iThoughts 2.0: New Blog, Same User

This past Monday Apple kicked off it’s Worldwide Developers Conference with the usual keynote by Steve Jobs. Here the charismatic CEO addresses the Mac faithful on the how the company is doing and also introduces new software or hardware. The focus this time was on the iPhone. The new 2.0 software features were demoed, a new mobile and desktop synchronization service announced, and of course the expected 3G upgrade.

So, what do I think of the announcements? I’m very interested in the 2.0 software update and the App Store. Running local programs on the iPhone will be much better that the current Web app solution. The whole iPhone/Mac sync that’s currently available via .Mac is not implemented very well. The new service, MobileMe, will have your email, contacts and calendars sync over the air, which is very cool indeed! Finally the iPhone 3G. I’m kind of bummed that I couldn’t wait long enough for this version to come out. Nevertheless, I have no regrets in getting my current iPhone because I’ve used it to it’s full capacity during the time I’ve owned it. Will I consider the new handset? Not now, but maybe in the future when they upgrade the storage to 32 GB.

Those who were still on the fence because of price, the time to get an iPhone is now!

Well, not exactly now. July 11, actually. Better start getting in line!

Those who’re in my circle of friends know me well enough to confirm that I’m a Mac Evangelist. Almost everything and anything Apple produces I lust over and try to get others to feel the same way. But, in certain circumstances, you have to look outside the company’s offerings to get things done.

Enter Microsoft Office: the necessary evil of the business world. This suite of apps has a stranglehold on the productivity market. Many companies have adopted the software giant’s cash cow as their defacto tool for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, leaving little space for other competitors to offer any alternatives.

In 2003, Apple tried to make a dent in Office’s impervious force field by releasing Keynote, a presentation software with stunning visuals, sleek transitions and their trademark ease of use. Even though it wasn’t touted as direct competitor to PowerPoint and lacked certain advanced features, at a $99 price point it was pretty obvious the direction where the engineers at Cupertino were headed: to offer an affordable productivity tool for use at home, school or even the workplace.

Let’s skip ahead to today. Apple now offers a suite named iWork, which includes Pages, a simple, yet robust word-processor and visual page-layout program; Numbers, an easy-to-use spreadsheet application with gorgeous graphs; and, of course, Keynote, including even more eye-catching transitions, templates and advanced features. All this for a mere $79. Huh? What’s that? How much for Microsoft Office for Mac? A whopping $400 bucks!

Ok, ok. Before I get the Microsoft-nerd hate mail, I’ll admit I have Office installed on my computer and use it fairly often. This is due to the almost daily exchange of .doc and .xls her at work, but personally I prefer to use iWork for my personal projects. Know what else? I can open those files in either Pages or Numbers and they almost look better! Oh, and I don’t bother PowerPoint. Keynote wins hands down!

So, if your business thrives on anything made in Word, Excel or PowerPoint and you have the money to burn, Microsoft will gladly take your dollars. On the other hand, if you need an affordable and uncomplicated way to be productive on your Mac, give iWork a try.

Trust me. It’s so nice to see my Mac OS X Dock Microsoft-free!