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April 12, 2007

software

So Leopard is delayed. What about iLife and iWork?

Posted Apr. 12, ’07, 5:40 PM PT by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen
Category | Software

ilifeiwork.jpg

I was greatly distressed by today’s news that Leopard will keep us waiting until the fall, but after the original wave of rage and denial passed over me, I began to wonder what this implied.

One particular issue that struck me is when — or if — we’ll see new versions of iLife and iWork. I don’t know about you, but January 2006 seems like very long ago… remember those very first Intel Macs, full of mysteries? How you couldn’t get used to the name “MacBook Pro”? Yeah, then. Well, that was also when we saw iLife ‘06 with full-screen editing in iPhoto, podcasting in GarageBand, and the shiny new iWeb (plus one slide with iWork’s new features).

After their absence from Macworld Expo 2007, it was generally assumed that iLife and iWork ‘07 would be released in the spring, their launch coinciding with Leopard’s. However, seeing Leopard’s new October ship date, I have to wonder what happens with the two iSuites. Are we ever going to see iLife ‘07, or will Apple introduce iLife ‘08 at Macworld 2008? Or will they drop the year references altogether and simply call the new releases “iLife 4” and “iWork 3”?

Another possibility is that the Cupertino wizards don’t know how to improve the suites, especially iLife, in a way that’s significant enough to require major new versions of every application. iWeb could certainly use many improvements, but the other apps are getting fairly mature. Would Apple go as far as updating the apps separately and breaking up the suites? That seems pretty unlikely to me.

What do you think? When will Apple come out with the new updates to iWork and iLife? What improvements could you see them adding?


15 Comments

definetheline said:

I think that iLife and iWork will be released along with Leopard in October. I also think that they will skip '07 altogether and just call it iLife '08.

April 12, 2007 6:15 PM
Robert Van Drunen said:

I think iLife and iWork we be released with Leopard. It was noted that when Jobs was using keynote for his Macworld Expo keynote it looked like he was using a version which was probably running on Leopard with core animation.

Having said all that it will be out next week.

April 12, 2007 7:09 PM
Jack said:

Garageband needs one thing: tempo changes in midi.

I think they might go with iLife, iWork Leopard edition, or something.

April 12, 2007 7:35 PM
R. Mansfield said:

I really liked iWeb except for the inability to insert HTML snippits. I'm under the assumption that this will be included in iWeb 2.0, and was seriously considering moving my site to it when it's released. I hate to think that it would be delayed. Maybe they will release iLife and iWork early to generate a little bit of revenue.

April 12, 2007 7:45 PM
Troy Marlowe said:

It feels to me like leopard is holding all of the cards. Don't put it past Apple to just build the next iLife into Leopard.

April 12, 2007 9:41 PM
Andre Da Costa said:

I have to agree with you that iLife has become a very mature product. Looking at the suite from the perspective a Windows user, if I owned a Mac, I probably wouldn't be using any of iApps except for iPhoto which I believe is true of many Mac users. Apple could offer iLife '06 as a part of new Mac purchasers preloaded with Leopard in October. Its not like they are obligated to release new version, the could probably provide updates to version '06 that brings new functionality to existing apps and takes advantage of Leopard.

April 12, 2007 10:03 PM
Mike Campbell said:

I really like iMovie, but hope the newer version exports movie files (mpeg, avi, & ETC) much better. Even when you export it in a high res and quality, it still comes out average at best

April 12, 2007 10:58 PM
George said:

I'd been holding out for iWork '07 in hopes of it having a spreadsheet program so that there would no need for MS Office. It seems like Microsoft will get my money after all.

I hope they improve iDVD. I suppose it's good enough for grandma to make a basic DVD with, but otherwise it's pretty lacking in features. I want resize sliders with numeric values attached so I could easily make buttons the same size. And more customization options for the templates.

April 13, 2007 4:12 AM
Joel said:

the tool palates in iWork are horrible. Why do I need to click on a different menu area to change the color of an object and then need to go back to change the alignment and borders. There can be SERIOUS work done improving the menus to give users more options without a bunch of menu switching.

April 13, 2007 5:13 AM
Walt Basil said:

Andre, I don’t know if I’m a typical Mac user or not, but I use all the “I” apps for everything. Some more than others. iPhoto at least a couple times a week for all my image needs from my camera to pictures I glean off the web to screencaptures (grab). I don’t work with images every day. iTunes, of course, every day for all my music and video content. iCal every day - handles all of my home and business scheduling. iChat every day - is my only IM program I use. I don’t use Keynote (because I never need to create a presentation) but I would if I had to. I use Pages every day for all my text uses from making labels for my coffee I roast to typing up my blogs. I use iWeb several times a week - for all my home web building needs (it replaced Dreamweaver which I then sold on ebay). I don’t create too many movies, but when I do I use iMovie and iDVD. I don’t use Garageband. I’ve played with it, but that’s it. Technically, it’s not an “I” app. ;-) There are two apps that I have bought and use almost if not every day, but only because there is no “I” equivalent: Quicken and A Cooks Book. On to the subject, I suspect that iLife and iWork will be tied into Leopard very much, and their release will coincide with it.

The delay does not bother me that much, if it means I get my iPhone on time. Everything I have works and works well with the exception of iWeb. It has grown long in the tooth with over 300 blogs, and takes 10 minutes to publish in order to make the simplest addition or change. Nothing I can’t work around and I only post a couple blogs a week. Hit publish, take out the trash, check the mail, come back and it is done.

April 13, 2007 7:11 AM
John said:

I'm sure there are a lot of updates that can be done on the iLife suite. iMovie can always have more video transitions,sound effects, and more capabilities which I'm sure Apple could include. Just like iDVD could go HDDVD compatible and Blueray compatible would be a major upgrade they could do and so much more. If we have to wait, it's ok because when we do get these apps they will be really good.

April 13, 2007 8:53 AM
Rob K Stefaniuk said:

Of all the iLife apps I make most use of iMovie and iDVD. It would sure be nice if they added the ability to use 2 (or more) sets of video and audio tracks to provide more creative freedom like crossfades and split screens in iMovie, maybe even multichannel audio.
iDVD sure would benefit from providing compressed audio to allow longer than 2 hour productions to fit on a 4G7 DVD. And, how about another little utility app that allows you to creat your own iDVD templates? Although I've managed to customize the existing ones into oblivion I'd still prefer to create my own styles from scratch in similarly simple forms without having to resort to using the pro apps.

April 13, 2007 8:56 AM
Paolo said:

I think a nice adition to iLife would be a Basic Drawing App...

Vector or Pixel based!!!

April 13, 2007 9:30 AM
exnihilo said:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned...

SPREADSHEET

Please Apple, free me from Excel like you have with Word!

April 13, 2007 9:54 AM
Chris Hokanson said:

I most of the iLife apps constantly, and in fact, I use iPhoto the least out of all of them. I use iMovie almost daily, iDVD fairly often, Garageband every day (podcast for work). I don't use iWeb because I have a WordPress.com blog.

To stay on subject, if waiting until October means a new iLife bundled with Leopard, I'm all for it.

But, I am also one of the many Mac users who will not be buying an iPhone, so having to wait for a new OS does suck. But I have faith in Apple, they'll work it out.

April 13, 2007 10:59 AM

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