Major Apple news, updates overnight including new Final Cut

Final Cut Pro transforms video creation with Live Multicam on iPad and new AI features on Mac

Apple today introduced Final Cut Pro for iPad 2, bringing huge updates that unleash the remarkable capabilities of the new iPad Pro and take creativity to the next level. Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 transforms iPad into a multicam production studio with Live Multicam, giving users the power to speed up their shoot by allowing them to connect and preview up to four cameras all at once, all in one place.1 To support Live Multicam, Final Cut Camera — an all-new video capture app — comes to iPhone and iPad, letting creators wirelessly connect and remotely direct each video angle with powerful pro controls.2 Final Cut Camera also works as a standalone professional video capture app on iPhone and iPad. External project support gives users the flexibility to edit projects directly from an external drive, leveraging the fast Thunderbolt connection of iPad Pro.3 Editing and finishing a project with Final Cut Pro on the new iPad Pro with the M4 chip is incredible, enabling users to colour grade, apply multiple effects, and render graphically intense timelines even faster. Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 has even more customisable content for editing and creating unique projects, and leverages the advanced features of the all-new Apple Pencil Pro such as barrel roll and squeeze for Live Drawing.

New artificial intelligence features come to Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8, giving editors the ability to rapidly customise the look of videos or photos in a single click and retime visuals more easily than ever.4 Important workflow-accelerating tools bring new ways to manage colour correction and video effects, as well as search and navigate the timeline with ease.

“Users have been loving the portability and flexibility of editing with Final Cut Pro for iPad. It was designed from the ground up to take advantage of everything iPad has to offer, and that continues with the latest advances like Apple Pencil Pro and the M4 chip,” said Brent Chiu-Watson, Apple’s senior director of Apps Worldwide Product Marketing. “Now, Final Cut Pro for iPad is getting even more powerful, transforming production workflows for creators by putting iPad at the centre and allowing them to edit and share more quickly than ever, whether they’re at the studio or on the go. Final Cut Pro for Mac also continues to deliver efficiency gains for editors with new features that are smarter and faster.”

Final Cut Pro for iPad 2

The latest update to Final Cut Pro for iPad transforms iPad into a more powerful production studio and opens up entirely new video workflows, while offering even more capabilities with the all-new Apple Pencil Pro. With M4 on the new iPad Pro, final rendering is up to 2x faster, and editors can take advantage of support for up to 4x more streams of ProRes RAW than with M1.

Live Multicam

Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 delivers Live Multicam, an innovative new solution for users to capture up to four different angles of a single scene, whether working with their own devices or collaborating with others. Live Multicam connects wirelessly via Final Cut Camera, a new video capture app, enabling users to view up to four iPhone or iPad devices and providing a director’s view of each camera in real time. Each live camera feed can have settings adjusted right from Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 to easily dial in exposure, focus, zoom, and more for the perfect shot. Editable preview clips are immediately passed through to Final Cut Pro for iPad and replaced with full-resolution files in the background, so users can seamlessly move from production to editing.

Final Cut Camera

To support Live Multicam in Final Cut Pro for iPad 2, Final Cut Camera comes to iPhone and iPad to enable live monitoring and individual control of each video feed. Leveraging the incredible camera systems on iPhone and iPad, Final Cut Camera allows users to adjust settings like white balance and manual focus, while monitoring their recordings with zebras and audio meters. Users can now also adjust ISO and shutter speed, and enable focus peaking, bringing even more power to the camera system on iPad Air and iPad Pro. Final Cut Camera can also be downloaded for free as a standalone video capture app to record professional videos on iPhone and iPad with precise manual controls.

External Project Support

For even more storage flexibility, Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 now supports external projects, letting users easily create or open projects on an external storage device and import media without taking up space on their iPad. Editors can quickly hand off external projects to another editor or take them into Final Cut Pro for Mac; create new projects on external storage; and seamlessly import high-resolution files and professional codecs like ProRes and Log.

Even More Ways to Customise

Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 brings more options to customise projects. Users can dial in their edits with 12 new colour-grading presets, choose from eight basic text titles, score with 20 new soundtracks, and add additional dynamic backgrounds to create effect overlays and title sequences.

The powerful new Apple Pencil Pro offers even greater precision for Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 users. Live Drawing now includes support for barrel roll, giving users more precise control of their chosen tool, and with squeeze, users can quickly pull up an array of brushes and settings.

Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8

On Mac, editors can take their professional workflow to the next level. Leveraging the Neural Engine in Apple silicon, new AI features and organisational tools come to Final Cut Pro 10.8. Available as a free update to existing users, Final Cut Pro 10.8 introduces Enhance Light and Colour, offering the ability to improve colour, colour balance, contrast, and brightness in one simple step, and is optimised for SDR, HDR, RAW, and Log-encoded media. With Smooth Slo-Mo, frames of video are intelligently generated and blended together, providing the highest-quality movement and more drama to a project.

For efficiency in post-production workflows, colour corrections and video effects can now be given custom names in the inspector to easily identify changes applied to a clip, and effects can be dragged from the inspector to other clips in the timeline or viewer. The timeline index also offers the ability to search for and navigate to clips with missing media or effects. And text-based timeline search now includes important information like reel, scene, camera angle, and more.

Pricing and Availability

Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 will be available later this year as a free update for existing users, and available on the App Store for A$7.99 inc.GST per month or A$59 inc. GST per year, with a one-month free trial for new users.

Final Cut Camera will be available for free later this year as a standalone app.

Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8 will be available as a free update for existing users and for A$499.99 inc. GST for new users on the Mac App Store. All new users can download a free 90-day trial of Final Cut Pro.

M4 enables the breakthrough design and stunning display of the new iPad Pro, while delivering a giant leap in performance

Apple today announced M4, the latest chip delivering phenomenal performance to the all-new iPad Pro. Built using second-generation 3-nanometer technology, M4 is a system on a chip (SoC) that advances the industry-leading power efficiency of Apple silicon and enables the incredibly thin design of iPad Pro. It also features an entirely new display engine to drive the stunning precision, colour, and brightness of the breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display on iPad Pro. A new CPU has up to 10 cores, while the new 10-core GPU builds on the next-generation GPU architecture introduced in M3, and brings Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and hardware-accelerated mesh shading to iPad for the first time. M4 has Apple’s fastest Neural Engine ever, capable of up to 38 trillion operations per second, which is faster than the neural processing unit of any AI PC today. Combined with faster memory bandwidth, along with next-generation machine learning (ML) accelerators in the CPU, and a high-performance GPU, M4 makes the new iPad Pro an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence.

 

“The new iPad Pro with M4 is a great example of how building best-in-class custom silicon enables breakthrough products,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “The power-efficient performance of M4, along with its new display engine, makes the thin design and game-changing display of iPad Pro possible, while fundamental improvements to the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and memory system make M4 extremely well suited for the latest applications leveraging AI. Altogether, this new chip makes iPad Pro the most powerful device of its kind.”

 

New Technologies Enabling the New iPad Pro

 

Delivering a giant leap in performance over the previous iPad Pro with M2, M4 consists of 28 billion transistors built using a second-generation 3-nanometer technology that further advances the power efficiency of Apple silicon. M4 also features an entirely new display engine designed with pioneering technologies, enabling the stunning precision, colour accuracy, and brightness uniformity of the Ultra Retina XDR display, a state-of-the-art display created by combining the light of two OLED panels.

 

New 10-core CPU

 

M4 has a new up-to-10-core CPU consisting of up to four performance cores and now six efficiency cores. The next-generation cores feature improved branch prediction, with wider decode and execution engines for the performance cores, and a deeper execution engine for the efficiency cores. And both types of cores also feature enhanced, next-generation ML accelerators.

M4 delivers up to 1.5x faster CPU performance over the powerful M2 in the previous iPad Pro.1 Whether working with complex orchestral music files in Logic Pro or adding highly demanding effects to 4K video in LumaFusion, M4 boosts performance across pro workflows.

 

GPU Brings New Capabilities to iPad Pro

 

The new 10-core GPU of M4 builds upon the next-generation graphics architecture of the M3 family of chips. It features Dynamic Caching, an Apple innovation that allocates local memory dynamically in hardware and in real time to dramatically increase the average utilisation of the GPU. This significantly increases performance for the most demanding pro apps and games.

 

Hardware-accelerated ray tracing comes to iPad for the first time, and enables even more realistic shadows and reflections in games and other graphically rich experiences. Hardware-accelerated mesh shading is also built into the GPU, and delivers greater capability and efficiency in geometry processing, enabling more visually complex scenes in games and graphics-intensive apps. Pro rendering performance in apps like Octane gets a huge boost with M4, and is now up to four times faster than on M2.1 With these improvements to the CPU and GPU, M4 maintains Apple silicon’s industry-leading performance per watt. M4 can deliver the same performance as M2 using just half the power. And compared with the latest PC chip in a thin and light laptop, M4 can deliver the same performance using just a fourth of the power.2

 

The Most Powerful Neural Engine Ever

 

M4 has a blazing-fast Neural Engine — an IP block in the chip dedicated to the acceleration of AI workloads. This is Apple’s most powerful Neural Engine ever, capable of an astounding 38 trillion operations per second — a breathtaking 60x faster than the first Neural Engine in A11 Bionic. Together with next-generation ML accelerators in the CPU, the high-performance GPU, and higher-bandwidth unified memory, the Neural Engine makes M4 an outrageously powerful chip for AI. And with AI features in iPadOS like Live Captions for real-time audio captions, and Visual Look Up, which identifies objects in video and photos, the new iPad Pro allows users to accomplish amazing AI tasks quickly and on device.

 

iPad Pro with M4 can easily isolate a subject from its background throughout a 4K video in Final Cut Pro with just a tap, and can automatically create musical notation in real time in StaffPad by simply listening to someone play the piano. And inference workloads can be done efficiently and privately while minimising the impact on app memory, app responsiveness, and battery life. The Neural Engine in M4 is Apple’s most capable yet, and is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today.

 

Advanced Media Engine for Smooth, Efficient Streaming

 

The Media Engine of M4 is the most advanced to come to iPad. In addition to supporting the most popular video codecs, like H.264, HEVC, and ProRes, it brings hardware acceleration for AV1 to iPad for the first time. This provides more power-efficient playback of high-resolution video experiences from streaming services.

 

Better for the Environment

 

The power-efficient performance of M4 helps the all-new iPad Pro meet Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and deliver all-day battery life. This results in less time needing to be plugged in and less energy consumed over its lifetime.

 

Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to be carbon neutral across the entire manufacturing supply chain and life cycle of every product.

Logic Pro takes music-making to the next level with new AI features

Apple today unveiled the all-new Logic Pro for iPad 2 and Logic Pro for Mac 11, delivering breakthrough professional experiences for songwriting, beat-making, producing, and mixing. Powered by artificial intelligence, the new Logic Pro introduces incredible studio assistant features that augment the music-making process and provide artists help right when they need it — all while ensuring they maintain full creative control. These features include Session Players, which expand the popular Drummer capabilities in Logic Pro to include a new Bass Player and Keyboard Player; Stem Splitter, to extract and work with individual parts of a single audio recording; and ChromaGlow, to instantly add warmth to tracks. Logic Pro for iPad 2 and Logic Pro for Mac 11 will be available on the App Store starting Tuesday, 14 May.

“Logic Pro gives creatives everything they need to write, produce, and mix a great song, and our latest features take that creativity to a whole new level,” said Brent Chiu-Watson, Apple’s senior director of Apps Worldwide Product Marketing. “Logic Pro’s new AI-backed updates, combined with the unparalleled performance of iPad, Mac, and M-series Apple silicon, provide creative pros with the best music creation experience in the industry.”

Session Players: A Personalised AI-Driven Backing Band

Session Players offer groundbreaking experiences for creators by providing a personal, AI-driven backing band that responds directly to feedback.1 Drummer took the music creation industry by storm when it debuted as one of the world’s first generative musicians more than a decade ago. Today, it gets even better with key improvements and the addition of a new virtual Bass Player and Keyboard Player. Session Players augment the live-playing experience while ensuring artists maintain full agency during any phase of their music-making process.

Bass Player was trained in collaboration with today’s best bass players using advanced AI and sampling technologies. Users can choose from eight different Bass Players and guide their performance with controls for complexity and intensity, while leveraging advanced parameters for slides, mutes, dead notes, and pickup hits. Bass Player can jam along with chord progressions, or users can choose from 100 Bass Player loops to draw new inspiration. With Chord Track, users can define and edit the chord progressions to a song, and the virtual Bass Player will follow along perfectly. Plus, with Studio Bass plug-in, users gain access to six new, meticulously recorded instruments, from acoustic to electric — all inspired by the sounds of today’s most popular bass tones and genres.

With Keyboard Player, users can choose from four different styles, designed in cooperation with top studio musicians and made to accompany a wide variety of music genres. Keyboard Player can play everything from simple block chords to chord voicing with extended harmony — with nearly endless variations. Like Bass Player, Chord Track adds and edits the chord progression of the song, so Keyboard Player follows along. Using Studio Piano plug-in, users can select additional sound-shaping options, with the ability to adjust three mic positions, pedal noise, key noise, release samples, and sympathetic resonance.

Stem Splitter: Recover Great Recordings

Most musicians perform their best without the pressure of a formal studio session. These moments are often found in Voice Memos recordings, an old demo cassette tape, or are captured from a live show. Listening back, these recordings can reveal magical performances that are nearly impossible to re-create, making them lost to time. Now, with Stem Splitter, an artist can recover moments of inspiration from any audio file and separate nearly any mixed audio recording into four distinct parts: Drums, Bass, Vocals, and Other instruments, right on the device.2 With these tracks separated, it’s easy to apply effects, add new parts, or change the mix. Powered by AI and M-series Apple silicon, Stem Splitter is lightning fast.

ChromaGlow: Dial in the Perfect Tone

ChromaGlow models the sounds produced by a blend of the world’s most revered studio hardware by leveraging AI and the power of M-series Apple silicon.3 Users can dial in the perfect tone with five different saturation styles to add ultrarealistic warmth, presence, and punch to any track. They can also choose from modern clean sounds, nostalgic vintage warmth, or more extreme styles that can be shaped and moulded to taste.

Powered by iPad and Mac

Since its introduction last year, Logic Pro for iPad has seen rapid adoption from creatives. Designed from the ground up to take full advantage of touch, Logic Pro transforms iPad into almost any instrument imaginable, and thanks to the portable design of iPad, it becomes a complete studio experience on the go. With the power and performance of Apple silicon, musicians can complete complex multitrack projects, create custom software instrument sounds, leverage a full-featured professional mixer, and explore the app’s vast collection of effects plug-ins.

Working between iPad and Mac is easy with project round-tripping, allowing users to make music while on the go and continue perfecting their project when back in the studio.

Pricing and Availability

Logic Pro for Mac 11 is available on 14 May as a free update for existing users and for A$299.99 inc. GST for new users on the Mac App Store. Logic Pro for Mac 11 requires macOS Ventura 13.5 or later. For more information, visit apple.com/au/logic-pro.

Logic Pro for iPad 2 is available on 14 May as a free update for existing users, and available on the App Store for A$7.99 inc. GST per month or A$59 inc. GST per year, with a one-month free trial for new users. Logic Pro for iPad 2 requires iPadOS 17.4 or later. For more information, visit apple.com/au/logic-pro-for-ipad.