Well! MacWorld rumours are flying in from Think Secret.
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0412expo3.html
iWorks '05 is reported now, as being a full productivity suite, ala Microsoft Office. A word processing app called Pages, in combination with KeyNote sold together as iWorks seems to be what's happening.

ABOUT BLOODY TIME.
I'm sick of using Microsoft's apps on my Mac, despite Office being good, it's very expensive for the average user who types some stuff up and wants to make some presentations. The alternatives (OpenOffice, NeoOffice, NessusWriter, AbiWord) are half-way decent, but still suck compared to Apple's usual quality software.

Combining it with the headless Mac would be a sure fire winner, a total out of box experience for the majority of users. Computing nirvana, simple, fuss free computer use. It turns on, it works like it should, I can type documents in an unbloated app, send and recieve e-mails without worrying about viruses, and having spam filtered properly for me and browsing the web with no fear of spyware. That's go down well with my family very well, I can see 3-4 being sold just to my immediate family alone

I am so holding my breath for MWSF. 12 days to go...


Hope these rumours are ture, especially the headless Mac, I will be preordering one as soon as they are available, regardless of the specs. I've been hanging for a cheap Mac desktop for ages, this is perfect.

As for iWork and iLife '05, I hope Apple deilvers, especially on the AppleWorks replacement. It would be awesome.

I smell an Apple revolution coming on...

So do I

I even saw them talk about the headless iMac rumour on one of CNN's international business shows on Foxtel. It would be nice if true.

Sugar, sugar.

How sweet it is.

Assuming Keynote plugs all the missing pieces, and that their wordprocessor and spreadsheet leave Word and Excel for dead as Keynote did to PowerPoint, then it would be one insanely awesome Office suite.

HOWEVER...

It also concerns me that if Apple do too good of a job that Microsoft will pull out of the Mac market, as MS have already bitched about their poor sales of Office:Mac. The reality is the Mac platform NEEDS Microsoft Office to exist... having independance is great, if MS bail we still survive, but if they did bail the platform would have major problems growing any further. Free copies of iWorks with all Macs would help, but you'd still have problems in the corporate market (and plenty of individuals) who want/require MS Office - period.

That said, PowerPoint certainly underwent a radial overhaul after Keynote came out... amazing given PowerPoint had barely evolved since it's Windows 3.1/System5/etc days...

iWorks. LOL

I've never worked before, why should I start now?

iWorks, aye?

There is an OS X app called iWork I use for invoicing and keeping my client database maintained.

I wonder what will happen with that? Since the names are different, but extremely close...

Another "widget" dilema... its the same..... but not.



pipsqeek

I doubt there would be a problem there considering Apple themselves were the ones who sarted using the iNames.

Maybe so, but the names are very close, if it comes to fruitition.

I'm not so sure about this one.

Sure, a less-buggy, Apple-branded Office suite would be nice...but if it means Microsoft drop Office:Mac in the future, it could have pretty bad repercussions for Apple.

I work at an AppleCentre (part time - it's my 2nd..no wait, now 3rd job), and trust me, there are people who simply will not believe that another suite can be completely compatible with Word/Excel documents (which I'm assuming iWork '05 will be). I see it all the time - customers look a bit edgy when they hear that "This machine doesn't run Windows", but then look completely relaxed when you tell them that Microsoft make Office for the MacOS. I'm talking about people who are very new to computing - they know they have "Word" or "Excel" documents, and they only want "Word" or "Excel" on their computer. Telling them that another application is "compatible" is simply beyond their understanding.

So while it will surely be a good thing in the short term, I seriously hope it doesn't bring on the death of Office:Mac. Like it or not, Microsoft Office dominates the market.

Oh man that's a bastard of a situation. I'd love an Apple set of Office-type programmes but Febs and DVD plaza are right, we really need to keep Microsoft Office in there. :'( It's just not fair!


(I now know exactly how hard it is to type when you have a cat walking across your desk, arms, and keyboard... It took me about 10 minutes to type this)

Two words: Fuck Microsoft.

The sooner Apple pisses them off their platform, perhaps sooner people will realise a computer can run without their junk :P

Here here!

Absolutely right. Fuck Microdick.