GarageBand going free-as-in-freemium, iWork, iLife iOS 7-style app icons revealed on Apple.com

Apple has updated their Built-in-Apps page on Apple.com to show off the new icons, and new descriptions for their iLife - iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand - and iWork - Numbers, Pages, Keynote - suites of creativity and productivity apps ahead of the October 22 iPad and Mac event. It includes this line, suggesting GarageBand might join its 5 companions in going free, although in this case free-as-in-freemium:

GarageBand is free on the App Store for all iOS 7 compatible devices; additional GarageBand instruments and sounds are available with an in-app purchase.

Looks like some new features and new templates are also coming along for the ride. It's not clear exactly what it all means, but here's the copy:

iPhoto for iOS:

And create beautiful photo books, prints, slideshows, and web journals to share with family and friends.

iMovie for iOS:

And with the new iMovie Theater, screen them all on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac — even on your HDTV via Apple TV. It's like having your own personal theater, everywhere you go.

Keynote:

Start with one of 30 Apple-designed themes.

Numbers:

Numbers comes with over 30 Apple‑designed templates to work with.

The icons are, as you'd expect, gradients with solid white glyphs, completely unlike their previous, richly rendered versions and now matching Apple's current slate of iOS 7 apps. The screenshots, however, look the same as before so either those haven't been updated on the web yet, or Apple's engineers and designers simply haven't had time to work on them, given how busy they've been with the core OS.

New icons aren't shown for iBooks, iTunes U, Podcasts, Trailers, Remote, or other Apple App Store Apps, though presumably those, especially iBooks, are in the works. There's also no indication of new OS X versions of the iWork or iLife apps for the Mac and Mavericks yet, but given they were last updated in 2009, they're long past due as well.

Whether or not the new icons and new descriptions were meant to be pushed into production today, or whether it was simply a glitch in advance of Tuesday's update is uncertain. The pages linked to from the new descriptions come back as not found, so the latter might be more likely than the former.

Via: MacRumors

Rene Ritchie
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Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.