Briefly: Amazon's witty discretion on iWork '07 and iLife '07

[AppleInsider]

Online retailer Amazon.com is no longer listing Apple Computer's forthcoming iLife and iWork software suite upgrades on its website by name, but has alternatively drawn a chuckle or two.

The largest internet retailer on Wednesday turned up listings for four yet-to-be-announced Apple software products. Those products were iLife '07 and iWork '07, each of which was available in two versions -- a "Single User License" or a "Family Pack."

Apple, which attempts to keep a tight lid on even the most blatant of matters, appears to have disapproved.

As of Thursday evening, Amazon, rather amusingly, had renamed the four software listings to: Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #1, Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #2, Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #3, and Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #4.

Since introducing iLife at Macworld in 2003, Apple has used each consecutive Macworld to introduce new versions of the digital lifestyle suite, which includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb applications.

In 2005, Apple unveiled iWork, a similar suite of software that includes productivity applications Pages and Keynote.

Next week's Macworld Expo is expected to play out no differently, producing updates to both iLife and iWork while possibly tossing a new spreadsheet application into the latter as well.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[SpamSandwich]

Hilarious! I love it.

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Next week's Macworld Expo is expected to play out no differently...

I'm willing to bet Apple bundles iWork '07 and iLife '07 into Leoaprd. People will have no choice but to upgrade, and it will also be absolutely brilliant value. So Apple wins by getting everyone on the same platform, and the customers win, by getting the deal of the millennia!!
/I hope to God I right on this one, and I hope to God Steve didn't mislead us with that "complete package" statement, cause the way I see it, without both iLife '07 and iWork '07 included he has no right calling it the complete package!

[Kickaha]

You know, I've seen you and others make that claim about what 'the complete package' means, and I've never bought it. To me, it simply means 'we provide complete solutions for the user to choose from', not 'we provide ONE FREAKING BIG BOX WITH EVERYTHING IN IT'.

Maybe you're right, but I really doubt it. Try not to get your hopes up too high, 'k? Post-MWSF is bad enough in the emergency depression triage around here without tossing around words like 'mislead'.

[nathan22t]

cute.

[Slewis]

As of Thursday evening, Amazon, rather amusingly, had renamed the four software listings to: Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #1, Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #2, Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #3, and Apple MacWorld 2007 Announcement #4.

4 Announcements?
It seems Amazon knows more then they were letting on...

Sebastian

[freeny]

I laughed out loud reading this! seriously! and not in acronym form

[rongold]

Originally Posted by Ireland

I'm willing to bet Apple bundles iWork '07 and iLife '07 into Leoaprd. People will have no choice but to upgrade, and it will also be absolutely brilliant value. So Apple wins by getting everyone on the same platform, and the customers win, by getting the deal of the millennia!!
/I hope to God I right on this one, and I hope to God Steve didn't mislead us with that "complete package" statement, cause the way I see it, without both iLife '07 and iWork '07 included he has no right calling it the complete package!

If everybody thinks Apple is to release the new version of iLife/iWork during MWSF, how will they bundle it with Leopard? Do you think Leopard will be released 4 days from now?

On a side note, I personally think the iLife bundles will not be released until a bit after MWSF. Steve may demo the apps during MWSF keynote but it is looking to me like they will be shipping later on. Later on meaning more inline with the actual ship date of Leopard... and no, that doesn't mean it will be included with Leopard.

[TednDi]

doesn't this happen every year?

[BWhaler]

4? Four?

OK, iwork and ilife are two of them?

What are the other 2?

Surely they have no idea. But it is interesting nonetheless...

[Shookster]

Could including iLife and iWork as part of the OS be seen as anti-competitive? MS had to offer versions of Windows without Windows Media Player in Europe because of that.

[halo1982]

Originally Posted by BWhaler

4? Four?

OK, iwork and ilife are two of them?

What are the other 2?

Surely they have no idea. But it is interesting nonetheless...

Not really interesting...they're for the family packs. Read the original AI article.

[aplnub]

Originally Posted by rongold

If everybody thinks Apple is to release the new version of iLife/iWork during MWSF, how will they bundle it with Leopard? Do you think Leopard will be released 4 days from now?

On a side note, I personally think the iLife bundles will not be released until a bit after MWSF. Steve may demo the apps during MWSF keynote but it is looking to me like they will be shipping later on. Later on meaning more inline with the actual ship date of Leopard... and no, that doesn't mean it will be included with Leopard.

I hope not. I am hoping for a few enhancements in Keynote for a Jan 19 presentation submittal deadline. There are some rumors flying around that they will make some improvements on sounds and slides. I am crossing my fingers.

[solipsism]

They also list a .Mac 2007, which should be .Mac 05 if Apple follows suit from the previous offerings. I suspect that Apple has big plans for .Mac in 2007.

[LINK REMOVED FROM AMAZON]

I've posted this on several forums since this Amazon announcement came out 2 days ago, and I've absolutely no one has taken notice. I think it's more newsworthy than the soon to be released iLife and iWork which we all know is coming next week.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by rongold

If everybody thinks Apple is to release the new version of iLife/iWork during MWSF, how will they bundle it with Leopard? Do you think Leopard will be released 4 days from now?

On a side note, I personally think the iLife bundles will not be released until a bit after MWSF. Steve may demo the apps during MWSF keynote but it is looking to me like they will be shipping later on. Later on meaning more inline with the actual ship date of Leopard... and no, that doesn't mean it will be included with Leopard.

I suspect they will keep doing what they've been doing. They'll bundle it with new Macs. However, iWork will be a fully functional, trial version.

[demenas]

Originally Posted by BWhaler

4? Four?

OK, iwork and ilife are two of them?

What are the other 2?

There were single and family pack listings for each, thus 4 listings total.

Steve

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by aplnub

I hope not. I am hoping for a few enhancements in Keynote for a Jan 19 presentation submittal deadline. There are some rumors flying around that they will make some improvements on sounds and slides. I am crossing my fingers.

If history repeats itself though, you'd be better off waiting for for the .01 release following a couple of weeks after the first release as there's some glaring bug or they've forgotten some important feature - like deleting pages in Pages v1. Doh!

Hopefully I'm wrong this time though. Pages v2 and Keynote v3 have been remarkably stable for me. I'm really looking forward to a proper spreadsheet program though so I can finally pension off Excel and with that the whole of MS Office.

[aegisdesign]

And ThinkSecret is alleging the Spreadsheet application WILL ship and includes a screenshot.

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0701iwork.html

The screenshot looks a little basic to me. There's no function inspector or function toolbar showing so it's difficult to tell how entering functions is done. I'd guess it'd be the Apple way using an inspector rather than the Microsoft/Lotus way of having a function entryfield in the toolbar, so get ready to buy that huge screen for all the floating inspectors. That will probably annoy switchers from MS Office just as many can't get their simple little heads around inspectors, simple toolbars and drag and drop in the Word to Pages switch.

[BenRoethig]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

And ThinkSecret is alleging the Spreadsheet application WILL ship and includes a screenshot.

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0701iwork.html

The screenshot looks a little basic to me. There's no function inspector or function toolbar showing so it's difficult to tell how entering functions is done. I'd guess it'd be the Apple way using an inspector rather than the Microsoft/Lotus way of having a function entryfield in the toolbar, so get ready to buy that huge screen for all the floating inspectors. That will probably annoy switchers from MS Office just as many can't get their simple little heads around inspectors, simple toolbars and drag and drop in the Word to Pages switch.

It's no less basic than Pages. Remember, this is a consumer oriented suite (ala Appleworks and MS Works), not a professional one like office.

[jasenj1]

I wouldn't be surprised to see a Leopard only iWork and iLife. According to here there are significant improvements in Objective-C 2.0, and many new APIs & libraries available in Leopard. I would expect Apple's internally developed software to take the best advantage of those improvements.

But if they do go 10.5 only, then 10.5 had best be released. Otherwise MacWorld turns into a big "in a few months..." and Apple doesn't do that.

- Jasen.

[jamezog]

Brilliant.

[troberts]

Originally Posted by jasenj1

I wouldn't be surprised to see a Leopard only iWork and iLife. According to here there are significant improvements in Objective-C 2.0, and many new APIs & libraries available in Leopard. I would expect Apple's internally developed software to take the best advantage of those improvements.

But if they do go 10.5 only, then 10.5 had best be released. Otherwise MacWorld turns into a big "in a few months..." and Apple doesn't do that.

- Jasen.

I think iLife '07 and iWork '07 will be the last versions that will run on 10.3.9 because this time next year Leopard will be out and this will allow Apple to incorporate Spotlight into the core of the applications. If Apple really wanted to push Leopard then I can see the iLife and iWork apps being reworked to support plugins. This would be a win-win situation for everyone because Apple can focus on the core of the applications and 3rd party developers can flesh them out.

[Celemourn]

iWork = meh. I'm still gonna pick up a copy of AppleWorks, even though it's getting discontinued. When I switched to windows a few years back, the one thing that I missed most of all was Claris Works. Having the fully integrated suite is just damn convenient. I've never really had a need for Office level aps. They are too big and bloated, and take too much work just to figure out something simple (like the slope and y intercept values for a trendline in excell) that should be RIGHT THERE. The integrated suite is just better. I'll switch over to iWork when Apple finishes putting all the capabilities of AppleWorks into it.

Of course, now I'm reminded of Grandpa Simpson: "BITCH BITCH BITCH!!!"

[blue2kdave]

Links are dead now...

[Louzer]

Links don't work anymore. Sad....

[Kickaha]

Celemourn: How is an 'integrated suite' better than independent apps?

[willrob]

Would AppleWorks even run in Leopard?

[Lemon Bon Bon.]

...Apple will have their Apple 'works' soon enough.

They have FileMaker as well. How hard can it be to destroy M$'s 'Word' hedgemoney.

Seeing as they hired 3 ex-Claris guys sometime ago...I'm guessing they have a 'pro' suite ready to go as soon as M$ pulls the plug in five years time.

The pattern is that they have pro' versions of all iapps? Makes sense an Office killer is in the wings...while they work Adobe Photoshop over with Aperture.

Lemon Bon Bon

[Celemourn]

Originally Posted by Kickaha

Celemourn: How is an 'integrated suite' better than independent apps?

Convenience. One of the things that I've found most appealing about Claris, and I presume AppleWorks, is that it's really really easy to insert drawing or spreadsheet or database content into a document. Also, you only have to open one application, which saves load time (very goood for those of us with ADD). Primarily, though, it just has everything that I need, and in the right ammount. I have no need for separate apps. I've never used the full functionality of ANY of the Office programs. Not even close. Having it all in ONE place, and one STABLE place at that, is just really really nice. I'm not Fu-Fu, I just have never needed the 16 tons worth of bells and whistles that come in Office, and I really do like being able to generate a new text document with just two clicks (well, ok, four, technically). I've made much more use of WordPad on windows than I have of Word, because it opens fast, and gets me straight into what I need. Integrated suite suits my needs.

I hold no illusions that separate aps aren't better for some. For me though, meh.

[audiopollution]

Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon.

The pattern is that they have pro' versions of all iapps? Makes sense an Office killer is in the wings...while they work Adobe Photoshop over with Aperture.

Aperture has a lot of features to gain, before that's even a remotely reasonable comparison.

[mjstaceyuofm]

perhaps MS has also realized how overboard their office apps can be.... I thought I read that Office 2007 for the Mac would also be coming out this year too.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15893060/site/newsweek/

[Louzer]

Originally Posted by Kickaha

Celemourn: How is an 'integrated suite' better than independent apps?

Well, the way I read the comment wasn't so much about 'an integrated suite' as it was about that 'integrated suite' (hence the comment "I'll switch to iWork when it gets all the features of Appleworks"). Appleworks is still a very fine program that still blows away iWork in terms of features and capabilities. iWork has 'pretty', but beyond that....

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by BenRoethig

It's no less basic than Pages. Remember, this is a consumer oriented suite (ala Appleworks and MS Works), not a professional one like office.

Since both Pages and Keynote do things you simply can't do at all or can't do easily in Word or Powerpoint, never mind Appleworks, that distinction is kind of silly. Apple don't make it, just people who don't actually use iWork professionally.

Sure, Office does some things that iWork doesn't but It's early days still and Apple are closing the gap rapidly and Microsoft seem to be making the target easier to hit by removing functionality. Not every business needs the full Office features either. I don't. It runs my business just fine, except for spreadsheets, which I personally have little need for since I use MYOB for my accounting. The only time I use spreadsheets is importing/exporting SQL data.

[jvb]

Originally Posted by mjstaceyuofm

perhaps MS has also realized how overboard their office apps can be.... I thought I read that Office 2007 for the Mac would also be coming out this year too.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15893060/site/newsweek/

That would be really nice if Office 2007 for Mac came out this year. Right around Leopard's release!

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon.

How hard can it be to destroy M$'s 'Word' hedgemoney.

Very hard.

It's not the program they have to destroy, it's the near ubiquitous use of MS .DOC format files in businesses and the presumption that everybody has a copy of Word. Same goes for .XLS, .PPT and to a lesser extent Access files.

And it's about to get harder again with MS switching to their new XML based office format which even the MacBU were estimating would take them multiple person years to support.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by Louzer

Appleworks is still a very fine program that still blows away iWork in terms of features and capabilities. iWork has 'pretty', but beyond that....

In what way does AppleWorks 'blow away' iWork? That's a fairly sweeping statement.

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Celemourn

I hold no illusions that separate aps aren't better for some. For me though, meh.

We'll have to agree to disagree then. With solid, ubiquitous drag and drop, I prefer to choose my own apps for creating specialized content, and then just merge it into whatever final document form makes sense. I've yet to use an 'integrated suite' (Office, OpenOffice, AppleWorks, ClarisWorks, etc) that didn't feel hobbled and like a closed ecosystem. You get the features that *one* app developer thought were necessary, regardless of what you actually need. And no, that's not an appeal for *more* features, it's an appeal for the *right* features. The 'drawing' tools in Keynote are very primitive... and that's *fine* with me. PowerPoint's richer drawing tools still don't meet my needs, but OmniGraffle is *perfect*. Since I can drag an OG drawing right over to Keynote, I'm happy. *shrug*

[Louzer]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

In what way does AppleWorks 'blow away' iWork? That's a fairly sweeping statement.

Well, we could look at it in terms of apps, then its fairly easy. iWork has no spreadsheet functionality. It has no database functionality. Can't say that I've used Keynote, but its geared more towards presentations then drawing (whether line-based or 'artistic').

While Pages may be a good 'start' for a Word processor, the truth is that its more geared as a Page Layout program then a Word replacement. Its not really geared for the student writing the term paper/thesis. And the simple integration of several different types of editing (esp. spreadsheet/drawing/word processing) just doesn't come easy for the non-integrated software.

But let's be serious here. Appleworks (nee Clarisworks) was developed over a period of 10 years or so (I got Clarisworks 2.0 free when I bought my Classic II). iWork is a 'start-from-scratch' new program. Why they felt they needed to start from scratch is beyond the thought processes of most users, because it leads to the "yeah, but where's all the useful features of xxx", but its what they chose to do. (On another note, how is anyone supposed to make a decision on whether the software might be a worthwhile investment if they don't know the direction Apple is going with it - are they trying to make it more of an office app, or just kind of like it is. Are they planning a spreadsheet or not. What else is coming up? Their secrecy doesn't help let users make educated decisions.

However, I hate it when people try to use that as an excuse. Aegisdesign says "but It's early days still and Apple are closing the gap rapidly". That's nice. How soon will they close the gap, though? Should we just sit and wait, hoping apple fills all the holes people see in the product? And what's your definition of 'rapidly', as I see updates to this software coming at most once a year (until Apple decides they're tired of it and trash it without so much as a 'sorry, folks', like they have a tendancy to do with stuff).

[Flounder]

Who else here remembers MacWrite and MacPaint, the ancestors of Claris/appleworks?

I impressed the hell out of my teachers in 5ht/6th grade using those two.

Ahh, for the days of making something in Paint, putting in on the clipboard, ejecting the disk putting in the MacWrite disk!

[Celemourn]

Originally Posted by Kickaha

We'll have to agree to disagree then. With solid, ubiquitous drag and drop, I prefer to choose my own apps for creating specialized content, and then just merge it into whatever final document form makes sense. I've yet to use an 'integrated suite' (Office, OpenOffice, AppleWorks, ClarisWorks, etc) that didn't feel hobbled and like a closed ecosystem. You get the features that *one* app developer thought were necessary, regardless of what you actually need. And no, that's not an appeal for *more* features, it's an appeal for the *right* features. The 'drawing' tools in Keynote are very primitive... and that's *fine* with me. PowerPoint's richer drawing tools still don't meet my needs, but OmniGraffle is *perfect*. Since I can drag an OG drawing right over to Keynote, I'm happy. *shrug*

and Appleworks is $30, rather than $300.