office

Mac users must wait until next year for fresh versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint: Microsoft has moved its intended launch of Office for Mac 2008 to January from the second half of this year.

"We had hoped to hit the Christmas selling season, but now we hope to target Macworld" in January, said Craig Eisler, who became general manager of the Mac business unit at Microsoft six weeks ago. "We, as a group, were not satisfied with product quality."

Details about any software development snags, as well as final pricing, were unavailable. Office for Mac … Read more

Speaking in front of a group of financial analysts Thursday, Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive of Microsoft, explained that his company needs to stay focused on moving away from the desktop and focus on Web services and consumer devices. But what Ballmer did not come out and finally admit is the very products keeping Microsoft afloat are quickly becoming its albatross.

Windows and Office are the sole reasons why Microsoft has enjoyed such success over the past decade. Without Windows, the company could not have moved into all of the markets it currently maintains products in. Without Office, the company would … Read more

At last year's Office 2.0 Conference (which CNET sponsored), attendees were delighted to discover that the price of admission included an iPod Nano, cleverly preloaded with the conference schedule.

This year, organizer Ismael Ghalimi is raising the ante. All conference attendees get iPhones.

The phones will be part of experiment at the conference in Web-based group collaboration (the iPhones being, as we've said before, hardware for Webware), which Ghalimi explains on his site. Also, the logistics of ordering and shipping the phones to attendees is being done with Web 2.0 products and services, a Webware experiment … Read more

Updated post includes corrected net income increase and additional comments from Microsoft.

Microsoft on Thursday reported a 13 percent increase in fourth quarter revenue and a 7.3 percent rise in net income, as sales to business customers continued to support longer-term investments in its unprofitable online services and consumer devices businesses.

The software giant saw double-digit revenue and income increases from its three largest divisions--Client, Server and Tools, and Business--for the quarter ending June 30, 2006.

Quarterly revenue was $13.37 billion with diluted earnings per share at 39 cents--in line with analysts' expectations--which was knocked down to 31 … Read more

Everex has unveiled its $298 back-to-school desktop, touting its open-source productivity software.

Databases, spreadsheets, word processing and graphics, open-source or not, are lost on most K-through-5 kids. I know. I have one.

Ditto for the junior-high market, where concerns over acne and hormonal changes are likely to outrank the question of "to open-source or not to open-source." Similar issues may plague kids in high school, unless it's shown that using open-source productivity software can boost SAT scores or geek cred.

Nonetheless, parents, aka the walking wallets, may care.

It's all about giving our kids an edge … Read more

In a recent interview with Microsoft's COO Kevin Turner, the executive was asked about the future of Windows. In response, Turner had this to say: "Certainly, this last year has been an unprecedented year for Vista and Office and the launch," Turner said. "And we are still committed to the desktop. There will be another release and launch of a Vista-type operating system. [And] there will be another release of Office."

In typical Microsoft fashion, he continued: "You don't want this audience to abandon Windows, so it's important to remind them that … Read more

One more time around the block, James.

Microsoft late Thursday revised one of its critical security bulletins from Patch Tuesday, adding another item to its list of affected software.

Security bulletin MS07-036 now includes a warning that Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac is also affected.

The update is designed to address a security flaw, which could allow attackers to overwrite the computer's memory with malicious code.

Microsoft notes that people running Office 2004 for the Mac on the Mac OS X 10.2 are at risk. It advises people to first install the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.5 update, … Read more

On our weekly Real Deal podcast yesterday, Tom and I covered Microsoft Office replacements. It turns out Tom is a day-to-day user of Open Office. I'm impressed. I know a lot of people who talk up the benefits of the free suite, but few people who've actually committed to it.

I mostly still use Office. When I want to collaborate with someone on a document I'll use Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I've dabbled in Zoho and ThinkFree, and other interesting online office apps like EditGrid (spreadsheet) but nothing has torn me away from Microsoft's suite … Read more

Microsoft has released its July 2007 security bulletin, which includes six updates: three are designated "critical" by the software giant; two are deemed "important," and one is ranked "moderate." Two affect Microsoft Office, and one affects the Windows Vista Firewall. This patch cycles also addresses one flaw first reported in 2005. To keep your Windows XP SP1 system secure, update to Windows XP SP2 today. All Microsoft security patches for Windows and Office software are available via Microsoft Update or via the individual bulletins detailed below.

MS07-036: Critical Titled "Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel … Read more