iWork for iCloud now available to users who don't own Apple hardware
Apple has made it so that anyone, on any type of system, can create an Apple ID, allowing them to access the browser-based iWork productivity suite on iCloud.com.
Thanks to a new link allowing users to create an Apple ID, users on non-Apple hardware, including Windows and Android machines, can now register an account. Previously, users could only create an Apple ID login on Apple hardware, like a Mac, iPhone or iPad.
After creating an Apple ID, users will be able to log in to iCloud.com and access Pages, Numbers and Keynote, the apps that make up Apple's iWork. The change was first reported by BetaNews.
In order to register an Apple ID, users must visit beta.icloud.com and click the link below the sign-in area that allows users to create an account. Users can then create a login with any email address, on any modern browser, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer for Windows.
Users who create an iCloud login without Apple hardware won't have access to all of the standard iCloud features. The only applications displayed are the iWork trio and Settings.
Apple also gives users on other ecosystems a gigabyte of free storage to host their iWork documents in the cloud.
Opening up iWork for iCloud to anyone gives Apple yet another entry point to allow users to sample its ecosystem of services, something it has done in the past with iTunes. Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once famously quipped that offering iTunes on Windows computers was "like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell."
Thanks to a new link allowing users to create an Apple ID, users on non-Apple hardware, including Windows and Android machines, can now register an account. Previously, users could only create an Apple ID login on Apple hardware, like a Mac, iPhone or iPad.
After creating an Apple ID, users will be able to log in to iCloud.com and access Pages, Numbers and Keynote, the apps that make up Apple's iWork. The change was first reported by BetaNews.
In order to register an Apple ID, users must visit beta.icloud.com and click the link below the sign-in area that allows users to create an account. Users can then create a login with any email address, on any modern browser, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer for Windows.
Users who create an iCloud login without Apple hardware won't have access to all of the standard iCloud features. The only applications displayed are the iWork trio and Settings.
Apple also gives users on other ecosystems a gigabyte of free storage to host their iWork documents in the cloud.
Opening up iWork for iCloud to anyone gives Apple yet another entry point to allow users to sample its ecosystem of services, something it has done in the past with iTunes. Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once famously quipped that offering iTunes on Windows computers was "like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell."
Comments
Surprising, but a good move.
And it screws Microsoft as I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't need all of the features in Office and a suite like this will work just fine with them. I'm assuming this has the same features as the Mac/iOS versions? I wonder If Photos will go there eventually too?
What does this mean?
Edit- oh miss read... Thought it said terabyte... Didn't have my morning caffeine hit yet. Should have known I was dreaming
And it screws Microsoft as I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't need all of the features in Office and a suite like this will work just fine with them.
Except for Numbers, which is perpetually terrible.
I'm assuming this has the same features as the Mac/iOS versions? I wonder If Photos will go there eventually too?
The "good news" is that you won't need to worry about feature compatibility. Apple's method of achieving parity is to remove advanced features from their desktop apps. :-/
Well I don't use iWork apps so I wouldn't know. I use Excel every day at work so when I'm not working the last thing i want to do is use a spreadsheet program. I think Microsoft would seriously shit their pants if someone created a legitimate Excel contender. Word and PowerPoint are a bloated mess but Excel is actually quite good.
The problem with Numbers is many of us that grew up with Visicalc and then Excel expect it to work in a certain way, the way we 'know'. I have recently been giving Numbers a second look (having also dismissed it earlier) and trying to not assume i know anything. It has some quite remarkable features I find the more I use it.
On a parallel note, Apple still lack a good relational database, hell even flat databases. I have never really liked FileMaker (not strictly from Apple I know). Back in the Apple ][ days there were so many databases to choose from it was a lot of work keeping up and comparing. Even early Macs had a plethora to choose from. Now ... not so much.
One remaining giant irritant I've dealt with in Numbers is the inability to lock data entry fields in place and yet still have them usable for data entry! Currently, you can lock a block of data down to keep it from moving, but then you can't enter information. I'm trying to design forms for common business tasks and this bugs the heck out of me. When I give these "forms" to other people to use it is remarkably easy to have layouts completely messed up after a single use. Fields move around because the bloody upper-left hand corners cannot simply be "pinned down".
On a parallel note, Apple still lack a good relational database, hell even flat databases. I have never really liked FileMaker (not strictly from Apple I know). Back in the Apple ][ days there were so many databases to choose from it was a lot of work keeping up and comparing. Even early Macs had a plethora to choose from. Now ... not so much.
The last database management application I've used was Sequel Pro (http://www.sequelpro.com), a free open-source application for Mac OS X. I've never used FileMaker, so I don't really know how does it compare to this free app, but I liked using Sequel Pro (however, my needs/uses for databases are rather basic).
Is this really new? I'm pretty sure you've been able to do this for some time simply by creating an Apple ID by clicking the 'Create an Apple ID' button at the following address and then navigating to the beta.icloud.com site and logging in.
https://appleid.apple.com/?localang=en_US
I may be mistaken, however, even if I am correct it is interesting that Apple is now directly marketing this on beta.iCloud.com and has integrated the registration into an iCloud style pop-over.
-PopinFRESH
Thanks for Link, I have checked this out before and seems very nice but not mainstream Apple friendly. I'm suggesting Apple need some database application of their own, both flat and a hierarchical version (pro?) perhaps that is easy to use. At present Apple has no database application whatsoever! This seems absurd to me.
Like you, I like the idea of making wee applications / forms for end users and a pro version of such an application should have that capability for sure. I have used FileMaker and Filemaker Go which kind of allow this, but as I said, I have never liked Filemaker's approach much and company even less. I did a lot of work with FileMaker as a back end and wrote custom web site query pages.
Some here may recall a simple database called PFS from the Apple ][, /// and early Mac days. Something akin to that from Apple (with iOS and iCloud integration) at least would be great today for the average user.
I've been long able to log in to iWork apps on the cloud via Windows 7 using VMWare on my nMP but I was using my same ?ID and I have a developer account so I can's say if this is new to everyone or not.
Precisely. One thing Google Docs have (had? ... I can never keep up with Google anything they change so often) is the built in ability to use data from docs in a web widget. So you could copy and paste code into a web page and it dynamically updates from the live data as it is changed on the doc.
It would be great IMHO of Apple allowed all iCloud based data to generate code for pasting into web widgets. Of course I would also love it if Apple had an answer to Adobe Muse especially given Muse is such a blatant rip off of iWeb to start with albeit brought up to date and advanced upon. Apple should have done that with iWeb.
May as well give it a shot. Not many people use iWork so it makes sense to open it up to everyone to see if it gains any traction. Maybe they can at least beat out Google docs, as it's inferior to Office as well.
Is this really new? I'm pretty sure you've been able to do this for some time simply by creating an Apple ID by clicking the 'Create an Apple ID' button at the following address and then navigating to the beta.icloud.com site and logging in.
https://appleid.apple.com/?localang=en_US
I may be mistaken, however, even if I am correct it is interesting that Apple is now directly marketing this on beta.iCloud.com and has integrated the registration into an iCloud style pop-over.
-PopinFRESH
That is what I thought too. Apple makes iTunes for Windows so you need an Apple ID if you want to buy a song.
And so it begins.
Next up is making Apple Maps accessible to anyone (this would be a real thorn in the side of Google, who pretty much owns this market). Then iCloud Drive as an alternative to DropBox. Followed by iMessage in your browser (goodbye Whatsapp and all the others). Maybe even Apple Search to go up against Google/Bing?
Apple search? You want Apple to take on Google and Bing in search when they're outsourcing app curation to Pinterest? Have you tried searching the App Store lately? The experience is not great. Apple needs to focus and stick to what they do best. Remember a thousand noes for every yes? Apple needs to shore up its foundations, not spread itself too thin. This is why I'm glad iOS 9 is supposedly all about stability and bug fixes. Hopefully the newest version of OS X will be the same.