Despite many assumptions to the contrary, it seems that Apple hasn’t forgotten iWork altogether as the company has today posted a job advertisement looking for a software QA engineer to work on the next generation of iWork software. The position advertisement is specifying a software engineer who can ‘work on the next generation of Desktop, Mobile and Web application/services‘. The position appears to be focused on bug detection, isolation and reporting in the iWork suite.
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Apple is apparently working to make the next generation of Numbers for iWork a reality as they looking to hire a Software Engineer to work as part of the Numbers team. The position, posted on Apple’s recruitment site, offers the opportunity ‘to deliver beautiful and engaging applications on the Mac and iPad platforms’ for the future direction of the software.
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Apple has just released a substantial update for iWork for both the Mac and the iOS versions of Pages, Number and Keynote. The update brings iWork up to version 9.3 on the Mac, and version 1.7 on iOS devices. The majority of the changes are bug fixes and tweaks, rather than entirely new features, or an entirely new version like, gasp… iWork’13.
There are a few notable improvements in the updates such as the ability to add reflections to objects and shapes, as well as improved track changes options that are compatible with both Pages and with Microsoft Word. There are also several new slide transition themes in Keynote and the ability to lock and unlock objects.
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Apple may be looking to expand the functionality of iWork on the web as it has just posted a job opening for an iWork Software QA Engineer that will work on the next generation of Desktop, Mobile and, notably, Web Applications and Services. This could potentially represent a new way of managing and editing iWork files stored in iCloud, beyond the ‘view-only’ function that it currently offers.
The iWork functionality on iCloud as it currently stands is actually pretty limited as it only allows the syncing of iWork documents and files to separate devices, which generally need iWork to be installed on them for any editing or content creation. An iWork web application, as referenced in the job posting, could potentially allow a limited feature version of iWork to run within the iCloud web framework, and therefore give users the ability to edit their documents directly in iCloud.
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While iWork on the Mac is still languishing in the last decade, a new report is suggesting that Apple has been working with Windows virtualization company VMWare on a special version of iWork for iPad. According to CRN (spotted by 9to5Mac), the new iPad app will utilize desktop virtualization to offer cloud versions of the iWork suite of apps (Pages, Numbers and Keynote). The app will essentially function as a separate infrastructure from iCloud, and will be predominantly directed towards the enterprise market.
The report notes that the new iWork software will go into direct competition with Microsoft, as the Apple rival has been rumored to be in the middle of preparing a Microsoft Office suite for the iPad. The launch of Office for iPad has been rumored to take place in March 2013, and as it stands, this new software will hopefully be making an appearance sooner rather than later.
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We’re now into the final few hours of iWork.com, Apple’s initial cloud offering for iWork users looking to store and share their documents online, and the service will soon be shut down forever. As announced by Apple, iWork.com is scheduled to shut down at the end of today, July 31, and all data, documents, spreadsheets etc will be wiped from the site, meaning that if you have anything still left on there, get it downloaded and saved right now.
The replacement service for iWork.com, iCloud syncing for iWork programs has recently been updated to allow full synchronization between iWork apps on iOS and OS X devices, and seems to be working pretty well. While many people, including us, had expected a substantial update to iWork by now, particularly in the context of the new Retina Display MacBook Pro, Apple just pushed out a couple of small tweaks, giving Retina Display compatibility and the ability to sync through iCloud.
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As part of their Mountain Lion launch day, Apple yesterday released an update today to iWork applications for both OS X and iOS devices in light of the release of Mountain Lion to the public. The company released updates for the iWork apps for iOS devices which added compatibility with the iCloud ‘Documents in the Cloud’ functionality, allowing automatic syncing between iWork on both Mac and iOS devices.
Together with the iOS app updates, the company released an iWork 9.2 update which updated the individual iWork apps to Pages 4.2, Numbers 2.2 and Keynote 5.2. This update also brought with it full iCloud syncing compatibility as well as voice dictation to complement the new feature in Mountain Lion. In addition, compatibility with the Retina Display of the new MacBook Pro was also included. While these updates are significant in the context of external factors, like the new MacBook Pro, iCloud and Mountain Lion, Apple itself notes that iWork is still in 2009 mode.
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Apple could be on the verge of releasing a major update to iWork for OS X, perhaps even releasing iWork’12, in the coming weeks, particularly in the context of the impending iWork.com shutdown. The company recently issued a warning to users of the iWork.com beta site offering a reminder that the iWork.com Beta will be discontinued on July 31st 2012. The service is being shut down due to the fact that iCloud is now predominantly responsible for online storage and syncing iWork files across multiple devices. As a result, iWork for OS X devices is going to require two major changes in the coming weeks to ensure full integration with iCloud.
The first change is actually relatively straightforward at first glance, but becomes more complicated if you look at it closely. If you look at the iWork suite of programs on Mac OS X, in pride of place, in the very center of the menu bar, there is a ‘Share’ button. If you hit this button then you will be invited to share your document, spreadsheet or presentation on the iWork.com Beta site. Obviously, with the site being shut down, the Share functionality for iWork apps will have to be revamped, but it will have to be revamped in such a way that it takes into account iCloud document storage and, given the recent precedent set in iOS, likely integration of Facebook and Twitter.
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Hot on the heels of the MobileMe shutdown, the iWork.com website will be suffering the same fate at the end of July. As such, with only one month until that takes place, Apple has begun sending reminder e-mails to registered users of the iWork.com beta site, reminding them that all documents that are stored on iWork.com will soon be removed and, as such, should be downloaded to a computer. Continue reading
Apple has today issued media invitations for a keynote media event on June 11 at the World Wide Developer Conference, scheduled to be held in the Moscone Center in San Francisco (via The Loop). While the company has not revealed the speaker of the keynote, it will likely fall to Apple CEO Tim Cook to deliver the address, as was afforded to Apple founder and previous CEO Steve Jobs. The keynote will kick off at 10am PST (1pm EST, 6pm GMT).
The keynote is where Apple will likely give out a little more information on the release schedule for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. However, the company could also deliver the first ever public glimpse of the next generation operating system for iOS devices, iOS 6. A few other announcements are also expected, such as the unveiling of an entirely new Mac line-up consisting of a Retina Display enabled iMac, as well as a redesigned, thinner Macbook Pro, also with Retina Display.
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