What is ilife and iwork

Competition for the iMac from the Microsoft Surface Studio will be heating up in the not-to-distant future. Given that Apple claims not to be interested in a touch screen Mac, it's hard to see how their response to the Surface Studio will be anything but underwhelming. The touch-bar on the MacBook Pro is little more than a toy and would be ergonomically inappropriate on a desktop computer.

Sadly there's no news about the Mac mini. The mini may have the same problem the Mac Pro has: Thermal issues limit the amount of new hardware that can be included in the mini's diminutive box. But then the Mac mini was never intended to be a performance machine.

Instead, it's a small office work horse. That is unlikely to change substantially. That said, I agree with Adam that free iLife and iWork software is not bad news. And they will encourage adoption of Sierra on hardware that can support it. If your hardware is obsolete, well, to coin a phrase, that's not Apple's problem.

Indeed, iLife and iWork upgrades have been platform specific for some time now. In any case, older versions of those apps may be better in some ways than the new kids on the block.

New versions have tended to lose rather than gain features, a well established Apple hallmark. Free may seem like a good thing, but nothing is really free. In this case we will be paying for these apps through hardware purchases, if we use an app or not.

Then there is the question of app quality. Since Apple is not making any money off them anymore there is no stimulus to make these apps so good people will be willing to pay for them. The option to vote with our wallet has been taken from us. One sad example is the latest version of Numbers for iOS.

The complaints and 1 star reviews are pouring in but Apple seems to be deaf and blind to them. Now that Numbers is free there is even less reason te expect Apple to do anything about this bad update. No, they are not "free for everyone", only for those who have also upgraded to macOS X 12 or later. As Alfonso Scenna observes above, unless one is willing and able to run the very latest OS, there is no invitation to the party. You're right that these apps have specific system requirements, and we've updated the article to make this completely clear.

However, that doesn't change the fact that the apps are indeed free for everyone. Your ability to run an app is separate from its price. The upgraded 5. It functions too much like the awful Word program for me to use it. I wouldn't upgrade any of my perfectly functioning iWork programs, free or not, based on the extremely negative experience with Pages alone.

They are free because the latest versions are crap compared to 09 versions. I have the new versions, too, but if I have creative work to do, I use the older versions that were designed with uninterrupted creative workflow in mind. There seem to be old copies available on eBay. You could possibly pick up a used one for a couple of dollars. I also might have an old copy which I don't need anymore, but would have to check when I get home. Email me at [email protected] if interested!

But what about people that are unable or unwilling to install the latest versions of MacOS? I cannot find any option to download or buy an older version of apps like Keynote, Pages, Numbers, etc. Nor can I find any info about which version of those apps is compatible with which version of MacOS. There is a fair amount of information on Wikipedia about the versions. For instance: about Keynote:. As much as it would be nice if Apple gave all old stuff away for free, or even kept old versions available for sale, I presume they've done the math and determined that it would be a significant expense that would benefit very few people because those who don't upgrade to new hardware tend not to buy or even download new software either.

One of the basic corollaries of sticking with old hardware is that you shouldn't assume it will ever do things beyond what it could do when it stopped being supported.

Macs stay functional for a long time, which is great, but they won't gain new capabilities via new software after a certain point, and they will start to lose functionality through lack of compatibility with current software after that. Share Facebook Twitter Reddit.

Email Address. Alfonso Scenna. Jim Schmidt. Ian Orchard. Jeffrey Puritz. Anyone with old Apple devices can download the latest versions of iWork and iLife apps for free with no strings attached. It might be too little, too late for some; Apple's App Store is so vast that users with old hardware probably found iWork- and iLife-equivalents to use.

While we don't know if future updates of iWork and iLife apps will be compatible with all old devices, it's worthwhile to download the latest versions now. You must login or create an account to comment. Skip to main content Mac and iOS users with old hardware can now get some of Apple's fundamental software for free. Valentina Palladino Valentina reviews consumer electronics for Ars Technica, testing all kinds of gadgets with a focus on mobile devices and wearables.

She has a soft spot for Chromebooks.