Apple iWork suite gets Retina and Mountain Lion refresh

Apple has given its iWork suite for OS X a Retina refresh, polishing Pages, Keynote and Numbers so that they look their best on the high-resolution MacBook Pro. The updated versions, which are also brought up to speed to support Mountain Lion and its integrated iCloud and Documents in the Cloud sync and share functionality, also add native compatibility with Mountain Lion’s Dictation system as borrowed from the iPhone 4S and new iPad.

That allows users to dictate their documents, slides or spreadsheets via voice, with Nuance’s Dragon voice-recognition technology whirring away on Apple’s servers to translate it to text. In our experience with Mountain Lion, it works surprisingly well, though it benefits from a quiet environment and some clear enunciation.

Pages, Keynote and Numbers are all available to download now, priced at $19.99. If you’ve already purchased them then hit the Mac App Store to upgrade to the latest versions.

For more on OS X Mountain Lion, as well as Documents in the Cloud, check out our full review.

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Apple updates iWork for iOS, adds iCloud Support

It seems as if Apple has been really busy updating their Apps for iOS 5 and iCloud support, so it comes as no surprise that APple has released an update for each of their productivity apps: Numbers, Pages and Keynote.

Here’s a complete list of what’s new.

Keynote

Automatically store your presentations in iCloud and keep them up to date across all your iOS devices.Download your presentations to a Mac or PC at icloud.com/iwork as Keynote ’09, PowerPoint, or PDF files.Drag and drop Keynote ’09 or PowerPoint presentations to icloud.com from your Mac or PC to have them automatically appear on your iOS devices.Use AirPlay to present wirelessly via Apple TV. Navigate slides, view presenter notes, and use the laser pointer while presenting from your iOS device.New builds and transitions including Anvil, Blinds, Color Panes, Comet, Confetti, Diffuse, and Sparkle.Advanced presentation controls including looped slideshows and autoplay.Support for slide-to-slide hyperlinks.Improved compatibility with Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote ’09.Includes improved support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language input.

Pages

Automatically store your documents in iCloud and keep them up to date across all your iOS devices.Download your documents to a Mac or PC at icloud.com/iwork as Pages ’09, Word, or PDF files.Drag and drop Pages ’09, Word, or plain text documents to icloud.com from your Mac or PC to have them automatically appear on your iOS devices.Use your voice to create and edit Pages documents with dictation in iOS 5 on your iPhone 4S.Create footnotes and endnotes in your documents.View improved word counts with character, paragraph, and page counts.Improved compatibility with Microsoft Word and Pages ’09.Includes improved support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language input

Numbers

Automatically store your spreadsheets in iCloud and keep them up to date across all your iOS devices.Download your spreadsheets to a Mac or PC at icloud.com/iwork as Numbers ’09, Excel, or PDF files.Drag and drop Numbers ’09, Excel, or CSV files to icloud.com from your Mac or PC to have them automatically appear on your iOS devices.Use sliders, steppers, and pop-ups to easily enter data and explore results.Use Merge Cells to format your tables.Hide and show rows and columns.Improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel and Numbers ’09.Includes improved support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language input.

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