Sources also claim info on Xserve, Blu-ray

The next Final Cut Studio should ship in March or early April, and be a "substantial update" if not as feature-complete as some people may be expecting, according to information obtained by Hardmac. The timeframe is roughly in keeping with a promise from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who in November suggested that Final Cut would be updated "early next year." Two separate betas of the software are said to be in existence however: one for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and another for Lion. Some features are allegedly being reserved for Lion, as a result of changes made to Mac OS X's QuickTime layer.

Hardmac sources meanwhile claim that Apple has received a fair amount of backlash for discontinuing the Xserve. Aside from staff at IT departments, one of the people complaining is allegedly Arthur Levinson, a member of Apple's own board of directors. Jobs has defended the decision by blaming poor sales; the move will soon cause serious trouble for IT workers though, as entire infrastructures will have to be migrated to Mac Pros, Mac minis or and/or Windows systems as upgrade cycles turn over.

The Apple CEO is also said to have commented on Blu-ray again in a recent internal meeting, still insistent that the company skip the format on Macs despite its prevalence elsewhere. The main arguments are thought to revolve around the cost of DRM, and the belief that Blu-ray will be the last physical distribution platform for movies and other videos. Digital downloads are said to be the future, even though Apple makes comparatively little money on video at the iTunes Store.

by MacNN Staff