Apple lets fly with iWork collaboration features

At Apple's iPad event in San Francisco in October, the company demoed a handful of collaboration features that would come to iWork, making it more of a direct competitor with Google Docs. But almost a month after that press event, we hadn't seen those changes in the software. On Thursday, though, Apple released a beta update for iWork for iCloud that includes the features. Among the new tools that let multiple people work together on a project: you can see a list of who is currently working on the project, and each person's individual cursor; and you can jump directly to any collaborator's cursor by clicking on his or her name. The update also adds the ability to organize documents in folders, and lets you print documents, spreadsheets, and presentations directly from the Tools menu.Apple's rollout of its new software offerings hasn't all gone smoothly. A few days after the company released free upgrades to the iWork and iLife suites, power users howled at some of the features that had been taken out of the new versions. Last week, Apple backtracked and announced that it would re-introduce some of the missing features in subsequent updates of the free version of iWork.

Apple legal chief joins board of ski resort company

Bruce Sewell, Apple senior vice president and general counsel, today joined the board of directors at Vail Resorts, a resort operator in the U.S.Sewell came over to Apple from Intel in 2009, and has been with the company during its substantial legal efforts against Samsung, HTC, Nokia, and others over patents and other intellectual property. The move is noteworthy given a long period during which Apple's core executives kept off the boards of other companies. That policy appears to have softened since the passing of co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. For instance, iTunes and iCloud chief Eddy Cue joined the board of car maker Ferrari last November. For his part, Apple CEO Tim Cook joined Nike's board in 2005 back when he was in charge of the company's operations.In a news release about Sewell's extended role, Vail Resorts notes that Sewell was once on a ski patrol team in New York, and spent a stint between college and his law degree at George Washington University skiing around the country.Sewell appeared nearly every day in court during Apple's U.S. trial with Samsung in San Jose, Calif., sitting in the same seat just behind the company's outside counsel. (via 9to5Mac)