Apple News, Analysis and Podcasts

Despite our earlier report of Final Cut Studio and the MacBook Pro arriving in April (notwithstanding Sandybridge taking a slight “detour” to market), there is no indication that FCP has been thrown off its pace, and it is rapidly approaching its launch — with one of its largest updates ever.

The MacBook Pro may very well join the launch, shipping in late April/early May. We continue to hear the new MacBook Pro will arrive with higher resolutions screens, increased battery life, a thin chassis that follows the format of the MacBook Air — and no optical drive. One 15" legacy MacBook Pro model will remain, gaining internal updates only, for those believing they require an onboard optical drive.

Much of the Final Cut Studio suite is still languishing in Carbon code, but this is expected to change with the latest release. Our sources believe the entire suite will move to 64-bit processing, while taking full advantage of OS X's Grand Central for full multi-processor support. OpenCL will bring a huge lift to Final Cut Pro's rendering capabilities, finally leveraging Apple's pro video card offerings. Apple may be able to push the envelope of Apple lossless and 4:4:4 rendering abilities with Mac Pro towers right out of the box, no need for an AJA or DeckLink-like cards required, but we remain skeptical on this last point.

Perhaps the most exciting direction for the Final Cut suite is it will be available via the OS X App Store. However, we are unaware if Apple is going to allow the suite to be broken up — selling Final Cut Pro, Motion, SoundTrack, etc... separately — or whether Apple will choose keep them together an a single bundled purchase.

The launch of the new Final Cut Studio is unlikely to add a Photoshop killer application for creative designers. Final Cut Studio would not be the proper venue for such a release, as we anticipate this software application coming alongside a major Aperture update.

As Steve Jobs said it best (and succinctly) "buckle up."

4 Comments

1. Aladin ~ February 15, 2011 19:00
   Finally Apple will employ it own technology. Grand Central and OpenCL. First time I heard about it. Can not believe my eyes. :-)
2. Welshdog ~ February 16, 2011 14:14
   I thought this big update allegedly had a lot of internal problems at Apple. Taking it 64bit would be a massive undertaking, but certainly worth the effort. We have 6 FCP systems at our facility and I would love to see 64bit and an la carte purchase option. We NEVER use any of the other elements of the suite. Only the Final cut app.
3. Carlos ~ April 11, 2011 17:20
   >We NEVER use any of the other elements >of the suite. Only the Final cut app. Color is pretty freaking awesome. Try it.
4. Harrier1 ~ April 18, 2011 04:25
   Final cut use to be great, but Apple, got complacent and let Adobe in the door. And Adobe took the lead. Adobe is already doing everything and more than what Apple is claiming it is now working on. In order for Apple to take back the lead, it must invest more to set up making it work with the new intel chip it will have exclusive rights to for 6 months. If its software cannot take advantage of that chip,it makes no sense to get the exclusive rights. I believe Final Cut is not actually made for just the current technology, but also for the new chip. It will therefore allow for multiple core 64 bit and maximize RAM usage. I would think quick time would also need to change and be integrated with iSite and HD camera.

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