iWork

This is of course a sad day and one that we’ve had in the back of our minds for years now. After founding Apple 35 years ago in his garage in Silicon Valley, and subsequently getting pushed out less than a decade later, Jobs was brought back in 1997 when Apple was on the brink of collapse. In the 14 years since his return, Apple has turned into the most valuable company in the world by market cap. To say he’s leaving the CEO position on top would be an understatement.

Since his third medical leave was taken in January it has seemed Jobs has been moving into a Chairman-type roll, still leading the Keynotes but giving everyone else a bigger role. As Chairman, Jobs will “continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration,” said Apple Board member Art Levinson. Tim Cook will take over as CEO as per the Apple succession plan. Jeff Williams will likely take over as COO.

In the past months, Jobs has revealed a revolutionary new headquarters for the Apple of the future. The authorized biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (pictured above) is due out in November.

The Resignation letter:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple”s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

From the newswires….

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Apple’s Board of Directors today announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately.

“Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company,” said Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, on behalf of Apple’s Board. “Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”

“The Board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO,” added Levinson. “Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does.”

Jobs submitted his resignation to the Board today and strongly recommended that the Board implement its succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO.

As COO, Cook was previously responsible for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations, including end-to-end management of Apple’s supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries. He also headed Apple’s Macintosh division and played a key role in the continued development of strategic reseller and supplier relationships, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

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Lion just hit the Mac App Store!!  Ladies and Gentlemen, start your downloads!

The $29.99 download is 3.5GB so your download times may vary.  After Lion downloads we are expecting an update to iWork shortly as well.  On the hardware side we are expecting some new Sandy Bridge MacBook Airs, new Mac Minis and a new Thunderbolt Display as well.

How fast is your download?  Are you getting the good speed?  Full specs and details below:

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We’ve just been informed that Apple has a significant upgrade on the way for iWork.  The new version has support for Lion’s standout features including Full Screen mode, Resume, Auto Save and Versions.  The download, at least in its pre-release form is 90.2MB.

Also, is that Safari getting a little update as well?

In case you are wondering, that KB Article isn’t yet live.

Thanks anon!

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(Penrith Store – Image Flicker via Macrumors)

Current (via TNW) received some fun Apple Store stats for us this morning on the occasion of the Apple Store Opening in Penrith Sydney, Australia.

“Apple Retail has been in business for 10 years. During this period, we have had over 1 billion visitors through our doors, many of whom are new to the Mac, as the Apple Store is the best place to learn about all the latest products from Apple,”

We had over 1 million customers sign-up for our Personal Setup offering last quarter alone.

The country’s first Apple-operated retail outlet opened doors for business 2008 in Sydney. As you know, Apple recently celebrated ten years in retail business. Their retail chief Ron Johnson, credited with turning a risky gamble into a highly profitable business, recently left Apple for JC Penney, where he is due to assume the CEO role February 1 next year. Retail stores are a crucial part in Apple’s success. “Without these stores I don’t think we would have been as successful either”, Steve Jobs remarked at the iPad 2 unveiling in February.

The milestone arrives as Apple’s retail staff is gearing up for the OS X Lion launch. Sources say the company is holding employee overnights today in anticipation of the Lion launch tomorrow. In addition, AppleCare reps have received their Lion training and upgraded their workstations to Lion. Leaked training material obtained by 9to5Mac this morning reveals that Lion will be able to reinstall itself over the Internet directly from the all-new recovery partition, without even needing to boot the operating system and launch the Mac App Store.

Apple currently has 330 open stores, Fiscal 2011 ends September 25th, in just over 2 months…

“Our retail offering continues to growth, with Penrith the 11th store in Australia, since we opened Apple Store Sydney just three years ago. Globally we are planning to have 363 stores in fiscal 2011.”

Speaking of the Penrith Apple Store, there is a special media event for the opening July 23rd at 8am (see below).  The store will open to the public at 9am.

Saturday?  8am?  Journalists? Hehe.
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Macenstein points to this listing on Sears’ website for iWork at a $39.99 price point. iWork getting a price reduection?! Nope. It’s a project tool set called iWork and it even has an Apple-ish logo. Wikipedia can explain trademark infringement. The funny part is that Sears sells Apple’s iWork productivity suite too.

Buy the iWork Tool Set here, something tells us they are going to be off the shelves soon!

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As noted earlier, Apple has updated its iWork Apps for iPad today and they are now live in the store:

Pages – What’s New in Version 1.3

– Wireless printing with AirPrint using iOS 4.2, including page range selection, number of copies, and duplex printing.
– Support for iOS 4.2 multitasking.
– Localized in Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese.
– Automatic pagination of tables that cross a page break.
– Improved reliability when importing Pages ’09 and Microsoft Word documents.
– Improved usability including font size selection, and bold, italic, and underline indicators in ruler.
– Fixed issues when using a WebDAV server, including signing out when a server is no longer accessible, saving port numbers in server addresses, and saving files with invalid characters in their names.
– Improved PDF export using iOS 4.2, which resolves an issue with missing fonts on Windows.

Keynote – What’s New in Version 1.3

– Enhanced presenter display shows the current slide, the next slide, or your notes when connected to an external display.
– Ability to import existing and add new presenter notes to slides.
– Wireless printing with AirPrint using iOS 4.2, including slide range selection, number of copies, and duplex printing.
– Support for iOS 4.2 multitasking.
– Localized in Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese.
– Improved reliability when importing Keynote ’09 and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
– Improved usability.
– Fixed issues when using a WebDAV server, including signing out when a server is no longer accessible, saving port numbers in server addresses, and saving files with invalid characters in their names.
– Improved PDF export using iOS 4.2, which resolves an issue with missing fonts on Windows.

Numbers –What’s New in Version 1.3

– Wireless printing with AirPrint using iOS 4.2, including page range selection, number of copies, and duplex printing.
– Print preview to adjust how a sheet prints across multiple pages, including Auto Fit.
– PDF export takes advantage of pagination settings from print preview.
– Formula entry using a keyboard, including predictive function selector.
– Support for iOS 4.2 multitasking.
– Localized in Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese.
– Improved reliability when importing Numbers ’09 and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
– Improved usability.
– Fixed issues when using a WebDAV server, including signing out when a server is no longer accessible, saving port numbers in server addresses, and saving files with invalid characters in their names.
– Improved PDF export using iOS 4.2, which resolves an issue with missing fonts on Windows.

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Apple updated its iWork suite with some bug fixes and a nifty addition today.  By far the most interesting is the ability to export into ePub format.   That means you can easily put your documents into your iBooks application on iOS devices (not that you couldn’t use PDF for the same purposes before).

We are always wary of updates before an event so we’ll see soon if there are any hidden compatibility issues addressed for new devices revealed next week.  Other updates to Pages, Numbers and Keynote include:

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