found_drama

Not mine. This one a “Vegas-style” top ten list re: MacWorld from over on the ZDNet blogs…

My favorite:

8. iWork ‘06. Apple’s productivity suite will get upgrades to Pages and Keynote with the possible addition of a modern Office-killing spreadsheet application (rumored to be called “Numbers” or “Sheets“). If it reads and writes Excel files the Apple spreadsheet will be the final nail is Microsoft Office’s coffin. Microsoft will waste no time in announcing the end of support for Office for the Mac if this happens. It would be great if Apple also bundled FileMaker pro or a spinoff application called iBase (like they did with Logic > Garageband and Final Cut > iMovie). Apple should also make Pages into more of a true word processor and move all the DTP features to a separate application called iLayout - just to keep Quark and AdobeMedia on their toes. Bonus points if Apple were to release pro versions of Mail and iCal. Odds: 25-1.

To be rid of Microsoft Office would be a nice belated Xmas present. Especially if it played nice with Office (which OpenOffice (sort of) does) and was fully wrapped up into AppleScript and Automator. I’d agree with the the “true word processor” point though - - in my limited experience with Pages so far, it seemed that too much emphasis has been placed “out of the box” on page layout. Presentation is important but there’s some room for growth.

re: “pro” Mail and iCal… Um? Just make them freakin’ work like they should.

currently playing: Nitzer Ebb “Murderous”

[tags]Apple, MacWorld, Office, OpenOffice, iWork, Pages, Keynote[/tags]

I’ve arrived by parachute at this structure that appears to be a scaled-down version of the tenements from The Kung Fu Hustle - - except that it’s an animal shelter. And I’ve been brought in to re-write their brochures and pamphlets and other literature. It’s a challenging task because the words won’t sit still - - the words crawl around and sentences delete themselves before I can put the period or the question mark on the page. While I’m working on this, I come to discover that this animal shelter is for cyborg dogs, transgenic cats, alien-rabbit hybrids, “rat things”, and other creatures made flesh from science fiction stories. And William Gibson has set up this Humane-Society-for-cyborg-pets and then hired me to re-write the literature.