Lots to mention

It's been an inexcusably long time since I posted anything here. Admittedly, my main weblog has been kept busy, while neglect here can be explained by the fact that my Blogger efforts were always intended as experimental at best, as research for weblog recommendations for friends. But still …

It's been a busy time on the Mac front since Macworld San Francisco. Not only did we get the iPod Shuffle and the Mac mini, but Apple also released iLife '05 and iWork '05 at that time, and we've also since seen revamped PowerBooks and iPods. I've gone into some detail over at Jim's Rants about much of this, including my experience with iLife and iWork. Saying a bit more here, 1. I think it's fair to sum up iPhoto 5 as a bit of a mixed bag, packed with lots of seemingly excellent new functionality but unfortunately also packed with problems (crippled sharing between machines, an apparently inferior Red Eye-reduction tool, much slower than advertised delivery of photo books). I can't comment on the other iLife components because I haven't used any of them since the upgrade; 2. Keynote 2 is an excellent piece of software; and 3. Pages is a wonderfully promising example of Apple's unique ability to produce something truly original, representing a brilliant halfway house between word processor and page layout application and achieving this in an original and innovative way.

While many of the many carpers among the Mac faithful have lamented the fact that the PowerBook range still does not run on G5 processors, it seems to me that the latest range of professional laptops from Apple is just about perfect in terms of specification and pricing. It's especially nice to see AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth (version 2, no less!) built in, while the inclusion of 512 MB memory is a move which should really spread to the entire Mac lineup. If I hadn't bought a 14" iBook only last July, I could see myself seriously tempted by the new 15" PowerBook model (backlit keyboard, 8x SuperDrive, Gigabit Ethernet — sweet!).

The changes to the iPod line are very much give and take by Apple. Price reductions are nice, a 6GB iPod Mini is nice, a second Photo version is nice — but I can't say I like the trend towards providing less cables and accessories as part of the price, and I don't at all like the change from Firewire to USB 2 as the default connection method, and it seems a pity that the 40GB iPod model has disappeared. The pricing across the range makes eminent sense now (moving up in $50 steps makes it quite clear where added value fits in. As the range now stands, and if I were actually in the market for an iPod, I would definitely plump for the last remaining iPod. Forget your Shuffle, your Mini, your U@ Special Edition, your Photo. A 20GB iPod for €320 sounds just about right to me.

Finally, I need to come back to Pages, the new component within iWork '05. It's a long time since I've seen a new Apple product meet with such negative feedback in forums and within the Apple Discussion site. There has been thread after thread after thread damning Pages with a vengeance. In my opinion the criticism is totally unjustified and has been carried to extremes by people who just 'don't get it'. Complaints generally speaking fall into three camps: (1) Pages doesn't behave like other WP/page layout software I've used, (2) it isn't the replacement for AppleWorks or the Office killer I expected it to be, and (3) its import/export capabilities aren't up to scratch. With regard to either being the new AppleWorks or being an Office 'killer', it will probably never be marketed and realistically never could be an Office killer, while Steve Jobs described iWork '05 as 'building towards' being the new AppleWorks. As it stands, Keynote 2 is a quite superb presentation software package already, and we'll have to wait to see if other components (spreadsheet, database) are added to the iWork mix next year. Moving on to what many see as 'problem' no. 1 (not behaving like other software), I have absolutely no sympathy at all for the people who make this complaint. Comments like 'I can do this in Word. Why can't I do it in Pages' or 'I can't believe this basic (it's always 'basic'!) facility isn't included' annoy me terribly. Why do these people want Apple to produce software which is just the same as software which is already out there? What is the point of this? What Pages does remarkably well is bring new ideas to the old table of the word processor/page layout application. Even at Version 1 it offers a unique halfway house between these two extremes, and it does it in an original and innovative way (I especially like the implementation of Style, and the concept of the Layout Break). Finally, the Pages section in Apple Discussions has been snowed under by people complaining about Apple not living up to their advertising when it comes to import/export and the hairy old chestnut of 'communicating with the real world'. This annoys me even more! One guy stuck at it relentlessly, over and over again making the same two points: Apple said export to Word would work, but it doesn't; and Pages cannot expect to be used for serious work unless export to Word works as expected. My take on this is that this guy simply misses the point when it comes to his second point. If people have been using Word to produce page layouts then they've been using the wrong tool in the first place. He kept on saying that it is essential to be able to export to Word so other people can edit work done in Pages. My take is that if we're talking about editing text, then this should not enter into the equation since the text should be finalised before the page layout stage is reached. And if 'editing' needs to be done by higher-ups of work done in Pages, then PDF is the proper sharing route to use, and the higher-ups can pass on any comments they have to make by describing them in email.

As far as I'm concerned, Pages is already a remarkable achievement. Apple's Pages development team have taken a difficult assignment and produced a fairly radical, original and innovative solution. The sheer look of a Pages document on screen is a joy to behold, while the live updating as graphics are resized and text reflows dynamically is a major achievement which should be praised rather than vilified. Pages requires some work, granted. It is so different that it really is essential to read the User's Guide to get a feel for it before plunging in off the deep end. One slight reservation I have is that perhaps it has proved to be to the detriment of Pages that the Keynote team were assigned to its development. In some aspects it is as if Pages has been forced into a Keynote mould which doesn't quite fit. On balance, however, I come down heavily on the positive side. I'm enjoying using it. I'm increasingly impressed by what ti can do and how it does it. I look forward to 1.1 update fairly soon which will address a few problems which definitely fall into the bug category, and this time next year I look further to as good an upgrade with Page 2 as Keynote 2 has turned out to be.