Apple takes on Google and Microsoft with iWorks real-time collaboration
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
Usable keyboard, multiple logins, gDocs collaboration, low replacement cost, etc etc etc.
The fact that the iWorks collaboration was highlighted in an education talk tells me a lot.
The iPads had iWorks pre-installed, so I imagine they'll be using this feature.
Too little too late. Our switch to chromebooks took place last year and the planning probably started a year or so before that.
I also don't see where iOS' "Shared iPad" feature lets you log in to any iPad anywhere like a Google Apps account would.
You can certainly log into any iPad in the school.
Regarding other devices, AFAICT you log into Shared iPad with a 'Managed Apple ID', which you could probably also log into on icloud.com or use natively from personal Apple devices you have, though since macOS and iOS currently only support one iCloud account configured at a time (per user account in the former case) the utility would be limited, as you'd probably also have a personal Apple ID.
These are definitely not the best laptops Lenovo has designed. Pretty much the bulkiest 11" laptop you can buy with the worst display, the worst keyboard I have ever touched and the crappy battery life and the fan noise are legendary...
But in the end, both were better than anything I had when I grove up. So yeah, basically "kids today..."
There have been issues with the touchpad as well, although my daughter's has been fine.
So, yes I wish they used Chromebooks. We could at least just buy a new one, log in, and have everything there ready to go.
One of the biggest problems with Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's laptop division is their constant dilution of the ThinkPad name. Initially, in the first few years after the acquisition, Lenovo introduced a line of budget devices under the 'E' series and these were not marked with the ThinkPad identity because they were of significantly poorer construction and did not come with the same warranty and service options. In the years since, though, they've started slapping the ThinkPad name on these and a number of new low-cost product lines.
In practice, it's only really a ThinkPad if them model number starts with a T, W, or X. Unfortunately Lenovo itself is working hard to eliminate this distinction, positioning ThinkPad as another Dell or HP instead of as a high-end enterprise and luxury product line.
I've had a bunch of ThinkPads over the years and two are still in use.
I have a T520 that I now use basically as a terminal. It's a very creaky, heavy, machine that never gave me more than about 3 hours of battery, and the keyboard was terrible. But it sits there and keeps working (I use an external keyboard, monitor, and mouse).
I also have a ThinkPad Yoga 12.5. I really like the keyboard, but again the battery life isn't weak (4 hours). I occasionally think about getting something a little bigger, but the small size is pretty nice for traveling.
You buy thinkpad for the great keyboard the red-dot-whatsitsname-thingy. And the fact that it can stop bullets. But not for the battery life.
If for no other reason, that Google Apps is the default office suite on Chromebooks, Google Apps for Education is free, and Google Classroom is included with that. Most schools don't have much in the way of a technology budget, so they win by default.
Kits like Osmo are a great example of this.
iPads are great for certain purposes like the Osmo. They're a relative failure when it comes to typing up a book report or creating a group slide presentation.
Osmo, one of the best and most funded education software startups, doesn't even make Android versions.
Probably the higher up you get the less students are using "educational software" and more just common productivity programs and I'd suspect the gap between platforms fades away there for general purpose reports, presentations, etc.
Given that advanced CAD software nowadays run inside a browser, I think the chromebooks will work just fine even the higher up you go.
I think they did the right choice, in this context chromebooks are significantly better than tablets, phones or even "real" laptops.
If they had forced us to "learn to code" in kindergarten I would probably be a truck driver now.
This idea that every kid must learn to code is stupid and harmful.
Any ideas as to why this is worth Apple's time?
(This isn't an anti-Apple rant: I am a heavy user of their hardware).
But the home point is a good one: Numbers was great for making up a weekly chores sheet for the kid, easily decorated with fun photos and such. Still: does that justify Apple's investment?
You are right that Apple needed iWork for iOS/Mac because they couldn't depend on Microsoft. But, now that they've got iWork it's another tentpole Apple can use to keep consumers locked into their platform.
Keynote for iOS also serves as a very reliable and easy to set up presentation remote.
If I send a non-Mac-user a Keynote presentation they'll import it to PowerPoint and send me back that, which I have to import, etc.
I find it interesting that web apps are actually better than desktop apps for this stuff. Even five years ago I would have questioned that ever happening.
Apple's works apps are vastly better than microsofts. Yes, Microsofts do have 30+ years of features shellacked on like so many layers of paint, but I've never needed to do something in Works that I haven't been able to do. And the hassle of dealing with the terrible UI, and terrible experience of microsoft products effectively renders their (presumed I don't really know at this point) additional features useless.
I regularly use Pages, Numbers and Keynote. All three are great and I value my macs that much more because they are there.
Recently I tried downloading LibreOffice because I wanted A visio like drawing program. I've been looking for one of these for years and they all suck- Omnigraffle, visio, etc.
MacDraw was perfect, it's exactly what I need.
Only drawback in Works is there's no Macdraw replacement. (eg: a sorta object oriented drawing program- the drawing capabilities of keynote are very close and so that's what I use.)
Google docs apps are far less capable than the Works apps. Calling them toys seems silly. Google's apps are clumsy yes, but they don't do much at all, nothing more than Works as far as the areas I care about... and they run in the browser poorly. Even Works apps work better in the browser.
Google Docs is free, but as a browser-based interface it's slow and nowhere near the kind of native experience Apple likes to promote; it requires an internet connection on anything but Chrome; it will never be a poster child for the latest macOS features like trackpad-pinch-to-zoom or Versions or the share sheet or whatever. That's on the desktop; on iOS, Google has a set of native apps but they're quite feature-limited.
Also, both Word and Google Docs are owned by companies that directly compete with Apple, and the apps promote the respective company's ecosystem (e.g. for storage, they push you to OneDrive and Google Drive respectively rather than iCloud). For better or worse, Apple wants to control the whole experience and make it all seamless. Not to mention that Apple probably wants to avoid situations where in the future it could be held hostage to some extent by the owner of a 'must-have' app for its platform.
There are less popular alternatives, but they all have their own problems.
Personally, I neither need to open people's Word documents nor have particularly strenuous requirements for a word processor or spreadsheet (or presentation software, but I'm pretty sure Keynote has some fairly decent pluses compared to PowerPoint anyway). So I am quite satisfied by iWork.
Interesting example, considering Drive had that way before Apple did.
Office 2016 does have realtime collaboration in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, in both the desktop and online apps.
Source: I work on Office for Mac at Microsoft.
Edit: Looks like they fixed it.
If they had spent the last decade making iWorks a replacement for Office (making it handle Excel, for example), they would be in a really good place right now. Instead, it's hard to take them seriously.
It's a far better application than anything Microsoft or Google is giving. Google's only run in the browser, and poorly compared to Apple's browser choice, and Microsofts is expensive, buggy and while it has immense numbers of features it has terrible UI.
No. Again, if they had stopped playing around with the UI, stopped playing with file-formats in a way that breaks backwards compatibility, and instead focused on making the product more useful than Office (especially focusing on making Numbers a viable product), they would be in a good spot now.
None of the points you made are true. Granted things like UI can be very objective, but how someone can with a straight face say Excel is uglier than Numbers (have you seen those awful randomly colored icons?) is beyond me.
"On stage, Susan Prescott — Apple’s vice president of product management and the first female presenter at Apple’s event"
Aren't there sufficiently talented women -- and also people of Hispanic and Asian ancestry -- who could serve as leaders and role models at Apple?
Improving diversity requires changes in hiring, promotion and culture. It will take time for the number of employees who are part of underrepresented minorities to rise and for them to rise in rank until they eventually become part of the generation that replaces the generation that currently fills the executive team.
I'm a feminist, I like Apple and I want it to become a more diverse company because I think that's good for society and I think it would allow Apple to make better products and push the industry even more to innovate. I do think Apple is trying, I don't think they're doing quite as well as they could. It's perfectly fine and necessary to criticize, to push them but there is no magic button that Tim Cook can push and make everything instantly better. No matter how much you may want to, stopping decades of discrimination takes time and undoing the damage it caused takes longer still. It sucks and it's not fair but I understand that people are angry about it but it's not fair to blame Tim Cook for it. And quite frankly, if you believe that a gay man from Alabama doesn't care about discrimination and wouldn't push that magic button if it existed, I'm not sure there is anyone capable of satisfying your expectations.
This thing going on where one just looks at %person%, acknowledges that they are (A) old (B) white (c) male or (D) all of the above and basing all value judgments on those variables regardless of other externalities or facts like what their sexual orientation might be and how it could possibly inform endeavors of intersectionality and diversity within a corporation that we simply aren't privy to as consumers BECAUSE of said variables seems to me like flipping the script on discrimination and bias and overcorrecting hard, right into the side of a building, and what's more it seems destructively infantile.
They also had some of the same set on stage the prior year.
Don't believe the BS Spin TechCrunch writes-- they are about as credible as the weekly world news.