Last week, we mentioned a report by ThinkSecret that stated that Apple will launch a new “iWork ’05” productivity suite at Macworld Expo San Fransicso. The software is said to “include Keynote 2 as well as a new application, Pages,” Ryan Katz reported for ThinkSecret.com. “iWork ’05 will require a 500MHz system and Mac OS X 10.3.6 , sources say. Additionally, the software will require a serial number. It’s unclear whether the new iLife ’05 will also require a serial number–previous versions have not. Also unknown is where iWork ’05 pricing will fall. It’s unclear whether Pages will simply encompass a word processing application or whether Apple will wrap spreadsheet functionality into it as well.”
“What is almost certain, however, is that iWork will come bundled with most, if not all, of Apple’s new systems, including the new $500 headless iMac. Such a move will enable Apple to market the affordable system as being ready-to-go out of the box with all the software most needed by users, including PC switchers,” Katz reported. Full article here.
In the MacDailyNews Reader Feedback to the original article, MDN reader “Solar Flare” remarked that, “There is already a company producing ‘iWork’: http://www.iggsoftware.com/iwork/ Looks like Apple will have to call it something else if it is gonna happen.”
Today, MDN Reader “macnut222” reports that IGG Software’s ‘iWork’ has been recently (as in today) changed to ‘iBiz’ – http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibiz/ (The web page states: “iBiz: formerly IGG Software’s ‘iWork'”)
MacDailyNews Take: A very interesting development.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
RUMOR: Apple to debut ‘iWork ’05’ productivity suite at Macworld Expo – January 01, 2005
Hmmmmm, looks like iWork it is.
By the way, unless I am mistaken, isn’t this kind of a scoop for MDN? Good work Macnut222 and solar flare.
Interesting….
I’m a genius. I guessed that name a long time ago.
First post.
Looks like a done deal!
What will Microsoft think?
Cool!!!
Oops. Fourth post actually. Damn my slow typing skills.
Who cares what MS thinks. I know Office is important for the platform, but it didn’t seem to bother them too much when Keynote came out two years ago.
I thought the whole “headless iMac” was a rumor. People are talking like that is a done deal as well. Anyone know for sure?
If this turns out to be real it could be very big. The big question: what is under the hood? Open Office, original code, a revision to AppleWorks or some third party app now pulled from the market.
sorry, folks..but this iWork suite is a bum call..
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I am 100% positive bout this..as for the ‘headless’ Mac…last I checked, 85% rumor only! being a Mac PowerUser and in the know, keep your dreams simple, not as flashy..
very interesting
Serious post…
Ok, I don’t think the other application will be called Pages. It is vague and generic and does not convey any information on its purpose. TEST: Clear your mind and think of nothing… now think of the word “Pages”. Vague, right? I’m sure Apple has a good marketing team and they’ll come up with something more relevant. I think people should post their guesses at what the document application’s name should be. My choice: Folio
Someone on the MacRumors forums though up the word ‘Thesis’ rather than ‘Pages’. It seemed to go over pretty well.
What do you guys think about it?
wow i can only hope this real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope Apple introduces iWork. The only time my iBook crashes is when I use Microslop Orifice.
If a Office replacement and iPhone is true, then all my imaginable dreams have come true. Waiting now is the tough part. The headless iMac speculation was even on Headline News…hope it is true or there are going to be alot of problems.
Edge,
Pages works for me, especially if it encompasses OpenDoc components. Maybe there is a “page”, which contains word processing elements, graphics and spreadsheet functions, not separate applications that work together.
::falling on my knees::: Those gerbil sacrifices DO work. I feel weepy.
And in other news, their new computers will live up to their reputation, and will now be named “iWant”.
Looks like Apple has recently filed (August 5, 2004) for trademark on iWork too:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=5s6cq4.2.3
But who knows.
Citizen X: “Pages works for me, especially if it encompasses OpenDoc components. Maybe there is a “page”, which contains word processing elements, graphics and spreadsheet functions, not separate applications that work together.”
Most likely the apps will be separated for retail reasons. Expect to see a bundled package and stand alones (lowers cost of entry for some). I predict the bundle will be availabe on new systems at a discounted price (not free). People who already own MS Office will get a discount as well.
Although there is a lot of speculation out there about “iWork” being a ported version of OpenOffice… I highly doubt it. The GPL on OpenOffice requires that people make modified versions available for free. I am most certain that “iWork” is based on the ClarisWorks suite. Last time I checked, Keynote was written in-house.
If this is true, I worry about what it means for the excellent but in-need-of-consumer-suport Nisus Writer Express. It’s an able Word replacement in beautiful Cocoa without the bloat of OOo etc. I’d love to see what Apple can do in this arena, was wishing for iWork a couple years ago; but I think my loyalty will remain with Nisus, they really deserve it.
Knowing Apples ingenuity, I’d have to say that if they come out with an office app. it will change the way we look at documents. It will be different then a separate spreadsheet app, a page layout app, and a word app, but rather a complete document application. Pages might be one application that can do all these things together. Perhaps integrate with Filemaker for interactive documents, web pages and application interfaces.
Mike: “Knowing Apples ingenuity, I’d have to say that if they come out with an office app. it will change the way we look at documents. It will be different then a separate spreadsheet app, a page layout app, and a word app, but rather a complete document application. Pages might be one application that can do all these things together. Perhaps integrate with Filemaker for interactive documents, web pages and application interfaces.”
Apple doesn’t build “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” apps. iLife isn’t an app, but a bundling of different apps. If you don’t have a DVD writer, why buy iDVD? I think the same logic applies to iWork. As a person who uses spreadsheets a lot, I can honestly say building business quality spreadsheets requires an independent app. I just don’t see how a document and spreadsheet can co-exist in the same app without bloated code.
iWork won’t be an app, but a bundle of “Pages”, Keynote, “Sheets” (idunno, aren’t pages and sheets “literally” the same), and possibly Filemaker (for the pros). Or it could just be another name for AppleWorks 7. Who knows?
iThink this could be huge. Apple could have the whole show, and it certainly is more reasons for people to switch. After that happens, and marketshare grows, we can then start to watch the games come our way!
Edge,
“Although there is a lot of speculation out there about “iWork” being a ported version of OpenOffice… I highly doubt it. The GPL on OpenOffice requires that people make modified versions available for free. I am most certain that “iWork” is based on the ClarisWorks suite. Last time I checked, Keynote was written in-house.”
Imagine a “page”, blank that can contain wordprocessing elements, graphics and a spreadsheet. I guess my point is seperate applications may no longer be a requirement
“Although there is a lot of speculation out there about “iWork” being a ported version of OpenOffice… I highly doubt it. The GPL on OpenOffice requires that people make modified versions available for free. I am most certain that “iWork” is based on the ClarisWorks suite. Last time I checked, Keynote was written in-house.”
Not OpenOffice, OpenDoc. This page has all the (most) Apple of the Apple trademarked names, etc.
http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html
No iWork, no Pages, etc.
The do have Pippin, an “interactive media player’.
citizenx: They aren’t going to put unannounced products on the list and officially give away the surprise. Wait until MWSF, then check again.
Well if that isn’t blatently, slap in the face obvious.
Seems to me there is a gap in the market at the moment between Word Processors and DTP programs. If Apple produced something in the middle – say a good word processor with excellent page layout abilities – I think it would do very well and certainly be welcomed by Mac users. MS Word is a nightmare to get any sort of layout work done, with page elements apparently moving at will and text reflowing on an ad-hoc basis. A rock solid WP with page layout would be very good indeed.
If it’s true I can’t wait to see what they’ve done to word processing. Keynote included several innovative features that I’d like to see implemented into Photoshop.
Ironically, the MDN Magic Word was “read”. Coincidence?
Benn,
How true. It is annoying to edit student’s papers with the figures and figure legends independently dancing around the pages.
Brought to you by “large” as, I suppose, it is particularly annoying with the large student projects.
It’s a red herring. iWork is a terrible name. Sounds like a work program for the mentally handicapped. iWorks is better, but I’m hoping for something better. How about OpenDoc? Naw these days, it’d have to be iOpenDocs.
This message brought to you by “moral”.
A killer ‘Pages’ app might be aimed just as much at QuarkXpress as at Microsoft Word.
If S. Jobs could leave a horses head in someone’s beds, Quark would be pretty near top of his list. Remember Quark dragged its feet for over a year before bringing out an OS X version of its page layout programme – seriously holding back up-take of Apple software AND hardware. When Xpress 6 was finally released it was expensive and buggy.
‘Pages’ is likely to be a modular page layout programme, having a ‘User’ and ‘Builder’ mode. In a similar way to Keynote, users will select from a a ‘pre-built’ document format – which includes type size and styles, picture formats and page/column layouts, pagination etc – and use mainly drag ‘n’ drop to insert their material – with all page elements dynamically reflowing and changing style depending on their positioning. A User will also be able to edit certain format criteria such as fonts and type size, with helpful prompts from the ‘Page’ used. The Builder mode will be used by a designer to create all the underlying formatting rules for a ‘Page’ style. A set of pre-built Pages will be bundled with the ‘User’ software and a (serial-numbered) ‘Builder’ ‘add-on’ program will be sold (a bit like the Adobe Acrobat ‘Reader’ ‘Writer’ relationship). A Page can be used by a business to ensure full adherence to its corporate identity for everything from letter writing, newsletters, through to complex, full colour 24-page company brochures.
Could this be Apple’s secret ‘Slingshot’ product? – aimed at Quark and Word, it could certainly be the program which kills two birds with one stone.
TEST: Clear your mind and think of nothing… now think of the word “Pages”. Vague, right?
—
BWAHAHAHHAHAHAH
Most popular App on the face of the Earth..
“Word”
Pages is vague.. but it’s called that because it combines Word and Excel reportedly. It seems like something MS has been doing for a while.. strengthening elements in either Word/Excel to the point where you have app redundancy.
A strertch of course because they have very different toolbars and Excel lacks grammar checks I believe and doesn’t auto format anything.. (you know what I mean)
Apple may have something very slick on its hands. Remember.. as an upgrade from Appleworks, they have a decent base to work on, and have had …..6 years to work on it?! LOL
And they’ll release it right alongside the headless iMac, the video iPod, the new Cube, OS X on Intel, the 3 button mouse, a 4CPU G6 with 12 PCI slots, and a flash based iPod that has Bluetooth, FireWire800, SuperDrive, 12″ screen and DSL built in.
No, really.
This year, for sure.
“Imagine a “page”, blank that can contain wordprocessing elements, graphics and a spreadsheet. I guess my point is seperate applications may no longer be a requirement”
The excellent German product “Ragtime” has had this functionality for ages – what’s more Ragtime Solo is free to download and use as long as you’re not using it for commercial purposes. Within Ragtime, elements update as they are changed – ie. a document can contain a spreadsheet, a graph, pictures etc. if you wish to change data within the spreadsheet you just click on it and change the data – if the graph is a graph of the spreadsheet, the graph changes in realtime within the document. Elements can be easily resized and moved – text wraps intelligently around graphs, pictures etc.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0REL/is_7_v91/ai_11146455
Twenty Benson’s notion of it possibly being targetted at Quark is intriguing… the alleged codename is “Q88” isn’t it? Or am I misremembering?
Damn, so Pages does have a history with NeXT…
Opening “paragraph” of that linked article (thanks, Twenty Benson) —
“The Pages product line is one of the most impressive tools we’ve ever seen… Of course, the bad news is that it won’t be available until next year (and this section is purposely a little vague; sorry!). It’s also the application that shows why you’d buy a NEXT machine. Watching it shuffle text objects around 16 pages automatically as fast as a spreadsheet can recalc is like watching three days of frustrating work happen in seconds. (We know!)”
I don’t know what to expect at MWSF anymore. There are several really intriguing possibilities in hardware & software, and if they all pan out, we’re going to lose our minds (and pocketbooks).
I’ll just sit and wait.
My guess is that Apple is planning on releasing iWorks and simply paid IGG for the name iWork to avoid any potential lawsuit.
ClarisWorks -> AppleWorks -> iWorks.
I wouldn’t be surprised if iWorks is a from-the-ground rewrite of AppleWorks using Cocoa etc. and quite possibly based on / tightly integrated with Keynote.
No, I don’t have any inside information.
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