Above: PowerPC Macintosh? No iMovie for You!
Cupertino, CA—One of the major factors in the delay in releasing the latest version of the Apple iLife application suite, was due to the fact that one of the flagship applications in the suite, iMovie, had been rewritten from scratch. This rewrite precipitated additional features, like the new "skimming" feature, being rolled into the other applications. Skimming is a new feature allowing a user to perform simple mouse movements to quickly skim through frames in a movie, or photos in an iPhoto event.
Apple touted skimming as a ground-breaking change, almost a seachange, in the future direction of the suite, and perhaps future versions of their pro applications. And, indeed, after trying the feature in iPhoto and iMovie, it truly is a great addition.
Keep that in mind as we reminisce about the Macintosh transition to Intel chips.
Back when Apple first announced the transition to using Intel processors in all its new machines, he emphasized that there would be a new file format called a "Universal Binary", which would allow software makers to create applications for the OS X platform that would run natively on the current PowerPC chip-based Macs, as well as the new Intel Macs. He also explained that this type of support would continue for years to come, so existing Mac owners wouldn't be dumped in a cold, dark alley on deprecated street.
Okay, let's come back to the present day.
The new iMovie 08 application won't install or run on a G4-based Macintosh. It skips the application entirely with a message explaining that it will only run on a G5 PowerPC or a newer Intel-based Mac.
Let's reiterate: It won't run on any G4-based Macs. This includes an 18 month old Powerbook G4. Since when is an 18-month-old computer too old to run software from the manufacturer of the computer? What frigtard at Apple made that decision?
So my question to Steve Jobs is: What happened to Apple's support for older Macs? Did they change their minds and decide to just abandon them years ahead of schedule? I can't wait to see the backlash for this move. Stay tuned...