Apple on Thursday released an update for its iWork suite of productivity applications, adding a new feature that enables authors to add books to its iBookstore application.

While all of the applications in the iWork suite were updated, the most significant change comes in Pages 4.0.4. The word-processing app now includes compatibility with the ePub format, which Apple uses for iBooks.

Apple published a document on its support site giving users tips on creating documents in the ePub format that covers everything from using paragraph styles in your Pages document to providing a downloadable template to use.

You don't need to be an author to use the ePub format--you can use iBooks to read your own material too. Anything from a manuscript to a presentation can be uploaded to your iBooks app and viewed as a book.

However, if you are an author, having an application on your Mac that will easily publish your book will be a huge help to many users.

Apple's presentation software, Keynote, has been updated, fixing issues with the slide switcher, a problem when printing handouts with rule lines, and an issue with tables. Numbers, Apple's spreadsheet application, has been updated, fixing an unspecified problem with some tables.

iWork 9.0.4 is available as a free download.

Originally posted at News - Apple

A real-time version of TweetDeck is now available to the public, one month after Twitter announced a developer preview of its User Streams API, opening up third-party Twitter applications to display tweets in real time.

That API gives desktop apps like TweetDeck the ability to display tweets virtually as soon as they are published. Other Twitter activity, like retweets, mentions, search, DMs (direct messages), lists, favoriting, and following will also come in real time.

According to the TweetDeck blog, the beta version of its User Streams app was well-received by its 5,000 beta testers. However, some users have critiqued the feature, calling it "dizzying" and overwhelming.

Those comments reflect a fundamental issue that has been discussed for some time now: how do we make sense of real-time Web? Twitter users who follow hundreds--if not thousands--of active users will be inundated with a flood of unfiltered tweets.

To be sure, User Streams won't be for everyone. Those who do decide to jump on board, however, will enjoy an added feature: @ replies from friends to other users who one doesn't follow can be displayed in one column, reminiscent of the stalker-esque Facebook newsfeed.

The User Streams version of TweetDeck is available now at TweetDeck's official site.