iProfit

I've been using a Mac computer for years now. Back in the early nineties a friend infected me with the Mac virus by loaning me his spare Mac Performa and I've been hooked ever since. It's user-friendlyness and outstanding designs is what did for me. Macs have always been slightly pricier than normal pc's but that didn't bother me. Bought an iMac back in '99, an eMac some 5 years later and just over 2 years back I bought an iMac desktop computer with a 2.6 Ghz processor. Safe to say I'm a Mac fan and overall I can't complain that much.

Last year I bought a camcorder to get into the whole filming thing. Great fun and Mac has standard software on the computer to cope with different film formats. The program is called iMovie (have version '08). Works as you would expect. Plug the camera in and it practically automatically downloads itself. No beef there. Subsequently I've been using iMovie for some time and despite its pro's I noticed it also has some drawbacks. One of the great features of iMovie is that you can download directly to YouTube, something to keep in mind. Don't get me wrong, it has some great features but the more you want to expand the sooner you'll notice its restrictions.

You can't put that much text in a video, only a couple of sentences in a kind of movie format. A paragraph is not possible. Special video effects are largely non-existent as well. In short, text and effects are limited. There's a new version out now, iMovie '11 which is part of iLife '11 but from what I've been reading in the reviews the same limitations are still there. iMovie '11 upgrade or iLife '11 for that matter comes with a cost, $13 and $50 respectively. Which I find strange because you'd expect that with newer software the possibilities would be expanded as well. Unfortunately that is not the case with Mac. While the standard software is upgraded, its limitations are kept intact.

So I started to look at other video software that I could use to edit and augment video. Final Cut Express seems to be the next software in line. It has a similar appeal to iMovie but way more complicated. The price complicates as well since FCE goes for a mere $200. I suppose some people say that's worth it but for a starting hobby I don't mind things slowing down a bit in the expenditure department. The reviews by other users are mixed as well. I was startled to find out that FCE doesn't download directly to YouTube like iMovie does. FCE does not give the appearance of a perfect tool. Final Cut Pro, the ultimate video editing software goes for $999. I'm theorizing that the latter does everything you want and more.

My point is that this seems to orchestrated. As a starter you're more or less channeled software-wise to purchase certain goods if you want more. I'm not going to throw away my Mac or anything, it's just something that I noticed. Mac needs to make a profit as a company of course. I thought they were doing well as firm but with profit you seemingly can never get enough off. I guess my enthusiasm for the brand has an opposite effect emotionally-wise when they are streamlining you into buying additional and more expensive software.