iWork '09: Numbers

ByMike Moffit

Noted features:

  • Easily create formulas, using visual placeholders with plain language text.
  • Perform calculations using over 250 functions.
  • Organize your data instantly using Table Categories.
  • Check your calculations at a glance with Formula List view.
  • Create two-axis charts and combine line, column, and area series in a single mixed chart.
  • Choose from twelve new Apple-designed templates (30 total).
  • Open, save, and email Microsoft Excel files from within Numbers.

Similar Posts

  • New 17" MacBook Pro!

    At Macworld on Tuesday, Phil Schiller introduced a brand-new 17″ MacBook Pro. The new MacBook shares the revolutionary aluminum unibody construction offered on the MacBook and 15″ MacBook Pro. Other specs:

    * .98 inches thin
    * 6.6 pounds
    * The world’s lightest and thinnest 17-inch notebook
    * Features an LED backlit display, with 1920×1200 resolution. 700:1 contrast ratio, and 60% greater color gamut than the previous 17-inch display.
    * Apple says “This is the best display we’ve ever shipped in a notebook.”

    * 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Dual Core
    * 6MB L2 Cache
    * Up to 8GB memory at 1066 MHz DDR3.
    * Glass trackpad with four-finger gestures and multi-button support.
    * 320GB hard drive

    * Three USB ports
    * Mini DisplayPort for connecting to Apple’s new 24″ LED display
    * FireWire 800 (no 400!)
    * Digital audio in/out
    * ExpressCard slot.
    * Gigabit Ethernet
    * MagSafe power adapter (duh)

    * Built-in, non user-replaceable battery. This is an adaptive “smart battery” with built-in chips to maintain maximum charge and lifespan

    * The battery can last up to eight hours, is good for about five years, and can be charged 1000 times. It is also fully recyclable.

    * Battery life varies depending on graphics card used. With the 9600GT, battery life if seven hours. It is up to eight hours with the 9400M integrated graphics.

    * All told, this is three hours longer than the previous 17-inch MacBook Pro, equalling a 60% increase in battery life.

    * Also, for the first time with the new unibody MacBooks, Apple is offering an anti-glare option. It costs $50 more than the glossy display because the bezel has to be removed after it’s already assembled.

    * $2799.99

    “Click here to see this MacBook Pro on our website.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72891

    Available at the end of the month–reserve your now!

  • SPECIALS | 01/09/09 – 01/16/09

    View specials while on-hand supplies last. Please note that some specials may not be available in our retail stores; check for availability.

    Over 200 total specials are featured online on our Specials page. “Check them out here!”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials

  • Picasa for Mac – Better Late Than Never!

    On Monday, Google finally released a public beta of Picasa for the Mac. Picasa is a free desktop app for importing, editing, organizing and sharing digital images–particularly digital photos.

    Picasa for Macs is a free download from “Picasa.google.com/mac/”:http://picasa.google.com/mac/. You need an Intel Mac running OS 10.4 or later.

    Picasa has been a popular photo app on the Windows side for years. It shares some features with iPhoto, and adds some unique killer features. These include the ability to sync your Picasa desktop and Picasa Web Albums edits, screen captures, create and edit movies within Picasa, add text/watermarks to photos, manage folders on your computer, a collage creation, screensaver creation, and Facial-recognition technology. Privacy and sharing settings can be adjusted for individual photos, collections or for your entire library.

    Preliminary tests show Picasa to be as fast or faster than iPhoto and easy and elegant to use. We’ll test further and review Picasa in detail in the future.

    Google also offers Picasa Web Albums, which is an excellent web service for sharing and organizing photos. This has been Mac-compatible for years. There is an iPhoto plugin if you want to use Picasa Web Albums without necessarily using the desktop version of Picasa. “Click here to download this.”:http://picasa.google.com/mac_tools.html

    Also, the new version of iPhoto ’09 looks amazing. News about Picasa for Mac has been swept under the rug with the announcement of iPhoto ’09.

    Picasa Web Albums integrates tightly with Google’s Blogger service, along with many other blog platforms and web services. Picasa Web Albums is very easy to use, uploading is a breeze, and photos are nicely displayed online. Picasa Web Albums offers up to 1GB (“enough space for 4,000 wallpaper-size photos”) of photo hosting for free.

    Flickr is still more popular and has deeper social network components then Picasa Web Albums. Again, we’ll do a detailed comparison in the near future.

  • iLife '09 Update: iPhoto

    iPhoto has gotten many updates in the iLife ’09 edition. iPhoto is arguably the most-used application in the iLife suite, behind iTunes.

    For starters, there are now three ways to sort your photos:

    * Events
    * Faces
    * Places

    Events was a new way to view and sort photos with the last iLife release, but both Faces and Places are new.

    Faces relies on face recognition, and assists in tagging photos. Amazingly, it will find a face and ask in other photos if it is the same person… I guess we’ll see! There’s also integration with Facebook and Flickr.

    Places works with Google Maps to zoom in on a location. It uses latitude and longitude, and will automatically add a location to your photos. This is great because you’ll be able to ‘geotag’ your entire set of photos. Phil uses the example of “Yosemite” in that if you have just taken a vacation there, it will geotag all of your photos from the trip!

    I’m really excited to check iPhoto ’09 out, especially the tagging and face recognition features. As Don mused, “will it be able to recognize dog’s faces, too?” Unfortunately, apparently not, but we’ll be reporting more on iPhoto’s features in future issues of Kibbles & Bytes!

    “Learn more and pre-order iLife ’09 here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72885

  • iLife '09 New Features and Mac Box Set

    Get the most out of the photos, movies, and music on your Mac with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD! It has lots of new features, which we’ll highlight below. *Note that iLife ’09 includes all five applications which are not available for purchase separately.*

    On a related note, the Mac Box Set was announced as well: this is one package that includes Mac OS X Leopard, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 for $169.99 (You’ll save over $100; Leopard alone is $129.99!) Also available in Family Pack: $229.99

    This will ship late this month; reserve your copy below!

    Single User Edition:
    http://www.smalldog.com/product/72889

    Family Pack:
    http://www.smalldog.com/product/72890