Apple Outs Final Cut Pro X

Rather than being a simple update, this version of Final Cut is both new and 'revolutionary' according to Steve Jobs. One of the main new features is the Magnetic Timeline video and audio editing interface, which offers users a simple and flexible way to add and organise clips. Clips can be seamlessly 'welded' together to make a sequence and then moved around in the timeline as just one clip. This helps keep things organised while also speeding up the editing process considerably.

Thanks to its new architecture, Final Cut Pro X can now get the best out of 64-bit processors, boosting performance and speeding up rendering—a task the CPU now takes care of in the background (previews are handled by the graphics card).

A third major change is that the video player in Final Cut Pro is no longer QuickTime. As a result, the software now accepts almost any file format and even has native support for MOV files from the Canon 5D Mark II! You therefore no longer need to transcode MPEG-4 files with Apple Pro RES before you start work.

The price of Final Cut Pro X has been cut to £179.99, which is pretty impressive for a software suite which, over the last 12 years, has become an industry standard along with the likes of Avid and Adobe's Premiere.

Final Cut Pro X is out now and is available to download from the Mac App Store.