Apple’s new apps versus Microsoft’s offerings

“As anyone who’s ever had to sit through a Powerpoint presentation can tell you, they are one of the banes of business existence, usually about as interesting as the next-door neighbor’s wedding and vacation slide shows. Keynote is slick, yields gorgeous slides that look like they came from a professional graphic artist, and at first glance seems easy to use. It makes Powerpoint slides look like they were scratched out on a barroom napkin. And it is probably the last front on which Microsoft expected a competitive challenge to its software. Yet Keynote still acknowledges that Powerpoint is the dominant presentation software in the business world. The program lets users export their presentations directly into Powerpoint, as well as Adobe’s Acrobat PDF format. Keynote wasn’t the only place where Apple seems to be breaking away from its cozy relationship with Microsoft. In a keynote address that lasted more than two hours at the Macworld Expo, which started here today, Jobs also announced, of all things, a new Apple-made Web browser software called Safari,” reports Arik Hesseldahl for Forbes. Read the full article here.