A few minutes ago Apple sent out an email to iWork.com beta users to inform them of some new features such as support for 15 new Keynote animations, private online storage for documents and sharing on social networks with a Public link. Support fo the new Keynote animations was actually introduced with the latest iWork update 5, although now Apple is letting users know that they can access presentations shared on iWork.com online with an iPad and swipe with their fingers to advance slides.

As for the new storage options, you can access documents marked as private from anywhere. iWork.com also provides a link to embed presentations on a website or blog now, which we think is a pretty neat feature.

Check out the full description and screenshots of the new features below. (more…)

As noted by 9to5mac, some graphic files found in the latest update to Keynote Remote, released today together with new Keynote features for iWork.com, hint at the presence of the iWork ’11 suite on the Mac App Store tomorrow. Rumors of a new version of iWork have been going around since November, when AppleInsider suggested that, according to their sources, iWork ’11 should have been released together with iLife ’11 but was put on the shelf at the last minute and saved for a Mac App Store launch in January.

Today’s update to Keynote Remote includes two slightly changed Keynote icons that have “2011″ on them. Traditionally, Apple updates the Keynote icon with a new year on it as a new version is released — it happened in the past with Keynote ’09 as well, for example.

Of course, Apple might just have included these updated files and then release iWork ’09 as standalone apps in the Mac App Store tomorrow. With all the rumors that have been going around recently, though, and the fact that Apple has heavily featured iWork apps in its Mac App Store promo material, there might be the possibility of seeing iWork ’11 showing up tomorrow as a digital download in the new Store.

Time to head over to Software Update iWork users: There’s a huge iWork 5 update in queue with your name on it. Most prominently featured is a major Keynote upgrade which allows you to play presentations over iWork.com with support for fifteen Steve Jobs’ approved animations. Keynote Remote 1.2 gets an upgrade as well, so you can playback hi-def slides on your iPhone during those killer presentation (eyeballs rejoice!). Some improvements have been made to the export of ePub files on Pages, but most importantly we’ll have public and private sharing options available for all iWork documents via iWork.com. You can read more about version 9.0.5 here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4386

Sometimes, some people have terrible ideas. When those ideas involve Apple, trademark infringement and ripped-off logos, the story can quickly become incredibly messed up. Here’s what’s going on: there’s an iWork available on Sears’ website, but it’s not Apple’s digital productivity suite. It’s an actual toolkit Sears is marketing as “PC Toolkit” and selling at $39.99. Here’s the listing on Sears’ website.

See what they did there? They took a fancy registered and trademarked name, they took Apple’s font and even bothered adding a reflection to it. Apple doesn’t even use reflection on iWork’s logo. Sears does. Why? Two iWork logos are better than one, maybe?

Seriously, Steve is not going to approve this. Or perhaps, there’s a remote possibility he will buy hundreds of these toolkits and send them over to the folks working at the data center in North Carolina. Although I doubt Steve Jobs is capable of such jokes. [via Macenstein]

Here’s an interesting tidbit from 9to5mac: according to an Apple Store employee “there is no iWork on the shelves, no iWork in Stock and none on the way”. iWork 09 seems to be out of stock at Apple retail stores and Amazon, although family packs are available on Amazon and Apple.com says the suite is available, but with a curious “New” label next to it.

According to previous rumors, the new version of iWork has been ready for some months and it’s simply awaiting a Mac App Store debut. The new Store will open on January 6th.

Now, is Apple going to make iWork 11 available in retail stores as well? If so, are we going to get the physical box before the Mac App Store downloads?

Also: is iWork.com ever going to get new features?

Just as expected, Apple has released an update for all the three iWork apps currently available on the iPad: Pages, Numbers and Keynote reach version 1.3, which adds support for iOS 4.2 and AirPrint. The updates are rolling out in iTunes now.

Support for iOS 4.2 and AirPrint has been deployed in all the apps, although each of them has got unique new features in the update, too. As far as AirPrint is concerned, version 1.3 includes slide range selection, number of copies, and duplex printing. The three apps also come with Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese localization, bug fixes and overall performance improvements. WebDAV server fixes have been included as well.

Numbers got an enhanced print preview to adjust the the way a sheet is printed across multiple pages, together with a predictive function selector and improved PDF export support. Keynote comes with an enhanced presenter that allows you to display on an external monitor the current slide, the next slide, or your notes. It also got the ability to import and add existing notes to slides. Pages got automatic pagination of tables exceeding page breaks and improved font size selection.

Pages, Keynote and Numbers are available here, here and here, respectively.Pages 1.3 still hasn’t made it through the App Store, we’ll update this post once it’s live. Check out the full changelogs below. [image via Macworld]

Update: Pages 1.3 is live in the App Store.

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According to a recent email from Steve Jobs to a user asking whether the Apple TV would be able to display Keynote presentations at some point, iOS and OS X presentations are coming “soon” to the Apple TV.

“Soon”, as in Keynote ’11 for Mac and an updated iPad version? That would be an option, or maybe a simple update to the existing iWork suite to support the feature. Speaking of which, that would be something like AirPlay for presentations, right? It makes perfect sense to be able to output presentations on a bigger screen powered by the Apple TV in an Apple-focused office environment, although the functionality wouldn’t obviously be that big of a deal for “home workers”.

Anyway, we’re looking forward to new AirPlay feature, iWork ’11 or whatever a Steve Jobs email can tell us about new things coming to Apple devices.

According to AppleInsider, iWork ’11 is basically ready, but Apple doesn’t want to let it out of the cage. They received information from “people familiar with the matter” that the productivity suite was ready to be announced at October’s Back to the Mac event, but it was scrapped at the last minute.

It appears that Apple might hold it back until the grand opening of the Mac App Store, which should happen sometime next January.

People familiar with the matter say development of iWork ’11 wrapped up this fall and the software was initially slated for an introduction alongside iLife ’11 last month, but was held back at the last minute for undisclosed reasons.

Apple’s revised plans currently call for the company to launch the new productivity suite alongside the forthcoming Mac App Store, these same people say. The applications included in the bundle — Pages, Numbers and Keynote — will be available for purchase individually when the Mac App Store debuts.

AppleInsider also speculates that Apple might remove the retail box option for iWork ’11 and sell the suite solely on the Mac App Store as single applications priced at $19.99 — pretty much like they do for the iWork apps for iPad. With the promise of the Mac App Store as the best way to discover and install applications on a Mac, the option surely seems likely.

Apple started accepting submissions for the Mac App Store last week. Promo material for the Mac App Store showed individual iWork apps sold at $19.99 each.

9to5mac noticed that both iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 are currently backordered at BestBuy.com. Shipping times for the two software suites have been delayed to 1 / weeks, which usually means BestBuy is short on units and an update is coming.

On Wednesday, October 20th Apple is having its “Back to the Mac” media event. Mac’s not dead, and it’s about time for an iLife and iWork update. We’re waiting.