There’s a good amount of Microsoft Office 2010 news coverage today thanks to Microsoft’s announcement that Office 2010 has reached the “technical preview engineering milestone.” Beginning today, thousands of individuals will be invited to test drive Office and Visio as part of the Technical Preview program.

Some of the new features found in Office 2010 include (courtesy of their press release):

• “Work anywhere with Office Web applications — the lightweight Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote — that provide access to documents from virtually anywhere and preserve the look and feel of a document regardless of device.
• Collaborate better with co-authoring in Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft OneNote 2010, and advanced e-mail management and calendaring capabilities in Microsoft Outlook 2010, including the option for users to ”ignore” unwanted threads.
• Bring ideas to life with video and picture editing, broadcast capability in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, easy document preparation through the new Microsoft Office Backstage view, and new Sparklines in Microsoft Excel 2010 to visualize data and spot trends more quickly. “

In addition, Microsoft is simplifying our lives by reducing the number of Office Editions from eight to five. (Yeah.. that’s still 4 too many if you ask me).

Office Web Applications will be available in three different ways:

• Through Windows Live
• On-premises for all Office volume licensing customers
• Microsoft Online Services

For more in-depth coverage on Office 2010, check out the following links:

• “Microsoft releases Office 2010 details, test code” at CNET
• “Hands On: Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview” at PC Mag
• “Office 2010: Most innovations are online” at PC World

Expect Office 2010 and related products to hit store shelves sometime during the first half of 2010.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office 2010, Office 2010 Technical Preview

*shakes head*..

In an effort to drum up buzz for next year’s release of Office 2010, Microsoft has decided to do something a bit different. They’ve launched a new movie teaser website called “Office 2010 The Movie”. Now of course, they don’t take any of this seriously (just watch the Microsoft Office Backstage Interview for example) but it’s still interesting to see Microsoft go this route to help promote the next version of Office. Heck – they even make fun of the leaked version of Office 2010 which has surfaced across the web in recent weeks (including a version that has a virus embedded too) Here’s what the “lead actor” had to say about that leaked version with the virus:

“Imagine my face but as a program without the makeup, with a virus.. a virus all over my face.. I mean that can’t be good right?”

But hey… if you do want to try Office 2010, you can sign up for the Technical Preview on their website.

[Check it out via News.com]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office 2010 The Movie

So the Macworld keynote address came and went.. and the world is still in one piece. As a regular bystander, the keynote was a bit ho-hum.. Yes.. Apple announced new software releases (iLife’09 and iWork ‘09); yes there’s a new 17 inch MacBook Pro notebook… and yes.. there are changes to iTunes.. but overall – it was a bit of a letdown wasn’t it? Maybe I’m not hardcore enough of an Apple follower.. Oh well.

In any event, let me try and summarize today’s announcements. Apple announced a new version of iLife ‘09 which features major updates to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand. IMHO, the best additions have to be for iPhoto where you can now perform automatic face detection within the software, automatically publish pictures to both Facebook and Flickr as well as sync name tags back to iPhoto from Facebook. iPhoto will also now support location information stored in pictures from GPS enabled cameras or mobile phones. You’ll be able to search by places and faces – nifty. iLife ‘09 also contains an updated version of iWeb ‘09 as well as iDVD ‘09 for creating DVDs. You can purchase iLife ‘09 later this month for $79 dollars.

Apple also announced a major update to their iWork productivity suite in the form of iWork ‘09. The new version adds many new features to Keynote, Pages, and Numbers – all of which you can read about in the press release if you’re interested. Not to be outdone by Google or Microsoft, Apple is also getting into the online document sharing business with the introduction of the iWork.com beta website. With iWork.com, users will be able to share their iWork ‘09 documents online using their Apple ID. iWork ‘09 is available now for $79 dollars or $49 dollars with the purchase of any Mac.

As long rumored, Apple finally released an updated 17 inch MacBook Pro – bringing the aluminum unibody construction from the MacBook family to the 17 inch domain. The new 17 incher also features a new built-in rechargeable battery with a battery life of up to eight hours and lifespan of 1000 recharges – more than three times the lifespan of conventional notebook batteries. Other features of the new MacBook Pro include:

• High resolution LED backlit 1920 x 1200 resolution display
• Glass based multi-touch trackpad
• Latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors up to 2.93 GHz
• Up to 8GB RAM
• Switchable NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics
• Standard 320GB 5400RPM HDD
• Optional 320GB 7200RPM HDD or 128GB/256GB SSD
• Mini DisplayPort

The new 17 inch MacBook Pro will be shipping at the end of this month. For a suggested retail price of $2799, you’ll get a system with the following specs:

• 17-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1920 x 1200, glossy display;
• 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
• 1066 MHz front-side bus;
• 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
• NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3 video memory;
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
• a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
• Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
• built-in AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• Gigabit Ethernet port;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• three USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire® 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible); 
• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
• one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
• glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; 
• built-in, 95WHr lithium polymer battery; and
• 85 Watt MagSafe® Power Adapter.

Yes.. $2799 is a lot of money..

And FINALLY, changes are coming to iTunes. Apple finally gave up on their single price point of $99 cents – offering songs in three price points now – $69 cents, $99 cents, and $1.29. However, the company also announced that all four major music labels (Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI) will now be offering their music in iTunes Plus – Apple’s DRM free format with 256kbps AAC encoding.

Let’s focus on the price changes first. Apple will be rolling out the price changes in April and it will be based on what the music labels charge Apple. The company claims that many more songs will be priced at 69 cents vs $1.29 but you can be sure the newest most popular songs will be on the higher end of the spectrum.

Ah but what about your existing collection of purchased songs? You can upgrade them to the newer DRM free format at a price of 30 cents per song or 30 percent of the album price.  The iTunes Store will begin offering eight million of its 10 million songs in the DRM free format with the remaining 2 million available by the end of March.

Finally, iPhone 3G owners will finally be able to download their purchased songs over the 3G network – just like they would over a Wi-Fi network.

AND.. that’s a wrap

Technorati Tags: Apple, Macworld keynote, iLife '09, iWork '09, Macbook Pro, iTunes Plus

LaptopMag has published a review of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition here on their website. Special Media Edition is one of three different Office 2008 versions. The other two versions are Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition and Office 2008 for Mac. The basic differences are as follows. Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage. Office 2008 for Mac adds Microsoft Server Exchange Support and Automator Actions for Workflows in Microsoft Office. Finally, Special Media Edition adds Microsoft Expression Media tot the mix. Here’s what LaptopMag thinks of the new edition for the Mac platform:

Office for Mac 2008 Special Media Edition is an excellent work suite geared toward power users who will delve into every feature and explore every nook and cranny of the robust package. Casual users who don’t want to shell out $499 could make do with the $149 Student and Home Edition or the very capable (and more wallet-friendly) $79 iWork ‘08. We are left wondering, though, why Microsoft doesn’t make such a fun and visually appealing suite for Windows users.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition, Mac, Microsoft, LaptopMag, Review