One of the huge disappointments of Pages for iPhone and iPad is there are only two paper sizes available: US Letter and A4. Even worse, is that you can't even create a document with these sizes in landscape! However, if you first create the document in Pages for Mac and open it with Pages on your iPhone or iPad, the document size and orientation will remain unchanged.

This workaround works fine for users with a Mac and iWork, but what about Windows users or even Mac users who want to create a document without planning ahead and creating the appropriately sized document first? That's where we come in!

I've created blank templates of all the popular document sizes and added them to my public Dropbox folder for iMore readers to download directly to their iPhone or iPad. Just simply tap the links with your iPhone or iPad and select Open in "Pages" for each one you want. Yes, it's a bit tedious, but unfortunately, this is the best we can do for you.

• Grab the Pages templates via the iMore Forums

After picking up the ones you want, I recommend grouping them up into a folder so they don't clutter up your main document screen.

When using any of these templates, make sure you duplicate it first before making any changes so that you don't lose the original template.

So there you go! Hopefully this makes Pages for iPhone and iPad more useful for you.

See also: Pages for iPhone and iPad review

Pages for iPhone and iPad is a great way to do word processing on the go, but iCloud may not keep your documents as seamlessly synced as you expected.

Apple’s Pages is the word processing component of their iWork productivity suite of software, and a companion app to Numbers for spreadsheets and Keynote for presentations. Universal apps that work on iPhone and iPad, all three have proven to be popular choices for document management on the go and have just recently been updated to support iOS 5.1 and the new iPad‘s Retina display.

If you’re a new iPad or iPhone owner and need a way to create and edit documents on the go, Pages is Apple’s iCloud integrated solution.

Document organization

Documents can be grouped together into folders.

The documents screen of Pages displays your documents as a grid. You can create folders that contain multiple documents, similar to how you create folders of apps on your home screen. From here you can also delete, rearrange, and duplicate documents, add documents from iTunes, iDisk, or WebDAV, and create new document.

Templates

There are 16 predesigned templates included with Pages.

Pages comes with 16 different templates to help you get started with your project.

• Modern Photo, Classic, Formal, and Personal Photo letters
• Modern Photo and Classic Resume
• Project Proposal and Visual Report
• Poster and Flyer
• Term Paper and Syllabus
• Party Invite and Thank You Card
• Recipe

All of them are fully customizable so that you can make them your own.

Formatting

Pages offers an ample amount of formatting options.

When creating a document, you'll find a bar with formatting options you use most often: font type and size, bold, italics, underline, justification, and tabs. You can also easily adjust your margins and paragraph indent by dragging the arrows on the ruler at the top of the screen.

Tapping the paintbrush icon will give you more formatting options like paragraph and list styles, font color, columns, and line spacing.

Inserting media, tables, charts, and shapes

You can easy insert and edit photos, tables, charts, and shapes into your documents with Pages.

To insert media, tables, charts, and shapes into your document, just tap the + sign and choose what you'd like to insert. From the media tab, you can select photos from your Camera Roll, Photo Stream, or albums. The Tables tab has 24 different table designs to choose from. In the Charts tab, you'll find 9 different 2D and 8 different 3D charts, each in 6 different colors, and in the Shapes tab, you'll find 15 different shapes available in 6 different colors.

When inserting your media, you can scale it and move it around your document. If you drag it to an edge, the text will wrap around it, and if you put it in the middle somewhere, the text will separate above and below it.

Tables can be easily editable by just tapping on them. You can type information into each cell (even copy/paste from a spreadsheet app like Numbers) and adjust how many rows and columns your table is made up of.

Charts are treated the same way, except that you can rotate 3D ones around a little bit. Since charts require a set of data to have any sort of value, Pages allows you to edit the chart data (similar to a table) and select if you want to plot the rows or columns as a series.

Shapes are actually pretty fun to add to a Pages document because they are also adjustable. For example, if you select a star, you can add more points to it and adjust how skinny the points are.

Document Setup

The Document Setup section of Pages is where you design the background of your document.

If you tap the Tools button, you'll find options for sharing, searching your document, settings, help, and Document Setup.

Tapping Document Setup will bring you to a new screen that shows a blank document page with a header, a footer, and margins. Dragging the margin lines will adjust the margins and tapping the header or footer allows you to edit them with page numbers, line breaks, or with your own pasted information.

If you take a look at the bottom right corner of the page, you'll notice that's it's turned up a little. Tapping here will fold up the bottom of the paper and reveal two different paper size choices: US Letter and A4. Unfortunately, those are the only sizes available.

In the upper right corner, you'll find a + sign. From here, you can add media, tables, charts, and shapes, similarly to how you enter them into your actual document. The difference is that if you add these items from the document setup screen, they actually work as the background of your document so that text will appear over them. This is how you can change the color of your page, add borders, and get creative when designing things like posters and flyers. Each item you add can be further edited by tapping the paintbrush icon.

Sharing

You can share your documents with iCloud, iTunes, iWork.com, iDisk, WebDAV, and email.

Once you're done creating your document, you can email it, print it, share to iWork.com, send to iTunes, or copy to iDisk or WebDAV. Surprisingly, you cannot share (or "Open in") iBooks. Although, if you email it yourself, you can then "Open in" iBooks from the email.

Pages also has support for iCloud so that you can keep all your documents synced between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This works fabulously for iPhone and iPad, but the experience is a bit clunky for the Mac - it doesn't "just work". To get your document onto your Mac, one would think you'd just have to launch Pages and be able to find it under the File menu. No such luck. Instead, you have to go to iCloud.com and download your document from the iWork section. This is very inelegant to say the least. Most 3rd party apps with iCloud support handle syncing to the Mac better than this. Apple should be embarrassed.

The Good

• Easy to use
• 16 nice templates to choose from
• Photos, graphs, charts, and shapes are very easy to edit, customize, and insert
• Document Setup is a great way to design the background of your project and is great for posters and flyers
• iCloud between iOS devices works great

The Bad

• Syncing with iCloud to your Mac is, for lack of a better word -- lame
• Can't "Open in" iBooks without emailing it yourself first
• Only US Letter and A4 paper sizes
• No Dropbox support

The Conclusion

If you're looking for an easy to use, well designed word processor for you iPad, Pages is an excellent choice. But if you are a big Dropbox user or want to sync with MS Word, you're going to want to look elsewhere. Personally, I'm happy with Pages and I've never felt the need to shop for a different word processing app.

$9.99 - Download Now

Keynote is all you need to create, edit, and give stunning presentations straight from your iPhone or iPad

Apple's Keynote is the presentation component of their iWork productivity suite of software, and a companion app to Pages for word processing and Numbers for spreadsheets. All three are universal apps that work on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and popular choices for document management on the go. They've also just been updated to support iOS 5.1 and the new iPad's Retina display.

If you're a new iPad or iPhone owner and need a way to create, edit, and give presentations on the go, Keynote is Apple's iCloud integrated solution. It was designed for Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, and the desktop version was used to give every one of his presentations, including the original iPhone and iPad introductions.

Does it work just as well on iOS?

Keynote isn't Powerpoint, and that's a good thing

While most of the iWork apps pale in comparison to Microsoft's Office suite, Keynote is the possible exception. Again, it was made for and used by arguably the best corporate presenter in a generation, and that says a lot.

However, because Keynote and Powerpoint are both intended for the same purpose, there's a lot of overlap in features, and if you've used Powerpoint, or Keynote on the Mac, you shouldn't have any trouble getting used to Keynote for iPhone and iPad.

If anything, the layout and controls on iOS are even more intuitive than desktop presentation software. Once you've gotten the basics down, you'll be creating amazing presentations that you can share with co-workers, friends, and family with just a few taps.

Create presentations in Keynote

Create a new presentation from a template or start a blank project

From the main Keynote screen you can open, edit, delete or create a presentation. To create a new one just tap the "+" sign in the upper right hand corner and select Create Presentation. You'll be presented with several templates that you can choose from.

While Apple hasn't added any new ones since Keynote was released, there are still quite a few different selections which should suit most users just fine.

Keynote's user interface is simple and streamline. In the upper right hand corner are four icons.

• Format brush: You'll use this to change the different properties of texts and objects such as font style, colors, and size.
• Insert button: This is where you'll tap to add content to your slides. You can input many objects such as images from your camera roll, tables, charts, and several shapes.
• Tools: This menu allows you to add different transitions to your slides, share your presentations, add presenter notes, and many other options.
• Play button: This does exactly what you'd think, plays your slideshow. To exit play mode, just pinch the screen to go back to editing mode.

To add a new slide to a presentation just tap the plus sign in the lower left hand corner and choose the type of slide you'd like to add.

To add a slide to your project, tap the add slide button in the bottom left hand corner. There are a good amount of slide types to choose from such as title slides, bulleted slides, and more. You can also choose to use a blank slide and build your own custom content.

To change the order of slides within your project, hold your finger down on the slide you'd like to move and you can drag it up or down to the position you desire.

Transitions and Builds from the Settings menu allows you to add a number of built-in transitions to your slides

There are a good selection of built-in transitions in the tools menu. Once you select Transitions and Builds, your slide will get a marker next to it. Tap the "+" sign to add a transition to it.

You can also tap on options to adjust timing of transitions.

Use your insert tool to easily add images, text, and more to your slides

You can also add photos, tables, charts, or shapes directly to your presentation from your iPhone or iPad. To do so, tap the insert button in the top right and choose what kind of media you'd like to add.

Once you insert a chart you can double tap it to bring up the editing menu. You can choose to edit data which will bring up a table format that allows you to change the data and labels for your charts or graphs.

Easily adjust the formatting and content of your chart or other object with the format brush

Once you've added an object, you can continue to manipulate them further with the format brush. Select an object, select the format brush, and Keynote will then bring up format options based on what you have highlighted.

If you have a chart or graph highlighted, it will allow you to edit the color and dimension of the chart as well as many other elements.

Tap on an object you'd like to move or adjust and blue anchors will come up with grids to help you center and adjust your object

Resizing an object is easy. Just tap the object and blue anchors will appear. You can then use the grid lines to resize and straighten or off-center an object to your liking.

Moving objects is just as simple. Tap and hold on an object and move it around. The same yellow grid lines will show up to assist you with centering it with the rest of your text and content.

Sharing your presentations

Keynote gives you a few ways that you can share your presentations directly from your iPhone or iPad. You can share your work via e-mail, send it to iTunes, and print it.

Currently all of the iWork for iOS apps still give you the option to share it to iWork.com or iDisk. Given iDisk and iWork.com will be discontinued this summer, I’m not quite sure why Apple is still allowing them as options. I’d advise new users to stay away from them and just enable iCloud from the beginning to avoid having to transfer documents over before Apple turns off these services.

If you currently have data stored on iWork.com or iDisk, you should probably transfer it over to iCloud before this summer.

You can also use the optional VGA or HDMI out dongles sold by Apple to connect to a projector at work, or use AirPlay to mean a presentation to Apple TV and show it off on the big screen.

Syncing with iCloud

Wirelessly sync all your iWork documents with iCloud document and data sharing

Upon first launching any of the iWork for iOS apps on your iPhone or iPad, you'll be asked whether or not you'd like to sync with iCloud. I'd recommend doing so if you plan on editing and accessing documents from multiple iOS devices. This way, if you make changes to a document on your iPad, your changes will be synced with all your devices.

There are, however, a few flaws to this system. I'm not a fan of the fact that I have to log in to iCloud from a browser and download files and re-upload them when at a computer. I was really hoping Apple would have implemented a better solution by now.

If you only have the need to edit iWork documents on the go, iCloud is just fine but we have to be practical - most users need to be able to easily edit them on a computer whether in iWork or Microsoft Office as well. The integration just isn't that great when you've got to download a document from iCloud, edit what you need to, and re-upload it in order for it to sync the current version to all your devices.

A syncing solution that better integrates documents with iCloud will hopefully be a big part of what OS X Mountain Lion will bring to the table. Right now Keynote gives you the ability to download your presentations to your computer in the following formats:

• Keynote
• PDF
• Powerpoint

What's new in Keynote 1.6

Not too much has changed in the new version of Keynote. There aren't any new templates from what I can tell. While iWork did get a few new features across the board, most enhancements were done under the hood.

3D charts and graphs

The updated version of Keynote for iPhone and iPad adds 3D graphs and charts to the mix for even more stunning presentations

This is probably a bigger deal to spreadsheet user but there's no denying the new 3D charts make presentation look a lot more interesting than the standard 2D charts. And since it only takes a few taps to turn a boring table into an animated 3D one, why not?

You can easily rotate and change the orientation of 3D charts and graphs for easier reading and more variety

You can also rotate the chart and change it's orientation and position. This is especially convenient when working with line graphs that overlap each other. You can stretch the graph outwards so you can easily see the difference between them and they don't seem so bunched up against each other.

Stability improvements

All three iWork applications received performance enhancements that really seem to show on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. I hadn't really noticed as many lag issues in Keynote as I did in Numbers to begin with. Probably due to the amount of formulas and data Numbers loads in comparison.

Sometimes when adding slides or paging through charts, I'd notice a bit of a lag but not anything worth getting frustrated over. Unfortunately the lag was noticeably present on the first generation iPad.

The good

• The enhanced interface makes it even easier to format and edit data quickly and easily
• Performance enhancements seemed to decrease the amount of time it takes to edit larger presentations and move slides around
• 3D charts and graphs make presentations more visually appealing than their 2D counterparts

The bad

• Lack of iCloud integration on the Mac is highly frustrating
• Limited presentation and slide templates to work with

Conclusion

I use Keynote to prepare workshop presentations and use AirPlay to show them iva Apple TV without ever having to worry about connecting a computer to a projector. I also haven't found much the Mac version of Keynote does that the iOS version won't do. For many, Keynote is all you will need to create, edit, and give stunning presentations straight from your iPhone or iPad

There's no denying that Keynote for iPhone and iPad is an amazing way to create beautiful presentations without ever touching your computer. It's so good on recent generation iPads and iPhones, in fact, you may never want to create a slideshow in any other program again.

It's so good, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft can top it if and when they decide to release Microsoft Office for iPad.

$9.99 - Download Now

Numbers for iPhone and iPad is a great way for casual users to manage spreadsheets but may not offer enough power for professionals... yet.

Apple's Numbers is the spreadsheet component of their iWork productivity suite of software, and a companion app to Pages for word processing and Keynote for presentations. Universal apps that work on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, all three have proven to be popular choices for document management on the go and have just recently been updated to support for iOS 5.1 and the new iPad's Retina display.

If you're a new iPad or iPhone owner and need a way to create and edit spreadsheets on the go, Numbers is Apple's iCloud integrated solution. The question is, how easy is it to use and how much can you really do with it?

Apple's Numbers and Microsoft's Excel are both spreadsheet apps, and while there is a lot of overlap, they were designed with different goals in mind.

Numbers isn't Excel, and that's okay

Apple's Numbers isn't Microsoft's Excel. That's the first and most important thing to remember. Apple's goal wasn't to copy Excel, Lotus, or Visicalc, but to come up with a spreadsheet program that was easy to use and could produce great looking documents fairly quickly.

That said, if you've used Excel in the past, you should feel pretty comfortable with Numbers as well.

Creating spreadsheets in Numbers

To add content to a spreadsheet in Numbers -- whether it be text, a table, an image, or something else, you simply tap on the Add button (looks like a + sign) in the top right corner.

Inserting and editing objects is done with taps, swipes, and multitouch gestures.

Once you add an object, you can move on to editing and formatting it.

Numbers also makes it easy to format content with the formatting brush. It's represented by a paintbrush icon in the upper right hand corner. In order to use it, you'll need to highlight something you'd like to format. From there it will smartly choose options based on what kind of content you'd like to edit.

Formatting in Numbers for iPhone and iPad is also done via a popover menu.

For example, if you select a table full of data, it will give you the option to turn that data into charts or graphs quickly and easily. If you're selecting a block of text, it'll give you options for format that text as a header, change the font, place borders around it, and many more options.

If you've used past versions of iWork on your iPhone or iPad, you may have noticed that the formatting icon and menu have changed a bit in the updated version.

Sharing your work

While there's no file system in iOS, you can easily share your Numbers spreadsheets with just a few taps.

Numbers gives you a few ways that you can share your content directly from your iPhone or iPad. You can share your work via e-mail, send it to iTunes (where you can open it via the desktop Numbers app for Mac), and print it.

Currently Numbers still gives users the option to share it to iWork.com or iDisk as well. Given iDisk and iWork.com will be discontinued this summer, I'm not quite sure why Apple is still allowing them as options. I'd advise new users to stay away from them and just enable iCloud from the beginning to avoid having to transfer documents over before Apple turns off these services.

Syncing with iCloud

iCloud syncs all your Numbers spreadsheets between all your iOS devices (and with OS X Mountain Lion when it's released later this year)

Upon first launching any of the iWork for iOS apps on your iPhone or iPad, you'll be asked whether or not you'd like to sync with iCloud. I'd recommend doing so if you plan on editing and accessing documents from multiple iOS devices. This way, if you make changes to a spreadsheet on your iPad, your changes will be synced with all your devices.

There are, however, a few flaws to this system. I'm not a fan of the fact that I have to log in to iCloud from a browser and download files and re-upload them when at a computer. I was really hoping Apple would have implemented a better solution by now.

If you only have the need to edit iWork documents on the go, iCloud is just fine but we have to be practical -- most users need to be able to easily edit them on a computer whether in iWork on Mac or Microsoft Office on Windows or Mac as well. The integration just isn't that great when you've got to download a document from iCloud, edit what you need to, and re-upload it in order for it to sync the current version to all your devices.

A syncing solution that better integrates documents with iCloud will hopefully be a big part of what OS X Mountain Lion will bring to the table.

The more complex and customized your spreadsheets, the worse compatibility between Numbers on iOS and Excel on the PC will likely be.

While iCloud does allow you to download documents to your computer in Excel format, there's no escaping the fact that Excel and Numbers handle some types of data differently. If you use a lot of extensive or custom-built formulas, switching between Numbers and Excel probably isn't too pretty.

I've come across a few occasions where I'd created extensive formulas or functions in Excel or Numbers and when I'd try to cross-edit, the formulas would break or output an error. This has a lot to do with how each handle formulas and syntax. Unfortunately, it's probably not something Apple can overcome easily.

What's new in Numbers 1.6

Numbers 1.6 is a free upgrade to existing Numbers for iOS users, and comes with a few new features.

Reorganized user interface

Numbers 1.6 moves a few menu features around.

Anyone who previously used iWork on the iPhone or iPad may have noticed that some of the main interface elements were switched around. I've found the new layout to be much more productive than the old one.

The main controls have been brought down from four to three. Within these three sections, you'll find a lot of your options have been condensed or re-organized.

The new layout took me less than 10 minutes to get used to and where I logically thought something would have been moved was typically where it ended up. Existing users won't need to worry about re-learning the program and new users will benefit from the more intuitive layout.

3D charts and graphs

3D charts and graphs are among the more visually pleasing new features.

One of the most talked about features in Numbers 1.6 is the ability to easily add 3D charts and graphs to your spreadsheets. While the 2D charts were good enough for most, the 3D charts really do make spreadsheets created in Numbers pop.

Let's face it, no one really likes staring at spreadsheets during a meeting or presentation for very long. It's essential that you have a way to convey your information in a way that's fun and engaging. I find the 3D charts and graphs to be a way to do exactly that.

Once you've got your data set up in a plain text chart, Apple has made it drop dead simple to turn that data into an easy to read 3D pie chart or graph. To add a chart to a spreadsheet, tap the "+" symbol to add an element and choose 3D charts. From there you can highlight the content from your spreadsheet you'd like to appear in the chart and you're done.

Customizing and editing things like color, font, what data to display on what axis, and other design elements is easier to access with the new formatting icon (hint: it's the paintbrush in the upper right hand corner). You can also drag individual contents around such as the title or chart key for easy placement and adjustment.

Stability improvements

Not only is numbers better looking, it's more stable as well

While the addition of 3D charts and graphs is welcome, the thing I was most happy to see in action were the stability and performance improvements. I'm normally pretty skeptical of companies releasing an update with a generic "performance enhancements" description. This time, it really is noticeable.

I've always found the interface of Numbers on iPhone and iPad to be somewhat difficult to work with as it always seemed to lag behind. I'd attempt to highlight a few cells and the cursor could sometimes not keep up with my finger. This seems to be less of an issue this time around. If you're working with spreadsheets that contain a lot of data it could always be rather tedious to use your iPhone or iPad to edit them or make changes. I always experienced lag. With smaller spreadsheets that don't contain a tremendous amount of data or formulas, it's probably a non-issue for most.

Using my iPad 2, I do still experience some lag when typing content into cells and trying to switch between them. Sometimes I find myself having to tap twice in order for Numbers to realize I'm trying to switch between cells. I tested out Numbers on a first generation iPad and unfortunately, a lot of the lag still seems to be present. It'll be interesting to see how the new iPad will handle large spreadsheets.

The good

• 3D charts and graphs are extremely easy to create and manipulate
• Enhanced speed and stability are noticeable
• The integration with iCloud between iOS devices works without a hitch
• Menu system is easy for new users to grasp

The bad

• Still no landscape support for iPhone which is more than annoying when trying to edit spreadsheets that are wide
• Having to download and re-upload new versions to iCloud while on a computer is cumbersome
• While Excel is supported as a downloadable format, extensive formulas and functions still may break when cross-editing

Conclusion

Numbers for iPhone and iPad is a great way for casual users to manage spreadsheets but may not offer enough power for professionals... yet. The power of the Apple A5X processor in the new iPad will no doubt make handling larger spreadsheets smoother and easier, and the Retina display will make them look better than ever.

Aside from some minor improvements, however, I really don't feel iWork received as much attention as the iLife suite this time around, namely GarageBand, iMovie, and the all new iPhoto for iOS.

Numbers 2.0 should be a priority for Apple if they want the iPad to continue to convert people to mobile productivity. In the meantime, I'll continue using the current Numbers for basic spreadsheets that I need access on the go.

It will also be interesting to see what, if anything Microsoft brings to the table if they decide to pull the trigger on Microsoft Office for iPad.

$9.99 - Download Now

iWork for iOS has just been updated with many new features including brand new 3D charts, animations  and various other features. Each iWork app will be available for the same $9.99 price point and as a free update for existing owners.

The update will be available starting today and is a universal binary for both iPhone and iPad. We are assuming the new features in the update will be available to all iOS devices. iWork currently already integrates well for iCloud users making it easy to take your work on the go and pick up right where you left off when you get back to your computer.

iWork consists of three separate applications - Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Each is currently priced at $9.99 each.

We'll update as soon as we have a complete list of features. For now, check out all our iPad event coverage in one place via the links below.

Additional resources:

• iPad live event coverage
• iMore iPad discussion forums

The iMore Nation picks their favorite devices, features, stories, and new or majorly updated apps and accessories of 2011!

Your votes have been counted. The results have been tallied. This is it, iMore Nation! These are your 2011 Readers Choice Award winners!

• Want an alternate take? try our 2011 Editors Choice Awards

iOS device of the year: iPhone 4S

By the narrowest of margins, the iPhone 4S edged out the iPad 2 as your favorite new iOS device of 2011.

I voted for the 4S since I still have not yet gotten an iPad or iPad 2 and still don’t really have a compelling reason to. iPhone 4S has a better camera for both photos and videos, and also has a retina display. I think if the next iPad has the same camera as the 4S and has a retina display, it will win for next - Brad Morris

iOS feature of the year: Siri

In another tight race, Siri won a hotly contested race against Notification Center. While some felt Siri's iPhone 4S exclusivity should have excluded it from entry, multitasking, video recording, and other now widespread features all debuted as iPhone exclusives at some point.

I would have to say Siri and the iPhone 4S are the top inovation. They changed the way we interact with our devices – look at what Apple has gotten us to do, we are speaking of an application, Siri, like she is a person I am excited to see what this leads to! - Sarah

Epic fail of the year: Netflix meltdown

In our third hotly contested category, Netflix raising their rates, splitting their services, renaming one division Qwikster, changing their minds about renaming one division Qwikster, and overall plain batcrap craziness this year beat out the lack of iPhone redesign as the most epic fail of the year. Wow.

Netflix was definitely the fail of the year. I love my 4S and nothing about it has been a failure! Siri is great, and I actually like that they didn’t redesign (because with every redesign comes the need to buy and make new accessories). I’m loving the bigger capacity (64g for me!) and the faster processor. Yep, my vote goes to Netflix. What they did just reeks of bad customer service. We canceled instantly and still have not re-subscribed. Not sure if we will. I’m looking into other options. - A. R.

Arts & Entertainment app of the year: Instagram

Out of all the photography, video, and music apps this year, and after briefly falling behind Snapseed in the voting, you picked the smash hit, filter flying, social sharing photo app, Instagram, as your favorite. No wonder it has so many users.

[Instagram] is one of the reason I’m sticking to my iPhone rather than move back to BB. The social features is great, it integrate with the built in photo library and the best thing it’s free. - Dee

[Instagram] in and of itself is enough to make me want to switch from Android to iPhone. - Mary Beth

• App Store link

Productivity app of the year: iWork for iPhone

Even Instapaper 4's makeover wasn't even to hold Apple's triple iPhone threat of Keynote, Numbers, and Pages, all newly ported to iPhone and amped up to support iCloud document sync.

I’ve been waiting [iWork for iPhone] this since before the iPad came out! iWork is my office program of choice on my Mac and I haven’t been a big fan of the conversions that happen in docs to go or quick office. Now I have numbers across all three of my devices…….finally! - JPwillis269

• Pages App Store link
• Numbers App Store link
• Keynote App Store link

Social networking app of the year: Tweetbot

Tweetbot just barely managed to take the win from the controversial Twitter for iPhone redesign that we bloggers detested but you readers really seemed to like.

Nothing even comes close to Tweetbot! I even use it on my iPad, and I hate using iPhone apps on my iPad - Galley

• App Store link

Casual game of the year: Tiny Wings

There was nothing casual about Tiny Wings' win over Cut the Rope: Experiments -- it barely outran daylight to claim this prize.

Tiny Wings is definitely an awesome game. I love the music and the simple controls. The graphics are beautiful, even when playing on the iPad in 2x mode. I especially like the achievements that are called objectives in the game. I’ve been playing it all weekend. - David Levine

• App Store link

Hardcore game of the year: Real Racing 2

Always one of the first apps to adapt to the latest Apple hardware, like iPad 2, and software, like AirPlay mirroring, Real Racing 2 crossed the finish-line ahead of even Infinity Blade II-level competition.

[Real Racing 2's] graphics are beautiful. The cars are authentic and behave the way one would if you were lucky enough to drive it on the real streets. The on line multiplayer feature allows you to “meet” those that you race with all over the world. And, if you get bored with on line racing, there are personal time trials to improve on, quick races with AI cars at three difficulty levels, and why not go back through the career mode again? I have personally spent around 1000 hours playing this game since purchasing! That is just play time alone! FireMint’s associated forum adds an entire broader dimension to this little addictive game and friendships have been forged! Lastly, FireMint is extremely “on top” of this game and receptive to feedback like none other I have ever experienced! If it is not clear yet, I Vote for RR2!!!!! - Denisethenurse1

• iPhone App Store link
• iPad App Store link

Jailbreak app of the year: SBSettings for iOS 5

Barely a tap ahead of the equally convenient BiteSMS app for jailbreak, your favorite this year was the newly iOS 5 updated versions of... SBSettings!

Navigating through menus is insanely unnecessary and causes loss of data for apps that don’t support multitasking so you have the fun of starting all over. There is simply no reason for Apple to make using those features as tedious as they do. High on my list of long-standing disappointments and a main reason to JB for SBSettings. - Talkin73

• Cydia link

iPhone case of the year: Otterbox Reflex

By only a few precious votes, the Otterbox Reflex case for iPhone claimed the prize over Lifeproof.

Well… I thought I lost my IPhone 4 3 months ago… Found it last night in the bed of of truck beside a small bag of soil that I’ve been carting around…. It has been through numerous rain storms and car washes. It was totally protected with the Otterbox and works perfectly!! Great Product!! - Kerri

• iMore Store link

iPad case of the year: DODOcase

Even the magnetism of Apple's own SmartCover couldn't stop the newly redesigned DODOcase from winning your favorite iPad protection prize this year.

DODOcase is more than just a case. It connects me to layers of artisanal tradition, brings the past into the present and honors generations of fine craftspeople. AND the company is small, local and green. AND the cases are gorgeous! - Corey

• Web site link

iPhone and iPad accessory of the year: Jawbone ERA

While the Wacom Bamboo Stylus took an early lead in our general accessory category, the power of the Jawbone ERA Bluetooth Headset ultimately could not be denied.

• iMore store link

The iMore Nation picks their favorite devices, features, stories, and new or majorly updated apps and accessories of 2011!

Your votes have been counted. The results have been tallied. This is it, iMore Nation! These are your 2011 Readers Choice Award winners!

• Want an alternate take? try our 2011 Editors Choice Awards

iOS device of the year: iPhone 4S

By the narrowest of margins, the iPhone 4S edged out the iPad 2 as your favorite new iOS device of 2011.

I voted for the 4S since I still have not yet gotten an iPad or iPad 2 and still don’t really have a compelling reason to. iPhone 4S has a better camera for both photos and videos, and also has a retina display. I think if the next iPad has the same camera as the 4S and has a retina display, it will win for next - Brad Morris

iOS feature of the year: Siri

In another tight race, Siri won a hotly contested race against Notification Center. While some felt Siri's iPhone 4S exclusivity should have excluded it from entry, multitasking, video recording, and other now widespread features all debuted as iPhone exclusives at some point.

I would have to say Siri and the iPhone 4S are the top inovation. They changed the way we interact with our devices – look at what Apple has gotten us to do, we are speaking of an application, Siri, like she is a person I am excited to see what this leads to! - Sarah

Epic fail of the year: Netflix meltdown

In our third hotly contested category, Netflix raising their rates, splitting their services, renaming one division Qwikster, changing their minds about renaming one division Qwikster, and overall plain batcrap craziness this year beat out the lack of iPhone redesign as the most epic fail of the year. Wow.

Netflix was definitely the fail of the year. I love my 4S and nothing about it has been a failure! Siri is great, and I actually like that they didn’t redesign (because with every redesign comes the need to buy and make new accessories). I’m loving the bigger capacity (64g for me!) and the faster processor. Yep, my vote goes to Netflix. What they did just reeks of bad customer service. We canceled instantly and still have not re-subscribed. Not sure if we will. I’m looking into other options. - A. R.

Arts & Entertainment app of the year: Instagram

Out of all the photography, video, and music apps this year, and after briefly falling behind Snapseed in the voting, you picked the smash hit, filter flying, social sharing photo app, Instagram, as your favorite. No wonder it has so many users.

[Instagram] is one of the reason I’m sticking to my iPhone rather than move back to BB. The social features is great, it integrate with the built in photo library and the best thing it’s free. - Dee

[Instagram] in and of itself is enough to make me want to switch from Android to iPhone. - Mary Beth

• App Store link

Productivity app of the year: iWork for iPhone

Even Instapaper 4's makeover wasn't even to hold Apple's triple iPhone threat of Keynote, Numbers, and Pages, all newly ported to iPhone and amped up to support iCloud document sync.

I’ve been waiting [iWork for iPhone] this since before the iPad came out! iWork is my office program of choice on my Mac and I haven’t been a big fan of the conversions that happen in docs to go or quick office. Now I have numbers across all three of my devices…….finally! - JPwillis269

• Pages App Store link
• Numbers App Store link
• Keynote App Store link

Social networking app of the year: Tweetbot

Tweetbot just barely managed to take the win from the controversial Twitter for iPhone redesign that we bloggers detested but you readers really seemed to like.

Nothing even comes close to Tweetbot! I even use it on my iPad, and I hate using iPhone apps on my iPad - Galley

• App Store link

Casual game of the year: Tiny Wings

There was nothing casual about Tiny Wings' win over Cut the Rope: Experiments -- it barely outran daylight to claim this prize.

Tiny Wings is definitely an awesome game. I love the music and the simple controls. The graphics are beautiful, even when playing on the iPad in 2x mode. I especially like the achievements that are called objectives in the game. I’ve been playing it all weekend. - David Levine

• App Store link

Hardcore game of the year: Real Racing 2

Always one of the first apps to adapt to the latest Apple hardware, like iPad 2, and software, like AirPlay mirroring, Real Racing 2 crossed the finish-line ahead of even Infinity Blade II-level competition.

[Real Racing 2's] graphics are beautiful. The cars are authentic and behave the way one would if you were lucky enough to drive it on the real streets. The on line multiplayer feature allows you to “meet” those that you race with all over the world. And, if you get bored with on line racing, there are personal time trials to improve on, quick races with AI cars at three difficulty levels, and why not go back through the career mode again? I have personally spent around 1000 hours playing this game since purchasing! That is just play time alone! FireMint’s associated forum adds an entire broader dimension to this little addictive game and friendships have been forged! Lastly, FireMint is extremely “on top” of this game and receptive to feedback like none other I have ever experienced! If it is not clear yet, I Vote for RR2!!!!! - Denisethenurse1

• iPhone App Store link
• iPad App Store link

Jailbreak app of the year: SBSettings for iOS 5

Barely a tap ahead of the equally convenient BiteSMS app for jailbreak, your favorite this year was the newly iOS 5 updated versions of... SBSettings!

Navigating through menus is insanely unnecessary and causes loss of data for apps that don’t support multitasking so you have the fun of starting all over. There is simply no reason for Apple to make using those features as tedious as they do. High on my list of long-standing disappointments and a main reason to JB for SBSettings. - Talkin73

• Cydia link

iPhone case of the year: Otterbox Reflex

By only a few precious votes, the Otterbox Reflex case for iPhone claimed the prize over Lifeproof.

Well… I thought I lost my IPhone 4 3 months ago… Found it last night in the bed of of truck beside a small bag of soil that I’ve been carting around…. It has been through numerous rain storms and car washes. It was totally protected with the Otterbox and works perfectly!! Great Product!! - Kerri

• iMore Store link

iPad case of the year: DODOcase

Even the magnetism of Apple's own SmartCover couldn't stop the newly redesigned DODOcase from winning your favorite iPad protection prize this year.

DODOcase is more than just a case. It connects me to layers of artisanal tradition, brings the past into the present and honors generations of fine craftspeople. AND the company is small, local and green. AND the cases are gorgeous! - Corey

• Web site link

iPhone and iPad accessory of the year: Jawbone ERA

While the Wacom Bamboo Stylus took an early lead in our general accessory category, the power of the Jawbone ERA Bluetooth Headset ultimately could not be denied.

• iMore store link

Noteshelf made our iPads useful in planning sessions. Elements made Dropbox note-taking sing.

[Orchestra To-Do] (http://www.imore.com/tag/orchestra-to-do) packed out tasks with functionality. Due made reminders quick and powerful.

Instapaper put everything we wanted to read in our pockets, but better. Screens took iOS back to our Macs.

A ton of very different apps to be sure, but all of them helped us get stuff done, and it's your job to pick the very best one.

Vote up top and tell us why you voted they way you did in the comments! These are your awards, so get to it!

One of the announced features of iCloud is the ability to keep all your files from Apple's Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps up to date. The update to those apps that bring this support is now available.

I am particularly excited about using Numbers with iCloud. I use Numbers on my iPad to record my students' grades, but sometimes I forget to bring my iPad to class. It never fails that those are the days that a student notices that I made a mistake and needs a grade changed. Before iCloud, I would make a note in my notes app and make the change later. Now, I'll just open the spreadsheet with Numbers on my iPhone, make the change, and it will be reflected on the spreadsheet on my iPad. Win.

You can create amazing documents and presentations on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. And now with iCloud, you can keep your work up to date across all your iOS devices. You don’t have to save your work or transfer any files. Your documents — with all your latest edits — automatically appear everywhere.

Here are the update notes for all three apps.

Pages

• Automatically store your documents in iCloud and keep them up to date across all your iOS devices.
• Download your documents to a Mac or PC at icloud.com/iwork as Pages ’09, Word, or PDF files.
• Drag and drop Pages ’09, Word, or plain text documents to icloud.com from your Mac or PC to have them automatically appear on your iOS devices.
• Use your voice to create and edit Pages documents with dictation in iOS 5 on your iPhone 4S.
• Create footnotes and endnotes in your documents.
• View improved word counts with character, paragraph, and page counts.
• Improved compatibility with Microsoft Word and Pages ’09.
• Includes improved support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language input.

Numbers

• Automatically store your spreadsheets in iCloud and keep them up to date across all your iOS devices.
• Download your spreadsheets to a Mac or PC at icloud.com/iwork as Numbers ’09, Excel, or PDF files.
• Drag and drop Numbers ’09, Excel, or CSV files to icloud.com from your Mac or PC to have them automatically appear on your iOS devices.
• Use sliders, steppers, and pop-ups to easily enter data and explore results.
• Use Merge Cells to format your tables.
• Hide and show rows and columns.
• Improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel and Numbers ’09.
• Includes improved support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language input.

Keynote

• Automatically store your presentations in iCloud and keep them up to date across all your iOS devices.
• Download your presentations to a Mac or PC at icloud.com/iwork as Keynote ’09, PowerPoint, or PDF files.
• Drag and drop Keynote ’09 or PowerPoint presentations to icloud.com from your Mac or PC to have them automatically appear on your iOS devices.
• Use AirPlay to present wirelessly via Apple TV. Navigate slides, view presenter notes, and use the laser pointer while presenting from your iOS device.
• New builds and transitions including Anvil, Blinds, Color Panes, Comet, Confetti, Diffuse, and Sparkle.
• Advanced presentation controls including looped slideshows and autoplay.
• Support for slide-to-slide hyperlinks.
• Improved compatibility with Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote ’09.
• Includes improved support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language input.

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are available on the iPhone and iPad for $9.99 each.

[Pages App Store link] [Numbers App Store link] [Keynote App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

No new iOS for iPhone or iPad beta yet, but Apple has dropped iTunes 10.5 beta 8 and iWork for iOS beta 3 on developers today. Could most of the iOS 5 beta heavy lifting have been done, and now the focus switched to iCloud? Just might be.

For would be iTunes Match testers, this time Apple reminds that:

iTunes Match beta is currently available to developers in the United States.

No word yet on what if any changes might have crept in.

[developer.apple.com]

It's that time of year again - back to school! With school, comes papers, projects, and presentations, so TiPb is going to add some excitement to these otherwise non-enjoyable things and gift two copies of each of the apps in Apple's iWork touch suite: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote! Excited?

For a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment telling us which app you want and why (which classes will you use it for). If you're not in school, that's ok too, just let us know how having the app will benefit you.

Ready? Set? Go!

Must have a US or Canadian iTunes account to win. Apple's rule, not ours!

Apple has released new iCloud-enabled betas for their iWork apps -- Keynote, Pages, and Numbers to developers. The betas, available exclusively through Apple's iOS developer portal, are universal apps for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and no additional features other than iCloud support appear to have been added.

Documents in the Cloud was one of the key iCloud features announced by Steve Jobs at WWDC and the iWork for iOS beta apps are the first test implementation of that feature.

The beta apps come in a DMG file and need to be extracted, dragged to iTunes 10.5 beta 4, and then synced over to an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iOS 5 beta 4. (And yes, it's somewhat ironic the first iCloud enabled versions of iWork can't be installed OTA over iCloud, but this is a beta, right?)

Note: It looks like some people aren't having luck syncing the iWork apps over, or wait for them to sync only to watch them disappear immediately after syncing. We're not sure what's causing that, and what's allowing for successful syncs, but let us know how you fair in the comments.

Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they’re fair game.

To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

Super Stickman Golf – @chrisoldroyd

This week’s pick is Super Stickman Golf. Since my brother bought an iPad 2 we have started playing a few online games. This is one of the most fun to play. Super Stickman Golf is a simple graphics game but a highly sophisticated physics type golf game.

The idea is obviously to get a little white ball in a hole in as few shots as possible. That is where the golf parts comes in; after that it’s not golf at all. You can stick your ball on walls and ceilings, stop the ball in mid air, it is pretty much golf gone mad but a lot of fun.

Now the latest update has brought multi-player for up to four players to the table, it is a great choice for some fun with your friends.

[$0.99 - iTunes Link]

SBRotator -- @andrewwray

SBRotator is a jailbreak tweak that lets you rotate your iPhone Homescreen into landscape orientation. The mod is slick, clean and intuitive with a number of great features to make it a complete jailbreak package you can use without any hassle. SBRotator won't add any icons to your springboard, but instead packs a number of options right into the stock Settings app.

You can scale your icons down in size to help keep a clean look while your iPhone is in landscape mode, and the developer went the extra mile by letting users choose whether or not to keep icon labels when in landscape to help cut down on visual clutter. You can also mimic the way the iPad handles landscape rotation by altering rows/columns, rotate your wallpaper and set which orientation you want your iPhone to default to after a restart or respring. Another great feature is the ability to force stock apps like Settings, Youtube, Maps and the App Store to allow landscape rotation -- something I personally love about this mod. If you love that the iPad allows landscape orientation and wish your iPhone could do the same, this is exactly what you've been looking for.

SBRotator is available for both iOS 3.x devices as well as iOS 4.x -- give it a try and tell us how you like it!

[$1.99 - Cydia link]

iWork for iPhone - @reneritchie

They dropped it in a press release. We've been waiting over a year, since Apple's iWork Suite -- Pages, Numbers, and Keynote -- was redesigned for iOS with the original iPad, for it to become a universal app that also works on iPhone. And Apple dropped it in a press release. That speaks to a couple interesting things. First, Apple won't have time for anything as "small" as iWork for iPhone during the WWDC keynote on Monday. Second, Apple will have their productivity suite ready and waiting on Mac, iPad, and iPhone come the WWDC keynote on Monday.

Taken right now, iWork for iPhone are interesting apps. They're beautifully designed, of course. They're easy to use, for touch screen productivity tools. But it's still a complete pain to move documents back and forth between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. That's a problem because as good as iWork for iPhone makes small touch screen, I'll almost never use it to create full documents. I will use it -- sometimes urgently -- to fix mistakes I made in docs created on my Mac. For that, great apps need a great way to round trip.

So I'm picking iWork for iPhone this week, because they're good apps that just need a great interconnecting service -- an iCloud -- to make them great.

[$9.99 - Pages on iTunes]

[$9.99 - Numbers on iTunes]

[$9.99 - Keynote on iTunes]

Remote - @iMuggle

We have 2 AppleTVs in the house; one in the living room and one in the bedroom. I am notorious for losing those stupid little silver remotes. But you can bet I never lose my iPhone. Ever.

The Remote app is great for controlling the AppleTV and I use it pretty much all the time (probably more than any other app on my iPhone or iPad). Typing search terms with the silver remote they come with is daunting. From my iPhone, I can type fast and get to content even faster.

It's free and a must have for anyone who owns an AppleTV. Do you use your AppleTV remote or the Remote app? Let us know!

[Free - iTunes Link]

Grocery IQ - jdipane (Reader's Choice)

For me, remembering to grab everything that we need at the grocery store is a struggle, and I hate to be caught with an old fashion grocery list, partially because my fiancée has all Hello Kitty paper in the house.

Grocery IQ is a great list application that allows users to create and share various lists so that they don't leave without buying everything that they need. Once an item is added to the list, users can check mark it which adds it to your "cart". At the end of your trip, you simply checkout from the trip and the items you marked will be removed from your list. Grocery IQ also has coupons.com integration so you can view additional coupons and save some extra money while on the go - which everyone loves to do! With all the features that are found in this application, and the ease of use, it is a must download.

[Free - iTunes link]

Your pick?

You’re part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for the announcement on twitter or our Facebook page each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

Apple has announced the availability of the iWork suite for the iPhone and iPod touch as universal apps which are now available in the App Store.

Now you can use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on iPhone and iPod touch to create amazing presentations, documents and spreadsheets right in the palm of your hand,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The incredible Retina display, revolutionary Multi-Touch interface and our powerful software make it easy to create, edit, organize and share all of your documents from iPhone 4 or iPod touch.”

Keynote, Pages and Numbers import and export documents from iWork for Mac and Microsoft Office; print wirelessly using AirPrint; and include beautiful Apple-designed themes and templates. All iWork apps now include improved document management with thumbnail images that let you find your files quickly, organize them and group them into folders using intuitive gestures. From the Tools button in the toolbar, you can easily share any presentation, document or spreadsheet without leaving the app.

Check out more screenshots and full press release below.

All apps included in the suite come with features to match the iPad versions, including the ability to create documents for printing through AirPrint and sharing via iTunes local file sharing. The document manager included in each app comes with a familiar "folders" look and feel, and the suite includes free upgrades for those who have already purchased the apps for the iPad.

Will you be using iWorks on your iPhone or iPod touch?

[Apple]

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2011—Apple® today announced that its groundbreaking iWork® productivity apps, Keynote®, Pages® and Numbers®, are now available for iPhone® and iPod touch®, as well as iPad®. Created for the Mac® and then completely redesigned for iOS and Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface, Keynote, Pages and Numbers allow you to create and share stunning presentations, beautifully formatted documents and powerful spreadsheets on the go. iWork apps are available on the App Store™ for $9.99 each to new users and as a free update for existing iWork for iPad customers.

“Now you can use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on iPhone and iPod touch to create amazing presentations, documents and spreadsheets right in the palm of your hand,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The incredible Retina display, revolutionary Multi-Touch interface and our powerful software make it easy to create, edit, organize and share all of your documents from iPhone 4 or iPod touch.”

Keynote, Pages and Numbers import and export documents from iWork for Mac and Microsoft Office; print wirelessly using AirPrint™; and include beautiful Apple-designed themes and templates. All iWork apps now include improved document management with thumbnail images that let you find your files quickly, organize them and group them into folders using intuitive gestures. From the Tools button in the toolbar, you can easily share any presentation, document or spreadsheet without leaving the app.

Keynote makes it easy to create impressive presentations, complete with animated charts and transitions. You can play your presentation in Full Screen view on the stunning, high-resolution Retina™ display or connect to a projector or HDTV for a large audience. Available separately, the Keynote Remote app allows your iPhone or iPod touch to control a Keynote presentation on any iOS device or Mac.

Pages is the most beautiful word processor ever designed for a mobile device and has everything you need to create amazing documents. Pages takes full advantage of the high-resolution Retina display on iPhone 4 and iPod touch so you can see all the detail and richness of your documents. To make working with text easy on iPhone and iPod touch, Smart Zoom automatically zooms in to follow the cursor while you’re editing and zooms back out when you’re done.

Numbers uses Multi-Touch gestures and an intelligent keyboard to help you create compelling, great-looking spreadsheets with over 250 easy-to-use functions, flexible tables and eye-catching charts. Just like Pages, Numbers takes advantage of the high-resolution Retina display and Smart Zoom to make working with text and cells on iPhone 4 or iPod touch easy.

Pricing & Availability Keynote, Pages and Numbers are universal apps that run on iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and iPod touch (3rd & 4th generation). Keynote, Pages and Numbers are available from the App Store for $9.99 (US) each for new users, or as a free update for existing iWork for iPad customers. Keynote Remote is sold separately via the App Store for 99 cents (US).

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.

When it comes to document editing and creation on the iPad, two solutions really stand out: Apple's iWork Suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) and DataViz's Documents to Go app. Which is better? Well, I wish the decision was that easy.

Both apps (or set of apps in iWork's case -- you can buy each separately) allow you to edit and create documents, spreadsheets and presentations. iWork also has the advantage of using Apple's iWork format and Office format as well and is beautifully designed. Documents to Go does a stellar job of rendering and editing Microsoft's Office format. Let's begin by looking at each app a little more in-depth. I will focus primarily on the differences of how each application handles their word processing since this is the number one reason people would use these apps and, you probably don't want a mini-novel to read. There is an incredible amount to discuss with both iWork and Documents to Go, I cannot conceivably cover it all here. My goal is to give you a detailed enough overview to help you decided which app will work best for you.

iWork

Apple sells the iWork Suite of applications for $9.99 each. The individual apps are Pages (word processor), Numbers (spreadsheet) and Keynote (presentations). Pages looks amazing. Just the aesthetic alone let's you know this isn't "baby software", but the real deal. When you start off by creating a new document, you are presented with several beautiful templates to get you started. For our purposes, we will look at a standard blank document. You have a standard document toolbar at the top of the screen. The Body button gives you a good set of default styles. To the right you have the traditional Bold, Italics and Underline buttons. Finally you have a tab-like icon that gives you the ability to enter a tab, line break, column or page break. Wow, that is some serious stuff there.

On the top of the screen you have an "i" button. This allows you to define a style, lists and indents, text alignment and line spacing. To the right is the picture icon that inserts pictures, tables, charts and shapes. Finally you have the wrench icon that essentially has your settings for Pages; Find, margins, watermarks and more can be found here.

Once you begin typing, you have a very familiar experience, it's just like a desktop whether you have been using a Mac or a PC. Use the tab button to quickly indent. Use the ruler to adjust alignments or place tab stops. Regardless, the interface is simple yet powerful. Do you have a multiple page document? A new innovative feature uses the ability to tap and hold in the right margin. This will bring up a magnifying glass that shows you a thumbnail preview of your page. Drag your finger down and it will preview the other pages in your document. Release on the desired page and Pages will instantly open the previewed page for you; no clumsy flicking or endless scrolling needed.

When your document is done, you can email it, share via iWork.com, send it to iTunes, copy it to iDisk or copy it to WebDav. The most popular method is to email. It is important to note that Pages creates your document in the .pages format which is not compatible with any other word processing application other than iWork for Mac. So, when you email your document, you are given three choices: send it as a Pages, PDF or .Doc format. The .doc option is compatible with PCs and PDF is comparable with just about any computer platform, but is not natively editable. If you send in Pages and PDF formats you will be quite pleased with the results. If you create a complex document with graphics, columns, , etc. and send via .doc format, your results may differ. I typically only create boring APA (American Psychological Association) formatted documents, and when sent via .doc format, they render beautifully. The same goes with importing a document, from say, from email. Though Pages does a really good job of opening and editing .doc documents, it is not flawless and some formatting loss can happen. Apple has improved this process with each update, but it is still not perfect. However, this is one of Pages strong points, it actually supports more than one format. You can also easily upload and download documents from the "cloud" via the iDisk and WebDav options.

At the end of the day, iWork gives you a beautiful robust set of tools for not only word processing but for spreadsheet calculations and creating presentations as well. Many of the same features carry over such as sending in Microsoft-friendly formats and access your files from the cloud. Though these apps are not perfect, they offer advanced features, many of which have only been available on desktop applications, until now.

[Pages - $9.99 - iTunes link]

[Numbers - $9.99 - iTunes link]

[Keynote - $9.99 - iTunes link]

Documents to Go

I have used Documents to Go (Docs to Go) for years, ever since the Palm V days of old. These guys have been at it for a while and I was expecting big things from them on the iPad and for the most part, Docs to Go doesn't disappoint. Docs to Go is a single app that supports a wide array of files for viewing and Office files for editing and sells for $16.99 or $9.99 in the App Store. The launch screen is divided into several sections; Local files, Desktop files, Online files, Recents, Search and Settings. Yes, Docs to Go has a very robust means to access your files and search them.

Once you open a file in the Word app, one feature I noticed immediately that I really liked is the ability to pinch and zoom the text to the appropritea size. The text wraps around in real-time which is cool. After deciding on the fone size you like, It's off to write your text. You have the typical fanfare as iWork does with text formats, colors, paragraph alingments, etc. Docs to Go does not support more advanced features in it's word processing app like real-time image arrangement as iWork does, but it gets the besics done well and cleanly. Two quibbles that I have is that Docs to Go was not developed with the iPad in mind, it is basically a big iPhone app, which is such a shame. Menus are designed for the iPhone, not the iPad. What do I mean? A good example is the placement of the formating buttons; they are along the bottom of the app. At first that may not sound like a bad idea, however, when you are typing, the keyboard appears and hides the buttons so you can't format while you time. Is it a deal breaker? No, but annoying none-the-less.

For me, where Docs to Go really shines over the competition is its "Intact" technology. At work, I use Microsoft Word to create my documents. Admittedly, I sometimes use fancy formats, tables, images, etc. As I mentioned earlier, these may not render very well in Pages. With Docs to Go however, if the app doesn't know what the object is on the document, it doesn't even try to render it, instead it gives you a "?" placeholder that tells you "if you delete me, you will lose this feature when you sync back your document". What a life saver! You can edit a document and not have to worry about loosing formating any more.

Other benefits of Docs to Go include the fact that it is a universal binary, so buy it once and you can use on the iPhone and iPad, not a bad deal at al. You can also sync via iTunes Sharing and Docs to Go's own Wi-Fi sharing app for PC and Mac.

[Documents to Go Premium - $16.99 - iTunes link]

[Documents to Go - $9.99 - iTunes link

Conclusion

You can also find previous reviews of these apps, Here for Pages and Here for Docs to Go.

The three apps in Apple's iWork for iPad collection, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, received updates today. Common to all three is the following:

• 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.
• Improved reliability when importing iWork ’09 and Microsoft Office documents and 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.

In addition, Pages has automatic pagination of tables that cross a page break. Numbers received print preview to adjust how a sheet prints across multiple pages, including Auto Fit, and PDF export takes advantage of pagination settings from print preview. Lastly, Keynote has an enhanced presenter display that shows the current slide, the next slide, or your notes when connected to an external display, and the ability to import existing and add new presenter notes to slides.

These are significant updates to the trio, particularly AirPrint wireless printing and support for iOS 4.2 multitasking. If you get a chance to try them out, let us know what you think!

Apple's MobileMe News has posted a helpful entry on using MobileMe's iDisk for easier file transfer for the just-updated iWork apps for iPad.

With the latest Keynote, Pages and Numbers for iPad, you can now transfer your documents directly to and from your MobileMe iDisk so you can work on them anywhere you have an Internet connection. For example, create a new Pages document on your iPad and copy it directly to your iDisk. Then, when you are back at your Mac, open the document from iDisk and continue editing right where you left off.

If you're working from a Windows PC, access your iDisk with a browser at me.com/idisk and upload an existing Microsoft Office document. Copy the document into Keynote, Pages or Numbers on your iPad to view it or make edits. When you've finished working on the document, copy it back to your iDisk as either an iWork, Microsoft Office or PDF file.

It will also work with WebDAV. Would that it would work with Box.net, DropBox, and GoogleDocs...

[MobileMe News]

Apple has released version 1.2 updates for their iWork touch suite -- Keynote, Numbers, and Pages for iPad. Microsoft Office export and MobileMe iDisk compatibility headline the new features. No word on AirPrint, of course, but knowing Apple they'll only pull that trigger once iOS 4.2 goes into general release and not a millisecond sooner (though we'd dearly love to be proven wrong on that).

For the full list, follow on after the break.

[$9.99 each - Keynote iTunes link, Numbers iTunes link, Pages iTunes link, thanks Rich, Jørn, and Jeremy!]

Keynote 1.2

• Export presentations to Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT) format.
• Copy presentations between Keynote and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
• Support for audio in builds when importing Keynote ’09 presentations.
• Ability to group and ungroup objects.
• Add animated builds to grouped objects.
• Lens Flare, Spin and Wipe build animations.
• Revolving Door, Swoosh and Wipe slide transition animations.
• Improved slide size conversion when importing Keynote ’09 presentations.
• Import and export Keynote ’09 tables with image background fills in cells.
• Improved export of tables with customized borders.
• Improved font matching when importing Keynote ’09 or Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
• Improved creation and editing of web hyperlinks.
• Improved text options for tables including font, size and color settings for individual cells.
• Improved usability and reliability when sharing presentations with iWork.com public beta.
• Improved reliability when importing presentations with large images.
• Improved reliability when importing and exporting presentations with overlapping objects.
• Improved reliability and performance when importing Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

Numbers 1.2

• Export spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel (.XLS) format.
• Copy spreadsheets between Numbers and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
• Ability to group and ungroup objects.
• Open CSV files from Mail and other apps.
• Import and export Numbers ’09 tables with image background fills in cells.
• Improved export of tables with customized borders.
• Improved font matching when importing Numbers ’09 or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
• Improved creation and editing of hyperlinks in text boxes.
• Improved text options for tables including font, size and color settings for individual cells.
• Improved usability and reliability when sharing spreadsheets with iWork.com public beta.
• Improved reliability when importing spreadsheets with large images.
• Improved reliability when importing and exporting spreadsheets with overlapping objects.
• Improved reliability and performance when importing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Pages 1.2

• Copy documents between Pages and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
• Option to display the word count for your document.
• Support for opening .txt files from Mail.
• Ability to group and ungroup objects.
• Import and export existing footnotes, endnotes, sections and tables of contents.
• Import and export Pages ’09 tables with image background fills in cells.
• Improved export of tables with customized borders.
• Improved font matching when importing a Pages or Microsoft Word document.
• Improved creation and editing of hyperlinks.
• Improved text options for tables including font, size and color settings for individual cells.
• Improved usability and reliability when sharing documents via iWork.com public beta.
• Improved reliability when importing documents with large images.
• Improved reliability when importing and exporting documents with overlapping objects.
• Improved handling of fonts when exporting documents to Microsoft Word.
• Improved reliability and performance when importing Microsoft Word documents.

As always, if you try them out, let us know how that new export and iDisk functionality works for you!

It's not the iLife '11 full on HTML5 and ePub editing app we've been waiting for, but at least Apple has released an update for iWork's Pages word processor that adds ePub export for iPad.

Here's the official verbiage:

• Fixes an issue with tables.
• Includes compatibility with the standard ePub file format (for use with iBooks) when exporting.

Numbers (for spread sheets) and Keynote (what Steve Jobs' uses for his presentations) were also updated.

So anyone ready to get their ePub on?

[MacRumors]

You have a big presentation to give for your job and you have very carefully created the perfect Keynote with your Mac. Every little detail was meticulously chosen, including the font. The big day is here and you excitedly transfer the project to your iPad as this will be your means of delivering your presentation. But to your dismay, when you open your document in Keynote for iPad, you get a popup informing you that the font you chose is missing and may look different! But your font selection was an important detail to you, so instead of delivering your Keynote presentation with your iPad, you bitterly drag your 17 inch MacBook Pro along and give a subpar delivery of your speech because of the disappointment you experienced earlier that morning.

It's situations like this that has brought Jeffery Zeldman to write a petition to Apple asking that they bring more font support to the iPad, specifically the iWork suite of applications.

I sometimes spend weeks on a Keynote presentation, and so do my colleagues. We’d love to be able to work on them whether we have a Mac or an iPad at hand—that, after all, is the promise of the devices we buy from you; frankly, it is the promise of all computers. But when the iPad loses my fonts, it loses me. A Keynote presentation with substitute fonts is of no use to me, except perhaps as a rehearsal tool—and I can just as easily rehearse with a PDF.

Do you share Jeffery's frustration? Have you been disappointed with the lack of font support in Pages, Keynote, or Numbers? Or perhaps this is the first you've heard about this and find it unacceptable. If so, let us know and head on over Jeffery's website to sign his petition.

[zeldman.com]

Apple is either prepping iWork for iPhone or is making a some interesting art and copy blunders lately. iWork, which includes Apple's word processor, Pages, presentation software, Keynote, and spreadsheet app, Numbers was released alongside the iPad last April. Right after the iPhone 4 was announced and the product pages went live on apple.com, the Mail feature page showed off a button that offered to "send to Keynote", much like iPad mail which can do just that.

That image was quickly replaced with one that offered to "send to iBooks" instead. Now, iWork for iPhone has popped up again. An AppleCare advisory in the UK says that software support is included for "Using iWork for iPhone and other Apple-branded iPhone apps.

Is Apple working on making their flagship iPad apps universal? Or are these just coincidental errors?

UPDATE: 9to5mac now has blurry-cam pics up of what they've been told is the Pages for iPhone beta. Real, fake, or really fake? Check them out below...

[Mobiture via 9to5.mac, update link: 9to5mac]

Having a virtually full-fledged word processor like Apple's Pages iWork app [$9.99- iTunes Link] on the iPad is a big deal. There has been a lot of discussion, however, about how Pages would work on the iPad. How do I transfer/ sync documents? How will my formatting be effected?

I had to use Pages to do some document editing for a house flyer for our home (we are in the process of selling). I figured what a great opportunity to give Pages a spin. First, I had to get the document on the iPad. Email or iTunes? The Pages file was 12MB so I opted to transfer it via iTunes. The process was simple; I selected the Pages app from the bottom of the Apps tab with my iPad attached to my iMac. I clicked the add files button and chose my Pages file. I synced the iPad and my house flyer appeared in the document list in pages.

After importing the house flyer into Pages, I was not greeted with any formatting warnings (to be fair I have imported Microsoft Word documents and did receive warnings. It was hit and miss; some documents looked identical, others, not so much) and I began editing immediately. But, there was one problem...

I did not know where anything was or how it worked! So, I had to start to play. Where do I change my fonts besides a style? How to I change a graphic to wrap through text and not around it? These were all challenges that with time, I was able to figure out. I would estimate it took a good 30 minutes to fully comprehend how things worked and use the app. Tabs, columns, watermarks, images and graphics can all be added to a document with relative ease.

Using Pages to create and edit my document was... pure joy. Touching your document was fun, and after the initial learning curve, it was easy. Your created documents not only look good, but you have complete control over their flow which is more than ANY other mobile app of this type can offer.

With my editing done, it was time to get my document back to my iMac desktop. So, I had couple of options. I could email, but the file is still to big. I could send as a PDF, but I want to continue to edit the file. I could send it to iWork.com. But, I don't want the hassle. What do I do? Well, there is an export option as well. You can export the file as a Pages, PDF or Word Document. Once this is done, the document is available to be saved from iTunes on the same tab I used to uploaded it from my iMac. Now it gives me a choice to save to my iMac when I dock my iPad.

Now I have to admit that iWork.com may ultimately be a better solution for accessing edited documents in larger quantities. If I had to transfer several documents it would be tedious doing it through iTunes, but still doable. However, accessing iWork.com on the iPad allows you to download the pages file right there and begin editing. When done, sending to iWork.com is just as easy.

This app is not entirely made from unicorn tears however. I did encounter issues with Pages crashing and being sluggish at times, regardless of the document size. I can easily cut Apple slack on this since it is a 1.0 product. I have confidence Apple will release updates for stability and functionality just like its desktop big brother. Still, don't let these little nuances dissuade you; make no mistake that this is an unparalleled best-in-class app from the user interface to it's core functionality.

If you have an iPad and need to create or edit documents, this is a must buy.

Apple wants you to get the most of your Keynote presentations when you move them from the Mac to the iPad, and they've put a Knowledge Base article to show you just how to do it.

From recommended themes to page sizes, fonts to image formats (PNG if you're curious), to compressing the bits out of the various elements to keep the file size small enough for the iPad's anemic memory.

If you live in Keynote on the Mac and the iPad, put these pro tips to use and let us know how they work for you!

[Apple via TUAW]

Apple's bravura attempt to bring productivity apps to multitouch, the iWork for iPad suite of Pages [$9.99 - iTunes link], Numbers [$9.99 - iTunes link], and Keynote [$9.99 - iTunes link] are now all available in the US iTunes App Store.

(We're guessing Apple is waiting to roll them out internationally until the iPad officially rolls out internationally in "late April", though they could conceivably hit any time).

These will be defining apps for Apple and the iPad, both in terms of the price point they're setting and in how far they can go in convincing people the iPad can be used to create and not just consume.

If/when you try them out let us know if they're good, good enough, or just not. Apple Guided Tour videos after the break!

YouTube link

YouTube link

YouTube link

While I was busy enjoying the subtler UI details, AppleInsider noticed that last night's iPad commercial debut showed what might be some of the pricing inside the new iBooks Store:

The commercial showed Sen. Edward Kennedy's "True Compass: A Memoir" for $14.99, the novel "I, Alex Cross" by James Patterson for $12.99, and "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin for $7.99.

For comparison, "True Compass" currently sells for $19.25 for the Amazon Kindle, "I, Alex Cross" costs $9.99, and "Three Cups of Tea" costs $7.19.

Whether or not that was final, or merely mocked up pricing for the commercial, remains to be seen.

TUAW also notes a New York Times button at the bottom, presumably to access a special New York Times Bestsellers section of the iBooks Store.

Lastly, 9to5Mac notes the My Documents button at the top left of of the Pages iWork touch app (good for PC users?). And -- gasp! -- another smudge that's likely still not a camera.

So, did the iPad commercial do it's job and make anyone more interested in picking up a magical, revolutionary new piece of gear on April 3?

It includes an an all-new, iPad-friendly user interface for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, with popup galleries. Numbers also has a distinct, virtual numeric keypad.

It makes sense they have iWork, they're going to want some Office compatibility and light productivity to make the case for why you'd want an iPad instead of a netbook but... TiPb still wonders how easy it will be to input significant content via the iPad. We're willing to be convinced, we're jut not there yet.

Update: Turns out you can use a dock-based or Bluetooth Apple Keyboard with it!

The New York Times says Apple has been working on a multitouch version of their iWork office suite -- Pages word processor, Numbers spread sheet, and Keynote presentations -- for their rumored upcoming iTablet/iSlate, along with complex gestures based on technology they acquired from Fingerworks.

“The tablet should offer any number of unique multitouch experiences — for example, three fingers down and rotate could mean ‘open an application,’ ” said one former engineer, who asked not to be named because Apple demands secrecy from all current and former employees.

Sounds a little complex and obtuse from a company whose success to date has been primarily based on simplicity, but Apple could feel multitouch has been introduced well enough by the iPhone, trackpads, and even the Magic Mouse that users could now handle more complex gestures. We'd imagine, however, that the more complex the gesture, the more complex the function it's intended to invoke -- meaning average users could stick to the simple stuff.

Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had “spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork,” Apple’s answer to Microsoft’s Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies.

It also makes us think a multitouch version of iWork would be just great on the iPhone and iPod touch as well (right Apple?)

For their part, 9to5mac also points out the previous rumors about Apple seeking engineers for an online iWork WebApp. An integrated offering with local and server storage and access, perhaps?

While it is not anything new to see Apple job postings, TechCrunch spotted a listing for iWork that stood out from the crowd. It was a year ago that Apple opened up iWork.com to beta testing. It allows the sharing of iWork documents, spreadsheets and presentations with anyone with access to a modern web browser, on a Mac or PC. On December 22nd Apple posted that they are seeking an Applications Engineer for the iWork team and they hint that more than just online sharing might be in store for iWork:

The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.

Besides exceptional programming skills and devotion to creating great software, we look for one or more of the following kinds of expertise or experience:

• JavaScript language and browser technology – understanding from inside-out, or
• Computer graphics – the mathematics, algorithms and programming, or
• Experience developing scalable rich internet application, or
• Experience developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projects

Reading this job listing one would get the impression Apple is looking to start a venture outside of the current iWork team, perhaps iWork in the cloud.

We haven't gotten a native iWork app for the iPhone or iPod touch yet. Would an HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript WebApp be a workable alternative? Would you want?

[Via TechCrunch]

While TiPb is still waiting on Mobile iChat (SchillerNote Macworld bullet-point perhaps?), at least MobileMe isn't taking time off for the holidays. In addition to an update for their browser-side PIM services, fresh rumors abound of iWork -- Apple's word processing Pages, presentation making Keynote, and spread sheeting Numbers -- going WebApps (think Google Docs with buttery Apple-crafted UI). Ars Technica says:

"Magic" could refer to a few things, but my best guess is that it will be a new iWork component or application that will allow some kind of online sharing, collaboration, or application access. It's possible that Apple will indeed introduce iWork web application at the Macworld Expo, but if that's the case then I think they'll be offered as part of the existing suite, or as an add-on component, rather than as groundbreaking overhaul.

What seems more certain, and certainly handy, is this catch by TUAW:

Soon a new feature in iDisk will make it simple to share files too big for email. iDisk will automatically send a message with a simple link. The recipient will just click the link to download the file.

Official iDisk integration for the iPhone would be a nifty holiday treat as well. OS 2.3 please?