When it comes to useful and creatively driven applications, some would argue that Mac and iOS have the markets cornered. From Garage Band to iMovie, Mac and iOS users have had the ability to use built-in, full-featured and easy to use creative software for some time. On the Windows side of things, many users were either left using the bare-bones Windows Live Essentials or searching the internet for their preferred options. With the app-centric nature of modern OS’s perhaps Microsoft is getting back to offering a decent competitors in creative apps like Movie Creator.
Just recently, Movie Creator was updated and provided new‘Beta‘ features. Perhaps due to the beta-like functionality, the new Movie Creator update is specific in its release. Currently, the updates are only available for Lumia and Surface Pro hardware.
Movie Creator Beta for phones can now support:
- 4K video input with max 1080p output. This is likely only available on devices that can handle 4K like the Lumia 1520, Icon and 930
- Select photos and videos from OneDrive. Enabling OneDrive integration puts more of the movie creating an experience in the cloud. The potential of OneDrive as a platform to implement more apps in the future could be very appealing for video creators. Possibly soon, users will be able to tap into the apps like Cinemagraph, Lumia Moments, Lumia Refocus and Lumia Storyteller to create full feature videos, all within the cloud.
- Change of video speeds (a widely requested feature)
- Change of captions and title font size and position
- Unknown bug fixes
Movie Creator Beta for Surface came with an update as well that addressed minor improvements. The Surface version of the app already contained many of the features the phone counterpart just received. The recent update appears to bring the phone app to par with the Surface app. While the app is not being listed as a ‘Universal App’ just yet, the two apps are becoming more in line with each other. It seems it will only be a matter of time before it becomes an official Universal App, and is used to showcase the potential of Windows 10.
Further reading: 4K, Apps, Creator, Microsoft, Movies, OneDrive, Windows Phone, Windows Store
