Apple OS X Lion Includes QuickTime Upgrades
Apple boasts that its just-released OS X 10.7 operating system (codenamed Lion) includes over 250 new features. While the marquee features make Mac desktops and notebooks a little more like the iPad, there's far more than that. Some of the improvements make QuickTime more usable.
Clip Merging
QuickTime X makes combining multiple videos into one file a simple drag-and-drop operation. With one video open, click and drag another to the QuickTime window. You'll see a timeline of stills from the first video at the bottom of the screen. You can drag and release the second video before or after those stills to combing your videos.
Audio-only Exporting
Grabbing the audio from a movie used to be a cumbersome job, but now there's nothing to it. Open a movie in QuickTime, select export, and choose the Audio Only option. You'll get an AAC file that you can edit or post. It's perfect when you want to grab audio to add to your iTunes library.
Clip Rotating
Working with video-enabled mobile devices, it's easy to get videos that are upside down or sideways. In QuickTime X, fix that by choosing Rotate Left or Rotate Right from the Edit menu.
Selective Screen Recording
Apple has made screen recording beautifully simple. Choose New Movie Recording from the File menu and then click the red button to start a recording. You'll get the option of recording your full screen or selecting just one part of the screen. To select an area, drag over it with the mouse. The resulting file is an MOV. You can record audio from an attached mic, but not on-screen audio. Apple apparently didn't feel like creating an ideal video piracy tool. Click the down arrow on the Screen Recording window to set recording options. QuickTime can also highlight mouse clicks in a screen recording by putting a small circle around the cursor whenever there's a click.
There are options to make an audio-only recording or to record video from an attached video camera, as well.
Instant Sharing
Users can share their videos to Vimeo, Flickr, Facebook, iMovie, and Mail in just a few clicks.
Full Screen Viewing
Lion is heavy on full-screen applications, mimicking playback on an iPad, and QuickTime gets an easy full-screen view, too. With a video open, click the double-arrow symbol in the top right corner.
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