Final Cut Pro X: Apple's new version of video editing software with 64-bit support unveiled

Apple used the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas to unveil the next version of its video-editing software, the Final Cut Pro X.

The new version of the 12-year-old platform which was first released in 1999 has been rebuilt ground-up. Photography Bay reported that Peter Steinauer, architect of Final Cut Pro (FCP), confirmed that the FCP X is a 64-bit application capable of tapping 8-cores of multi-core processors using 4GB RAM. It uses Apple's Grand Central Dispatch.

The new Final Cut Pro X can handle 4K formats. The software will be available from June for $299.

Key upgrades to FCP X include media ready for editing before completion of ingest, detecting people in shots and the kind of shot - whether it is medium or close-up, adding new range of categorization and tagging tools and a new interface.

Photography Bay has been live-blogging from the event and posted pictures of two slides bearing testimonials of users who tried the FCP X. Scott Ivers, trailer Park Post Production said: I love the new interface. The Magnetic Timeline is a huge advancement which lets me focus on editing instead of worrying about sync. Editors just want to make great cuts and Final Cut pro X makes that easy.

While Dean Devlin, Electric Entertainment, quoted: Once again Apple brings us a game changer. This program represents the beginning of a new era in digital editing.