Results tagged “iWork” from AppleHound

Have you noticed how Apple news has been increasingly negative in the past month? I try to keep my articles upbeat, but it has been hard to find many positive things to talk about.

Apple continues to reach new highs and some are just now coming to the realization that Apple is a big corporation with the goal of making a profit. The primary focus has shifted from the Mac to other profitable products like the iPod and iPhone. Many of the Apple faithful that stood by this company through the good and bad times now feel as though they have been left behind and forgotten. They don't have that feeling of being a part of something special, a tight-knit family of loyal Mac users sticking up for the little guy.

It wasn't too long ago that Apple could do no wrong. Steve was admired for his ability to mesmerize an audience with new product announcements. Today every public decision Apple makes will be scrutinized. Any action that appears to be made solely on the basis of increasing profits will result in a backlash from the community.

The iPhone 1.1.1 update breaks network hacked phones. The most unique description of this is the dead cow analogy from Leo Leport. The general belief is that it would have been easy for Apple developers to review the checksum of system files prior to updating the phone. Continue with the upgrade if the files match approved values, otherwise notify the user that the upgrade is not possible. Apple chose to go the route of a press release and a warning message prior to the upgrade in iTunes. Users who ignored the warnings are now shopping for a new cell phone.

99 cent ringtones. Surprisingly this has a lot of people upset. The outrage doesn't make sense when you consider what other companies are charging for ringtones (Only $1.99 annual fee per Ringback Tone with a $0.99 monthly subscription). So you want to make ringtones of songs you already own? Well, prior to iPhone 1.1.1 you could do this using the popular Ambrosia Software iToner application. Not anymore. Daring Fireball has a great article covering the whole ringtone subject in more detail.

On August 7th Apple announced the release of iWork '08. While it can not replace 100% of the Office suite, it gets pretty darn close for most users. Also, the $79 price makes this an even more attractive option.

Keynote is an easy to use presentation program that provides similar functionality to PowerPoint.

The build transitions used to move, modify opacity, rotate, and scale elements are amazing and very easy to use. Just select an element from the slide, change a few properties, and boom! You have a custom A to B animation sequence.

Theme integration with the page elements is also very impressive. For example, shapes like arrows and boxes are automatically updated when changing themes (though tables are not).

This release includes new text effects and transitions, voice over recording, new themes, and instant alpha.

While playing with this application I couldn't help but think about creating a presentation so I could make use of it. Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck talking people into listening to my presentations so this application is going to be a toy for now.