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Apple challenges Microsoft, Google with iWork collaborative tools

Unveiled on Tuesday at Apple's iPad launch event, the new iWork suite lets you share your documents with others via iWork for iCloud.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
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The new version of iWork lets you share and collaborate on your files with fellow users.
The new version of iWork lets you share and collaborate on your files with fellow users. CNET

Apple has rolled out a new version of iWork that lets you collaborate in the cloud with other people.

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Announced today at Apple's iPad launch event, the new iWork uses Apple's iWork Beta service to let you share and work on files in the Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps.

Demonstrating the new feature, Apple Internet Software and Services Vice President Eddy Cue showed how he was able to make changes to a document that was just created by iWork Vice President Roger Rosner. The changes made by different people show up in real time.

"You can even collaborate with a friend who's stuck on a PC," said Cue.

The new iWork suite could pose a challenge to such services as Google Docs and Microsoft's Office 365. In a dig specifically against Office 365, which requires an annual subscription, Cue said that the new iWork will be free for buyers of new Macs or iOS devices.