For years, Apple did not show up at NAB, the biggest show for film industry freaks in Las Vegas. This time they've decided to change everything... again.
Rumors around the web were saying that Supermeet will be taken over totally by Apple. And indeed, it was true. Apple unveiled FINAL CUT PRO X - next major upgrade of their flagship editing software.
Everyone who's using FCP should know that this is not some king of upgrade actually, but an application which has been rewritten from scratch. Is this really a revolution? Everyone was expecting Apple to do something about their old good fellow Final Cut and some think that Apple is at least 1 year behind the schedule and should have released it last year. Well, if you want to re-write everything from scratch.... it takes a while.

So what the heck did Apple show last night? It's called Final Cut Pro X (no more Express version). It's going to be available in June, via Mac App Store, for $299. It is a completely new software which includes features like:

- 64 bit (you can now use more than 4GB of RAM)
- OpenCL (that means some older machines will not support it and you'll have to buy new hardware if you are using old Mac)
- native h264 (no more Canon 5D MkII files to ProRes convertion!!)
- new UI look (smoother, nicer, darker - more like iMovie)
- background rendering (yes, no more freaking red lines on the Timeline! No more rendering!)
- up to 4K resolution (nice!)
- magnetic timeline (lack of this feature made lots of people want to commit suicide) 
- people detection (interesting!)
- instant color matching between clips (wow !)
- smart collection of media based on custom keywords and people
- auto image stabilization on import (no more 3rd party stabilization plugin :) ) 

Photos by: @fcpsupermeet

We couldn't make NAB nor Supermeet this year, but friends who were attending say it was an insane night! But with new FCPX there are of course questions: what happened to Motion, Color, DVD Studio and Soundtrack? Did Apple drop it? Well, selling FCPX as a separate app via Mac App Store may give you some idea that for sure they will not be included in $299 price and will be separate applications.... if Apple decides to keep them at all. Apple mentions color matching tools and amazing image quality - does it mean they will built some amazing color grading features in FCPX? What about Motion? Will new FCPX include DVD authoring? Will it have Soundtrack features included? Or will all of them become separate apps? New software creates new questions, but hey, June is not far away, so we all know that by then, right? :) 

I think it's amazing what Apple is doing with the industry and how they listen to client's needs, yet, they are creating it in it's own ideology, making a revolutionary product again. I personally say: "FINALLY !!!!  THANK YOU APPLE !!!!!!!"

Here is a short wrap up video posted by @robims:

UPDATE: More photos (Photos by Photographybay):