The fine folks over at Ars Technica have done a very thorough review of what’s new in iWork ’09. Writing for Ars Technica, Iijitsch van Beijnum highlights what works in terms of the new features and what doesn’t.

New features reviewed:

• iWork Tutorials
• Template Chooser
• Send via email Share option
• iWork.com

Pages:

• Running word count
• Full screen mode
• Mail Merge
• Equations: MathType
• References: Endnote

Numbers:

• New number formats (duration, numeral system)
• Fill>Up, Fill>Left
• Formula List
• Reorganize Table function
• Category Rows

Keynote:

• Equations: MathType
• Share menu
• Touch gesture support for laptops with the latest trackpads
• Magic Move
• Text Transitions and Object Transitions
• Guide Lines
• New Presenter Display
• iPhone or iPod Touch Keynote Control app

Problems:

• No auto-save with any of the apps
• No support for OpenDocument format or SVG images
• iWork.com really doesn’t do much other than share documents

Pages:

• Endnotes & footnotes
• Equations: MathType

Numbers:

• Decimal point or comma and day and month still controlled by settings in System Preferences
• Reorganize Table panel is confusing

Keynote:

• No more export to Flash
• Send To>iDVD creates “terrible looking DVD’s”
• Missing some transitions from previous versions

van Beijnum concludes with:

“Other than the support for equations through MathType, and possibly references through Endnote, the improvements in iWork '09 are evolutionary, not revolutionary. When I look at the pros and cons in the iWork '08 review, they pretty much all apply to iWork '09, too. iWork.com and category rows are a nice try, but no cigar—yet. The only (possibly) compelling new feature is MathType. Everything else is mostly just polish.

So for the casual and non-mathematical iWork user, this upgrade isn’t really necessary. However, for the power users there is a lot to like, and for those who need an office suite, but don't have one yet, iWork'09 is a great value for the money. Microsoft Office may have more advanced features, and OpenOffice may be free, but neither of them is as polished, easy-to-use, or well-integrated with Mac OS X as iWork.”

If you’re on the fence on whether or not to upgrade, the review is a very good read. You can also download the 30 day iWork ’09 demo over at Apple.

Tags:review, iwork

Here they are:

New iLife:

iPhoto: new ways of organizing and finding photos: face recognition, geo tagging, new slideshow themes and Facebook and Flickr integration.

iMovie: dynamic themes, animated 2D and 3D travel maps, precision editing, better audio options, image stabilization.

GarageBand: Artist lessons that you can buy through iTunes.

New iWeb as well.

New iWork:

Keynote: slick new transitions, Magic Move, theme chooser, 3D chart animations, Keynote iPhone remote.

Pages: more templates via new theme chooser, full screen option, mail merge with Numbers, dynamic outlines.

Numbers: 250 new functions, easier formulas, theme chooser, better charting, links to Pages to update data on the fly.

iWork.com: share documents and add notes.

New 17 inch MacBook Pro with new battery: up to 8 hours per charge, up to 1000 charges, non-replaceable.

DRM Free iTunes! 8 million tracks DRM free now and the rest will be DRM free by the end of the quarter. Higher quality encoding as well. Three prices for songs: $0.69, $0.99 & $1.29. Available on your iPhone via 3G.

All in all a pretty decent MacWorld. Too bad it’ll be the last one.

Tags:announcement, rumor, update, macworld, ilife, iwork

9to5Mac is reporting that iWork 09 will debut at MacWorld. That’s plausible but the real kicker is that they’re reporting that Apple is moving the apps to the cloud. You heard that right: supposedly Pages, Keynote and Numbers will all become web apps.

If anyone could do Cloud computing right Apple would be the logical choice. We’re not convinced, though. Cloud computing certainly has its place but for most people web apps can’t fully replace a desktop version at this time. Google apps are nice and in general work pretty well but we’d never give up our desktop versions of Numbers, Pages, or even Excel for that matter.

The report is of course a rumor so grains of salt should be taken. We’d certainly welcome an upgrade to iWork and if Apple were to integrate the suite with existing MobleMe services they could score a serious home run. Imagine Keynote on your iPhone or iPod Touch. That would be extraordinary! Here’s to this rumor sort of being true.

Tags:rumor, iwork