We just got a truckload of Macworld information dumped on us from our best source. As we piece it together we’ll trickle it out. The first big piece of information is that iWork is going into the Cloud. Not just storage, either. We are talking interface for Numbers, Pages and Keynote (which is going to see some interesting new templates and transition additions). Yes, the iWork applications are now going to be Web Applications.
This isn’t a huge surprise as the industry (Google, Microsoft, Zoho) is heading in this direction. Questions remain that we’ll try to get sorted ASAP. Will this work on iPhone/iPod touch? Will there be traditional apps that go along for offline access – or will this use Safari’s new Offline DB/SproutCore framework functionality? Stay tuned…
Oh, and we’ve heard there is going to be some “Magic” involved. (Yes this is a clue)
please let them finally add the following to keynote:
- layers control (it drives me mad to re-stack everything as soon as i have multiple layers)
- allow to loop animations
just two additions, but with huge impact imo…
This clearly is done with the iPad in mind. Much more than any existing Mac.
I’m also pretty certain that current iPhone/iPod touch models will not be able to use these web applications. Simply because their minimum screen resolution requirement is likely 640×480 or 800×600.
I expect the iPad (supposedly comming this fall) will be the main user for these – allowing Apple to transition to a true ‘NetPad’ (rather than ‘NetBook’) which seamlessly blends local data and applications with data and applications on the web.
This will be a true ‘Mobile Companion’.
I like the idea of introducing more MobileMe options for iWork, but if they get rid of the stand alone applications that is going to be disappointing. Let’s face it, the online applications Apple has already done are handy, but far from a desktop replacement.
if its half as good to use as this itll be cool :http://280slides.com/
So what else is going on?? give more clues about the MAGIC thing!!! I can’t wait!!
I can understand the iWork apps having a web interface, but there is no way the standalone applications will fail without Internet access.
In addition, I would be surprised if the web apps were this powerful.
If Apple are moving their own apps to a web interface and killing the desktop version, what does this say for third party software? Something about two feet short of doom, I expect.
So what else is going on?? give more clues about the MAGIC thing!!! I can’t wait!!
It would be a huge disappointment if Apple were to add the iWork suite to their Mobile Me service and discontinue upgrades to the offline iWork. I find MobileMe quite primitive and unreliable, especially compared to Google’s webapps. I have subscribed to MobileMe mainly, if not exclusively, for iDisk access and sync. Webmail is awful and full of glitches,
So what else is going on?? give more clues about the MAGIC thing!!! I can’t wait!!
So what else is going on?? give more clues about the MAGIC thing!!! I can’t wait!!
Don’t leave us hanging, let us know what you’ve got.
So what else is going on?? give more clues about the MAGIC thing!!! I can’t wait!!
Why does Apple hate dial-up users? First they took our built-in modems away. Then their Software Update downloads ballooned from 30MB to 300MB. Then they introduced iTunes Genius, which (for me) means a 90MB download every week. And now THIS??? I live in the woods in the middle of nowhere, I can’t get broadband here at any price, I’m lucky if I can get a reliable 33.6kpbs on my 24″ iMac. All it does is download — 24/7/365 — just trying to get caught-up. I would give my left nut for a 128K ADSL line but instead Apple gives me “The Cloud”. Only I don’t want “The Cloud” — I want to hear my telephone ring for the first time in months!!!
You are an idiot!! Move out of the woods. Do you expect the technology staying the same just for your majesty. Go get a life. You are lucky that you can still find a dial up service. You should give your both nuts and then Apple might think about it. Idiot!!!
I think its you who needs to get a life. I’ll give up my 110/10 MB connection at any day if I could live in middle of nowhere. BTW. Technology sucks… Its for guys with bad looks and small penises.
Hey that is not nice. We are all Mac users here…
Maybe he has a really nice cottage by a lake or something.
Noob, if you like Apple and still want to be in the middle of the woods (maybe you like trees or something, I don’t know….), there might be a solution…
Have you ever thought of using a satellite connection?
When I was in the dumps with my connection and couldn’t get Comcast, I was on the verge of signing up with DirecWay for a dish….
Yes, they are a little pricey with $70 a month service and roughly ADSL level speeds, but you know what? They may just about be the thing you need to finally walk on the cloud(s)
Give it a thought….
Yuu can catch them anywhere in the US as long as there is a clearing in the trees.
I cannot believe that you the biggest fucking idiot here jumps all over this guy just because he lives in a rural area that does not have access to high end connections readily available. Not everyone has a high speed service at their fingertips at all times, some people travel to areas that do not have high speed accessible 24/7.
Secondly, what if you have a “high-speed” internet connection but the service drops out multiple times per day? Services like Comcast, Verizon, etc. do NOT guarantee the stability of those connections. Just because the service is supposed to be high speed does not mean that it is that way every single minute of the day, it would be a bitch to be working on a document and lose that data because the connection goes out.
Some assholes…….like yourself are so misinformed about technologies. Just because it is available in your city does not guarantee that it will be available at your particular street address. I had Verizon trying to sell me their Fios service for over six months, I finally called to find out what they could offer to my home and business. After 45 minutes, they had set me up for a tech to install the system, connect service, etc. Waited for 3 weeks to get them there, after 10 minutes out at their truck the come back to inform me that the particular development I live in cannot get the Fios service.
This is something that should have been known prior to me waiting and getting started on the order. Is Verizon to damn dumb to market people for months, annoying those who get these solicitations in the mail everyday or week. Promising such great service, telling us how bad the competing service companies are, etc. Yet they are too freakin stupid to do their own research internally to make sure that a particular home or business address can actually receive the services without taking the consumer’s time up putting them thru all of that hassle and still not be able to provide.
Just my 2 cents!!!
If I were you I’d disable genius and not connect to the “cloud” for anything not necessary to live. I can’t even believe you posted on this site. It probably took you 10 minutes to load the pages.
If you are on dialup you need to work “offline”.
Many other PC Makers got rid of the Modem LONG before Apple did. I can understand if you don’t have access to high speed (people in the middle of nowhere), how this would be frustrating, but if you have access to High Speed and haven’t switched to it yet; all I can say is once you go High Speed, you don’t go back.
You can always get DIRECTV High-Speed Internet, so quit bitch’n and join the modern world.
http://www.mybluedish.com/
Apple isn’t about choice. Does Apple give us Blu-ray support?
Can I use an Apple program and burn my own HD disc from HD movies I have shot? Why not? iTunes/AppleTV that’s why. If I don’t want to save my work on the cloud or keep software on my computer will I have that choice?
It’s about money; they want to charge you for everything you do. every time you use a piece of software they want to charge you. every time you watch a movie or TV show in inferior so called HD quality, they want to charge you.
You’re driving me away Apple.
Apple doesn’t give us Blu-ray support, because many people think it’s never going to become mainstream. Why should Apple pay to license Blu-ray when clearly everything is heading to digitally stored files instead of some sort of optical storage disc?
Your question about burning movies doesn’t make sense. Are you asking if you can make your own HD video discs to play on other computers or other DVD players or something? If so, you can do that. You just need to do some looking for the right software. iTunes and Apple TV would be no reason to prevent people from burning there own discs. If you were actually asking if Apple has a program to rip HD disc you already own onto your computer, then no they don’t. Why? Because the Motion Picture Association of America will not allow the ripping of copy protected DVD’s and Blu-ray discs. That’s not Apple’s choice.
Your argument that Apple wants to charge for everything is ridiculous. When you buy a Mac you get the entire iLife suite included. None of that stuff comes on Windows computers, with the exception of a newly added photo storing program. iLife includes a lot in case you don’t know. Check out most PC’s and you will have to search for these programs to buy or download them from the internet.
Please stop this flame war.
Everyone should highlight their post and follow the following keystrokes:
ctrl-fn-F2, right, down, “ser”, right, “spe”, right, down, enter
They have proved with the MobileMe webmail UI that they are not capable of building a performant desktop app replacement web application. If this is the level of quality that the iWork cloud apps are going to be at then I wouldn’t use them.
That’s fine as long as I have the option of running them as Desktop Applications only.
Otherwise I’ll be moving to a open source Office Suite.
If you are in such a remote location with dial-up being your ‘only’ solution, consider going satellite and you’ll at least get around 500kbps or higher of a connection and will feel like you have been transported forward a century or two.
Just a thought.
woah wait-
isnt snow leopard not supposed to be pixel dependant? like wont it think of a line as a line and a circle as a circle instead of points arranged in a pattern?
if it was, not only would it make iwork compatible on all iphone/ipod touch models, but it would also mean that all apps in the app store would be compatible on an ipad and an iphone mini because it would not depend on resolution. (i know that the apps would have had to be reworked so that the code would display without dependance on pixels)
now im fairly new to this speculating thing and havent paid much attention to the snow leopard updates and info, so i could be wrong. however i remember this pixel independance thing and leopard in the same chapter of my brain.
cant wait to see.
“it make iwork compatible on all iphone/ipod touch models”
Apple would have to write a separate application to go on the iPhone OS. The iPhone OS does not support windows as we understand them.
“all apps in the app store would be compatible on an ipad and an iphone mini”
No. Apps in the App Store, and indeed most Apple apps, were designed with assumptions about screen size in mind. The iPhone SDK simply does not allow anything else.
Did Apple buy the creators of uniPaaS to build their system, then?
I don’t know if this rumor is true, but if it is it would be really unfortunate. The mac currently lacks a first rate Office Suite and iWork was beginning to show a lot of promise (although it wasn’t quite there). MS Office is embarrassment as a piece of software but it was the only real option for me.
There’s nothing inherently wrong about web applications except that they are almost universally slower and less feature rich than web applications. Further, I don’t really see the point of this for a word processor or a spreadsheet. Web applications make sense for programs that are data driven, where being able to access information anywhere is useful, such as an address book or email. But they make much less sense for software that is creation oriented. Further, web apps stop working when you don’t have an internet connection. Imagine having to pay $5 to pay for wireless any time your in an airport just so you can write a report or a memo. I suppose, at some point in the future, we’ll all get high speed access through our cell phone carriers at a reasonable price, but that day is a long way away and will probably not be a complete solution for people who travel abroad frequently.
I hope the real magic here is that Eddy Cue got the mobile division in shape.
@noob Resolution independence as explained by Caleb. http://www.cabel.name/2007/01/apples-next-generation-themes.html
This would be handy for the rumoured changes in format for the iPhone too – otherwise all those hard-coded bitmaps are going to go to waster…
@kendall015 Now *that* would be interesting…
“Magic” as in Disney/Pixar?
“Magic” as in “Magic iMovie” is my guess. Look at the latest Apple, Ink post.
Requiring web access to run an application has to be among the dumbest ideas ever floated in the annals of computer history. Of course, in some cases it is unavoidable….hmm, can I think of one?
If Apple is moving in this direction, then they have lost their minds completely. Even if it were a free application, it would make more sense to run it on a local machine. But to pay for a virtual application invites more and more trouble as the system evolves. Imagine everybody losing use of their computers instantly, rather than just access to the internet.
I cant believe Apple would be that dumb. It is more likely that they are shilling enhancements, like iTunes shills music. Templates, etc., and perhaps tighter integration with me.com, rather than moving to a web app.
Everyday i face the problem of going into college, and being forced to use a Windows network. For those of you unaware, Word ruins Pages bad. I would love the ability to work with my documents, and print them, how i want them to look, not how Word wants to lay it out. In addition, it is becoming a pain converting my Keynote presentations to Videos, which won’t play unless i ask my tutor nicely to download QuickTime. Trust me, i would love this. That is of course, if it offered an off-line version as well.
Oily – “Everyday i face the problem of going into college, and being forced to use a Windows network. For those of you unaware, Word ruins Pages bad. I would love the ability to work with my documents, and print them, how i want them to look, not how Word wants to lay it out.”
I don’t understand why Word would even have the opportunity to “ruin Pages bad”. You DO have the ability to work with your documents and print them the way you want them on a Windows network.
1) Work with your document in Pages
2) Save as/Export to PDF
3) Email it to yourself (put it on a thumb drive)
4) Open on PC
voila…
5) Print
See? You’ve just brushed another layer of Office dependency off your shoulders. And you learned how to do it without having to pay for credit hours.
Thanks, I do do that, but I still wish I could make last minute edits to my work before they print. The Keynote this is a big pain tho.
Magic would be the name of the offline thingy, as Bonjour, yada yada
Any announcement of iWork being ported to MobileMe should be accompanied with an update to Safari. It has been spoken of at great lengths – in Snow Leopard and Safari, there is a *mysterious* feature “Save As Web Application”. So that solves that dilemma.
I work in IT, and I really like this direction Apple is taking. They are removing the dependence on a physical machine. You jump on another Mac and enter your MobileMe account settings and you now have what appears to be your machine.
This is what has been done with thin clients on the enterprise end for well over a decade. Sure the application on the Web End won’t be on par (performance and feature) with the Desktop at first, but over time this will change. Just because there is an online version does not mean development will cease on the desktop end. That is very narrow minded thinking.
And anyone using dial-up should only look in the mirror if they are trying to figure out who to be mad at.
“There’s nothing inherently wrong about web applications except that they are almost universally slower and less feature rich than web applications.”
That’s a BIG “except”!
And for ‘slower’, I’d say mind-numbingly slower. Last time a client required me to use Google apps, it drove me mad. Copy something on one page – click – dum-de-dum-de-dum, while it goes to the next page – click. iWork going online, with present technology, would cause an insane lowering of my productivity. I don’t think Apple are that dumb, to say the least.
“Word ruins Pages bad.”
I exchange documents with Word users practically every day. I prepare docs for them and export to Word. Or I get material to work on, import to Pages, edit and export back to Word. Only a couple of times have I had small layout glitches. So it can be just fine. Maybe your documents are pretty complex?
I’n not talking about just words on a page, plus a few pictures. I mean big project which involve complex layouts and designs. I’m not just saying Word ruins Pages because I hate Word, I don’t. I am constantly moving my work to Word, only to find pictures moved halfway across the page, text overlapping, or a picture with its background put back in.
Yes there are places on this planet that still live down a technology dirt path. We are unable to see the satellite without a 100 foot tower, and due to our northern location we would need a larger antenna. Our phone lines are poor and many won’t run DSL and those that do are slow. We will loose TV (no loss there) in February too. Hills that allow a crappy analog signal to work block the signal strength for a digital all or nothing signal. Technology is great but I won’t give up the moose in the garden and the foxes in the dog yard and the northern lights dancing overhead at -40 on a clear night for high speed.
Where exactly?
But iWork as a web app only suite = no sale. That’s just renting your software. Jobs ranted about people don’t want to rent their music so why would they assume that people want to rent their application?
Give me an updated iWork app with big improvements and offer web features for MobileMe (which I plan to get anyways) and my $79. But if you expect me to pay $79 for a lesser performer I’ll make my way to other product
It’s hard to believe you guys even use computers. What a bunch of old-timers you all are for dissing this idea.
If you think for like, ten seconds (!) you will realise that Apple won’t discontinue the local version of iWorks even if they introduce an online version. How can this be anything other than a *bonus* that they are boldly moving towards device independence by adding these new capabilities? How can this be anything but good news for MobileMe which is currently looking for a reason to exist in the first place?
Anyone who knows anything about the industry and has thought bout general trends knows that this is the way things are going, the only question is whether apple is moving too soon, or too late. I would argue they are moving at just the right time, since similar services already exist but the concept has only caught on with creatives and original thinkers so far.
So you don’t always have access to the web, so what? Ever heard of “syncing?” It’s what all the kids are doing these days.
**Yes, the iWork applications are now going to be Web Applications.**
That’s a pretty definitive statement. It doesn’t say iWork applications will support online versions it almost posits that a transformation from Desktop to Web apps is going to happen. Going to “be” is different from going to “have”
I’m hopeful that Gazoobee is right. A few years ago I moved my document production workflow out of MS Office into IWork and never looked back. Pages is perfect for short to medium length documents. Also, I probably use the suite in ways not intended; e.g. laying out business cards, eCards and other non-standard stuff in Keynote. This works great because one Keynote file can manage version history for a project on a slide-by-slide basis.
I need iWork to remain fast and relatively feature-rich in my production space and would also use the cloud versions when traveling to a client site for design reviews or presentations. A hybrid disk + cloud product offers the best of both worlds.
what we really need is a system-wide iLife library that shares all photos, music, movies, etc. with every user (or specified user) on the same Mac.
Am I the only one who this issue having one Mac with several user accounts and no way to manage digital pics between all accounts?
Yes, there’s a hack. Yes, you can duplicate your iPhoto library (mine is 50GB) and copy it to all other accounts. Give me a NAS with iPhoto server!
My iPhoto Library resides on my main desktop machine in “/Documents/Pictures” instead of in my user account. Every user on the machine points to this common library for their iPhoto. This is not a hack. Just make sure to open up permissions for read/write to every user that you trust not to blow anything away. Oh, and keep backups also, just in case your trust is misplaced.
Also, I have “exported” that directory, and all of our Macs (including laptops) automount it on startup. Thus, I can work with the same iPhoto library as any user and from any machine in my house.
I have done the same thing with my iTunes library, but it is a little trickier to handle, because it manages music differently than iPhoto manages images. I suspect that the difference has something to do with the digital rights management going on with purchased music.
Basically, what I’m telling you is that it is already possible to accomplish what you are asking for. But I agree with you that Apple needs to simplify this process so that those who want to can just do it, as opposed to performing research and jumping through some hoops.
Thompson
quote:
“I expect the iPad (supposedly comming this fall) will be the main user for these – allowing Apple to transition to a true ‘NetPad’ (rather than ‘NetBook’) which seamlessly blends local data and applications with data and applications on the web.”
From my point of view, the best solution to the “iPad/NetPad” would be native apps with cloud storage, iDisk/MobileMe, not net apps.
Net apps is a “follow me” for your native (desktop/iPhone/iPod touch) apps.
I really can’t believe the shortsightedness of people on this forum.
Everyone agrees that TODAY web apps on the Productivity front have been lackluster. This is true. Apple puts their stake in, eventually…
TOMORROW (not literally) Productivity web apps will be the de facto way of getting things done.
Face it, 10 years ago the thought of keeping your data on a “cloud” would have disgusted 90% of this forum. Now everyone thinks its a great idea because iTools, then .Mac and now MobileMe do it so well. It’s called progress and it takes time to refine.
If people are going to be negative and just post “That’s wrong, don’t do it” because they do not have the vision to understand or comprehend, then I am truly disgusted with the 9to5mac audience.
And if you live up there where there is no alternative to dial-up, I bet you can see Russia from your house! Isn’t that special!
Kingston
All you have offered us is mythical hope that web apps will become the future yet you have not illuminated this path that you seem to be able to clearly see but cannot articulate.
My theory is that web apps will NOT eradicate desktop apps but rather become an extension to what we have already. Gmail mail or rather web based email client is a killer web app feature but if you check out a product like Mailplane (http://mailplaneapp.com/) you will see why a hybrid Desktop/Web app can do.
With hybrid apps you have the ability to leverage the unique environment of the OS from scripting to services and other local API yet you still maintain that “access from anywhere” feature that is killer to many web apps.
We’re not seeing web apps taking over we’re currently seeing a trend where web apps are being accessed by desktop apps. From Twitter to Flckr to eBay and more you are seeing the familiar UI of the desktop app becoming the conduit for accessing and modifying web app content.
If Apple is smart they will indeed offer web app services to iWork as an adjunct to the improved desktop apps. I don’t think anyone is against web apps as a concept that supports desktop apps. Few of us want to fire up Safari to do most of our computing.
The people who are complaining about web-only apps are not being shortsighted.
It is the people who are pushing them that are being shortsighted.
The smarter people among us know basic rules of engineering that have taught us for thousands of years that the more parts and dependencies you have, the less reliable and capable any system is.
1000 years from now people will both want and need to run computers stand-alone.
Who’s being short-sighted?
I don’t see a lot of benefit here. I don’t need my desktop apps ported to the web. I want web integration with apps. Also some basic things are needed for mobileme before I would worry about this stuff. for example, I would like my notes to sync between mm, iphone and my desktop. same for todo. that is really really urgently, long overdue needed. I would also like a way to subscribe to any calendar, from any online source and see that on mobile me and my iphone, and ical.
Rather than the full app, having a web player for keynote presentations would be extremely useful. especially if it could be embedded like youtube can be.
I guess it would be cool to be able to open and edit a file in mobileme – that is a nice idea. its just not a high priority to me.
Has http://280slides.com/ not already done this for keynote?
This makes tons of sense!!! Now we wont be able to work in places like an airplane or a car ride. Excelllllentttt
“Magic” sounds like some kind of new input method.
I think it’s pretty obvious that the iWork web apps would work in tandem with desktop apps in the same way WebMail in MobileMe works in tandem with Mail.app on Mac and OS X touch. And as a satisfied MobileMe customer (I know, I know, such a rare thing) and a recent convert to Cloud Office Suites, I would welcome webapp versions of iWork.
Exciting to hear this! But “Announcemnt” should be “Announcement” in the title.
I want to see them add real mail merge to Pages so that I can give up using Word for that feature!
The smart thing would be a web version as a companion to the full apps. Buy the app, get access to the cloud version for a year, or something like that. Best of both worlds.
I would love to see this in the future!
Steve Jobs on Multi-TouchTM: “It works like MAGIC”
http://www.magicsoftware.com/
Everyone should remember here the fantastic work of 280 North with its framework: Objective-J, and Cappuccino (Cocoa on the web)
http://cappuccino.org/
Will Apple could possibly buy 280 North? No! They already has the source code of keynote.
I’m assuming Magic is a reference to Darin Adler, who wikipeadia calls the architect of “Magic Cap” a competing PDA OS to the Newton.
Oh just happens to be the Safari Engineering Manager
No more. No one should ever again be allowed to post an Apple rumor without also attaching a simple answer to the question “why would they do that?”
Apple’s guaranteed that the new iWork will be every bit as good as Mobile Me. No worries of having your financial information on their servers. And having you r personal vids available on the “Cloud” via iMovie is a fantastic breakthrough as well.
How many supporters of these ideas really ever read anything by George Orwell or Aldous Huxley? Check out WGBH Boston’s “Frontline” episodes regarding marketing demographics and future terrorist attacks on the internet.
Re: internet connectivity. Tie your self worth to the latest technology, bet we can find some stocks you really like too.
Web apps are good for one and only one thing, and that is when you’re using a computer that isn’t yours. In every other scenario it is better to have client software and some sort of data sync.
If you really only ever use your own computers, just download iwork/word on all your systems and sync your data via idisk or something.
But if you work for a business, or in a school, or otherwise routinely use computers that don’t have your software, or don’t have your software settings, or just don’t automatically sync with your data, then web apps start to make a lot of sense.
Lol, you misspelled “announcement.”
Does the magic clue have anything to do with Magic iMovie? You know, the wizard that helps make movies? Because magic iWork would be quite helpful to some.
If Apple is starting to turn their Mac applications into Web applications then that removes a huge benefit to owning a Mac. I just bought a Mac less than a year ago for the type of aps found in iLife and iWork. Had I known they were going to become Web apps, I would have saved my money.
Apple’s hardware has never been reasonably priced and, when they move all their apps to the Cloud, the licensing fees won’t be cheap either. Now that the Mac runs on Intel, I don’t buy Mac computers anymore, I convert Intel boxes into Hackintoshes/FrankenMacs. Consequently, I’ve been selling off my Macs (desktops and laptops) which Apple has orphaned as the Mac OS evolved. For example, I sold two Pismo laptops which cost me huge money for $200 and $100 recently. I still own a Mac iBook (PPC) which is probably the last Mac I ever buy.I’ve successfully converted 3 different desktops and two different laptops which run OSX86 hacked Mac OSX 10.5.5 without any problems into triple operating system boot (Windows,Mac,Ubuntu). One of the Hackintosh/Frankenmac desktops is a Dell Dimension GX270 which I found in the garbage and runs Mac OS 10.5.5 with a few driver hacks flawlessly. Apple’s apps, including iLife, also run without any problems. If Apple moves its apps to the Cloud, just as Mac OS X was hacked to run on non-Apple Intel boxes, their Cloud apps will be hacked to run independently of the internet.
Correction: Optiplex GX270, not Dimension.
I also converted a Dell Dimension 8400 desktop, HP Pavillion a1654n desktop, Dell D600 laptop, Toshiba M200 tablet laptop, etc., into Hackintosh/Frankenmac.
The Cloud is the expression of Larry Ellison’s (Oracle’s CEO) belief that computing power and apps should be on networked servers accessed by smart terminals, not in individual personal computers and the use of server supplied apps would be paid for like cell phone access – pay as you go, monthly and yearly contracts. All apps would be kept up to date by the service provider and would be virus free because the apps would be screened for viruses, etc., at the source (your terminal/computer may be infected but not the server supplied apps). Most important is the revenue streams provided to the apps service supplier and the apps developers. Individual possession of applications which run independent of the internet will become unavailable or, if they can run locally and independent of the internet, their use will be time limited and require further payments to maintain or re-establish use.
I like the idea of introducing more MobileMe options for iWork, but if they get rid of the stand alone applications that is going to be disappointing. Let’s face it, the online applications Apple has already done are handy, but far from a desktop replacement.