Final Cut for Mac Goes Universal

Apple announced Thursday that it had begun shipping Final Cut Studio 5.1, the first version of its video production suite to ship as a Universal Binary. The announcement follows February's release of Logic Pro 7.2 as a Universal application, and will be followed in April by Aperture 1.1, the company's photo editing tool. According to benchmarks by Apple, the new version runs up to two and a half times faster on MacBook Pro laptops.

"With the incredible performance of Final Cut Studio on a MacBook Pro, customers can work more efficiently wherever they are," Apple applications marketing vice president Rob Schoeben said in a statement. Current users of the PowerPC version of Final Cut Studio would be able to "crossgrade" for $49, while users of the standalone versions of applications could upgrade starting at $99. The full version of Final Cut Studio will retail for $1,299.