iWork ’09

At MacWorld, Apple released iWork ’09, the productivity package that includes Keynote, the presentation program, Pages, the word and page layout package, and Numbers, the spreadsheet application. All three applications add better integration with Microsoft Office and a new on-line collaboration tool, iWork.com.

Keynote ’09 adds new themes, transitions, and animations. Charting has been enhanced and charts created in Numbers can now be linked and placed in a Keynote presentation. Sharing Keynote presentations is easier with automatic conversion to Powerpoint or pdf format when mailing the presentation.

Pages ’09 adds new themes and a powerful outlining tool. Mail Merge has been enhanced to work with Numbers (in addition to the Mac Address Book.) Integration with MathType and EndNote for inclusion of complex math formulas and sophisticated bibliographies is also included (both products are sold separately.) Charts and tables created in Numbers can also be linked and placed in a Pages document. Pages documents can be easily shared with Word users via automatic conversion to .doc format when mailing from within the application.

Numbers ’09, the second release for this package, has the most significant improvements. There are now more than 250 built-in functions, a formula view, the ability to group and categorize table data, and enhanced charting and themes. As with the other two applications in this suite, integration with Office has been streamlined with automatic conversion to Excel format.

With iWork ’09 Apple has introduced a new service called iWork.com, which is currently in Beta. iWork.com is an online file sharing service that allows you to post a Keynote, Pages or Numbers document to a website where it can be downloaded by other users (strict security) or commented on in place. iWork.com is web-based and the person commenting on or downloading the document does so through a web browser (Mac or Windows, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer.) If files are downloaded, then the user can choose to convert the file to Powerpoint, Word, Excel, or pdf format. By using the online commenting feature, the file need not be downloaded, which is especially useful when working with large presentation files.

More information can be found at: http://www.apple.com/iwork/

iLife ’09

As expected, Apple also introduced an update to the iLife suite (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD.) iPhoto ’09 received major enhancements. Two of these, Faces and Places, are new ways to search and organize your photo library. Faces uses face detection software to determine who is in the photo. You simply tag (name) a face in a photo and iPhoto will look at the rest of your library and attempt to find all pictures that include that person. In practice, the software works pretty well. Full-on images with faces are generally tagged correctly, although it takes some training to get it to distinguish between siblings. It does a reasonably good job of picking out a person as they age.

iPhoto’s Places allows geo-tagging, locating your photos on a map. If your camera supports geo-tagging (some new cameras do, as well as devices such as the iPhone), then you can easily organize your photos using this information. You can also geo-tag your photos after you take them, using a Google Map interface built into iPhoto ’09. These maps can be integrated into some of the new photo books available as part of the iPhoto ’09 package. Sharing has also been enhanced. You can create slideshows and share them online. iPhoto ’09 adds easy integration with Facebook and Flickr. Images tagged in iPhoto and sent to Facebook can include the faces tag, and images tagged in Facebook can synchronize that information back to iPhoto.

iMovie ’09 greatly improves upon the ’08 version, adding back functionality that had been removed. New features include a precision editing function, which allows you to fine-tune edits and use sound from one clip with video from another. Video Stabilization attempts to remove jumps and bumps from the video. Using this feature requires some time to process the video and severe jumping cannot be corrected, but the program lets you know what it can’t fix. New themes, transitions, and effects have been added. For those who were disappointed with the iMovie ’08 update, iMovie ’09 is what that program should have been.

GarageBand ’09 adds “Lessons.” You can take piano and guitar lessons -- 8 of each are included with the package.  In addition, you can purchase “Artist Lessons” with performers such as Sting, Sarah McLachlan, and Norah Jones. Each artist takes you through one of their songs with easy and more difficult versions of some of the songs presented. It won’t make you a star but it is a nice introduction to the piano and guitar with some entertaining and instructive music videos.

Apple has made some minor enhancements to iWeb with additional “widgets” that you can add to your website and the ability to publish your website using FTP to your own or a hosted server. Site updating is also faster as just changes are now published and of course, there is integration with Facebook to notify your friends or colleagues when you make changes.

More information can be found at: http://www.apple.com/ilife/

New Macs

At MacWorld Apple introduced a new 17” MacBook Pro (MBP), which joins the ranks of the upgraded MacBook and MacBook Air and the 15” MacBook Pro laptops introduced last Fall. Earlier this month Apple released updated iMacs, Mac Pros, and Mac Minis. Details on all of these can be found at: http://www.apple.com/mac/ or contact us at gcs@goldbergcs.com