office

Microsoft is expected to take the wraps off of its latest Office today and the product launch may be more strategically critical than Windows 8. Of course, you'd never know the role of Office 15 judging by the headlines. The numbers, however, tell a different tale.

As Mary Jo Foley noted, Office, which is likely to be known as Office 2013, has a few question marks. It's unclear how folks will get it. Functionality is an unknown -- at least for those of us without a copy of the beta -- and integration with Windows 8 will be … Read more

Microsoft might be a little more scared of Google Apps for Business than it's publicly letting on, according to a new report.

The software giant has, over the last several months, made several moves to stop enterprise customers from adopting Google Apps, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported on those decisions today. Microsoft has cut pricing on its cloud-based alternative, Office 365, as well as increased commissions it pays to resellers to make the prospect of switching to Google's service less palatable.

According to the Journal, Microsoft has established a "Google Compete" team designed … Read more

Those of you looking to buy Google's new Nexus 7 tablet may have a wait on your hands.

Unveiled late last month, the tablet has slowly trickled into the retail market. Google was naturally first in line, offering the Nexus 7 as a preorder in advance of its official mid-July launch. Other retailers, such as GameStop, Staples, and Sam's Club, soon followed suit.

But a lot of eager customers apparently scooped up those pre-sales, since the tablet is playing hard to get at most outlets.

GameStop, which is selling the 16GB edition, is showing the tablet as back-ordered. … Read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will reportedly appear at an invitation-only press event the company will host in San Francisco on Monday.

The press conference, which starts at noon PT and is set to end at 12:45 p.m., promises that attendees will get some form of news from Microsoft. The company didn't disclose details about the event on the invitation.

While Microsoft remains mum, USA Today has reported that Ballmer is expected to unveil Office 15, a new version of its suite of productivity programs.

Attendees will have a chance to speak with Microsoft experts and customers from … Read more

Friday's top tech stories teach us that Web giants may die, but ice cream is forever:

What's left of the social news aggregator Digg has been purchased by Betaworks, a company that runs Bit.ly and several other Web businesses. Digg will be folded into News.me, a daily news app and e-mail digest. Digg has been struggling and was slowly disassembled. A subsidiary of Washington Post bought some of the Digg talent, LinkedIn grabbed some patents, and on Thursday, Betaworks acquired what was left. The Wall Street Journal has sources saying Betaworks acquired Digg for around $500,… Read more

As interesting as what's in the next version of Microsoft Office are the company's distribution plans for getting its coming productivity software and services in the hands of more potential users.

Reports are circulating that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will take the public wraps off Microsoft's next version of its Office suite and services, known collectively as the Office 15 wave, on July 16. While select testers have had their hands on private builds of these products for several months, there's been little concrete information on when and how Microsoft plans to make final versions available … Read more

Did Microsoft lose itself over the past decade? Its CEO obviously doesn't think so.

In a Forbes interview published yesterday, Steve Ballmer was asked about the recent Vanity Fair article that charged poor management and bureaucracy at Microsoft with hurting the company financially and technologically over the past ten years.

Ballmer's response?

"It's not been a lost decade for me! I mean, look, ultimately progress is measured sort of through the eyes of our users," he told Forbes. "More than our investors or our P&L [profit and loss] or anything else, it'… Read more

Microsoft has released an update for Office 2011 for Mac, which fixes a number of bugs with various Office application functions, but in addition closes a vulnerability in the program where a malicious program downloaded by one user could be run with that user's privileges by another local user on the system. While not a serious security vulnerability for most users, it has potential to be a problem for multiple-user setups such as computer labs.

Microsoft has made this update available via its Autoupdate program that will either run automatically or which can be launched from the Help menu … Read more

Between Microsoft Office and other programs that come preinstalled on most Windows machines, Microsoft tends to dominate the market when it comes to the programs that we use the most. That doesn't stop competitors from presenting alternatives, though. SSuite Office - Advanced Edition is a surprisingly comprehensive collection of programs, with not only office software but also games, an e-mail client, a graphics editor, and much more. The programs are somewhat clunky and dated-looking, but we suppose that if you're not too demanding, they could be a viable option.

SSuite Office opens with a small menu interface that … Read more