Updates: Unwanted

I've been using Google Reader now to try to stay on top of all the great blogs on media production out there. This morning I read a post from Shane's blog: QuickTime 7.4...Do Not Update. In short: Apple has done it again: Released an update for QuickTime that makes editing difficult, if not impossible.

This is hardly the first time such a thing has happened. It will hardly be the last.

Why? Because Apple likes to keep things secret until they are ready to "let it out of the bag". This means they don't tell anyone, even other developers who rely on their code, anything about what they are doing. This means that the updates hit everyone, causing everyone to reel for days and weeks while people scramble to fix the mess. In fact, a notable update once put Final Cut Pro (Apple's own software) out of commission for over three days.

Hence the adage splashed across Apple's video forums: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. In other words: Do not update your Apple software if you don't absolutely have to.

I was not hit with anything of this nature because I have not updated my edit bays for quite some time now.

But I have released the very first E-Note in my quest to help more and more people make media. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to go about this, but eventually you just have to try something. So I did. Will this be an unwanted update like Apple's? I hope not.

~Luke Holzmann
Your Media Production Mentor