Now we’re switching gears to iWork. Create a version of iWork for the iPad. Initial reaction was that they were really heavy duty apps that require a lot of horsepower. Could tablet power them? Answer was a resounding “you betcha.” Could we come up with an entirely new interface for these apps? Very different from a personal computer.
10:58 PT - DM: So here’s Phil Schiller to talk about iWork on the iPad.
10:59 PT - DM: Schiller: iWork is a suite of applications that millions and millions of our customers really love. Home, business, and school customers can do word processing, presentations, and spreadsheets. Can you bring this software to a multi-touch product.
10:59 PT - DM: Completely new version of Keynote designed just for the iPad. Complete new version of Pages—the most beautiful word processor that you will ever see. And Numbers: a spreadsheet that is fun and cool to use—when’s the last time someone told you that? And Phil’s going to give us a demo.
11:00 PT - JS: Putting a “work” suite of apps on this device is a big deal, because it says that it’s not just a toy, not just for recreation, but also for people who want to get work done. That’s interesting because it broadens who Apple will sell this product to.
11:00 PT - DM: Keynote first. Keynote runs in landscape because slides are designed horizontally. First thing you see is slide library. Presentations that we’ve created in Keynote. Tap a button to create a new presentation, access to tempates. Choose one and you get the layout. Menu items on top and slide navigator on the left. Scroll with your finger to move around the slide navigator. Go to a slide? Just tap on it. Text, tables, charts.
11:02 PT - JS: I assume that Amazon will be allowed to build its own app for iPad, as it has for iPhone. So there may be an outlet for Kindle owners.
11:01 PT - DM: How do you move a slide around in the navigator without a keyboard or mouse? Tap and hold, drag it wherever you want and now you’ve rearranged your slide. Can select multiple slides by tapping and holding and then tapping additional slides. Here’s a slide with images: how do you get those in? Grab them from your photo albums with a media navigator. Drag your photo where you want. To resize, grab a handle and start resizing. Want to match size? While resizing tap another photo and it matches. Want to do a mask? Just tap and pan around.
11:03 PT - DM: What else? Animations. Tap the animation mode. Tap an animation, and you can choose one and it previews it. With just a finger you’re doing very advanced slide animation techniques. Hit the play button and we’re presenting. Tap or swipe to go forward.
11:04 PT - JS: The more I see about this device, the more I start to think that Apple really does want you to replace your laptop with this thing. At least for some tasks that people currently use laptops for because there’s been no other option.
11:04 PT - DM: So that’s Keynote. Let’s look at Pages. Same sort of set up at the beginning: a library of documents, and access to templates. Scroll through the text. Tap anywhere and up comes a keyboard. And there’s a ruler—The most beautiful ruler you’ve ever seen! says Phil. New tool called Page Navigator. Hold finger on the right and it brings up a loupe that lets you skim through your pages. Automatic text wrap around a graphic. Tap and drag an image around and it automatically reflows text. Tap the info button to bring down control panel to change text styles.
11:06 PT - DM: And last, Numbers. Library of spreadsheets, templates. Tabs along the top: one doc can hold many spreadsheets. Here’s what you can do without a keyboard and mouse. Rearrange columns by tapping and and dragging. Move the columns to the end of the table and it auomatically updates linked chart.
11:08 PT - JS: Okay, some questions. Where do all these documents get saved, how do you view and open, and more importantly, how does it sync? Over a wire? Over the network? To a computer, or the cloud?
11:07 PT - DM: What about adding new rows of data and adding a subtotal? Tap button bottom left to add column and then double tap to bring up specific keyboard for data entry. Access to numbers, forumulas and functions, and text. Just want to add a sum on the coumn. Tap the SUM button and it automatically figures out the formula needed. Then just tap the green checkbox and we’re done. If you want to fill that across all of them. You could copy and paste, but it’s faster to just fill (uses same pop-up style menu as Copy/passte on the iPhone I note). Change style of graphs.
11:09 PT - JS: All this entry does make us ask the question, are you expected to type only on this device, or is there some sort of external keyboard option from Apple? Because if I could take iWork with me on the road, I might not want to type that entire Pages document by touchscreen.
My daughter just called me after sending me a link to the show and they had heard the base model would be $100?
11:10 PT - DM: Shows the power of the iPad to take difficult and advanced applications. So what are we going to charge? Just $9.99 each for applications. Three completely new apps, with new user interfaces, compatible with iWork on the Mac. Easily connect to projectors (aha!). Buy on the App Store, right from the App Store.
11:11 PT - DM: Steve’s back. The iPad syncs with iTunes on your Mac/PC just like the iPhone or iPod touch. Sync Photos, Music, Movies, TV shows, Contacts, Claendars, Bookmarks, Applications. Backups are synced back. Ever lose your iPad and get another one, restore it right from the backup.
11:12 PT - DM: Let’s talk about wireless networking. Every iPad has Wi-Fi, but we’re also going to have models with 3G cellular wireless data built in as well. Now, what does it cost for the data plans? In the US, telecoms charge about $60 a month for data plans for laptop. We got a real breakthrough here, two awesome plans for iPad owners. First one gives you up to 250MB a month. Most people will get by on that: just $14.99. Unlimited data if you feel you need more, for just $29.99. Breakthrough deal with AT&T. (Yes, it’s AT&T people.) And free use of Wi-Fi hotpots all throughout US.
11:14 PT - DM: Now how do you turn this on and manage it? Don’t have to go to store, just activate it on iPad. No contract: it’s pre-pay (somebody seriously just gave a whistle to that). Cancel anytime. We think it’s phenomenal.