They've not come up with a method of conversion for their own apps either, so I wouldn't be too worried.
This could be how they get started. iWork is seriously in need of an update at this point, do they really think people want to have 2 versions of the software on their machine? Seems like it could get messy quickly. What we really need is a proper Uninstaller (i.e, not LaunchPad), but that's a different story.
Really? Because all of my ePub files are one file. If you mean there are multiple 'files' contained within an ePub file, aren't all files like that?
An ePub is a zip file. In that sense, it's a single file. But inside is a hierarchy of files and folders. It's essentially a tiny web site with hyperlinked pages, plus several files with metadata. I wrote my own little program to take text files and massage them into ePubs. It's quite a little production. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what Apple can do to de-agonize the process.
Whatever this turns out to be, let's hope it's something that Apple will commit to continuous support and improvement, and not a pseudo-orphan like iAd, Ping, FaceTime, etc.
In spite of its legendary focus, Apple dabbles in quite a few products that it neglects in the event of less than immediate runaway success.
Hey Roger, never mind textbooks, how about an update to iWork. We're going into year 3 here.
My feelings exactly.
If they add this junk to Pages without doing some kind of significant update to the core software I'm going to be very upset.
How about giving us some basic control over styles for instance? How about giving us the ability to make new templates and manage styles without having to read a book on the UI machinations required to do so, or purchase templates from third parties for ridiculous sums of money? How about letting us see and edit the styles in iOS? How about some basic footnote support?
Pages for iOS is currently suffering from some terrible cursor positioning and highlighting bugs as well for that matter. The whole program is really embarrassingly unfinished.
... Apple dabbles in quite a few products that it neglects in the event of less than immediate runaway success.
This.
This is clearly Apple's giant Achilles heel and they never seem to do anything about it. This tendency to completely lose focus on products worries me more than almost any other aspect of the company. Especially now that they have so many customers.
Leaving Pages to languish as they have for instance, now means inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of users for a period of years, instead of just a few keeners as in the past.
The brutal truth however (and most will not agree as they have been deftly charmed by the snake instead of the other way around), is that Apple's software has really always been only 80% there on average.
They make excellent hardware and create excellent tools for software creation. They even have a lot of cool creative folks that often make very good software (in spurts). But historically they really aren't *that* good at software overall and while they care very much about the customers that buy their hardware, they have a very poor record of supporting their customers vis a vis software.
They really do just see software as a shiny bauble to sell the hardware for the most part.
The only thing I am hoping for out of this announcement is iBooks for Mac. But it's looking like we're going to see iWeb morph in to something for creating epub files.
An Apple upgrade to iWork would be useful, and to generate ePub3 nice. But, overall, not important.
Software for publishing is complex and varied. In no way can Apple be creating an application infrastructure for textbook publishing. Now, if the stage were to include reps from various companies whose software is used for the publishing workflow, I'd say something really big was in the offing.
Whatever is going to be said tomorrow will be of some interest but not revolutionary.
Whatever this turns out to be, let's hope it's something that Apple will commit to continuous support and improvement, and not a pseudo-orphan like iAd, Ping, FaceTime, etc.
In spite of its legendary focus, Apple dabbles in quite a few products that it neglects in the event of less than immediate runaway success.
I agree with what you're saying- but I might be clueless about FaceTime. Why is that bad? I've had no problems and it's so simple my 70 yr old dad can do it regularly.
I agree with what you're saying- but I might be clueless about FaceTime. Why is that bad? I've had no problems and it's so simple my 70 yr old dad can do it regularly.
They've focused on FaceTime more than once in their ads, too. Although I personally see it a gimmick feature it surely looks successful.
Gawddammit Steve should be there at the announcement! And the iPad3 one! ARHGHGHGHGHGHG But I guess right now he's showing Buddha how to use an iPadX I guess... *sniff*
This is clearly Apple's giant Achilles heel and they never seem to do anything about it. This tendency to completely lose focus on products worries me more than almost any other aspect of the company. Especially now that they have so many customers.
Leaving Pages to languish as they have for instance, now means inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of users for a period of years, instead of just a few keeners as in the past.
The brutal truth however (and most will not agree as they have been deftly charmed by the snake instead of the other way around), is that Apple's software has really always been only 80% there on average.
They make excellent hardware and create excellent tools for software creation. They even have a lot of cool creative folks that often make very good software (in spurts). But historically they really aren't *that* good at software overall and while they care very much about the customers that buy their hardware, they have a very poor record of supporting their customers vis a vis software.
They really do just see software as a shiny bauble to sell the hardware for the most part.
Doesn't MS release a new WORD every 3-5 years - there's not a whole lot you can do with a word processor. I've written scores of papers, leters, a thesis, etc. on Pages and never found it lacking - what does it need to make it half-way decent?
They've focused on FaceTime more than once in their ads, too. Although I personally see it a gimmick feature it surely looks successful.
I don't see it as a gimmick at all. One could just download and then open Skype (or Tango, Fring, etc.), sign up for an account, verify it through your e-mail, then make it save your password (if you can?) in the app. But why go through all that when all you need to do is call. Call via Mac iPad iPod touch or iPhone. Its great. 1 button- thats it. That's why my dad can use it. Skype would be a chore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelsalt
Doesn't MS release a new WORD every 3-5 years - there's not a whole lot you can do with a word processor. I've written scores of papers, leters, a thesis, etc. on Pages and never found it lacking - what does it need to make it half-way decent?
I tend to agree here. A Word processor is a word processor. Tweaks are all the current Pages need. Not a completely new one. More importantly, I like Word less and less because of all the features (albeit more) that are hidden and you have to dig to find.
Doesn't MS release a new WORD every 3-5 years - there's not a whole lot you can do with a word processor. I've written scores of papers, leters, a thesis, etc. on Pages and never found it lacking - what does it need to make it half-way decent?
I actually just use Open Office whenever I need Word compatibility. For my own simple spreadsheets, Numbers.
For presentations, the day I go back to PowerPoint from Keynote will be indeed tragic.
The problem is also corporate culture. I cannot imagine, why to date no one has made a good enough replacement for Word documents. In the corporate world, anything that needs to be typed up is done in Word, which is like using a chainsaw to cut a cucumber.
Google Docs comes close but it requires a persistent connection from what I've used so far.
Pages would be great if it can interchange documents with Word, but then again, why would it need to.
Keynote would be great for Windows users.
MSOffice is just a bloated mess. Pivot tables I hear are the major relevant use of MSOffice, everything else, is just bloat, bloat, bloat.
In fact, for quick and easy layout with several pictures for 1 or 2 page documents, signs, brochures, etc. I find nothing beats Keynote, not even Pages.
Pages is burdened by their paragraph and style system, which, while good for extended writing, is slightly annoying for just throwing text and images wherever you want it. I find Keynote can do that well.
Numbers is good once you have the concept of "tables as objects" in a particular numbers "sheet"... Also excellent for quick layout next to your calculations.
Again, Apple is ahead of the curve, but people need to catch up and be trained appropriately.
Windows and MSOffice is a common drug, plain and simple. It's easily accessible, addictive, and no one thinks twice about using it.
Comments
They've not come up with a method of conversion for their own apps either, so I wouldn't be too worried.
This could be how they get started. iWork is seriously in need of an update at this point, do they really think people want to have 2 versions of the software on their machine? Seems like it could get messy quickly. What we really need is a proper Uninstaller (i.e, not LaunchPad), but that's a different story.
I think you guessed that I feel Pages is not the ideal ePub authoring environment. You would be correct.
I agree. However, at this point I'd take it.
Really? Because all of my ePub files are one file. If you mean there are multiple 'files' contained within an ePub file, aren't all files like that?
An ePub is a zip file. In that sense, it's a single file. But inside is a hierarchy of files and folders. It's essentially a tiny web site with hyperlinked pages, plus several files with metadata. I wrote my own little program to take text files and massage them into ePubs. It's quite a little production. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what Apple can do to de-agonize the process.
In spite of its legendary focus, Apple dabbles in quite a few products that it neglects in the event of less than immediate runaway success.
Hey Roger, never mind textbooks, how about an update to iWork. We're going into year 3 here.
My feelings exactly.
If they add this junk to Pages without doing some kind of significant update to the core software I'm going to be very upset.
How about giving us some basic control over styles for instance? How about giving us the ability to make new templates and manage styles without having to read a book on the UI machinations required to do so, or purchase templates from third parties for ridiculous sums of money? How about letting us see and edit the styles in iOS? How about some basic footnote support?
Pages for iOS is currently suffering from some terrible cursor positioning and highlighting bugs as well for that matter. The whole program is really embarrassingly unfinished.
... Apple dabbles in quite a few products that it neglects in the event of less than immediate runaway success.
This.
This is clearly Apple's giant Achilles heel and they never seem to do anything about it. This tendency to completely lose focus on products worries me more than almost any other aspect of the company. Especially now that they have so many customers.
Leaving Pages to languish as they have for instance, now means inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of users for a period of years, instead of just a few keeners as in the past.
The brutal truth however (and most will not agree as they have been deftly charmed by the snake instead of the other way around), is that Apple's software has really always been only 80% there on average.
They make excellent hardware and create excellent tools for software creation. They even have a lot of cool creative folks that often make very good software (in spurts). But historically they really aren't *that* good at software overall and while they care very much about the customers that buy their hardware, they have a very poor record of supporting their customers vis a vis software.
They really do just see software as a shiny bauble to sell the hardware for the most part.
Software for publishing is complex and varied. In no way can Apple be creating an application infrastructure for textbook publishing. Now, if the stage were to include reps from various companies whose software is used for the publishing workflow, I'd say something really big was in the offing.
Whatever is going to be said tomorrow will be of some interest but not revolutionary.
Whatever this turns out to be, let's hope it's something that Apple will commit to continuous support and improvement, and not a pseudo-orphan like iAd, Ping, FaceTime, etc.
In spite of its legendary focus, Apple dabbles in quite a few products that it neglects in the event of less than immediate runaway success.
I agree with what you're saying- but I might be clueless about FaceTime. Why is that bad? I've had no problems and it's so simple my 70 yr old dad can do it regularly.
I agree with what you're saying- but I might be clueless about FaceTime. Why is that bad? I've had no problems and it's so simple my 70 yr old dad can do it regularly.
They've focused on FaceTime more than once in their ads, too. Although I personally see it a gimmick feature it surely looks successful.
This.
This is clearly Apple's giant Achilles heel and they never seem to do anything about it. This tendency to completely lose focus on products worries me more than almost any other aspect of the company. Especially now that they have so many customers.
Leaving Pages to languish as they have for instance, now means inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of users for a period of years, instead of just a few keeners as in the past.
The brutal truth however (and most will not agree as they have been deftly charmed by the snake instead of the other way around), is that Apple's software has really always been only 80% there on average.
They make excellent hardware and create excellent tools for software creation. They even have a lot of cool creative folks that often make very good software (in spurts). But historically they really aren't *that* good at software overall and while they care very much about the customers that buy their hardware, they have a very poor record of supporting their customers vis a vis software.
They really do just see software as a shiny bauble to sell the hardware for the most part.
Doesn't MS release a new WORD every 3-5 years - there's not a whole lot you can do with a word processor. I've written scores of papers, leters, a thesis, etc. on Pages and never found it lacking - what does it need to make it half-way decent?
They've focused on FaceTime more than once in their ads, too. Although I personally see it a gimmick feature it surely looks successful.
I don't see it as a gimmick at all. One could just download and then open Skype (or Tango, Fring, etc.), sign up for an account, verify it through your e-mail, then make it save your password (if you can?) in the app. But why go through all that when all you need to do is call. Call via Mac iPad iPod touch or iPhone. Its great. 1 button- thats it. That's why my dad can use it. Skype would be a chore.
Doesn't MS release a new WORD every 3-5 years - there's not a whole lot you can do with a word processor. I've written scores of papers, leters, a thesis, etc. on Pages and never found it lacking - what does it need to make it half-way decent?
I tend to agree here. A Word processor is a word processor. Tweaks are all the current Pages need. Not a completely new one. More importantly, I like Word less and less because of all the features (albeit more) that are hidden and you have to dig to find.
Doesn't MS release a new WORD every 3-5 years - there's not a whole lot you can do with a word processor. I've written scores of papers, leters, a thesis, etc. on Pages and never found it lacking - what does it need to make it half-way decent?
I actually just use Open Office whenever I need Word compatibility. For my own simple spreadsheets, Numbers.
For presentations, the day I go back to PowerPoint from Keynote will be indeed tragic.
The problem is also corporate culture. I cannot imagine, why to date no one has made a good enough replacement for Word documents. In the corporate world, anything that needs to be typed up is done in Word, which is like using a chainsaw to cut a cucumber.
Google Docs comes close but it requires a persistent connection from what I've used so far.
Pages would be great if it can interchange documents with Word, but then again, why would it need to.
Keynote would be great for Windows users.
MSOffice is just a bloated mess. Pivot tables I hear are the major relevant use of MSOffice, everything else, is just bloat, bloat, bloat.
In fact, for quick and easy layout with several pictures for 1 or 2 page documents, signs, brochures, etc. I find nothing beats Keynote, not even Pages.
Pages is burdened by their paragraph and style system, which, while good for extended writing, is slightly annoying for just throwing text and images wherever you want it. I find Keynote can do that well.
Numbers is good once you have the concept of "tables as objects" in a particular numbers "sheet"... Also excellent for quick layout next to your calculations.
Again, Apple is ahead of the curve, but people need to catch up and be trained appropriately.
Windows and MSOffice is a common drug, plain and simple. It's easily accessible, addictive, and no one thinks twice about using it.