At a press conference yesterday, Apple announced several significant improvements to its hardware and software offerings. Several of these are significant for attorneys interested in or already using Macs in their offices.
Software :: Apple’s office suite, iWork ’08, is new and greatly improved, and it may now be a viable alternative to Microsoft Office.
- Numbers ’08 :: iWork now features a spreadsheet program. It is not as fancy as Excel, but it looks as though it will do everything that most attorneys will need, and it does them very simply and easily.
- Pages ’08 :: Apple’s word processor received many updates, including the addition of change tracking. This program not only does word processing, but it also serves handles page layouts well.
- Keynote ’08 :: I believe that Keynote was already vastly superior to PowerPoint before this update. Not only are there new templates, but Apple has included fantastic new text and transition effects and voice casting.
Hardware:
- iMacs :: The revised iMac features a thinner body, faster chips, a new keyboard layout, and lower prices.
- Mac mini :: Despite rumors that it was being discontinued, the Mac mini lives on. It received a small speed bump and Core 2 Duo chip.
Other:
- Apple introduced improvements to its iLife ’08 suite, primarily in iMovie and iPhoto.
- .Mac now features 10 GB of web storage and a Web Gallery.
Sources: "Apple’s iWork ’08: The Office For The Rest Of Us" by Ron McElfresh, published at Mac360 and "Apple’s August Announcements – What Was Really Important" by Chris Kerins, published at My First Mac.
I just bought pages, and this is my first experience using Pages. one thing though, how do you, or can you do a table of authorities on Pages?
Tony