iLife and iWork suites are updated and free with new iOS devices or Macs

iMovie, Garageband, and Pages all get a fresh coat of paint from Apple.

Megan Geuss – Oct 22, 2013 1:25 pm | 34

At Apple’s event in San Francisco today, Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddie Cue addressed the audience about the company’s refreshed line of productivity and creative apps. Specifically, Apple announced refreshed versions of iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, as well as Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Cue first talked about updates to iLife, Apple’s suite of creative software, saying that all the apps will be 64-bit compatible and will be integrated with iCloud. iPhoto and iMovie will get a UI overhaul in iOS 7, and Cue stressed that Apple is trying to make it even easier to share and edit the photos and videos that people take on their mobile devices with “tap and share” functions and easy library browsing. iMovie will get a new feature called iMovie Theater, which makes it easy for users to browse their movies and trailers so that they can share them across devices.

GarageBand will also get a new look in iOS 7, and it will permit users to include 16 tracks in a project (up from the previous 8 tracks), and 64-bit machines will be able to assemble projects with 32 tracks.

The iWork productivity suite was also demoed on the stage today, with Apple’s Pages, Numbers, and Keynote software all getting redesigns for iOS 7 and complete overhauls on the Mac. All iWork software will be 64-bit compatible and will work interchangeably between iOS 7 and OS X.

Some of the overhauls on the Mac to Apple’s productivity suite will include new features, too. When working in Pages on OS X, for example, Apple has included a context-sensitive side panel that gives you different controls based on the text you’ve selected. In Numbers, charts are interactive, and in Keynote, Apple has added new effects and animations, including object-based animations. For any projects a user may create in iWork, he or she will be able to generate an iCloud link to the document, which will open up the iWork for iCloud Web app.

Collaborative editing will also be allowed in iWork for iCloud, much to the delight of Mac-using editors everywhere.

Both iLife and iWork suites are available today and will be free with the purchase of new iOS and Mac devices.