Updated iWork and GarageBand apps get refreshed design for Big Sur

AppleInsider

As part of Thursday's macOS Big Sur rollout, Apple has updated its iWork suite productivity apps and GarageBand with a fresh coat of paint.

Apple's Pages, Numbers, and Keynote have all been updated with new icons and a "refined" design for Big Sur, which launched today.

The updated productivity suite also includes stability and performance improvements.

GarageBand, Apple's consumer level digital audio workstation, also nets new iconography and a revamped user interface. In addition, the app has been tweaked to improve performance and efficiency on Mac computers powered by Apple silicon.

The GarageBand update also delivers customization of region colors in tracks, 1,800 new Apple Loops spanning a wide variety of genres, and more than 190 new instrument patches and 50 vintage and modern drum kits.

Apple earlier in the day updated Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to make ready for the release of M1 Macs.

cheesefreeze

Does anyone uses iWork apps outside a home setting? The apps are really nice but feel so limited without a proper team based / organization based service around it.
I mean - Google Suite is so much better for real world use with coworkers, it integrates with so many services that are individually so much more fulfilling what organizations need. Even Google calendar’s features are much better than Apple calendar.
It’s a shame because on an app level iWork apps are really polished and wonderful to use. 

edited November 2020

beats

CheeseFreeze said:

Does anyone uses iWork apps outside a home setting? The apps are really nice but feel so limited without a proper team based / organization based service around it.
I mean - Google Suite is so much better for real world use with coworkers, it integrates with so many services that are individually so much more fulfilling what organizations need. Even Google calendar’s features are much better than Apple calendar.
It’s a shame because on an app level iWork apps are really polished and wonderful to use. 

We used Pages to create labels for products.

litoloop

CheeseFreeze said:

Does anyone uses iWork apps outside a home setting? The apps are really nice but feel so limited without a proper team based / organization based service around it.
I mean - Google Suite is so much better for real world use with coworkers, it integrates with so many services that are individually so much more fulfilling what organizations need. Even Google calendar’s features are much better than Apple calendar.
It’s a shame because on an app level iWork apps are really polished and wonderful to use. 

it’s what i use for work. all three apps. works for me. 

dutchlord

Apple doesn’t want to be cross platform compatible therefore iWorks will remain a niche and a hobby.

wizard69

As I noted elsewhere iWork, Numbers especially, doesn't need a new set of cloths.    Numbers at least needs a more complete feature set, I've not had a lot of luck importing spread sheets.    I'm better off on Linux with the software supplied there.

spheric

I use iWork all the time exclusively for all work stuff, including some collaborative stuff, but I’m self-employed. 

apple_bar

ajl said:

It's nice that the App Store warns me with a badge that the update of GarageBand is available.

Unfortunately, the App Store forgets I'm on an iMac with macOS Catalina installed, forgets the iMac doesn't support Big Sur, and forgets the update of GarageBand requires macOS 11 Big Sur.

This is not the Apple experience I was accustomed to.

This is a Microsoft experience instead.

The OS is the one that needs to support the hardware not the other way around. 

Your iMac must be 2012 or 2013 then...

Because any iMac from 2014 is compatible with macOS Big Sur. 

Big Sur is not exclusively for M1 Macs. 

tht

CheeseFreeze said:

Does anyone uses iWork apps outside a home setting? The apps are really nice but feel so limited without a proper team based / organization based service around it.

I use Keynote for presentations. It's the best presentation slide/chart maker application imo.

riverko

Apple_Bar said:

ajl said:

It's nice that the App Store warns me with a badge that the update of GarageBand is available.

Unfortunately, the App Store forgets I'm on an iMac with macOS Catalina installed, forgets the iMac doesn't support Big Sur, and forgets the update of GarageBand requires macOS 11 Big Sur.

This is not the Apple experience I was accustomed to.

This is a Microsoft experience instead.

The OS is the one that needs to support the hardware not the other way around. 

Your iMac must be 2012 or 2013 then...

Because any iMac from 2014 is compatible with macOS Big Sur. 

Big Sur is not exclusively for M1 Macs. 

Well, the point is somewhere else... If we are on Mac OS version that is not supported for the latest version of Garage Band, it shouldn't show as there is an update... I think Mac App Store knows very well what OS version we are on... This is really "not Apple"...

jabohn

iMovie was updated too.

jabohn

riverko said:
Well, the point is somewhere else... If we are on Mac OS version that is not supported for the latest version of Garage Band, it shouldn't show as there is an update... I think Mac App Store knows very well what OS version we are on... This is really "not Apple"...

Agreed. Every time there is an update for macOS or iWork, my work computer tells me to upgrade even though the machine is too old.

dewme

ajl said:

It's nice that the App Store warns me with a badge that the update of GarageBand is available.

Unfortunately, the App Store forgets I'm on an iMac with macOS Catalina installed, forgets the iMac doesn't support Big Sur, and forgets the update of GarageBand requires macOS 11 Big Sur.

This is not the Apple experience I was accustomed to.

This is a Microsoft experience instead.

Same issue here. This annoyed me to the point that I uninstalled GarageBand from the incompatible Mac. This is an embarrassment for Apple, as are the Big Sur installation and upgrade failures, but Microsoft has set the Failure Bar so high that Apple would have to commit a hell of a lot more offenses to reach Microsoft’s level. Maybe if macOS got into an infinite spin when trying to shut down or restart they’d move a step closer. Something to shoot for ...

danvm

dewme said:

ajl said:

It's nice that the App Store warns me with a badge that the update of GarageBand is available.

Unfortunately, the App Store forgets I'm on an iMac with macOS Catalina installed, forgets the iMac doesn't support Big Sur, and forgets the update of GarageBand requires macOS 11 Big Sur.

This is not the Apple experience I was accustomed to.

This is a Microsoft experience instead.

Same issue here. This annoyed me to the point that I uninstalled GarageBand from the incompatible Mac. This is an embarrassment for Apple, as are the Big Sur installation and upgrade failures, but Microsoft has set the Failure Bar so high that Apple would have to commit a hell of a lot more offenses to reach Microsoft’s level. Maybe if macOS got into an infinite spin when trying to shut down or restart they’d move a step closer. Something to shoot for ...

It looks like it already happened,
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250716254
https://www.reddit.com/r/macsysadmin/comments/igi1eg/macbook_stuck_in_infinite_restart_loop/

So now can we say that macOS is as bad as Windows?  Or that Windows now is as good as macOS?

aegean

CheeseFreeze said:

Does anyone uses iWork apps outside a home setting? 

Yes, I use Numbers quite frequently for work. Since my organisation moved on to Office 365, it's been a pain, literally disaster in MS Office suite, to do anything in MS Office. I always find myself copying Excel files over to Numbers on my Mac and then export it back to Excel as mostly folks are using Excel. 

And I can do most of things in Numbers, its much more fun to use Numbers than Excel, imo. The more I use it more I discover smart/new ways to put the formulas in my spreadsheet. 

Another thing that I am noticing at work is that more folks are getting Mac notebooks and now they are offering new employees to pick their choice Mac or PC. I made a mistake when I started out, I chose Lenovo laptop as I heavily use Excel a lot. Like VBAs/macros and other advanced statistical analysis and thought I might not be able to do it on Mac as effectively. Even Excel on Mac is not as good as it's on PC but since Office 365, I am now seriously considering asking my manager to get me Mac =, and see how it goes.

edited November 2020

[deleted user]

Me and my (entrepreneur) mum have been using iWork for years now - not even thinking about switching back to that monstrous Office suite by M$. In fact I only use it at the office from time to time (pun intended) and don't fancy it much. iWork pretty much covers my needs.