Apple Continues Building iWork Team, Adds New Job Listings

It's been over four years since the last major update. Why has apple not updated iWork in such a long time?

I'm not sure if the suggestion is that the current version isn't Retina-enabled, but it is, both on iOS and Mac. Still, that's not to say they've received any other substantive upgrades. I don't have Pages on my Mac at the moment, but the last time I did, it still had buttons for the defunct iWork.com, and Keynote, the last time I used it, was suffering from a number of QuickTime export bugs.

My only wish for the next version is full compatibility across ios/osx.

I would like to see them get into the game with this if office is going cloud in the future.......unless of course they will be taking this cloud.

MacRumors said:

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Apple is currently hiring a number of employees for its iWork team, including three QA software engineers, a Production Specialist, a Technical Production Ninja, a Verification Engineer, and a Visual Motion Designer.

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Ninjas? Awesome!

so iWork is not abandonware after all? hmm... Apple should make up their mind.

-LikesMac- said:

It's been over four years since the last major update. Why has apple not updated iWork in such a long time?

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Likely because they want feature parity between the Mac, iPad, and iPhone versions for the iCloud syncing. There has been a lot progress made toward that in the latest iOS releases. The mobile apps are really good already. Just need to make sure all features carry across no matter what computer or device the file is opened in.

iWork '09 is already retina, isn't it? In the resources folder of the bundles all of the assets have @2x variations so I assumed it was...

There's a middle ground here between no updates, and MS Office's updates for the sake of it. I prefer not cluttering a good thing with unneeded features just to look like you're doing something.

That said, there are a few things that need attention.

First, foremost, and almost exclusively: Numbers. All of it. It's dog slow, awkward to use, and the graphing abilities are disappointing.

It would be nice if Keynote presentations could be viewed over Webex. Improvements to the animation editor would be welcome as well.

Pages: image captions and better support for reference labels. Also, it would be nice if I could set a timestamp to update each time the document is saved rather than each time it's opened.

3 words:

Better. Office. Compatibility.

Apple Losing Aggressive Edge Without Jobs

I fear that since Steve Jobs passed away, Apple has gone back to what it did when Steve Jobs left the first time (1985-1997). Essentially, the company is mired in a deep sleep. And I say this as a HUGE Apple fan (I ONLY buy Apple). There is no reason that iWork should have to endure this long of an update. With all the BILLIONS of dollars that Apple has on hand, they should be purchasing FAR more patents and startups than they have in recent years. Instead, I'm watching as Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung all make these major acquisitions --- and with far less cash than Apple. The MacPro hasn't been updated in YEARS ... the iphone hasn't had a major software update basically ever ... the company killed the 17" MBP for high end users... and they can't even get their campus built. I just don't know what this company is waiting for. It seems that with all the money they have on hand ... perhaps their priorities are lacking.

Dare I say it ... Time for a new CEO? IMO, the CEO of Apple should be operating as if this is Apple's last week on earth (even though they might be at or near the top, they shouldn't think like that). There is no sense of urgency with this company anymore. When Jobs was running the show ... it was like watching someone with ADHD throwing out one idea after another. Now we just get better cameras and faster processors.

Hopefully they improve the interface and dont cluster**** the inspector so hard

'Technical Production Ninja' - best job title ever

I just updated my rèsumè with Pages the other day, and Numbers tends to be especially useful around tax time. Yes, updates are always… well, usually good, but I think these are great programs even as they are now. A wonderful value for the price.

-LikesMac- said:

It's been over four years since the last major update. Why has apple not updated iWork in such a long time?

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Clearly because the iWork team has been working on the iPad then iPhone version of iWork since 2009.

thundersteele said:

Ninjas? Awesome!

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Who wouldn't kill to be a Ninja?

Hire me and I'll cut the work in half with my invisible Ninja Sword.

A good sign that Office is becoming less relevant

I have switched to office but hope they can win me back. I like the App Store licensing model. Also who wants to subscribe to office 365?

-LikesMac- said:

It's been over four years since the last major update. Why has apple not updated iWork in such a long time?

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They've been busy developing the iOS side of iWork (and any OS X updates are for iOS features), just as the iOS versions of iLife '11 (aside from iTunes of course). Apple has been hard at work with iOS development, even in OS X. As for the Mac [cue taps].

I really miss iWeb and iDVD updates. For the life of me I don't know why Apple removed web hosting as part of MobileMe before the iCloud transition. I would have paid had Apple kept up keychain and improved iDisk and web hosting. Free accounts are a good way to market their hardware, that is when they're functioning.

iWork needs to support collaboration - bare-bones document sharing between people, at a minimum. Sharing with myself across devices is great; but right now sharing with a friend or co-worker means "mail it to them". I was using that method of collaboration in the early 1990s.

About time. I am using Keynote for all my presentations and will not move back to PP.

thundersteele said:

Ninjas? Awesome!

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When a Ninja works for Apple... he is no ordinary Ninja.

He becomes... THE FRUIT NINJA!

Awesome. I love iWork and can't wait to see what's next.

(And fix the wonky icloud implementation, please. true sync in real time, just as you demo'd)