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Today's presentation bought new products and upgrades, but the ones we are interested in are the new iMac and iPad Pros. All powered by the M1 chip.

Ok, let's get the first bit of pre-presentation speculation out of the way. Did we see Final Cut Pro running on the new M1 powered iPad Pros? No, but Lumafusion did feature more than once.

Now on to the new iMac.

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Since the debut of custom silicon, Apple said that it would progress through the Mac range to move away from Intel. Today was the next step as the new iMac is powered by the M1 chip, the same silicon we see in the MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro and Mac mini. I think we were expecting a more powerful chip, but maybe that might debut at WWDC.

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The new range of coloured 11.5 millimetre thick iMacs (green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver) all feature a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels at 500 nits of brightness. There are two models, one with a seven core GPU and one with an eight core GPU, both have 8GB of unified memory.

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At last we have a higher resolution camera that runs at 1080p! There's also studio-quality mics and a six-speaker sound system. Apple say that the new machine runs at under 10 dB for noise, that's 50% lower than the previous model. Connectivity is two Thunderbolt ports on the 7 GPU model and an extra two USB3 ports on the 8 GPU version. You get a power switch on the back and a headphone socket on the front, no card slots.

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We are big user of Touch ID, so it's great to see this added to the custom keyboards. It's encrypted too between the keyboard and the Mac. The in-line power brick not only keeps the machine thinner, but also tidies up the desktop by having an ethernet port that transmits the data up the power cable to a magnetic connection on the machine. Very clever.

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“M1 is a gigantic leap forward for the Mac, and today we’re excited to introduce the all-new iMac, the first Mac designed around the breakthrough M1 chip,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With its striking design in seven stunning colours, its immersive 4.5K Retina display, the best camera, mics, and speakers ever in a Mac, and Touch ID, combined with the amazing performance of M1 and the power of macOS Big Sur, the new iMac takes everything people love about iMac to an entirely new level.”

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  • Up to 85 percent faster CPU performance, so users can export their favourite video project in iMovie faster than ever, easily work with massive 100-megapixel photos in Lightroom, and compile new apps in Xcode in a fraction of the time.
  • Up to 2x faster GPU performance for certain apps like Affinity Photo and Photoshop, and up to 50 percent faster than the most powerful discrete graphics in the fastest 21.5-inch iMac, allowing users to render edits in real time or add complex filters to their photos in a snap.
  • The ability to edit up to five streams of 4K footage, or one stream of 8K footage, without dropping a frame in Final Cut Pro.
  • Up to 3x faster machine learning in apps that leverage the 16-core Neural Engine in M1.6

The new iMac is available to order beginning Friday April 30th. Prices start at $1,299.

And for those that scrutinise every pixel in Apple's presentations looking for extra buttons on app GUIs, here's a grab from today of the new iMac running Final Cut Pro. 

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For more information on the new iMacs, visit the Apple webpage.

 

iPad Pro 11 and 12.9 Inch

We fully expected to see new iPads in the presentation and we were not disappointed. The new 11-inch and 12.9 inch iPad Pros both feature the M1 chip. The larger model also has a Liquid Retina XDR display, which gives similar performance to the Pro Display XDR. Liquid Retina XDR gives 1000 nits of full-screen brightness, 1600 nits of peak brightness, and a 1 million-to-1 contrast ratio.

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The new models also feature Thunderbolt which opens up a whole new range of fast accessories, including the ability to use the Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution.

As we mentioned at the top, no FCP, but LumaFusion was featured more than once in the presentation.  

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Will we be able to use the new iPad Pro as an HDR monitor when running Final Cut Pro? We don't don't know, but it certainly does look impressive outputting to a Pro Display XDR.

ipad pro pro display xdr

 

The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 (US) for the Wi-Fi model and $999 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model, and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,099 (US) for the Wi-Fi model and $1,299 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

For more information on the new iPad Pro, visit the Apple webpage.

 

 

Written by
Top BloggerThought Leader

I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.

I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.

Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.

I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!

Current Editing

great house giveaway 2020

2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.

Tour de france 2020
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.

 

BBC snooker the crucible

BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.

amazon kindle BF

Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.

As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.

Plugin Design & Development

I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.

I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.

FCP.co

Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook. 

The Future

I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!

 

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Oliver Peters's Avatar
Oliver Peters replied the topic: #114079 20 Apr 2021 21:15
I found the presentation interesting, although the now-established Apple style of virtual presentation is getting tiring. However, Tim Cook in the Tom Cruise break-in parody was worthy of a chuckle. Personally I could care less about Apple TV, Air Tags, and purple iPhones, so I guess I’m not the target market :)

Subscriptions for podcasts seems a bit bold (in a bad way). You’re getting these for free (or have been) and Apple has no role in their production. Given that Apple is already getting flak from regulators and developers for how the App Store is controlled, this move feels a bit tone-deaf.

More on point, the M1 iMac is what was predicted for this stage of the transition. It’s a nice machine designed for consumers. Yet it will be a nice machine for quite a few editors, too. Not enough ports, but that’s basically what the mini had. It seems like the hardware architecture is closely pinned to the M1 SoC design. That seems a bit limiting.

The big negative as I see it, is the return of the a/c puck for power. This does enable a MagSafe-style connection, but the puck adapter is something I was glad to get away from with the old Apple displays. It feels like a huge design mistake. The puck is also where you plug in Ethernet. Seems that the case could have been made a bit thicker and stick this stuff inside.

No space gray option. Probably being saved for some “Pro” version with the projected M1X chip later in the year. FCP did get a slight mention in this section, right along with DaVinci Resolve.

iPad Pro gets the M1 chip and Thunderbolt, plus 5G. The big news there is the XDR-style display on the 12.9” model. LumaFusion seemed to get the most love. Not only mentioned in this section, but shown on screens a number of times. Big promotion of Adobe Photoshop on the iPad Pro, too.

It’s noteworthy that none of these machines are available yet. You can pre-order starting April 30 and then they should be available the second half of May, according to the website. You can’t even review the custom configurations yet. I wonder if this smacks of some sort of supply chain issue?

Overall, an incremental step - most of which has already been leaked and/or speculated about.
martinX's Avatar
martinX replied the topic: #114084 21 Apr 2021 01:30

Subscriptions for podcasts seems a bit bold (in a bad way). You’re getting these for free (or have been) and Apple has no role in their production.

Apple's role is in supplying the distribution pipeline and having a friction-free payment method. Perhaps the content producers were more than happy to be paid for their work for a change.

The big negative as I see it, is the return of the a/c puck for power. This does enable a MagSafe-style connection, but the puck adapter is something I was glad to get away from with the old Apple displays.

Just what I thought. "Magnetic. Awesome. How is that going to work with 240v. Oh, that's how." ☹️

And we wait for a pro-ish iMac to be released...
Karsten Schlüter's Avatar
Karsten Schlüter replied the topic: #114086 21 Apr 2021 05:53
Can anyone give me a 'real life' example, how AirTags make my life better? Never understood the hype on this… gadgets. Maybe couches are smaller here…

And:
I'm confused - the M1 in a Laptop or Mini allows to run 'natively' iOS apps on DesktopMac. OK, whatever.. Now, the M1 in an iPad - makes it vice-versa possible to run e.g. Final Cut natively on a mobile touch-screen iPad???

… maybe someone can share some light…
RSK's Avatar
RSK replied the topic: #114092 21 Apr 2021 12:16

Can anyone give me a 'real life' example, how AirTags make my life better?

If it can make your life better no one can say. But you could stick one on your bike, hide one in your purse/backpack, even car? If any ever get stolen—which has been known to happen 😉—you mark the Tag as stolen and with that, effectively every iPhone that comes close to it (maybe even Android since they talk about any “NFC-capable device”  for some of the features?) i.e. hundreds of millions of Apple devices around the world turn into your personal police. Something e.g. "Tile" wish they could claim, but never could, since it relied on its own app… which no one other than owners of one had installed. The reason it never took off as a "long-range" tool. It also doesn't have a U1 chip, so limited in that respect as well.

The  Chipolo ONE Spot is effectively the same thing as the AirTag btw, since it, too, has access to Apple's Find My… network. (but is also not equipped with a U1 chip, so there's that)

And all that for a measly 25 bucks. Whether that's worth it to you only you can decide. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Now, the M1 in an iPad - makes it vice-versa possible to run e.g. Final Cut natively on a mobile touch-screen iPad???

In theory, sure. But that hasn't changed any with the M1, since you could just as well have done it with the A12, seeing that the two are practically the exact same SoC. Only question is: why would you even want to? If you think that could actually make any sense then you can already do it via SideCar. And see how "useful" it is. 😏

I personally have no clue why anyone is screaming for this. FCP's GUI would have to be completely revamped for it to be useful for touch and not just a hack. But then there's already iMovie (which is 100% compatible with FCP) or even LumaFusion (which isn't)… just use them? Since who actually wants to do more than maybe dailies or a rough cut on an iPad? Seriously. And either app is perfectly fine for both, and more.
JoeEditor's Avatar
JoeEditor replied the topic: #114096 21 Apr 2021 18:43
I agree, FCP on an iPad would have to be so drastically retooled, it'd not be the same. I'd never want to edit on such a small screen.
joema's Avatar
joema replied the topic: #114098 21 Apr 2021 22:33

...I personally have no clue why anyone is screaming for this. FCP's GUI would have to be completely revamped for it to be useful for touch and not just a hack....

Exactly right. FCP (like Photoshop, Resolve or Premiere Pro) is a complex desktop app designed for mouse/trackpad & keyboard interaction. There are hundreds of menu items and myriad desktop-specific UI widgets -- pop-up dialogs, fly-out menus, drop zones, etc. Those were originally created assuming a certain screen "information density", the precision of a mouse cursor, and keyboard shortcuts.

With the current iOS UI constructs, there is literally no place to put all that stuff. And it's not just an aesthetic issue -- each UI item activates code which in turn controls features that certain users expect. It's not just a thin, easily-changed UI layer. The UI is deeply integrated into the complex app.

You can design a fairly complex app like LumaFusion for iPadOS -- provided it was *originally* intended for a touch interface on a tablet. From the outset those features are mapped to mobile UI constructs.

However AFAIK nobody has ever ported a highly-complex desktop app -- with full features -- to a tablet. M1 gives more horsepower but that wasn't the main problem. You can port a "simple" app like a web browser, or you can strip down a complex desktop app to a simplified, feature-depleted version and port that, but porting full-featured Photoshop, Resolve or FCP is much more difficult. You would also be giving up shortcut keys unless the "mobile" app mandated a keyboard, in which case why not run it on a thin, light, battery-efficient M1 MacBook Air, which can also run at least some iOS apps?

Due to the lower information density, it is much easier to run an iOS app on an M1 Mac than the reverse. For an iOS app on an M1 Mac, there are some issues remapping touch gestures to a keyboard/mouse/menu model, but that can be done, esp. with Catalyst to help expedite the port: https://developer.apple.com/mac-catalyst/

By contrast the only demonstrated way (thus far) to move a complex, full-featured desktop app to a tablet is literally run the desktop OS on the mobile device (like Windows Surface), and crudely re-map touch gestures to mouse/keyboard events, constantly zooming in/out to hit the tiny menus. It's theoretically possible that MacOS could run on an iPad Pro, but from a UX standpoint, that is a clunky way to handle things. I can't see Apple doing that.

Thus far, complex desktop apps ported to tablets have been stripped-down and very limited in features, e.g, Photoshop: uxdesign.cc/the-ipad-pro-deserved-a-bett...otoshop-6421f6f5238b

Hidden out there in the mists of the future is some convergence of mobile and desktop/laptop approaches. We don't know the best approach, only that it's difficult. We do how *not* to do it -- example A is Microsoft's initial approach for Windows 8 "Metro" which dumbed-down both desktop and mobile UI and APIs. Their initial plan (which is still on videos given by the Windows 8 architects) was to totally shut down Win32 desktop development of most apps and both MS and 3rd-party apps would use the tile-based "Metro" UI for both desktop and mobile. Obviously that didn't work out and most of those managers soon separated from the company. Compared to that disaster, Apple's slow integration approach (now streamlined by Apple Silicon) is brilliant.
Karsten Schlüter's Avatar
Karsten Schlüter replied the topic: #114106 22 Apr 2021 04:58


If it can make your life better no one can say. …

Robin, quoting that phrase was just reflecting Apple Corps. mission statement… :)

I've seen that 'where did the airline transport my baggage' (or stolen bike, forgotten photo-equip, run-away dog etc) examples, and, being an old, confused man my own, a thing-finder based on the millions of Apple-products… ok, just iPhones 11/12, is technically impressive, but … a business opportunity for Apple? Useful in everyday's life? Hm.... 

The second part of my question , conc. FinalCut on an 12" iPad: You don't want it, I don't want it, but on many boards the question arises, maybe by folks with younger eyes… My question was more 'technically', I guess some brave-hearted minds will offer 'patches'  soon - because, what is, internally, the difference of an iPad/M1 vs an Mini/M1?.......

… just asking, …
RSK's Avatar
RSK replied the topic: #114107 22 Apr 2021 10:45

Exactly right. FCP (like Photoshop, Resolve or Premiere Pro) is a complex desktop app designed for mouse/trackpad & keyboard interaction. There are hundreds of menu items and myriad desktop-specific UI widgets -- pop-up dialogs, fly-out menus, drop zones, etc. Those were originally created assuming a certain screen "information density", the precision of a mouse cursor, and keyboard shortcuts.

↑ THIS ↑
Well put. Great post.
Apple isn't stupid and doesn't just do stuff because they can or because there is a confused and loud crowd screaming for it… just because, somehow, it would be "cool"? 🤨 Certainly not practical, as precisely outlined above.


M1 gives more horsepower but that wasn't the main problem.

That's NEVER been the problem. Not even with the last few generations of iPad since we know that even they smoked a 16" MBP in terms of overall performance.

An iPad could in fact e.g. run a 9 camera multicam better and smoother than an MBP… but picture that for a moment and then tell me, again: why in the world would you want to do that?


in which case why not run it on a thin, light, battery-efficient M1 MacBook Air, which can also run at least some iOS apps?

Bingo. It makes neither practical nor logical sense.



Thus far, complex desktop apps ported to tablets have been stripped-down and very limited in features, e.g, Photoshop…

Exactly. So if you want a stripped-down, grossly limited version of FCP on your iPad… YOU HAVE IT. It's called iMovie. Literally exactly that: Final Cut Express (which I actually wish they would call it!). On both Mac and iOS. 100% compatible.


We do how *not* to do it -- example A is Microsoft's initial approach for Windows 8 "Metro" which dumbed-down both desktop and mobile UI and APIs.

And might I remind people… 


Doesn't get much more succinct than that!


Compared to that disaster, Apple's slow integration approach (now streamlined by Apple Silicon) is brilliant.

Yep. And people need to learn to differentiate between (thoughtful and practical) OVERLAP vs. CONVERGENCE. Big difference. The difference between usefully sensible and just blindly pointless. The latter being what people are screaming for.


… a thing-finder based on the millions of Apple-products… ok, just iPhones 11/12…
Nope. ANY iPhone can play police since that part runs via Bluetooth. The U1 chip is merely for the "point me in the right direction in my apartment" thing. Even any ANDROID (with NFC) can tap an as "lost" marked AirTag to get your prepared message/infos for return.


… a business opportunity for Apple? Useful in everyday's life? Hm....

Not exactly sure what that business opportunity could be exactly, unless you mean to sell iPhone 11s/12s, which, again, are not a necessity. Of course, some people may well jump on one or the other just to play hide and seek in their apt. all day. 😏

Like I said, the "useful in everyday life" is purely personal. I for one will in fact be getting a four-pack. One of them is going on my dog. 😉 (for which there are ALREADY collars … of course 🙄)



You don't want it, I don't want it, but on many boards the question arises, maybe by folks with younger eyes…

Nor does Apple want it IMHO. For all the above reasons.


My question was more 'technically', I guess some brave-hearted minds will offer 'patches' soon -

I wish someone WOULD come up with a patch. That way they could quickly see how utterly nonsensical the whole idea is and we could finally put the whole thing to rest…


because, what is, internally, the difference of an iPad/M1 vs an Mini/M1?.......

Even the previous iPad was barely any different than a Mac Mini! Apple Silicon is Apple Silicon, just as Intel is Intel. The differences are merely a core here or there or maybe some (V)RAM etc. Essentially like an i5 vs an i7. But the hardware is ultimately irrelevant i.e. not the deciding factor in this context. It's all about the software… in which case I don't mean the APP but THE OS.For me, the question is almost literally the same as if someone were to ask when PAGES will finally come for APPLE WATCH. 😒 Seriously. Possible? Sure! But how that equal it making ANY sense to actually do it?

There would literally have to be the aforementioned convergence of the OSs to a VERY high degree. Far beyond what it already is. And again, while I don't know any more than anyone else, at this point it not only would make ZERO sense to do that, but Apple is pretty clear on what THEY think of the idea. If haven't already, then besides the above video, watch this one as well to hear it directly from the (same) horse's mouth (they in fact talk about that exact moment from the above video):


(EDIT: ok, that's lame. Time markers are lost here. 🙄 It starts around 19:52 )

Gruber also makes a LOT of really great points that underline why the whole notion is just so stupid… at the moment. Two or three generations down the road? 🤷🏼‍♂️ But by then the entire software/hardware landscape will look different, too. To the point that no one can intelligently claim "See, they planned it all along and could have done it much sooner!"… but of course, they will anyway. 😏 - Cheers