Microsoft makes changes to Office Live
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The software maker tweaks its small-business product, making several services free, but adding charges for domain name registration beyond the first year.
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Most of the critical patches affect Microsoft Office, and include Office for Mac.
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The newest version of Microsoft Office arrives this week, complete with a tricked-out user interface intended to impress the Windows-weary. By Scott Gilbertson. Plus: Gallery: Office 2007.
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Microsoft is turning the software into what it hopes will be a one-stop shop for e-mail, voice mail and faxes.
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Documents released today detail changes Microsoft will make to its desktop search and indexing feature in Windows Vista.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has added the ability for subscribers of its Office Live small-business hosted service to purchase paid-search advertising from Ask.com from directly within the service. Now small businesses using the Office Live service can use the adManager feature of the product, which is in beta, to purchase search-based keyword advertising from Ask Sponsored Listings, Microsoft said. Customers already can purchase paid-search advertising from the Microsoft's MSN network and Live Search from within the product. Ask Sponsored Listings is an automated, open-auction system that allows for the purchase and management of pay-per-click and contextual advertising campaigns on a publisher network that includes Ask.com. According to the site, 48,000 advertisers use the system to bid on more than 25 million keywords. Last week at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver, a company manager said Microsoft would begin adding the ability to purchase ads for third-party search engines to Office Live, which gives small businesses tools for building a Web site as well as Web-based e-mail, instant messaging, collaboration, and customer relationship management, in the next two months. Ask.com is the first such partnership. Microsoft unveiled Office Live in November 2005 as part of a broad strategy to offer more hosted and Web-based services, and the company has high hopes for the offering. Last week at the WPC, Microsoft Chief COO Kevin Turner said that the company expects it to eventually become on of its top-selling products, ranking near the top of the heap with the Windows client OS and Office desktop suite.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft&#160;has been quietly adding to the cache of reference applications it hopes will help transform Microsoft Office 2007 from a mere productivity suite to a collaboration tool.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp.'s Office 2007 suite is nearing the end of its long testing process. Microsoft on Thursday will offer a refresh of beta 2, the last external test release of the product before it is released to manufacturing, the company said. Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh will feature improved performance, enhancements to its collaboration tools and tighter integration across the individual products, Microsoft said. It also will include improvements in the general look and feel of the suite. Users canÂ download the beta 2 refresh of Office 2007 for free. Beta 2 of Office 2007 was originally released in late May. In the first two months of its public release, it was downloaded more than 3 million times by beta testers, so Microsoft began charging users US$1.50 to download the release at the end of July. The company beganÂ allowing users to test Office online with a Web-based test version of the suite in June. Like its sister product Windows Vista, Office 2007 has been delayed several times, but the company's latest target for release is to have it in the hands of business customers before the end of the year and consumers in the first quarter of 2007. However, online retailerÂ Amazon.com Inc. is already taking orders for Office 2007, and lists the product's ship date as Jan. 30, 2007. Vista, the next major update to Microsoft's Windows client OS, is also expected to be in general release at the same time, and will get to business customers in November, according to its current schedule. Office 2007 features a new user interface and a host of enhancements to its applications that allow users to work together in a collaborative environment.
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(InfoWorld) - For business users who want Microsoft Office on their cell phones, Windows Mobile 6, the upcoming version of Redmond's mobile operating system to be unveiled next week, will be a must-have upgrade. Mobile 6 comes with mobile versions of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. With the continuing increase in sales of smartphones at the expense of handheld devices, Office makes a lot of sense, especially for synchronizing with desktop files, according to Rob Enderle, principal at the Enderle Group. Carriers and handset manufacturers who believe they can put the limited memory and storage to better use, however, are out of luck. Microsoft Office still comes with Mobile 6. According to John Starkwether, a product manager in the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft, Office is part of the package. Starkwether conjectured that if a vendor really wants to exclude Office from the operating system, an accommodation might be possible. Additional upgrades to the mobile OS include Microsoft's Direct Push Technology with automatic synchronization of Outlook calendars, tasks, and contacts using Exchange Server. For security and management, Mobile 6 will also give mobile network managers the capability of remotely wiping out all data from a device should it be lost or stolen. Other security features include certificate options and storage card encryption. Business users will also be pleased with the inclusion of mobile versions of the .Net Compact Framework and SQL Server in order to access a company's standard line of business applications remotely. The Office applications are the most robust to date for the limited capacities of a cell phone. Spell checking in Word, though, is not included. E-mail viewing will be easier on the eye with formatting, tables, and pictures viewable as originally generated. One-click options for e-mail, such as "reply all", moving a message to a subfolder and "delete" have been added to accommodate the restricted functionality of a small device. Windows Vista users on the desktop will be able to swap music, pictures, movies and Outlook information between the Vista PC and the mobile device. Windows Live will integrate mail, messenger, search, contacts, and spaces. Call history is now placed inside the individual contact card. Enderle said that although there was "a lot of great stuff" in Mobile 6 Microsoft still has to focus on ease of use. "Compared to the Apple iPhone with its simplified interface, Mobile 6 is still complex to use," Enderle said. Devices with Windows Mobile 6 will ship worldwide in the second quarter.
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(InfoWorld) - MicrosoftÂ said it will seek to invalidate claims by a California company that has sued it for trademark infringement over the "Office Live" name. Office Live LLC filed a trademark-infringement suit against Microsoft in the U.S. District Court of Central California in Los Angeles earlier this month over Microsoft's Web-based small business package of the same name. Microsoft began offering Office Live in November 2006. It provides CRM, a Web presence, collaboration, and accounting services to small businesses. In a statement, Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said his company doubts the legitimacy of Office Live's trademark claim and will "vigorously defend" its legal position to maintain the name for its service. "Clearly, if anyone is seeking to gain from the name of another company's products, it's the plaintiffs in this case," he said. According to court papers, Office Live, in North Hollywood, California, is seeking damages and an injunction to stop Microsoft from using the Office Live name. Microsoft branded its Office Live service as part of a larger hosted services plan that has been given the "Live" moniker. However, most of the other offerings in that strategy are branded as "Windows Live" services, such as Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Search, and Windows Live Mail. The company Office Live provides Web-enabled marketing, lead generation, and virtual office services to professionals and free marketing advice to consumers, according to its Web site. It also maintains the following Web sites: lawofficelive.com, autoofficelive.com, realtorsofficelive.com, doctorsofficelive.com, accountantsofficelive.com, and psychologistsofficelive.com. Office Live said it registered to trademark the "Office Live" name in 2002. It originally filed suit against Microsoft over the trademark in December 2006, but the case was put on hold so the companies could negotiate a settlement. When one was not reached, Office Live moved forward with its lawsuit against the software vendor.
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Windows Live Mail Beta 2.0, launched Wednesday by Microsoft, will replace both Windows Mail on Vista systems and Outlook Express on XP.
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We are born to be a Live... Microsoft is beta testing two new features of Windows Live - its effort at delivering software as a service over the web.â¦
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Microsoft is coming to your living room. Get used to it.
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Take a look at how the new Office versions for Mac and Windows are rolling out, feature by feature.
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Except for the subs, that is Microsoft has rejigged its Office Live Small Business product to pull in more customers by bringing three existing paid-for versions under one roof for free.â¦
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Microsoft's latest version of Office for Mac adds some nifty interface improvements and a bunch of new features. Should you switch?
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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said the next version of Microsoft Office will give users new ways to access their applications online.