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iMovie is one of the most popular video editing programs on Mac OS X. It’s intuitive and easy to comprehend, so you don’t need to be an expert on video editing to make a home video or create your own movie project. iMovie has greatly enriched people’s digital life.

iMovie accepts video formats including MPEG-2 and AVCHD, DV-Standard and HDV (High Definition Video), QuickTime Movie and MPEG-4. If the format of the video is among the above-mentioned video formats, you can easily import it to Apple iMovie project: (1) Launch iMovie, go to “file > import movies”, (2) Browse through movies to find the videos you want. Click “import”.

Many popular video formats such as M2TS, AVI, WMV and FLV are not supported by iMovie. To import these videos to iMovie, you need to convert them to iMovie compatible format. The following step by step guide focuses on how to convert M2TS to MPEG-4 for importing to Apple iMovie project using Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac.

Step 1. Launch Aiseesoft Video Converter for Mac. Load M2TS video. ( free download )

Step 2. Select “MPEG-4″ from output format list

Tips 1. Trim video files

If you want only part of the video to be imported to iMovie, click the ‘Trim’ button to open the Trim window, then set the start time and end time by dragging the start time and End Time slider to convert a clip from the video.

Tips 2. Crop Movie Video

If you want to remove the black edges or just convert part of the video area from your video file, you can click the “Crop” button and specify an area either by dragging the frame around the video or setting the crop values.

Tips 3. Video Effect

If you want to adjust the video effect of your movie, you can click the “Effect” button and drag each effect adjustment slider to set the video brightness, contrast, saturation and video volume. You can also choose a special effect from the Effect drop-down list to apply to your movie.

Step 3. When the setting is done, start converting by clicking “Convert”.

Step 4. When the conversion is done, launch iMovie, go to “File > Import movies”. Select the converted MP4 video and click “Import”.

That’s it! Now you can edit M2TS videos in iMovie. Enjoy making your own movies!

iTunes has managed to become the de facto standard for desktop music organizers, leaving those with non-Apple devices in the cold. DoubleTwist syncs, shares, and converts your media quite handily, and has a built-in Amazon MP3 store, but can it really replace iTunes?

DoubleTwist (technically capitalized as doubleTwist, as is the fashion at this time) does a lot of neat things that iTunes will never do:

• It recognizes and synchronizes with a ton of devices, and otherwise works with any device that your computer recognizes as a storage space.
• Converts music and videos back and forth from device-specific formats, with quick upload links to Flickr and YouTube.
• Makes it super-easy to send music, video, or pictures from your desktop to anyone, whether or not they’re using doubleTwist.
• Downloads videos from YouTube for local viewing or listening, or converting to your phone or player.
• With the latest Windows update, due today, both versions of doubleTwist have a slick-looking Amazon MP3 Store integration.

Does that make it a free, and DRM-free, iTunes replacement? Not exactly—at least when it comes to playing and organizing your music on your computer. In fact, doubleTwist seems to have been built as a complement to the libraries and playlists set up in iTunes or Windows Media Player, and doesn’t currently have much in the way of playback functionality beyond, well, “Play.” But if you’re not a hyper-organized music fan and just want a simple, no-nonsense tool to transfer some great tunes, pictures, or video to your phone, PSP, or other device, doubleTwist is a great option.

Let’s take a look at what doubleTwist can do. These screenshots are from the Windows 2.3 Beta—as soon as the Amazon-toting update drops, we’ll update and post screens. Click on an image below for a bigger pop-up view.

Device syncing

DoubleTwist recognizes a lot of popular devices—Android phones, most BlackBerry and Windows Mobile models, PSPs, Creative and Sony MP3 players, iPods you didn’t just buy at the Apple store (though iPhone/touch functionality comes and goes, it seems), and just about anything that has storage space and a USB plug. It’s doubleTwist’s greatest strength, and it’s hard to believe it took so long for someone to make it possible. Want to manage what’s kept on an external hard drive? Go ahead. Plug in any device, and when doubleTwist picks it up, you tell it which music playlists, pictures, and video you want it to sync up with. If doubleTwist knows the device, it automatically converts files to the format needed to play on it. Best of all, doubleTwist can either automatically pop up and synchronize with your device whenever you plug it in, or leave you to manually push the Sync button, if you prefer.

Library setup and iTunes importing

On Windows and Macs alike, doubleTwist doesn’t make you import libraries or create playlists if you’ve already got it all set up in iTunes. That’s a strength for those jumping away from Apple’s music manager, but for those without a loaded iTunes library, it means either a fairly simple drag-and-drop library addition (on Macs) or having to properly set up and occasionally tweak Windows Media Player (on Windows). Depending on where you’re coming from, that’s either a time saver or an annoying time suck; with the latest Windows update, at least, Windows users should get the manual import option. Once you’re set up, at least, doubleTwist does a decent job of watching for new additions and playlist changes.

Sending and sharing files

As with device synchronizing, doubleTwist makes sending and sharing files seem ridiculously simple and open. Choose your music file, hit “Send,” fill out an email address (or choose it from your Gmail or Yahoo contact books), and the recipient gets a download link and full stream of the file to check out. The link expires after a few weeks, but there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the number of files you can send, even if we’re pretty sure there must be a size limit. If your friends eventually get down with doubleTwist, this gets even easier—send them the file, and they’ll see it in their “stream” that loads at startup and notifies on new items.

YouTube importing

Lots of great music lives on YouTube, in rare live performances, early-release music videos, or catchy independent productions. doubleTwist can’t search out the links itself (hint, hint, developers), but feed it a YouTube video link and it grabs the file as an FLV video and saves it to your library location, available for your viewing or listening pleasure whenever you’d like. Even easier, drop it onto your phone device, and doubleTwist converts it to the necessary format for small-screen viewing.

Music playing

Music playback is not the shining point for doubleTwist. On Windows, at least, you manage your current playlist from a small mini-player window that you can’t close or dock to the side, and adding to it requires a clumsy manual drag and drop. There’s no visualization tools, album art pick-up is hit and miss, and there’s really just back, forward, and a play/pause button—no shuffling or rating for you, though that latter aspect might be something you leave in iTunes, anyways. On Windows, doubleTwist was very finicky with my MP3 collection—some tracks just wouldn’t play, while unprotected AAC files usually fared just fine. Not that all my collection comes from fine-toothed ripping of physical CDs I purchased (ahem), but it’s still disappointing to see. Worst of all, when doubleTwist decides not to play something, it does it with a pop-up window that halts the music until you acknowledge it with an “OK” push.

The overall look and interface has a really rough feel to it on Windows, and while the Mac app looks better, it similarly lacks much of the functionality that music lovers live for. Let’s hope the actual enjoyment of music gets a good looking-to in the next version.

Amazon MP3 Store

Already running on Macs and soon to drop on Windows, it’s exactly what you might imagine: A (generally) cheaper music store that downloads DRM-free MP3s you can play just about anywhere these days, making it a perfect fit for the device-friendly doubleTwist. Search out artists, browse what’s popular, and buy tracks and albums with your Amazon credentials—when we get a chance to peek around on Windows, we’ll post a bit more information.

Source from Kevin Purdy, via http://lifehacker.com/5380478/is-doubletwist-a-real-itunes-alternative

The iPod nano will now feature a built-in camera, as Apple updated its iPod line as part of a music-focused press event in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The new iPod comes in 8GB and 16GB models, priced at $149 and $179, respectively. The music players now feature a video camera and microphone on the back of the device along with a built-in speaker. The nano can display video or sync it back to your computer for uploading to YouTube.

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs—making his first public appearance at an Apple event since returning from a six-month medical leave—the company added the camera to the nano line to capitalize on the popularity of pocket-sized flash-based video cameras.

The following tutorial is going to show you how to rip DVD and convert video to all sorts of video and audio formats on Mac OS X (including Snow Leopard) using only one tool – iSkysoft iMedia Converter for Mac. It also shows several tips and tricks you can’t miss out on while using this iMedia Converter to rip DVD and convert video on your Mac machine.

Step 1. Download iSkysoft iMedia Converter for Mac, install and launch it.

Free Download ( Intel Version | Power PC Version )

Step 2. Add DVD or Video

You can click “Load DVD” button to load DVD or click “Add Video” to import video files for conversion.

After a DVD or several video files are imported successfully, you can see all of them listed in the program:

Step 3. Output Settings

Choose the output format you want. After you choose a format from the “Profile” list, it is the time to check out the Setting panel:

Profile: Click here to know which formats Total Media Converter supports.
Settings -> Video: Set video encoding settings by selecting a resolution, a frame rate, a video encoder and a bit rate.
Settings -> Audio: Set audio encoding settings by selecting a sample rate, an audio channel, an audio encoder and a bit rate.

Tip:
You can customize the video and audio encoding settings and save them as your own profile. After you have chosen the encoding options, just click the “Save as” button and name your profile, and then the profile will be saved in the “User Defined” list. You can use the customized profile next time by selecting it from the list.

Apply to All: Check this option to apply the current profile to all the files.
Merge into one file: Check this option and the program will convert all the selected video files into a single file.

Step 4. Start Conversion

After all the necessary settings and editing job, the last step is clicking the “Start” button to start ripping DVD and convert video on your Mac machine with this powerful iMedia Converter for Mac.

Tips and Tricks:

Before clicking the “Start” button, you can do a lot more DVD/video editing jobs like DVD movie/video length trimming, video cropping, adding special effects, adding watermark, capturing images during previewing, etc. For example, If you want to capture a clip from the current title/chapter, you can click the “Edit” button to open the “Trim” window and trim the current title or chapter.

In Edit panel, there are 3 methods to do the trimming job:

1. Input value. Input certain time number in Set start time and Set end time fields manually.
2. Drag the sliders in the playback progress bar to set start time and end time quickly:
3. Insert trim start and end flags when you are previewing an video file in Edit panel.

Note: If you are using Windows OS, it is recommended you try Aimersoft Video Converter Pro to help you rip DVD and convert video to your iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP, BlackBerry and a lot more mobile players.

According to CNET, Apple has obtained the rights to distribute ready-made ringtones for the iPhone.

Apple is apparently scrambling to have the ready-made ringtones available in time for their special event “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” on September 9.

iPhone users can currently create a custom-made ringtone of up to 30 seconds using iTunes Ringtone editor and have to pay an additional cost of 99c for a song if they already have it or $1.98 in case they don’t. Apple had released this feature in September 2007.

The ready-made ringtones will make it very convenient for iPhone users who are too lazy to create their own custom ringtones.

Apple is expected to make an announcement about these ready-made ringtones at their special media event “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” on September 9.

Here are some of the more interesting rumors and speculations for this year’s event.

Do you buy ringtones? Would you prefer creating your own custom ringtones or a ready-made ringtone?

The following guide is going to show you how to rip DVD’s to all sorts of video and audio formats on Mac OS X (including Snow Leopard) using iSkysoft DVD Ripper for Mac. It also shows several tips and tricks you need to pay attention to while using this Mac DVD Ripper to rip DVD on your Mac machine.

Step 1. Launch iSkysoft DVD Ripper for Mac and add DVD Movie

Free Download ( Intel Version | Power PC Version )

Click the “Load DVD” button, and navigate to the DVD folder of the movie you want to add from your hard disc or DVD-ROM, open DVD folder, select VIDEO_TS folder and click OK.

Or, click the “Load IFO” button, find the DVD folder of the movie you want to add from your hard disc or DVD-ROM, open your DVD folder, open the VIDEO_TS folder, select all IFO files and click OK.

After you add your movie, you can choose any titles or chapters you want to convert by ticking the check boxes before them. So that you can copy and convert the whole DVD movie or just convert the selected titles or chapters. You can choose to convert certain segment of the DVD movie using trim function.

Step 2. Output Settings

At the bottom of the main window, you can select a format according to the name of your player. For example, you can select ‘MOV-QuickTime (*.MOV)’ when you want to rip DVD to QuickTime on Mac, and the default setting works great. This DVD ripper for Mac can also rip DVD to MP4, AVI, M4V, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, FLV on Mac OS X and convert DVD from PAL to NTSC. You can select MOV or MP4 when you rip DVD to iMovie on Mac. iMovie supports MOV and MP4 video. It is easy to rip DVD to iMovie on Mac.

Step 3. Start Conversion

When output settings are done, click the “Convert” button to start converting your Movies. You can choose to shut down your computer or open the output folder after the conversion.

Tip & Trick 1. Trim movie clips

Tick the Check boxes of the chapters or titles you want to trim, and click the “Trim” button to open the Trim window below:

Drag the slider to set the starting time and ending time, click OK.

Note: You can preview the trimmed movie clip before conversion in preview window.

Tip & Tricks 2. Crop movie clips

Check the chapter or title you want to trim, and click the “Crop” button to open the Crop window.

Select an output aspect ratio and the available options are: Keep Original, full screen, 16:9 and 4:3.

Note: You can enter the crop values manually or drag the rectangular selection frame round the video to select the displaying area.

Tip & Trick 3. Merge several titles or chapters into one file

You’ll find “Merge into one file” at the bottom of the program window, after you select the titles and chapters you want to rip and finish the output settings, you can tick the check box of “Merge into one file” to merge several titles or chapters into one. This allows you to merge all movie titles into one output file so that you can enjoy a long movie without breaks.

It is recommended that you choose iSkysoft DVD Ripper Pack for Mac (discout suite) if you want to both rip DVD and convert video on your Mac machine.

By Prince McLean via link

A report filed by a tipster claiming access to iTunes 9 says that it is “possible” the next version of Apple’s media player will sport both DVD import and playback as well as Facebook integration, allowing users to advertise songs and playlists with their friends.

The report and screenshots were published by the Boy Genius Report, which earlier in the month wrote that iTunes 9 is expected to allow organization of iPhone apps and iPod games and indicated some sort of social media integration was in the cards.

The latest report includes screen shots that depict a Facebook category in the iTunes Source list, allowing users to advertise new song titles and playlists in their Facebook profile. Also included is a screen shot of how advertised tracks would appear on Facebook.

BGR also presents a screen shot of iTunes 9 that suggests the capability to sync music, video, podcast, and photo content to third party device, a Samsung YH-J70xx MP3 player. Apple has previously only signaled a disinterest in supporting sync with third party devices, actively halting the Palm Pre’s attempts to identify itself as an iPod.

More interesting are the depiction of buttons in the lower right that allow for DVD playback and import, suggesting that iTunes could do for DVDs what it got started doing for CDs. Were Apple to negotiate the right to rip DVDs, it would radically change the home movie industry in ways the industry has not demonstrated any interest in exploring. However, the addition of a “DVD Playback” button suggests that the screen shots are more likely to be fakes, as iTunes already has a playback button: “play.”

The studios have worked hard to thwart any commercial attempts to enable users to rip their own DVDs, recently filing an injunction against RealNetwork’s DVD Ripper software and even opposing a home theater installer from allowing users to rip their own DVDs for digital playback, despite the system not even producing an easy to distribute copy.

At Macworld Expo 2008, Apple announced having worked out a compromise with Twentieth Century Fox called Digital Copy for iTunes, which puts a mobile version of the movie on the DVD for use with iPods, the iPhone, Apple TV, and other media devices. Many new DVDs now include a Digital Copy of the movie, which doesn’t require any media ripping steps (transcoding and compression); instead, it simply initiates an iTunes download using a code included with the DVD.

Ripping an entire DVD (which includes defeating its copy protection and transcoding) would require Apple to obtain a special exemption from the DVD Forum license, something that hasn’t happened before. Similarly, the current DVD license also means that adding DVD playback to iTunes would require Apple to disable screen shots while the app was running, indicating that the screen shots of what appears to be iTunes playing a DVD would also need to be the product of a very relaxed DVD license or simply an outright fake.

Rumors also indicate Apple is gearing up to support Blu-ray playback, something that Apple has shown no interest in doing despite being an early member of the Blu-ray Disc Association and remaining one of its 19 board members. Blu-ray discs compete directly against Apple’s preferred model of selling and promoting digital downloads.

While Blu-ray offers major advantages for high end users in terms of audio quality and video resolution, Apple primarily sells devices that don’t really benefit from Blu-ray’s higher resolution, prompting Apple to leave the new disc technology to HDTV makers like Sony and LG to push.

Apple is expected to release a new update to its iPod lineup in its September 9 event, which will likely also include an updated version of iTunes and possibly the long anticipated Apple TV 3.0 update adding support for HTTP Live Streaming, which has already shipped as part of iPhone 3.0 and will be part of the new QuickTime X in Mac OS X Snow Leopard.