Digital News Report- Apple has introduced two new major software updates today with two new programs for 2009. The iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09 software suites will provide updates and many new features to several vital programs on Macintosh computers. Apple has stated that the programs will provide powerful new features without sacrificing Apple’s legendary ease of use.
The iLife ’09 features major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, and includes iDVD and an updated version of iWeb. iWeb ’09 adds new iWeb Widgets, such as iSight video and photos, a countdown timer, YouTube video and RSS feeds. New integrated FTP publishing allows you to publish your website to virtually any hosting service and updates to your site can now be automatically added to your Facebook profile.
“iLife continues to be one of the biggest reasons our customers choose to get a Mac,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With iLife ’09, we’ve made working with photos, making movies and learning to play music a lot more fun, and iMovie users are especially going to love the advanced but easy-to-use new features.”
iWork ’09 will feature upgrades to Apple’s popular office productivity suite, which adds powerful new features to programs like Keynote, and Numbers. Keynote ’09 introduces advanced object transitions, which automatically animate objects with a choice of effects and Magic Move. Meanwhile, Pages ’09 features a new Full Screen view that helps you focus on your writing and an outline mode to organize your thoughts. Numbers ’09 introduces a quick way to group and summarize data and a dramatically simplified way to create complex formulas.
Apple also announced iWork.com public beta, a new service Apple is developing to share iWork ’09 documents online. Using your Apple ID, you can click the iWork.com icon in the Keynote, Pages or Numbers toolbar to upload your document and invite others to view it online. Viewers can provide comments and notes, and download a copy of your document in iWork, Microsoft Office or PDF formats. A consolidated online list of all your shared documents indicates when your viewers have posted comments.
“Millions of Mac users have fallen in love with iWork,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With iWork ’09, Apple continues to demonstrate that innovation is possible in office productivity software, and that creating impressive presentations, documents and spreadsheets doesn’t need to be complicated.”
iWork ’09 is now available through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $79 (US). iWork ’09 is available for $49 (US) with the purchase of any Mac. iLife ’09 will be available this month for a suggested retail price of $79 (US). The iLife Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system at an authorized retailer on or after January 6, 2009 for a shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Artist Lessons are available through the GarageBand Lesson Store for $4.99 (US) each.
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