Apple's GarageBand, iMovie, Keynote, Numbers, Pages now free for all iOS & macOS users

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 54
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    How long before someone tries to sue Apple, citing the Microsoft case from the '90s?
  • Reply 22 of 54
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    tzeshan said:
    joe28753 said:
    As the Apple fanboy I am, I keep trying to use Numbers or Pages, but they always feel like child's toys not meant for real work. If I'm at work, I would probably be using Office, and if I don't have that or want a free option, I'd use Google Docs, for more easily sharing and collaborating with all the other people who use Google Docs and Office. Does anyone actually use these iWork apps?
    I am writing a book with Pages.  It is 74 pages long will figures.  
    I would like to use Pages to write books, but they removed support for facing pages. I still use it for short projects, but once I get past four pages I reach for Mellel. 
    edited April 2017
  • Reply 23 of 54
    joe28753 said:
    As the Apple fanboy I am, I keep trying to use Numbers or Pages, but they always feel like child's toys not meant for real work. If I'm at work, I would probably be using Office, and if I don't have that or want a free option, I'd use Google Docs, for more easily sharing and collaborating with all the other people who use Google Docs and Office. Does anyone actually use these iWork apps?
    Yes, and often. Pages in particular. Wrote a 1000 page fiction novel with all the chapter headings, sub headings, illustrations and cartography included, then exported to iBooks Author. Easy-peasy! Can also export to Word, which my editor liked because he uses and old PC still running XP (fears upgrading).

    I've also used Numbers to convert Xcel spreadsheets when my old version of Office won't touch it. The free Numbers app is an excellent, light-weight spreadsheet app, and is very good at covering the simpler (no pivots) .xlsx sheets for printing.

    Will either do the EXTREME heavy lifting of MS Office? No. But for a single person entrepreneur and author Pages and Numbers are fine!
    StrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 24 of 54
    bitmodbitmod Posts: 267member
    joe28753 said:
    As the Apple fanboy I am, I keep trying to use Numbers or Pages, but they always feel like child's toys not meant for real work. If I'm at work, I would probably be using Office, and if I don't have that or want a free option, I'd use Google Docs, for more easily sharing and collaborating with all the other people who use Google Docs and Office. Does anyone actually use these iWork apps?
    Keynote is 50-70 years ahead of PowerPoint. I don't know anyone who uses PP anymore - it's dead.
    When I quote medical presentations: $5-7k in Keynote - $90-150k for the same thing in PP and it will look like shit. In other words, I refuse to touch it.

    Pages is so much easier to use than Word. I do a lot of my work in pages, then just export as a word document. Saves me days, weeks and tens of thousands of dollars working in Pages. Things that take 1.5 seconds in Pages are a 3 day odyssey in Word... like importing a pdf or vector image with layers. Apple you copy paste or drag/drop vector images - Word you need to hire a team of engineers, consult the Oracle from another planet, shake a chicken over your head during a full moon eclipse and pray for the best...

    Excel is a bit better than Numbers.

    Although not as refined as Adobe Creative Cloud - The apps are miles ahead in terms of creating somewhat interesting creative documents. Small-Midsize businesses.
    Office has all the mega enterprise functionality for 50,000 people sharing and modifying a sourced document threaded through a network etc...


    trydStrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 25 of 54
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    joe28753 said:
    As the Apple fanboy I am, I keep trying to use Numbers or Pages, but they always feel like child's toys not meant for real work. If I'm at work, I would probably be using Office, and if I don't have that or want a free option, I'd use Google Docs, for more easily sharing and collaborating with all the other people who use Google Docs and Office. Does anyone actually use these iWork apps?
    Yes, millions and millions of normal users who just need basic word processing and spreadsheet functions. Keynote for many is superior to Powerpoint for presentation projects. People who are not willing to fork out $150 for the Office suite or pay a yearly subscription for Office 365. The iWork suite is perfectly okay for probably the majority of Mac users. They are NOT child’s toys and you need to get down off your horse and stop looking down your nose at such users. 
    StrangeDayschiawatto_cobra
  • Reply 26 of 54
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    zoetmb said:

    ireland said:
    Should have been made free years ago.y 
    I always love this trope -- when Apple does something good, you can always count on someone to "But they should have done it sooner!"
    I'm not sure that "free" is always good.  It means that Apple has no incentive to improve these apps.    I'd rather pay $100, even $200, for a great suite of apps that are going to be consistently improved and supported than use crappy free apps.  
    What about macOS, since it's free as well now? I think the incentive for them is the same -- better productivity on the Apple platforms. Whether it's the OS or apps, it's still in Apple's best interest to provide good tools.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 27 of 54
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    bitmod said:
    joe28753 said:
    As the Apple fanboy I am, I keep trying to use Numbers or Pages, but they always feel like child's toys not meant for real work. If I'm at work, I would probably be using Office, and if I don't have that or want a free option, I'd use Google Docs, for more easily sharing and collaborating with all the other people who use Google Docs and Office. Does anyone actually use these iWork apps?
    Things that take 1.5 seconds in Pages are a 3 day odyssey in Word... like importing a pdf or vector image with layers. 
    Agreed on this feature -- I often export my logos to PDF elements and then drag them into Keynote.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 28 of 54
    zimmiezimmie Posts: 651member
    joe28753 said:
    As the Apple fanboy I am, I keep trying to use Numbers or Pages, but they always feel like child's toys not meant for real work. If I'm at work, I would probably be using Office, and if I don't have that or want a free option, I'd use Google Docs, for more easily sharing and collaborating with all the other people who use Google Docs and Office. Does anyone actually use these iWork apps?
    I use Numbers for all of my lightweight tabular data (anything less than ~50k rows). Excel is okay from about 50k rows up to about 150k, but really starts to bog down above that. The tables of data I need to work with are almost always <200 rows or >20 million rows. Thus, I almost never use Excel. For processing lots of data, I tend to use either UNIX tools (grep, sort, uniq), certain programming languages (Perl, Python, R), or Mathematica.

    Every time I try to use Excel on Windows, I learn all over again that it only scrolls by whole cells by default. That's disgusting. How do people live like that? Google Sheets has the same utterly bizarre scrolling behavior.
    edited April 2017 watto_cobra
  • Reply 29 of 54
    trydtryd Posts: 143member
    I see people saying that Pages and Numbers don't have the functionality of Word and Excel, and that is correct. They don't have all the bells and whistles of Word and Excel, but I think that is just the point. They have the functionality that most people need, and that functionality is not hidden among lots of functionality that you don't use. I use Pages, Numbers and Keynote for most my work, and I am amazed of the complexity of Word, Excel and PowerPoint every time I have to use them. I have so far not missed any functionality in Pages, Numbers and Keynote. The way you can set up a canvas with many tables in Numbers is so much more natural than Excels strict and old-fashioned grid. The way you can play with lay-out in Pages and have everything flowing smoothly, even on old hardware, is just fun. And Keynote is just so much better than PowerPoint.

    I can see no reason for most users to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint instead of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. 
    edited April 2017 watto_cobra
  • Reply 30 of 54
    sumergosumergo Posts: 215member
    macxpress said:
    lmac said:
    I have an 8 core 2.8 Ghz Xeon processor Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, but Apple says I can't run 10.12, so I can't run any of the current versions of iWork apps.
    Apple has to draw a line in the sand somewhere...sorry! I'll be in the same boat soon I bet. I have a last gen tower Mid-2012 Mac Pro. 
    Sorry guys, but I must have missed something - you can't run Sierra on that hardware?

    I'm running 10.12.4 (and Pages/Numbers/Keynote) on a mid-2010 17 inch MacBook Pro with a two-core 2.66 i7 & 8 GB - I just loaded it up and it worked.

    ;-(
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 31 of 54
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    zoetmb said:

    ireland said:
    Should have been made free years ago.y 
    I always love this trope -- when Apple does something good, you can always count on someone to "But they should have done it sooner!"
    I'm not sure that "free" is always good.  It means that Apple has no incentive to improve these apps.    I'd rather pay $100, even $200, for a great suite of apps that are going to be consistently improved and supported than use crappy free apps.  

    When I started working primarily from home, I thought I would switch to Pages and Numbers, etc., but it hasn't worked out that way.   I never use them.  They're simply not as powerful as Office in spite of all the terrible things about Office.   Numbers does have that nice feature where you can overlay spreadsheets on top of each other that Office doesn't have, but it's lacking in almost every other respect.    Apple takes their obsession with Zen too far and they over-simplify the apps to such an extent that they're actually harder to use because of what they lack.   


    Being free means no incentive to improve does not apply to high tech world we are in now.  Wikipedia.com is free but it keeps improving. It is also free of ads unlike all the other web sites.  I think it also does not seem your personal info or browsing habits. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 32 of 54
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    sumergo said:
    macxpress said:
    lmac said:
    I have an 8 core 2.8 Ghz Xeon processor Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, but Apple says I can't run 10.12, so I can't run any of the current versions of iWork apps.
    Apple has to draw a line in the sand somewhere...sorry! I'll be in the same boat soon I bet. I have a last gen tower Mid-2012 Mac Pro. 
    Sorry guys, but I must have missed something - you can't run Sierra on that hardware?

    I'm running 10.12.4 (and Pages/Numbers/Keynote) on a mid-2010 17 inch MacBook Pro with a two-core 2.66 i7 & 8 GB - I just loaded it up and it worked.

    ;-(
    I agree with you, I have a mid 2010 MBP i7 15" I use occasionally and it runs the latest macOS, in fact even the developer betas, no problem.  Maybe the i7 has something to do with this? 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 33 of 54
    trydtryd Posts: 143member
    sumergo said:
    macxpress said:
    lmac said:
    I have an 8 core 2.8 Ghz Xeon processor Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, but Apple says I can't run 10.12, so I can't run any of the current versions of iWork apps.
    Apple has to draw a line in the sand somewhere...sorry! I'll be in the same boat soon I bet. I have a last gen tower Mid-2012 Mac Pro. 
    Sorry guys, but I must have missed something - you can't run Sierra on that hardware?

    I'm running 10.12.4 (and Pages/Numbers/Keynote) on a mid-2010 17 inch MacBook Pro with a two-core 2.66 i7 & 8 GB - I just loaded it up and it worked.

    ;-(
    Of course he can run Sierra on that hardware. He says "I'll be in the same boat soon I bet". Which means, to my maybe limited understanding of English, that in a couple of years his hardware will not be able to run the latest system. He'll be fine until 10.14 and maybe 10.15, but at some point his hardware will not be supported. My 2008 MacPro does not run Sierra. His 2012 Mac Pro will probably not be able to run 10.15 (or 10.16 or...)
    macxpresswatto_cobra
  • Reply 34 of 54
    sumergosumergo Posts: 215member
    MacPro said:
    sumergo said:
    macxpress said:
    lmac said:
    I have an 8 core 2.8 Ghz Xeon processor Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, but Apple says I can't run 10.12, so I can't run any of the current versions of iWork apps.
    Apple has to draw a line in the sand somewhere...sorry! I'll be in the same boat soon I bet. I have a last gen tower Mid-2012 Mac Pro. 
    Sorry guys, but I must have missed something - you can't run Sierra on that hardware?

    I'm running 10.12.4 (and Pages/Numbers/Keynote) on a mid-2010 17 inch MacBook Pro with a two-core 2.66 i7 & 8 GB - I just loaded it up and it worked.

    ;-(
    I agree with you, I have a mid 2010 MBP i7 15" I use occasionally and it runs the latest macOS, in fact even the developer betas, no problem.  Maybe the i7 has something to do with this? 
    I don't know enough about hardware to know if the i7 is the answer, but I confess I was happily surprised to be able to run the latest MacOS (and it's apps) on a trusted seven-year old machine - and run them effectively too.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 35 of 54
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Just for fun...

    The Apple Ringtone Ragtime:


    and

    The Windows Waltz (wait for the end):


  • Reply 36 of 54
    Thanks to this guy (http://dosdude1.com/sierrapatch.html), I'm running Sierra on a MacBook Pro 5,1 (late 2008).
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 37 of 54
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,623member

    ireland said:
    Should have been made free years ago.
    I always love this trope -- when Apple does something good, you can always count on someone to "But they should have done it sooner!"
    Well, if they had done it sooner you wouldn't have to put up with it. Ireland was right.

    I think they have done the right thing, nevertheless.

    That said, Apple has a very poor reputation with committing to software. They often manage to screw things up.

    I'd much prefer they had teams dedicated to certain applications far away from the mothership (aka Filemaker).
  • Reply 38 of 54
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Rayz2016 said:
    I would like to use Pages to write books, but they removed support for facing pages. I still use it for short projects, but once I get past four pages I reach for Mellel. 
    Oh, right, does iBooks Author support footnotes yet? Or, you know, has it received any updates of any sort in the last few YEARS? I really wanted it to be good, but…
  • Reply 39 of 54
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    MacPro said:
    sumergo said:
    macxpress said:
    lmac said:
    I have an 8 core 2.8 Ghz Xeon processor Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, but Apple says I can't run 10.12, so I can't run any of the current versions of iWork apps.
    Apple has to draw a line in the sand somewhere...sorry! I'll be in the same boat soon I bet. I have a last gen tower Mid-2012 Mac Pro. 
    Sorry guys, but I must have missed something - you can't run Sierra on that hardware?

    I'm running 10.12.4 (and Pages/Numbers/Keynote) on a mid-2010 17 inch MacBook Pro with a two-core 2.66 i7 & 8 GB - I just loaded it up and it worked.

    ;-(
    I agree with you, I have a mid 2010 MBP i7 15" I use occasionally and it runs the latest macOS, in fact even the developer betas, no problem.  Maybe the i7 has something to do with this? 
    Sierra officially left behind the 4,1 Mac Pro tower. Obviously, there are work-arounds, not the least of which is flashing the firmware so it pretends that it's a 5,1 -- but officially, it's gone.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 40 of 54
    sumergosumergo Posts: 215member
    tryd said:
    sumergo said:
    macxpress said:
    lmac said:
    I have an 8 core 2.8 Ghz Xeon processor Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, but Apple says I can't run 10.12, so I can't run any of the current versions of iWork apps.
    Apple has to draw a line in the sand somewhere...sorry! I'll be in the same boat soon I bet. I have a last gen tower Mid-2012 Mac Pro. 
    Sorry guys, but I must have missed something - you can't run Sierra on that hardware?

    I'm running 10.12.4 (and Pages/Numbers/Keynote) on a mid-2010 17 inch MacBook Pro with a two-core 2.66 i7 & 8 GB - I just loaded it up and it worked.

    ;-(
    Of course he can run Sierra on that hardware. He says "I'll be in the same boat soon I bet". Which means, to my maybe limited understanding of English, that in a couple of years his hardware will not be able to run the latest system. He'll be fine until 10.14 and maybe 10.15, but at some point his hardware will not be supported. My 2008 MacPro does not run Sierra. His 2012 Mac Pro will probably not be able to run 10.15 (or 10.16 or...)
    Thanks for the English Lesson.

    I was addressing LMAC's original point (I have an 8 core 2.8 Ghz Xeon processor Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, but Apple says I can't run 10.12, so I can't run any of the current versions of iWork apps) while alluding to the fact that macxpress felt that their time would run out soon on a 2012 model.  All this in the context of my geriatric 2010 MBP which runs the latest OS and apps without missing a beat.

    The conundrum we are discussing here is why can some hardware configs can run the latest MacOS & apps while others cannot.


    watto_cobra
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