Apple Discontinues Free Trials of Aperture and iWork

caligomez said:
At least Microsoft Office doesn't care what version you are on..
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Yes they do. For years, I had to select "save for Word 94-96" or something to that effect. Now, the newer words have completely changed the extension of the file to .docx. .docx files won't run on my older Microsoft word versions.
 
coltman75 said:
Yes they do. For years, I had to select "save for Word 94-96" or something to that effect. Now, the newer words have completely changed the extension of the file to .docx. .docx files won't run on my older Microsoft word versions.
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Well on Mac, perhaps.. (although I have not had any issues to note) But on my Windows machine, I have MS Office 2007 and can work with documents from any version. Same goes to what I create.. Any other version can work with it just fine..
 
caligomez said:
Well on Mac, perhaps.. (although I have not had any issues to note) But on my Windows machine, I have MS Office 2007 and can work with documents from any version. Same goes to what I create.. Any other version can work with it just fine..
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Yep, on Windows machines, too. You can't open anything made on Word 2007 doesn't write for anything before that.
 
Consumers don't want complicated and messy trials cluttering their Macs. They just want great software that is easy to use and setup. Consumers are already assured Apple makes the best software, and with the App Store there's no easier or more affordable way to put the most powerful applications such as Aperture and iWork suite to work.
 
coltman75 said:
Yes they do. For years, I had to select "save for Word 94-96" or something to that effect. Now, the newer words have completely changed the extension of the file to .docx. .docx files won't run on my older Microsoft word versions.
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Well, if you move from the 90's into the 2000's, the older versions have a simple downloadable patch that lets them open newer versions. I think it goes back to Office 2002. You have to manually go to the office site and download it. There are also conversion tools you can download that do the same thing if your version of office doesn't have patched support.

I learned ages ago, always save everything as .doc instead of .docx that you will need to share. There are still a lot of companies using old versions of Office.
 
coltman75 said:
Yep, on Windows machines, too. You can't open anything made on Word 2007 doesn't write for anything before that.
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I would imagine MS is MUCH more concerned about documents that you made years ago still working on their newest software, than documents you made on the newer version but than for some reason chose to open them with the older version RATHER than the new version you used to create them... :confused:

Also if you want, and I know this is killer, you can move your mouse down about 1/2 an inch and "Save as .doc"(earlier version), which works on every single version of office for the last 15 years.
 
Without supporting vertical alignment, iWork, especially Page, is totally useless for Asian consumers. I will continue use LaTeX right now for professional typography, which is decently supported on any UNIX platform. I use InDesign too, not daily though...
 
yg17 said:
I've used Office for as long as I can remember and have never gotten errors about it not being genuine. :rolleyes:
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Well, having paid $200 for Office Mac 2004 and regretting it later I wasn't about to pay for Office 2007 or Office Mac 2008
 
coltman75 said:
Yes they do. For years, I had to select "save for Word 94-96" or something to that effect. Now, the newer words have completely changed the extension of the file to .docx. .docx files won't run on my older Microsoft word versions.
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.docx will work on anything from at least office 2003 or newer. MS provided an update to allow office 03 and 04 to open, read and edit .docx files.
 
I really wish the App Stores had trials. I hate to be cynical, but I wonder if they don't want versions to have trial-to-buy functionality because it could nearly halve the number of apps they say they have in the store, with many being duplicates (a free/lite version and a paid version). The current model is certainly not intuitive, and having fewer apps would actually make the store easier to navigate. Right now it's like the WWW before Google indexed it.
 
Discontinuing free trials is a bad move in my opinion. Apple is pushing to be the leader in downloadable digital content. They might succeed!
 
This is too bad. I travel and give presentations, always with Keynote, and I always tell them where I’m presenting that I can use their Mac for my presentation, just so they have the trial version of Keynote on it, which doesn’t let you save or create presentations, but does let you show them. Getting rid of the trial version thus reduces some of the usability of the paid version. It’s a great program and people inevitably ask me what software I use after my presentations. Apple should let as many people get their hands on it as they can.
 
coltman75 said:
Yes they do. For years, I had to select "save for Word 94-96" or something to that effect. Now, the newer words have completely changed the extension of the file to .docx. .docx files won't run on my older Microsoft word versions.
Click to expand...

You can download a plug-in for free to open .docx in previous version.
 
I was afraid....

In fact this might be a signal. I saw what happened to FCP and I am very nervous about being an Aperture user. I still like Aperture very much but I can't trust them. I might have to get used to Lightroom or Capture One. They both have trials.
 
In the equivalent story on Appleinsider.com - Aperture's logo has changed to a sleeker, darker look. I guess that Aperture 4 will be here within the month !
 
Even at the incredible* $80 App Store price for Aperture, I would never have spent that much money on untested software.

I tried it through the free trial to make sure I wouldn't be wasting my money.


*Incredible compared to the $200 boxed version
 
While the lack of trials is bad, I feel like it's less like flash on iOS (a hard line they etched out) as it is more like copy and paste on iOS (something they'll do, but want to take their sweet time to make sure they do it perfectly).

So while I don't like the current state of affairs it doesn't particularly worry me all that much.

princigalli said:
In fact this might be a signal. I saw what happened to FCP and I am very nervous about being an Aperture user. I still like Aperture very much but I can't trust them. I might have to get used to Lightroom or Capture One. They both have trials.
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What "happened to FCP" is that they made it a hell of a lot more like Aperture.

So since you already like Aperture, I'm not sure what the problem is.
 
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