What will be in iLife 2010 and iWork 2010?

UPDATE: Looking for a guide to iWork for the iPad? Click here.
If you are thinking of buying a Mac for Christmas you might want to wait out for another month as January is the typical release month of the updates to the iLife and iWork suite 2010 and you don't get a free upgrade even if you've just bought a Mac the day before the release.

iWork
This is Apple's in-house equivalent to Microsoft Office with apps that, frankly, still aren't up to scratch when compared to Office.
Pages 2010 - Increased compatibility, maybe to work with Office 2010.
Keynote 2010 - More templates are likely to be added and maybe new transitions
Numbers 2010 - Sample templates are also likely to be added here and more chart types.

What is really needed is a Publisher replacement on a MaC. This could be done really well by Apple and could actually be a better product than Publisher itself. In 2008 Numbers was added to iWork, so a new program may be added to the suite later - and 2010 would be a good year considering last year's updates were rather, well, boring.

iLife
iPhoto 2010 - Major updates last year - unlikely to have any major features.
iMovie 2010 - Multiple soundtracks, new stock audio and new transitions. Get video from iPhone 3GS straight into the program.
iDVD 2010 - New themes as there were no major updates last time. Blu-ray support?
Garageband 2010 - So jam-packed already, possibly new instruments?
iWeb - New templates and possibly support for HTML 5

The suite already went through major upgrades last year and it may not even get an update this year - if it does and Blu-ray support is added then this is a very strong sign that Blu-ray will be coming to the Mac.



Comments

  1. iwork is "not up to scratch when compared to office" I find this comment outrageous. How can you even suggest that?

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  2. I wrote this as I feel that Pages and Numbers are inferior to MS's equivalent. Also there are many apps that need to be added ...a publisher replacement, onenote, etc.

    Plus it is my opinion therefore I can suggest this :)

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  3. Agreed with Giovanni. Pages sucks compared to Word. Especially for foreigners - French typo is NOT good.

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  4. Yeah I really do think so, plus there will always be some minor incompatibilities once sharing with ms Word users. I think iLife is fantastic but iWork...not so much.

    To be fair, i do have to say that I prefer the effects and transitions and colour schemes in Keynote over Powerpoint but unfortunately you can't play those effects back on Powerpoint so its of no use to me.

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  5. I think that iMovie 2010 should have the effects like iMovie HD where you could have fag and rain and all kinds of stuff to edit your videos.

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  6. Why care about Word or certainly Powerpoint being 100% compatible? When I make a presentation, I do it to show it, not send it to Powerpoint users. I think it's no more than logical that Keynote is not 100% compatible, otherwise how can they make a far superior product?

    Consider you can let go of the 'MS Office' monopoly. It's reasons like you that it's still a dominant factor.

    To me I think that Pages does fine for a majority of users and for a lower price.

    I also think that MS Office is a bloated package with too much software. Why keep adding more when this caters only to a small group of (power) users?

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  7. The problem is that if you are unable to take your Mac with you to make a presentation (this does happen in some mid to large companies where they prefer you to load up your presentation on their PC) then that makes big problems.

    I agree that MS has become too bloated but it is the norm in enterprises and there there is no chance of iWork getting any bigger market share. To be honest, I'd rather cater for 95% of the world that use Office than the 5% that don't...it's unprofessional having a badly formatted document and until these incompatibilities are sorted out, iWork won't grow.

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  8. Hmm yes I do believe that Mac is better suited to more leisure- and hobby-based activities with great programs like iMovie and Garageband, so it is perfect for someone like me, a budding film director.

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  9. I just want iWork '10 to come out so I can purchase my Mac!

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  10. While I do like Numbers and Pages for home use, the advanced macros and such for us business power users make both unusable. MS-Office is bloated, but there are a lot of powerful features that I do use.

    Off topic: OpenOffice is probably a better substitute for MS-Office if you want to avoid Mickey$oft.

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  11. GIovanni, I hope iPhoto has more updates than you predicted. Although I love iMovie and all other iLife tools, iPhoto with the face recognition was the main reason for me to buy my first Mac. Throughout 2009 online services (mainly Picasa and Flicker) started offering face recognition solutions, but I haven't tested their compatibily iPhoto yet (comments anyone?)

    Regarding iWork I agree with you, MS still has a hold on Enterprises and specially in the case of Numbers/Excel a better product. But I have to say Keynote is fantastic and it created a problem for me. I now prefer to make important presentation on my mac and need to bring my personal Mac to work in order to present them everytime. Of course for documentation purposes I export all keynotes to pdfs and ppts... but the presentation magic has to be on my mac.

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  12. Iwork is inferior, to Microsoft Office, as 99% of all business use Office Iworks needs to support it. It is so un-professional when fonts and images etc dont render cross platform.

    Microsoft is still number one, all they Mac toys don't make it professional.

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  13. Wow... well, this is clearly a terribly naive forum, and article. Here's the reality of both packages:

    iWork is NOT inferior to Office. Just because most businesses still suffer with PCs does not mean Apple sucks. PC users need to stop being so bitter.

    The fact is, iWork is far easier to use than Office - one just has to do a little life-long thing we human beings should always be open to ... learn it! Publisher equivalent? Try using iWork first. Pages is a combination of Word and Publisher in one.

    Another interesting fact: iWork can open Office files, but Office often fails in formatting iWork files properly. This makes Office the less advanced, less user-friendly system. Incidentally, Office is double the price. Price does not merit superiority. In our world of advanced computer operations and applications -- "Office" style software is hardly that high tech. The cost shouldn't be so high, Microsoft.

    As for iLife, these are more realistic thoughts:

    iPhoto 2010 - There is always room for more features, look at Photoshop.

    iMovie 2010 - I'm sure we can think up better ideas than a few clips of transitions and audio. How about some more editing tools? This is, after all, a movie studio application.

    iDVD 2010 - Blu Ray? What good would it do to burn Blu Ray disc without hardware to back it up? This is a terrible idea. You can't change your hardware by simply getting new software. iDVD would do well to simple process faster. The software is rather slow.

    Garageband 2010 - Common misconception. "Garageband is a great music program for loops!" Garageband is a fully functional recording studio application that simply has the benefit of loops and other features. This is no longer version 1 which was dominantly a loop based program. What would make it better? (See iMovie) ... how about more editing tools? Schools and professional musicians alike are using Garageband for recording because of its ease of use. It's a great application.

    iWeb - iWeb is too template mushed already. What this application needs is a full overhaul/rewrite. Templates are a thing of the past and good for not much more than starting up an idea. In the end, iWeb simply provides a featureless platform for web design. What it needs: MUCH more features. I'm a web designer and I've used iWeb for great websites. However, I've had to embed feature after feature from other applications and sources into iWeb. This works. This looks great. ...I would prefer if the features were already in iWeb. Commonly used (yet missing) features: Contact forms, FAQ pages, better photo galleries...

    For the PC users: Stop complaining. This applications are good and the idea of a new version is to move forward, not whine about how inferior things are and how life sucks. Pessimism has never advanced technology nor humanity.

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  14. Thanks for your post Steve, this post is now 3 months old and I thought I would add some more info. I think it is highly likely that:

    iDVD 2010 - will have some iTunes LP-making features.

    iMovie 2010 - Could also do with a much better overhall, but it can't be too close to Final Cut Express. I also think there needs to be a better precision editing.

    Garageband 2010 - This is already very advanced, though some nice podcasting uploading features would be nice.

    iPhoto - more photoshop like features would be a really good addition - it is much more of an organisation tool at the moment and photoshop-like editing would be much better and may actually persuade some users that a mac would be cheaper than buying photoshop and a new PC - this could be a very smart marketing move by apple.

    iWeb - I find code/HTML editing bad, i.e. no existent. it does look very good but the folder structures created aren't up to scratch in my opinion, neither are the massive image sizes.

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  15. I use iWork 09 (have used it since 06) and I'm an IT guy as well as writer. I love it. It's simple, and it gets the job done. 80% of users out there don't even use 20% of the features of MS Bloat -- I mean MS Office. What Apple does is focus on consumers like 80% of the world instead of the "super users": those would probably want to stick with the 685MB MS Office.

    I understand compatibility issue (unfortunately, 80% of the world still uses Microsoft) and iWork still has room to improve, but to expect 100% compatibility would be, again, expecting people to use every feature available. Why don't they just use MS Office already? I agree with the person who said something about the MS Office mentality. If you want to get rid of that monopoly, then stop going back to it every time we mention compatibility.

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  16. WHEN will iLife come ?!

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  17. When does iWork 2010 arrive? Seen the announcements, but it is already April and there is no mention on the Apple website.

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  18. We would all love to know that? I have a feeling summer or they will skip it this year as they worked on the iPad version.

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  19. Word and Powerpoint can take a long walk as far as I am concerned the Mac versions work better and easier.

    However Numbers is the Achilles heel in Apples suite, Sure it looks pretty and has some nifty tricks of its own however as someone who relies heavily on Macro and VB coding in their excel files its a deal breaker.

    Come on apple get with it and build numbers from the ground up with your own VB/macro style program embedded.

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  20. I'm new to mac, so i'm still trying to find my way around the OS and most of the software. I'm still at school and have used MS office all my life and i am finding it hard to see the real difference between office for mac and iwork. when i got my mac i got office with it but i'm in two minds whether i should buy iwork as well, could anybody help?
    safe....

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  21. Keynote is a great program: People love the nice flow of keynote. I did some keynote for a client (multinational cosmetic company). They loved it so much that now I'm doing the next keynote for them right now actually. This program cost me 5$ (macboxset) and has already been wel payed for.

    I would like to see iweb getting a major refresh. Iweb has so much potential, but is too limited in the current state it is in.

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