The iMovie app for iOS is kind of amazing. Not only can you shoot videos on an iPhone or iPod touch now, but Apple has shown that the A4 processor in its latest mobile devices is powerful enough to edit and transcode video files, meaning you don’t need to lug around a laptop computer to edit movies you shoot on the go. You can shoot and edit them on the same device, and then upload them directly to YouTube.
But here’s the thing. The $4.99 iMovie app is kind of awkward to use. The controls aren’t altogether intuitive. Sometimes it’s awfully difficult to move through the navigation bar. You can only add a single audio track. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But it turns out iMovie isn’t the only game in town.
A free app called Splice hit the App Store recently, and it’s a pretty killer video editor for iOS. Just fire up the app, create a project, configure a few settings, and add video from your camera roll to get started. You can also add pictures stored on your device. Splice will let you add titles or transitions, crop, delete, resize, change the start and end points, or even adjust the speed of your video clips.
There’s a built-in audio editor that lets you add tracks from your iDevice or record narration to go along with your video. There are also sound effects available from the Splice library. You can then arrange the audio clips along a timeline.
When you’re done, you can preview your clip and then export it to your camera roll to watch, upload to YouTube, or copy to your computer.
Splice is available s a free download from iTunes, but the free version includes advertising. You can also pay $1.99 for an ad-free version, but to be honest, I created a couple of test videos this afternoon and didn’t see a single ad.
The company also has in-app purchases if you want to pay for additional borders, transitions, sound effects, music, or other elements. But the free app comes with more than enough goodies to get you started.
via Lifehacker
