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iLife '05 and iWork '05
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autrefois
macrumors 65816
I'm very happy with both iLife and iWork. Both very reasonably priced in my opinion. It seems Apple went out of its way this time to offer both hardware and software that would appeal to lower budgets without sacrificing Apple quality. Not that long ago, Appleworks was selling for $99, and Keynote for the same amount, if I remember correctly. Now you get both Keynote and a much better "Appleworks" TOGETHER for less than that.
I can't wait to get my hands on the new Garageband, and see what iWork is like. I'm surprised no one has complained yet that iWork is only available on DVD. Have enough people moved over to machines that have Combo or Superdrives that this is no longer a major issue?
I can't wait to get my hands on the new Garageband, and see what iWork is like. I'm surprised no one has complained yet that iWork is only available on DVD. Have enough people moved over to machines that have Combo or Superdrives that this is no longer a major issue?
It's a tough call but I think that I will skip this release and wait until iLife '06.
I already got a good set of Apps to handle most of what the new suite does, the only one that I would use would be iPhoto. I use that more than anything else just to organise pics.
Let's see what ideas they can come up with next year.
I already got a good set of Apps to handle most of what the new suite does, the only one that I would use would be iPhoto. I use that more than anything else just to organise pics.
Let's see what ideas they can come up with next year.
With all this discussion of iLife pricing, I'm surprised no one has mentioned that there is no "family pack" pricing. I'm wondering if Apple simply expects households to only spend the $79 once and install it on all their machines. That certainly seems to be what the phone sales person responding to one of the posters in this thread implied. Maybe the basic $79 license actually has the "family pack" rules. Though I'd think Apple would be advertising it if that was the case.
wordmunger said:
i found the iLife family pack in the austrian store for 99 compared to 79 normal
it got more confusing when i checked the educational store where i found iLife family package for 49 while the normal package costs 69
Philsy said:
let's re-phrase: grammar checker is one of the many features that 5% will ever use and combined will hog 80% of the cpu cycles the app uses. to get rid of these kind of "useless" features will give any app a speed boost of great significance - i'd rather have pages NOT have grammar check and instead do it within indesign (that is, at the final stage where the text is still edited anyway).
i find myself always turning off those features. don't know about the rest of us.
I played with iWork today at MWSF for some time, and here is my take:
-I bought iWork. It is a young package, but very promising
-Here is how I predict the usage will breakout between MSOffice2004 and iWork:
Excel: 100% of the time (Excel is the best app MS makes, IMHO)
Pages: 95% of the time (Doesn't have track changes which is critical for corp users)
Word: 5% of the time (Mainly when working on docs edited by groups.)
Keynote: 100% of the Time (Doesn't have all of the features of PPT2004, but enough to be workable and where Keynote is better, it is exponentially better)
Powerpoint: 0% (Keynote is easier to make slick visual displays and the presentations are cleaner. PPT has more features, some of which I wish Keynote 2 had, but in general the delta is more of the typical MS bloat. I'm selecting quality.)
Entourage: 0% (Don't want my personal contacts, etc., in a proprietary MS format. I like the iapps, except for iCal which sucks, plus they are tied to sync and .mac in a clean manner.)
Filemaker: 100% of the time, if not building a quick and dirty db in Excel.
-I bought iWork. It is a young package, but very promising
-Here is how I predict the usage will breakout between MSOffice2004 and iWork:
Excel: 100% of the time (Excel is the best app MS makes, IMHO)
Pages: 95% of the time (Doesn't have track changes which is critical for corp users)
Word: 5% of the time (Mainly when working on docs edited by groups.)
Keynote: 100% of the Time (Doesn't have all of the features of PPT2004, but enough to be workable and where Keynote is better, it is exponentially better)
Powerpoint: 0% (Keynote is easier to make slick visual displays and the presentations are cleaner. PPT has more features, some of which I wish Keynote 2 had, but in general the delta is more of the typical MS bloat. I'm selecting quality.)
Entourage: 0% (Don't want my personal contacts, etc., in a proprietary MS format. I like the iapps, except for iCal which sucks, plus they are tied to sync and .mac in a clean manner.)
Filemaker: 100% of the time, if not building a quick and dirty db in Excel.
iWork
I'm really looking forward to iWork. The way that text wraps around images and tables in Pages looks good. I have nightmares of my experiences in Word where I add some object and the formatting for the whole page gets screwed up. In Pages, we can make tables and charts, which is what most home users would use a spreadsheet for anyways. Excel, and the AppleWorks spreadsheet, are still available for those who need more advanced features. I agree with other posters that Excel is the best app of the MOffice suite. For those who would like a non-Microsoft spreadsheet, I suggest Mesa. This is a cocoa spreadsheet app that I used to use on an old NEXT computer, and now it is available for OS X.
I'm really looking forward to iWork. The way that text wraps around images and tables in Pages looks good. I have nightmares of my experiences in Word where I add some object and the formatting for the whole page gets screwed up. In Pages, we can make tables and charts, which is what most home users would use a spreadsheet for anyways. Excel, and the AppleWorks spreadsheet, are still available for those who need more advanced features. I agree with other posters that Excel is the best app of the MOffice suite. For those who would like a non-Microsoft spreadsheet, I suggest Mesa. This is a cocoa spreadsheet app that I used to use on an old NEXT computer, and now it is available for OS X.
JFreak said:
Ah, well you're lucky enough to be using inDesign - I'm stuck with Quark
IMHO. Useless features in Pages are the ability to format text and drop in photos etc - a failing of Word is that it tries to do too much.
I guess at this point, someone will suggest I use Nisus
well i bought a PB last jan, just before iLife 04 came out, but went out and bought it for £35. bargain really. 05 is £49, but still a bargain really. people complain that there isn't an upgrade price - but to be honest, its such a great suite, that i'd say the opposite is true - they don't do a full price - but rather just the upgrade price.
iPhoto is starting to look as good as its going to get - folders finally, and the calendar view is a great touch. as is the extra editing options, and the inclusion of ken burns. (incidentally, how will this work - will this create a .mov on the fly?)
iDVD - happy with it as it is - a few new themes is always nice.
iMovie - and they said it wouldn't include HD? thats not really an issue here in the UK yet. i only use it for slideshows - so might have been nice if they'd refined the ken burns thing, and added more control.
pages looks interesting. didn't think for a minute i'd need it if i've got word - but the pagemaker type DTP-ness of it looks pretty good. perhaps not for the DTP pro obviously, but very much slants it to the home user / hobbyist rather than words office-ness. i too have only ever found word a pain when trying to drop images in. pages looks far more geared up to handling it.
a speadsheet would be nice,tho excel is fine really.
Iain
iPhoto is starting to look as good as its going to get - folders finally, and the calendar view is a great touch. as is the extra editing options, and the inclusion of ken burns. (incidentally, how will this work - will this create a .mov on the fly?)
iDVD - happy with it as it is - a few new themes is always nice.
iMovie - and they said it wouldn't include HD? thats not really an issue here in the UK yet. i only use it for slideshows - so might have been nice if they'd refined the ken burns thing, and added more control.
pages looks interesting. didn't think for a minute i'd need it if i've got word - but the pagemaker type DTP-ness of it looks pretty good. perhaps not for the DTP pro obviously, but very much slants it to the home user / hobbyist rather than words office-ness. i too have only ever found word a pain when trying to drop images in. pages looks far more geared up to handling it.
a speadsheet would be nice,tho excel is fine really.
Iain
Ordered it!
The new editing features for cropping audio etc is about the ONLY thing I really wanted fixed in iLife - worth the $60 edu price!
Although it would have been nice to have some sort of upgrade program for long term users of iLife - NOT just the onles who ordered a computer the day of Mac World.
But $60 to buy fuel for the Mother Ship.... no problem for me!
IJ
The new editing features for cropping audio etc is about the ONLY thing I really wanted fixed in iLife - worth the $60 edu price!
Although it would have been nice to have some sort of upgrade program for long term users of iLife - NOT just the onles who ordered a computer the day of Mac World.
But $60 to buy fuel for the Mother Ship.... no problem for me!
IJ
Macrumors said:
Just the beginning
Please remember, this is just the beginning of the assult on MS Office. Jobs made it pretty clear in his keynote that the two applications in iWork are just the beginning of a complete replacement of Appleworks -- which includes a spreadsheet.
I would not be suprised if a spreadsheet were added to iWork in the reasonable future. In fact, my money is on it.
By the time there is a G5 in the Mac mini .... Apple will have a SOLID answer to MS Office.
Now --- will they port it to Windows ---- now that is something to debate. The potential of that is interesting. It will be a much better product than OpenOffice.
Finally MS will be gone from my system completely.
Please remember, this is just the beginning of the assult on MS Office. Jobs made it pretty clear in his keynote that the two applications in iWork are just the beginning of a complete replacement of Appleworks -- which includes a spreadsheet.
I would not be suprised if a spreadsheet were added to iWork in the reasonable future. In fact, my money is on it.
By the time there is a G5 in the Mac mini .... Apple will have a SOLID answer to MS Office.
Now --- will they port it to Windows ---- now that is something to debate. The potential of that is interesting. It will be a much better product than OpenOffice.
Finally MS will be gone from my system completely.
What I don't understand is if iWorks, and namely Pages, is supposed to be the new Appleworks replacement then why doesn't it come free with new macs? Having varying levels of software for things such as video editing (iMovie, FCE, FCP) makes sense to me but varying levels of Word Processors is silly. It only makes Appleworks seems worthless and if Apple is producing worthless software and including it on new macs well that seems like a potential image killer.
Mac Sales: "Your new mac will come with Appleworks, but it is so outdated so why not spend another $79 and get iWorks...."
Switcher: "If Appleworks is old and iWorks is the replacement for it then why don't I get the new software? I am buying a new computer aren't I?"
Mac Sales: "Your new mac will come with Appleworks, but it is so outdated so why not spend another $79 and get iWorks...."
Switcher: "If Appleworks is old and iWorks is the replacement for it then why don't I get the new software? I am buying a new computer aren't I?"
winter artifice said:
Quit complaining. iWork is a replacement for Appleworks --- not an upgrade. Apple is spending massive amounts of R&D money developing cool new applications like iWork. They need to get a reasonable return on their money.
Also, when you consider that the "standard" version of MS Office 2004 sells for $399 US, iWork seems like a steal.
I am willing to pay $79 just for the pleasure of completely removing MS from my system. I am smiling ear to ear to know Apple is on track to punk MS Office.
Don't demand that I stop complaining, I'm just not a blind follower like you. Have you actually used Pages yet? No? But of course you are 100% positive that Apple is punking Office. $79 does not remove MS completely, there is no Excel competitor with iWorks.mcfudd said:
You think iWorks is a steal at $79? Perhaps I do as well, but iLife is a steal as well at $79 and it comes free with new macs. Appleworks is sold as a separate program for $79 as well and also comes free with new macs. So if iWorks is the Appleworks replacement then why does it not come free with new macs and why don't they retire Appleworks?
mcfudd said:
that is not a good goal. microsoft excel is actually a very good piece of software and deserves to be installed wherever spreadsheeds are needed. a good goal would be to get rid of all bad software; however, microsoft software in general tends to fall into that category - the best examples being word and idiot exploder. thank god those have been made redundant.
the goal
You are a heritic. How dare you blaspheme like that on a mac rumor site.
I have a few virus-infested excel spreadsheets I will gladly send you for immediate download. ha ha.
Anyway, a good spreadsheet program is the enemy of great spreadsheet program. If you want to give your money to MS, be my guest. I, however, will not.
JFreak said:
You are a heritic. How dare you blaspheme like that on a mac rumor site.
I have a few virus-infested excel spreadsheets I will gladly send you for immediate download. ha ha.
Anyway, a good spreadsheet program is the enemy of great spreadsheet program. If you want to give your money to MS, be my guest. I, however, will not.
Then why release Pages and Keynote as iWorks already if the transition is not complete? iPhoto, iTunes, iDvd, iMovie were not automatically packaged as iLife.mcfudd said:
I say they should have just brought out Pages and Keynote separately and wait until the new Excel competitor is released before packaging them as a replacement for Appleworks.
blah
(Somebody needs to get their prozac perscription refilled. It makes being a "blind follower" like me so much easier.)
Anyway --- I do not think there are any "blind followers" using OS X. Those people are the windows and ms office users.
If you cannot see that iWork is an answer to ms office -- I do not think there is much point in debating the issue. Apple needs to give their customers a total solution --- and not rely on microsoft to keep upgrading office.
As for iLife being included for free and iWork not .. it is a function of marketing and profitability.
Hey .. don't demand that i don't demand that you stop complaining. how's that!winter artifice said:
(Somebody needs to get their prozac perscription refilled. It makes being a "blind follower" like me so much easier.)
Anyway --- I do not think there are any "blind followers" using OS X. Those people are the windows and ms office users.
If you cannot see that iWork is an answer to ms office -- I do not think there is much point in debating the issue. Apple needs to give their customers a total solution --- and not rely on microsoft to keep upgrading office.
As for iLife being included for free and iWork not .. it is a function of marketing and profitability.
Well I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I do agree that Apple should not rely on MS to supply their users with decent software, they've done it so far with Safari etc, but now they bring out a replacement for their own very outdated software and it's supposed to take on Office yet their suite is still lacking. If the suite is not complete I say it should not have been released. Who wants to have to toggle between iWorks and Excel? I want a fully integrated office solution like all of Apple's other software and until that time comes I won't be completely happy with iWorks.
ok
But really, the timing must be right for this to happen. MS was just smacked down by the EU, OpenOffice for OS X sucks (compared to the demo of Pages), and Apple needs to stay competitive.
It makes sense to broadcast to the marketplace that a "replacement" for MS Office is on the horizon. It gets IT managers thinking twice about investing in a massive upgrade to MS Office. If Apple is in the process of completing a total solution that can replace MS, they might give the new X-Serve a look to.
It is all part of a well devised, long term strategy.
I will be sure to send a memo to the lads in Cupertino let them know.winter artifice said:
But really, the timing must be right for this to happen. MS was just smacked down by the EU, OpenOffice for OS X sucks (compared to the demo of Pages), and Apple needs to stay competitive.
It makes sense to broadcast to the marketplace that a "replacement" for MS Office is on the horizon. It gets IT managers thinking twice about investing in a massive upgrade to MS Office. If Apple is in the process of completing a total solution that can replace MS, they might give the new X-Serve a look to.
It is all part of a well devised, long term strategy.