

Pogue bends over backwards to fight in support of Apple - kenjackson
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/professional-video-editors-weigh-in-on-final-cut-pro-x/

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davidu
Actually, I think he provides a pretty awesome rosetta stone for those
upgrading. It's not perfect, as he acknowledges, but it sure helps a lot of
people who make the transition.

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spolsky
Yeah! This is great journalism and what blogging is all about.

On the one hand, you have a bunch of upset film editors complaining about the
upgrade with their laundry list of complaints. Unlike every other journalist
in the industry, who just report the list, Pogue actually studies each and
every complaint and reports on whether it's actually valid or not--from a
technically adept position--and concludes that he understands why people are
upset but that a lot of their claims are debunkable.

~~~
kenjackson
_and concludes that he understands why people are upset but that a lot of
their claims are debunkable._

I'd argue that he does something far different. He spins the claims. In some
cases, as noted in the comments, he seems to react to the wrong issue or
provides solutions that aren't adequate.

It's just odd that as a reporter my first inclination wouldn't be to diminish
the outrage of professional editors, but rather to fully understand them.

He took tweets and composed a list. But it doesn't appear that he actually
said, "OK, let me follow-up with people at Sony and NBC and understand these
issues and write a post detailing the issues and getting a detailed response
from Apple". It appears he took the tweets and worked on trying to debunk OR
downplay the issues. To me this is advocacy. Which I might expect from John
Gruber (although honestly, I can't find a post of his even with this much
effort in advocacy) but not from a journalist.

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kenjackson
And read the comments too. If Pogue was an employee of Apple I'd be proud of
him for fighting so hard. As a journalist at the NYTimes, its kind of
embarrassing for him and the Times.

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bradleyland
I really don't understand this sentiment. Pogue has access to insider
information that he's sharing with interested readers. People _want_ to know
the answer to these questions.

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nemeth
His final words on the subject (from the next blog post):

"Having read through hundreds of comments from professionals, both civil and
uncivil, I’m now convinced: Final Cut Pro X may indeed be ready for the
future. But for professional video editors, it’s not yet ready for the
present."

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mwsherman
Priceless: “The information here comes from consultation with Final Cut Pro
X’s product managers at Apple.”

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Keyframe
This guy really doesn't understand what all the noise about FCPX is and what
film and broadcast practices are. In that regard, I really do not understand
why he wrote that article at all. It's as if I wrote an article on organic
chemistry since I once read about it on wikipedia. I wrote about what FCPX vs
FCP means to me here: <http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=2695610>

~~~
delinka
I don't understand why all these professionals are upset with Apple about FCP
X. Do Not Upgrade(R). Stay on FCP 7.

Your linked post seems much more down-to-earth and level-headed than the
complaints I keep seeing everywhere. If all these professionals would hold off
purchasing the new version (and I suppose they will with all the negative
feedback from those who have already purchased), then Apple will feel the
repercussions in lack of sales.

~~~
Keyframe
_I don't understand why all these professionals are upset with Apple about FCP
X._

i think it's a combination of two things. First, obvious lack of pro features
we need - even the basic ones. Second, Apple/FCP development/release cycles
were known to be really slow and lacking in feature compared to competing
products. This amplified the lackluster release that is FCPX IMO, since - I
presume - lots of FCP guys felt let down by Apple, expectations were high,
delivery was below low.

 _Do Not Upgrade(R). Stay on FCP 7._

On the other hand, people will stay on FCP7, of course. But, if you've read my
post you'll remember that productions are budgeted and organized well in
advance, and people are buying/will soon buy new pipelines for future
products. Apple is not selling FCP7/Studio anymore, so people immediately
start looking in other directions - even if they don't jump the ship right
now.

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tomelders
I honestly can't fathom what the problem with FCP X is. If there really are
things missing, stick with FCP7 and keep an eye on FCPX updates. And if FCPX
has everything you need, upgrade.

I've got a few years video editing experience under my belt (less and less in
these days unfortunately). I'm not amateur, nor would I be comfortable calling
myself a professional, but from where I'm sat, FCPX looks like a huge step
forward. I'm willing to be a guinea pig for a little while if it's for
genuine, radical progress.

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LarryA
From my perspective it seems like Apple dropped FCP and is using the iMovie
codebase. I don't think it is a matter of dropping Ancient technology more one
of cutting production costs.

And the "Apple plans to have [that feature] in a future version" is a long
standing practice... in a future version they will implement it, and then in a
later version they will get it fixed so it is usable, etc.

From experience, I'd wait till FCP X.2 or something... when they actually get
stuff complete and working.

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gte910h
>recognize that there’s no obligation to switch from the old program yet,

This is the whole takeaway of the article. As an iOS dev who still has Xcode
3.X for some clients, I am thinking "wtf are these _professionals_ DOING
swapping to a newly refreshed apple software product. Use the old one until
the new one is better!"

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tzs
I thought blatant editorializing in the title was frowned upon here.

