones.

Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Seldom lags even when processing long movies
  • Allows users to cut different frames out of longer videos
  • Numerous keyboard shortcuts

Cons

  • Only works with Apple products
  • May not support all file formats
Company
Apple
HQ Location
Cupertino, CA
Ownership
NASDAQ:AAPL
Total Revenue (USD mm)
$274,515
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