The official Apple description of what has changed is fairly short and to the point:

“This update addresses issues that occur when working with large Keynote presentations on OS X Lion. It also includes improvements in stability and accessibility for Keynote.”

You can get the update through Software Update, the App store or direct from this link.

Instead of posting the entire press release, we’ll just make a few comments and post the link to it. First comment…WOOOHOOOO! Second comment…hmmm, how practical will this really turn out to be? One big thing we can see it being used for is to present Keynote files from your iPhone or iPod Touch. In fact, we’re going to test it tonight with the HDMI adapter to see just how well it works.

Oh, and a big Thank You! to Apple for making the apps universal, now we don’t have to buy another copy (Pages and Keynote are already on the iPad).

Click here to read the press release

Here’s Apple’s info from the KB article:

All iWork 9.0.5 Applications

• Adds public sharing and private upload options for iWork.com public beta.

Keynote 5.0.5

• Allows playback of Keynote presentations on iWork.com, with over 15 animations and effects, when using the latest version of Safari.
  • Addresses an issue with the Drop transition, Dissolve build, and shape colors.
  • Addresses an issue with rulers.
  • Adds support for Keynote Remote 1.2*, including high-resolution slides for the Retina display.

Pages 4.0.5

• Improves the readability of exported ePub documents.

iWork.com public beta

• Allows playback of Keynote presentations on the web.
  • When using the latest version of Safari, the following transitions and builds are available:Transitions:
    • Magic Move
    • Cube
    • Dissolve
    • Drop
    • Flip
    • Motion Dissolve
    • Move in
    • Pivot
    • Push
    • Reveal
    • Scale
    • Twirl

    Builds:

    • Appear/Disappear
    • Cube
    • Dissolve
    • Drop
    • Move In/Out
    • Pivot
    • Pop
    • Scale
    • Twirl
  • Other animations will display as Dissolve when using the latest version of Safari.
  • Appear/Disappear animations will be used on non-Safari browsers and older versions of Safari.
  • Dynamic, onscreen navigation controls are provided to control web presentations.
  • Keynote presentations can be embedded on websites and blogs using the embed code.
  • Improves user experience of iWork.com on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

You can download the iWork update via Software Update or through the Apple support area.

Macworld has more info on the new features (and some great screen shots). Click hear to read the Macworld story.

Or help us out and use one of these affiliate links to buy one of the iWork apps:

Get Keynote from iTunes
Get Pages from iTunes
Get Numbers from iTunes

Along with all the other announcements, Apple showed off the new Mac App Store. It’s possible Apple wants to make a splash with the new App Store and have iWork ’11 be the first big release for the store. Of course, they could have shown it off today and kept some folks from buying Office 2011 for a few months. The other possibility is that Apple saw Office 2011 coming and decided to hold off and really pump up iWork (especially Keynote).

One other option might be that they just didn’t show it off, but it will quietly appear on the website later today. We doubt this is the case, since Keynote is Steve’s baby, but it is possible.

I guess we’ll know at some point what’s up, but I hope we don’t have to wait until 2011 to get our hands on a new copy of iWork.

What does this mean to the average user? It means Pages can be used to create books for Apple iBooks platform. For now, Apple has given basically no information about this feature, so it’s not clear how easy it is for non-publishers to publish to the iBooks store. We’re also currently not sure if the iBook format supports opening your own books with the iBooks app, but we’re sure it will all become clear sooner or later (if you know more, feel free to make a comment to this article).

You can get the iWork update via Software Update or visit http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1097 to download it.

You can read Apple’s support doc by visiting http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4165

UPDATE: MacUser has more details on this new feature:
http://www.macworld.com/article/153697/2010/08/iwork_904.html#jump

and Apple has posted an article on this feature:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4168

What’s unclear at this point is wether or not you can use the iPad to present to something larger than its built in screen. The iPad tech specs page DOES list a new VGA adapter (Support for 1024 x 768 with Dock Connector to VGA adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component A/V Cable, 576i and 480i with Apple Composite Cable) so it’s likely that you’ll at least be able to present (downscaled of course) to 640×480 (not sure how we completely ignored the 1024×768 output spec right there in the description).

We’re wondering if this is why Apple hasn’t given the iPhone or iPod touch the ability to read and honor the timing sprite track in movies exported from the Mac version of Keynote (we may never know).

One great thing though, is that with the 1024×768 screen and a native copy of Keynote running on the iPad, elevator or other one on one pitches are in a whole new realm. Thankfully, pretty much every theme out there is currently available in a 1024×768 format, so we won’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to 3rd party themes (though no instruction has been give on how to install them).

We’ll keep you posted as details emerge regarding these apps running on the iPad. For now, here’s a link to Apple’s details on the Apple site.

This update improves reliability when saving some iWork documents and when playing some presentations more than once per Keynote session. 

This update is recommended for all users of iWork ’09.

Check out the description from the Apple site and Software Update:

iWork ’09 Update 1 is recommended for all iWork ’09 users.

Yeah. We suspect this will change soon as this just doesn’t seem up to Apple’s standards. You can get the new update via Software Update or by visiting this page on the Apple site. The update weighs in at 42.8 meg (45 meg in Software Update).

All three are said to general address compatibility issues BUT Keynote additionally addresses issues with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 and 2008. Have you found that it addresses YOUR particular compatibility issue? Let us know in the comments!

You now have the ability to send documents from the regular version of iWork up to the online version and share them with others. It doesn’t appear that you can edit documents, but you can share, comment and download files from the site.

The highlights are:

Keynote 09:

• Magic Move
• Oject transitions
• Text Transitons
• Chart Animations
• New Themes
• New Keynote remote (gee, I wonder where Apple got that idea, StageHand maybe?)(We’ll be looking closely at the app when we get our hands on it to find out about ALL the new features) 

Pages 09:

• Full screen display
• Dynamic Outlines
• Mail Merge with Numbers
• Mathtype and Endnote integration
• 40 New Themes

Numbers 09:

• New Table Categories
• 250 functions (with function view)
• Advanced chart options (including error bars, lets hope Keynote has this too)
• Pasting a chart into pages links it back to the original (yeah!)

iWork and iLife 09 require Leopard, so Apple is selling a whole boxed pack for $169 with iLife, iWork and Leopard in it. Too bad they don’t have one with just iWork and iLife.

As always, upgrades are $79, or $99 for a family pack.

 

——–

From the read me file that comes with the free trial:

Keynote ’09 

Stunning presentations in minutes

• More than 40 Apple–designed themes with coordinated text, tables, and charts (8 New)
• Slide navigator
• Reviewer comments
• Format bar for text, tables, graphics, and charts
• 2D and 3D charts with amazing textures and animations

 

Easy–to–use graphics tools

• Alignment and spacing guides and rulers
• Instant Alpha for image background removal
• Shapes and freeform Bézier curves 
• Image masks with basic and custom shapes 
• iLife Media Browser

 

Amazing animations

• Magic Move for one–click animations (New)
• Text and object driven transitions (New)
• Text and object build animations
• Move, rotate, scale, and opacity builds
• Smart Builds with drop zones for images

 

Flexible ways to deliver presentations

• Presenter view with notes, timer, ready to advance, and next screen displays
• Control your presentation with iPhone/iPod touch using Keynote Remote (sold separately through the App Store)
• Interactive slideshows for kiosks
• Record narration and timing
• Send to iWeb, GarageBand, and iTunes
• File size optimization (New)

 

Compatibility

• Import and export Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
• Import AppleWorks presentation documents
• Import and export other common formats
• Send presentations via Mail (New)
• Send presentations to iWeb

 

Pages ’09

Streamlined word processing

• Format bar for text, tables, graphics, and charts
• Customizable paragraph, character, and list styles
• Section, layout, and page breaks

 

Advanced writing tools

• Full screen view (New)
• Outline Mode (New)
• Integration with MathType 6 and EndNote X2 (sold separately)
• Change tracking and reviewer comments
• Mail merge with Address Book and Numbers tables
• Automatic table of contents
• Spellchecker and proofreader
• Page navigator and search view

 

Great–looking documents in minutes

• More than 180 templates from letters to newsletters (40 New)
• iLife Media Browser
• 3D charts with realistic textures
• Powerful tables

 

Powerful page layout mode

• Freeform graphics canvas
• Link text across multiple text boxes
• Text wraps around graphics

 

Compatibility 

• Import and export Microsoft Word documents
• Import AppleWorks word processing documents
• Send documents via Mail (New)
• Send documents to iWeb

 

Numbers ’09

Powerful and familiar spreadsheets

• Easy formula writing
• More than 250 functions (100 New)
• 2D and 3D charts
• Linked charts (New)
• Format bar for text, tables, graphics, and charts

 

Innovative, intelligent tables

• Multiple, resizable tables on a canvas
• Readable cell names in formulas
• Table categories (New)
• Footer rows for summary calculations
• Tools for sorting and filtering tables
• Checkboxes and sliders in cells 

 

Impressive results in minutes

• Freeform canvas to arrange tables, graphics, and charts
• iLife Media Browser
• Interactive print view
• Customizable tables styles
• 30 templates for home, work and school use (12 New)

 

Compatibility

• Import and export Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
• Import AppleWorks spreadsheets
• Import and export other common formats
• Drag and drop Address Book contacts
• Send spreadsheets via Mail (New)
• Send spreadsheets to iWeb

 

System requirements

A Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (500MHz or faster) processor
512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
32MB of video memory
Mac OS X v10.4.11, or Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later
QuickTime 7.5.5 or later

 

1.2GB of available disk space
DVD drive required to install

UPDATE: The link has reverted back to iWork ’08. The image above is from earlier today.

You must have Keynote 4.0.2 installed in order to install this and, if you have problems updating, the most likely cause is due to Keynote not being in the iWork folder in your Applications folder. You can download the 20 meg update via Software Update or from Apple Support Downloads.

If this fixes any particular problems on YOUR end, post in the comments and let us know!

You can find out more at Apple.com

Someone noticed that Steve was using an effect that was NOT in Keynote 08. Well, we now know it’s called Shimmer because the Keynote 4.0.1 update has added it back in. We have no idea why it was removed from the shipping version, especially when Steve used it during the same show that debuted Keynote 08, but we’re glad it’s back.

New:
-Audio builds (start, stop)
-Record show timings
-Special item to item builds (work well for photos) called Smart Builds
-Actions (motion paths with bezier curves, transparency over time, rotate or scale over time, plus some other effects)
-Instant Alpha for doing things like removing the white background from a logo (our tests showed this works well)
-Start movie on click so your poster frames mean something
-Trim in and outs on movies
-User defined text on masters (placeholder text)
-User defined image on masters (image placeholders like Pages-yeah!)
-New Picture Frame object/image borders (well now, this opens a whole new thing for theme makers)
-3 viewing sizes for the LIght Table view
-Narration Recording
-New transitions (color panes, confetti, swap, blur)
-New text effects (blast, bouncy, comet, confetti, convergence, diffuse out, drift, flame, sparkle, squish, probably a few more)
-new image mask resize slider (to resize the image inside the mask)
-export to itunes and ipod (haven’t tested this yet)
-import new Office xml format (heck, even PPT 2004 can’t do that yet)
-new Format bar. FINALLY you can choose fonts and colors from right below the tool bar and not have to open the fonts panel and visit the inspector! Fonts, colors, formatting, columns, fill, stroke, shadow, reflection and transparency are all there. It seems to change with the object you have selected too, so it’s like a mini inspector (tables at least get their own functions in the bar)
-The manual is online ONLY???!!!! Oh, they are on the DVD, but if you choose the manual from the help menu, you get the support website. Weird.
-New document warnings window you can leave up. We’re guessing it tells you when there are problems with images or your file.
-New Show/Hide guides option, new Edge guides on off toggle button in the menu bar (if you add it yourself)
-New interface icons pretty much across the board
-New Capitalization option under Format>Font
-New Mask with Shape sub menu that lets you apply a default shape to your image, instead of making a shape first
-New Insert Function sub menu in the Insert menu for use with Tables…and…
-A heck of a lot more functions for calculations in tables
-There’s a new table cell only text format button that left justifies text and right justifies numbers (had to check the manual for that one!)

Stuff still missing (as far as we know)
-Audio across multiple slides but not the whole show
-Audio fade in our out
-Slide selector that stays up in the presenter view like in PPT 2004
-Still no multi-color gradient function
-Still no way to punch holes in Keynote shapes
-It appears there’s still no true “action button function”, where you can make a button trigger something else (but we’re hoping we’re wrong
-There’s still doesn’t appear to be a hyperlink “visited” link color option, so those wanting to make games where the visits slides seem to go off the board, that still won’t happen.

Our first thoughts:
Image place holders seem to have replaced photo cutouts in all of Apples themes. This also makes building a theme a HECK of a lot easier (one we figure out how to make photo frames). We’ll still need cutouts for odd shapes I think, but it sure is nice to see something you think is a cutout, and it MOVES…and it can be resized. Very nice.

In our tests, I found a bug already! I have a zillion themes, and when I choose the theme menu from the tool bar, I get a four column menu of themes…and the top 3 are ALWAYS cut off, no matter where Keynote is on the screen. Not only that, but I realized, they’re cut off well below the actual top of the theme list. There are literally dozens of themes not showing and you can’t scroll the list. Oops.

Okay, that’s all for now. We’ll try to get a more in depth review up soon.

Shameless plug: Help support KeynoteUser.com by purchasing our Pro Keynote Themes

Pages brings with it a new modal way of operating. If you’d rather have the stark clean look for simple word processing, you’ve got it. When you want to switch to a more page layout oriented context, you’ve got it. Built in change tracking that’s compatible with Word (a often requested feature) and over 140 themes gives you Pages’ major bullet points.

The new kid on the block is Numbers. As you’d expect it’s the “spreadsheet for the rest of us”. It’s harder to explain Numbers because although it’s a spreadsheet, it’s sure to have those extras that make Keynote so much more than a “presentation” app and Pages so much more than just “page layout”. You can count on seeing those great Apple themes, your basic spreadsheet features with intelligent tables and more readable formulas than you may be used to.

iWork ’08 will continue to retail for $79 and is available starting today. Check out the updated site for more info and we’ll be taking a look at some of the new features of Keynote and will post our impressions!

The new version retails for $79.99 and a 30-day demo will be included with every Mac. Find out more in our weblog and at Apple’s Keynote site and Apple’s Pages site.