The News Review:
- Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope will light your fuse
- Microsoft to deliver Mac ffice file converters in June
- Working ffline With Google Docs Part 2
- Gates gives CEs a peek at the “future of work”
- Airbus announces new A380 delays
- It’s for real: Microsoft offers software at 91 percent discount
Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope will light your fuse
USA Today – May 14, 2008
) The guided tours — for example Center of the Milky Way Dust and Us — are generally a great place to start. They can take a long time to download and just some of them have voiceovers. Microsoft is encouraging folks to create their own tours to share with others which is a little like preparing slides in PowerPoint. That was beyond the expertise of this astronomy neophyte; my stargazing prowess is generally limited to finding the Big Dipper. Then again one of the most refreshing tours was posted by a 6-year-old Toronto boy named Benjamin who weighed in on the Ring nebula. Sample: “I read that it’s 2300 light years away which seems like a very long bike ride. ” •Delving deeper.
Microsoft to deliver Mac ffice file converters in June
Computerworld – May 14, 2008
At the time Microsoft said it would release the converters in late June. Geoff Price who heads development at the Mac team said then that the delay was needed to free up resources to work on a… The company has issued beta converters for Word and PowerPoint but it has never produced a tool to convert Excel 2008′s native file formats. Late last year Microsoft said it would release the converters six to eight weeks after the launch of ffice 2008 which.
Working ffline With Google Docs Part 2
PC World – May 14, 2008
The free Google Docs software-as-a-service has a lot to offer mobile professionals including free online backup and the ability to easily view documents from any device with a Web browser. This week: a look at areas where Google Docs could improve plus recommendations for who could benefit from using the service. Dislikes: No Tracked Changes Poor Safari Support Google Docs’ features don’t come close to matching Microsoft ffice’s desktop software. For some people that’s probably a reason to rejoice. ver time Microsoft ffice applications have grown notoriously bloated–rather like the girl who turned into a huge blueberry in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But Google Docs lacks some key features. For example it doesn’t support Microsoft Word’s Track Changes or offer an easy way to view changes made by others to a document and then accept or reject those changes… You can’t select a block of text to see how many words it contains. Currently Apple’s Safari browser on the Mac offers only limited support for Google Docs. For example in the Mac S Safari I was unable to view each slide of a PowerPoint presentation I’d uploaded to Google Docs–the slides were displayed as tiny thumbnails. The Google Docs message I received was: “Presentations aren’t fully supported on your browser. Consider upgrading to the latest version or switching to a supported browser. For the record I was using the latest version of the Mac S Safari. And I didn’t have any trouble viewing the presentation using Safari for Windows though I received the same error message.
Gates gives CEs a peek at the “future of work”
Seattle Times – May 14, 2008
Today he gave about 115 chief executives gathered at his company’s headquarters a sales pitch and a vision of the future of work complete with a demonstration of the latest computing interface to be cooked up by Microsoft’s researchers. “Think about the whiteboard in your office becoming intelligent” Gates said before introducing Touch Wall a 50-inch touch-sensing screen that he likened to a vertical version of the company’s Surface tabletop computer. Using gestures he navigated through a range of digital objects including documents PowerPoint slides and video. He “wrote” on one document with his finger and zoomed in to see details of a flow chart on another… Today he gave about 115 chief executives gathered at his company’s headquarters a sales pitch and a vision of the future of work complete with a demonstration of the latest computing interface to be cooked up by Microsoft’s researchers. “Think about the whiteboard in your office becoming intelligent” Gates said before introducing Touch Wall a 50-inch touch-sensing screen that he likened to a vertical version of the company’s Surface tabletop computer. Using gestures he navigated through a range of digital objects including documents PowerPoint slides and video. He “wrote” on one document with his finger and zoomed in to see details of a flow chart on another. “This kind of whiteboard with a little bit of hardware advance over the next couple of years will not be an expensive thing and that’s why we’re saying that it will be absolutely pervasive” Gates said of the product prototype which was developed by a research group associated with the company’s ffice products. The event is strictly private. Gates’ speech is broadcast on Microsoft’s Web site but it was difficult to discern the CEs’ reaction to the Touch Wall.
Airbus announces new A380 delays
Seattle Times – May 14, 2008
MicrosoftBritain complains about file systemA British watchdog agency said Tuesday it had complained to European Union regulators that Microsoft’s new file format for storing documents discouraged competition. The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency said it wanted to help the EU with an investigation it launched in January into whether Microsoft deliberately withheld information from rivals. The controversy centers on the ability of other companies to create products compatible with Microsoft’s new file format ffice pen XML which stores Word Excel and PowerPoint files. The watchdog group said it told the European Commission that barriers to interoperability hurt students and teachers. Microsoft spokeswoman Anne-Sophie de Brancion said the company would cooperate with the British agency and the European Commission and that “Microsoft is deeply committed to education and interoperability. Saltchuk Resources… The controversy centers on the ability of other companies to create products compatible with Microsoft’s new file format ffice pen XML which stores Word Excel and PowerPoint files. The watchdog group said it told the European Commission that barriers to interoperability hurt students and teachers. Microsoft spokeswoman Anne-Sophie de Brancion said the company would cooperate with the British agency and the European Commission and that “Microsoft is deeply committed to education and interoperability. Saltchuk Resources.
It’s for real: Microsoft offers software at 91 percent discount
Accountingweb.com – May 14, 2008
95 instead of the full retail cost of $679. But this offer is for real. “Microsoft makes students an offer they can’t refuse” wrote Gina Hughes: The Techie Diva on her blog on Yahoo! Tech. Hughes said the offer is to prevent software piracy and people who commented on her blog agreed with the sentiment. “I bought the Student priced version through my school at the beginning of the semester and paid 4x times this price. At the time it was still a good deal as the normal suite is $700. The author of this blog is right if other companies would provide to students the software at this reduced price it would reduce piracy quite a bit… 5 course credit load. Students are offered free access to the software for 25 launches before purchase. Applications in the ffice Ultimate 2007 include: Word 2007 Excel 2007 Groove 2007 InfoPath 2007 PowerPoint 2007 utlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager Access 2007 Publisher 2007 neNote 2007 and Accounting Express 2007. The offer ends May 16th at 11:59 p.