According to Japanese blog Macotakara, Apple may start selling the new version of Final Cut Pro, dubbed Final Cut Pro X, in the Mac App Store next week. Originally unveiled at the NAB in Las Vegas back in April, the company already announced that FCP X would be released in the digital store at the lower price point of $299 — without making any mention of additional apps previously included in the Final Cut Pro suite, such as Color or Motion. Apple said Final Cut Pro X would come out “in June”, but didn’t specify any release date.

Apple has announced to release Final Cut Pro X in this June via Mac App Store in price of $299 in NAV Supermeet, event for Final Cut users, at April 2011. And then Apple seems to start to sell Final Cut Pro X from next week as they told.

Macotakara also claims that the first Thunderbolt-enabled accessories will be available next week, with Final Cut Pro X likely capable of taking advantage of the new technology with high-speed data transfers and daisy-chaining.

From Apple’s original announcement of Final Cut Pro X:

Basing on live updates coming from attendees at NAB 2011, Final Cut Pro X has been built from scratch, and it’s entirely 64-bit. It’s based on technologies like Cocoa, Core Animation, Open CL, Grand Central Dispatch and it focuses on image quality. It features a resolution independent timeline up to 4K for scalable rendering — in fact, it appears the old render dialog is gone entirely as the app uses the available CPU to keep files always rendered. FCP X allows you to edit while you’re importing thanks to its new engine, and it’s also got automatic media and people detection on import, as well as image stabilization.

Apple is promoting the new FCP X as a complete and total rebuild.

Thunderbolt products have been announced by several third-party makers so far, with the most recent demoes at Computex 2011 showing the speedy side of the I/O technology. Apple’s recent update to the Mac line included MacBook Pros and iMacs receiving Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt upgrades, thus making for more powerful machines better suited for video editing at higher configurations. Similarly, the Mac Pro is also rumored to be getting an update soon to implement faster processors and Thunderbolt ports — the 27-inch iMac, for instance, comes with two Thunderbolt ports to enable complex daisy-chaining and external monitor mirroring.

In the past weeks, several screenshots have surfaced online showcasing parts of FCP X’s interface and features. Macotakara is a usual reliable source of Apple information and product leaks, though details are scarce on this Mac App Store release. [via AppleInsider]

CPU World reports (via MacRumors) that Intel is working on a series of new Core i5 and Core i7 ULV (ultra-low voltage) processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture which, offering improved speed and graphics performances over the previous-gen Arrandale CPUs, might be a suitable choice for Apple in the next generation of MacBook Air models. The three new processors, Core i5-2557M, Core i7-2637M and Core i7-2677M, increase clock speed from 1.4 GHz and 1.6 GHz to 1.7 GHz and 1.8 GHz, with turbo boost frequencies set at 2.8 GHz and 2.9 GHz. With increased speeds, performances and the same 17 Watt thermal envelope, the new CPUs might as well end up being used by Apple in the MacBook Airs rumored to receive a Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt update in June or July.

Two forthcoming Core i7 ULV dual-core processors, i7-2637M and i7-2677M, have 1.7 and 1.8 GHz base, and 2.8 GHz and 2.9 GHz Turbo Boost frequencies. This is 200 MHz higher than the frequencies of their predecessors, Core i7-2617M and i7-2657M. Default clock rate of the HD 3000 graphics on new chips stays the same, 350 MHz, although the maximum turbo frequency is increased to 1.2 GHz. The microprocessors boast 4 MB level 3 cache, and support HyperThreading and Vpro technologies. It is interesting to note that, despite of having lower processor number, the Intel i7-2637M SKU will be faster than the i7-2657M.

Low power consumption and speed are obviously factors Apple considers when selecting the processor to implement in thin and lightweight machines like the MacBook Airs. Whilst no release date has been announced by Intel yet, Apple usually gets components from Intel earlier than other companies, leading to speculation that the upcoming Air refresh may include the update Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs. Several reports in the past months indicated was working on a new version of the MBA line, last updated in October 2010, featuring Thunderbolt connectivity and faster processors following recent hardware changes to the MacBook Pros and iMacs.

A new report from Digitimes seems to corroborate rumors we’ve heard in the past weeks about a MacBook Air refresh this summer, featuring Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology:

The Taiwan-based supply chain for Apple products will begin shipments of new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Air models featuring Sandy Bridge platform and Thunderbolt interface in late May for launch in June or July, according to makers in the supply chain. While Apple’s PR representatives in Taiwan have neither confirmed nor responded to the report, it has long been understood that Apple always keeps silent about its new products not yet launched, the sources emphasized.

Earlier reports about the new MacBook Airs (last updated in October at the Back to the Mac event) suggested production would start later this month for a June release. Cnet was first to report in February the MacBook Airs would receive an upgrade; there’s a lot of anticipation when it comes to the MacBook Airs thanks to their super-thin design, native SSD and screen resolution, with analysts claiming the line could become a $2.2 billion annual business for Apple.

Update #1: Final Cut Pro X will be released in June and it’ll be available through the Mac App Store. No mention of Final Cut Studio or Final Cut Express today. [via]

As widely expected, Apple just introduced a new version of Final Cut at the Final Cut Pro Supermeet during NAB 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Touted as “revolutionary as the first version” from 1999, Apple introduced the new Final Cut Pro X saying that every major broadcaster and film maker nowadays relies on FCP for their video editing needs.

Basing on live updates coming from attendees at NAB 2011, Final Cut Pro X has been built from scratch, and it’s entirely 64-bit. It’s based on technologies like Cocoa, Core Animation, Open CL, Grand Central Dispatch and it focuses on image quality. It features a resolution independent timeline up to 4K for scalable rendering — in fact, it appears the old render dialog is gone entirely as the app uses the available CPU to keep files always rendered. FCP X allows you to edit while you’re importing thanks to its new engine, and it’s also got automatic media and people detection on import, as well as image stabilization.

Apple is promoting the new FCP X as a complete and total rebuild. Smart collections look very similar to iMovie, and overall there is a feeling Apple has borrowed some UI elements from the iLife application to make the general design more accessible, even for professionals. For instance, Apple has brought “single keystroke nesting” to Final Cut Pro — a new functionality that allows you to group chunks of media into a single clip in the timeline. The “inline precision editor” allows you to make edits by revealing media with an iOS-like menu.

More details from liveblogs:

- “You can view the media in the browser in a film strip type view. You can completely customize how you view media prior to the timeline.” – robimbs

- “4 window setup is now kind of truncated in 3 windows. The browser has the viewer built into it.” – robimbs

- “Auditioning: collect options during edit, choose later (simplifies versioning). This is loosely similar to Logic’s feature for grouping” – fcpsupermeet

Some notes of interested from Photography Bay:

10:33: Randy Ubillos, Chief Architect, Video Applications on stage. Demo FCP X live now. Beta version. “We hope it behaves.”

10:35: Audi R8 commercial spot cut on FCP X…

10:36: Demo’ing it live now. Showing off the keywording ability of the sections of the clip instead of the whole clip.

10:37: Offers filmstrip view for content. Looks just like iMovie’s functionality.

10:38: You can highlight sections of content in the filmstrip view and add keywords that way. The keywords show up as items in event library. Selecting those keyword items brings up just those sections of content. Looks like subclips, but it’s not.

If the new FCP X is still in beta, there’s shouldn’t be a product launch (or press release) coming today. Several attendees are reporting on Twitter the new timeline is very, very fast and are also mentioning an iPad app being demoed on screen. With background processing and the possibility to use all cores on powerful machines like a Mac Pro, Apple has focused on improving the reliability of Final Cut’s timeline by making sure to clips can be accidentally “destroyed”. The redesigned UI with a touch of iOS here and there and “magnetic timeline” should — basing on what we’re hearing from people at NAB — dramatically improved navigation and organization of large chunks of media.

FCP X features instant render in the background that doesn’t affect editing, also with 1-click instant color matching. Color correction, for example, has been built right into the timeline, enabling users to, say, distribute a “Ken Burns Effect” with a single swipe. Apparently there’s a lot of animation going on with windows, and attendees are reporting that — judging from the demo — Final Cut Pro X is incredibly fast in every task and processing that’s been done on stage.
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According to CNET, who cites “a source familiar with Apple’s plans”, the MacBook Air might receive an update in June with the new Intel Sandy Bridge processor:

Apple is targeting a MacBook Air update for this summer that will include a move to Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, CNET has learned.

The MacBook Air refresh is expected in June, according to a source familiar with Apple’s plans.

Intel’s Sandy Bridge chips were initially delayed due to a hardware bug, but the company confirmed earlier this week that shipments will start on February 20th. As CNET notes, the MacBook Air family is still carrying Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors which are two generations behind Sandy Bridge; the MacBook Airs were last updated in October, announced by Steve Jobs at the “Back to the Mac” event.

Recent rumors suggested the MacBook Pros, due a refresh, will soon receive an update, possibly featuring Sandy Bridge. A MacBook Air announcement in June would play well with the WWDC 2011 timeframe, where Apple is expected to unveil the next-generation iPhone.

Setteb.it has done some investigating and it seems that if Apple follows previous trends from past WWDC’s, it would appear that the 2011 dates for WWDC would be June 5 – 9. The above image gives a rundown of booked events in the Moscone center in downtown San Francisco and the dates of June 5 – 9 are just labelled as a ‘Corporate Meeting’, as Apple has done so in past years.

WWDC, or the World Wide Developers Conference has been the place Apple has revealed it’s new iPhones (except the original) and major updates iOS updates. The keynote on June 5th would also be a really nice tie in for the launch of the iPhone 5! Last years WWDC was on June 7 – 11.

[Via 9to5Mac, Setteb.it]

Update: AppleBitch spotted the rumored WWDC dates last week.