iMovie HD: For Free

iMovie ‘08, a claimed ground-up rewrite of the previous iMovie HD 6 application, is a key component of the iLife ‘08 software suite that Apple unveiled earlier this week. This product transition doesn’t seem to be issue-free, unfortunately; among the reported problem is a lack of support for plug-ins. As a result, Apple has taken the atypical step of providing a free download of the prior-generation iMovie HD 6, which you can run in parallel with iMovie ‘08, for those who don’t already have the iLife ‘06 suite installed.

The download page explicitly states that this is "for those who have purchased and installed iLife ’08." However, enterprising hackers quickly figured out how to circumvent the flimsy iMovie ‘08 pre-installation validity check, using a program called Pacifist. And shortly thereafter, other clever Mac users determined an even simpler pre-installation workaround:

open the terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.iLife08 HappyCakeOven -bool YES

No guarantees, folks, and I’ve already got iLife ‘06 so I won’t (need to) try this out for myself. However, I thought you’d like to know about this reported loophole, especially if you’ve recently obtained a HDV camcorder (for AVCHD, you’ll need iMovie ‘08) and are now looking for OS X- and high definition-compatible software. Of course, after you get a taste of HD video editing via Apple’s (presumably unintentional) free gift, I heartily recommend you spend the $79 on the iLife ‘08 upgrade, as well….