imoviemacWhile Apple updated iMovie for Mac on March 9 with Photos integration and noted it in the "What's New" section, Apple did not mention it also gained additional support for the new Force Touch Trackpad. The new feature was first found by freelance film editor Alex Gollner (via Wired) and is described in an Apple support document.

When dragging a video clip to its maximum length, you’ll get feedback letting you know you’ve hit the end of the clip. Add a title and you’ll get feedback as the title snaps into position at the beginning or end of a clip. Subtle feedback is also provided with the alignment guides that appear in the Viewer when cropping clips.

Gollner notes that the new feature allowed him to "feel" his way around iMovie's user interface, which means that he could do certain tasks without looking at the screen. He goes on to say that the new feature feels like a sign of the future for Apple devices, with users being able to feel their way through UI elements that he calls "bumpy pixels".

iMovie for Mac [Direct Link] comes free with every new Mac, and this new version of the software is available as a free update for existing owners of the app. iMovie for Mac is otherwise available in the Mac App Store for $14.99.

Tag: iMovie

Top Rated Comments

joshdammit Avatar
135 months ago
This is certainly not a new concept.
Why do people still point out that Apple's new releases aren't new concepts? Apple never really invented anything, nor do they claim to. Even USB-C, which supposedly Apple had a hand in designing, they didn't even go taking credit for.

What Apple does take credit for, is putting technology together in a novel, easy-to-use approach.

Bringing up some obscure piece of tech that nobody ever used, saw or heard about doesn't prove any point besides the company in question (Logitech, in this case) failed at creating and marketing a useful product. No, I'm not going to buy a mouse that I have to configure with every app I use to product haptic feedback. If I have to configure your product to function properly, I should be getting a share of the profits.

PS. Apple didn't invent the smartphone, the tablet computer, the laptop or the GUI either. I know! Mind blown, right?!
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
surfingarbo Avatar
135 months ago
This will...*force*...everyone to upgrade their Macs.

Your joke is 5% funny; but man I really like your sarcastic email signature. That, my good sir, is 100% funny. Well done.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gmcalpin Avatar
135 months ago
This is certainly not a new concept. Does anyone remember the Logitech "iFeel" mouse? It basically did this. There was a little haptic engine inside that could be configured to create different sensations when the user moved over certain user interface elements.
"Basically" doesn't count. "Basically," game controllers had haptic feedback for years before that, too.

Except that this is haptic feedback in a trackpad, directly built into an application (not "configured" by the user), and (likely, eventually, if it isn't already) a native part of the operating system.

So this is actually new. Not shockingly revolutionary by any means. But still new.

The internet is not a race to be the first to piss all over something.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
135 months ago
Like the rumble strips along a highway. Lets you drive by feel instead of looking.

(I'm kidding, of course. Please, for the love of all that is good, do not actually attempt that.)
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JCrz Avatar
135 months ago
This will...*force*...everyone to upgrade their Macs.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jakewilk Avatar
135 months ago
I actually really like this. Anything to make technology more intimate and alive is good because computers as they are are quite dead masses of circuits. A Mac that touches you back seems to me like a good way to subtly make the Mac experience more enjoyable. I think this technology is greatly under valued, and so far (as is natural) greatly under utilized. Not because it's the next frontier of computing, but because it makes personal computers more personal
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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