Microsoft delays Office 2008 Microsoft's MBU seems to have been infected by the company's delay-virus lately. They first wanted to have an intel-compatible version of Office ready for 2007 and promised file-compatibility with the Windows-version of the software package for Office 2004. They then postponed the Office update to the second half of 2007 and the file-compatibility has only seen beta-versions so far.
Now, Microsoft has released information that Office:mac 2008 will only be released in mid-Januar 2008. (Should it be called 2009, then, because it seems strange that the 'version number' actually relates to the year of release?) They've also scrapped the public beta version of Office 2008, saying they'd rather test internally and with a circle of selected beta-testers. (Read: You really don't want to use the package in production systems just yet.) Furthermore, a "Special Media Edition" (499 compared to the standard 399 USD version) will include some sort of "iPhoto light", it seems. And the 149 USD students and teachers version won't have that and will also have to skip Exchange-compatibility.
Basically, today Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit has released uninteresting news (the iPhoto light part) within a bunch of bad news. I'm not impressed. - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 12:07 [article link]  0 comments

Do all those new iPods make sense at all? On macosx.com, I've written a piece about it. I think it's worth a read (and comment). ;) - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 11:20 [article link]  0 comments

Hello again. And a rant. Seems like I've been neglecting macnews.net.tc for a while. Hope it won't happen again like this. Sometimes real life has to take front seat, however. Either way: All the iPod stuff has happened recently. And soon enough, Europe should see some 3G iPhone love according to rumours. I actually hope they'll release both models, the 2G and the 3G model, because an entry-level model at a lower price might make quite some sense for stronger market penetration. Seems to be their plan, anyway.
But the iPod touch... Seriously: Apple seems to _hate_ the thought of a PDA so much that they just won't allow a phone-less pad to have any real PIM features. No Mail.app, no notes, no calendar entry feature... The iPod touch is more than crippled. Even the little (and less important) widgets had to go? Apple should, in my opinion, be glad that they're doing great and actually give customers the great features they're developing. If you had an iPod touch that let you have your mailbox and notes with you and synched with Leopard (coming in October), wouldn't that be the greatest thing to show your friends, family and colleagues? Well, maybe they plan on updating the "touch" when Leo's released, but if so, it'd seem even more strange to cripple it now, because only Leopard will unleash the full PIM functionality for the devices with its integration of Todos and Notes into Mail.app.
I hope Apple comes to its senses and fixes this even before the touch actually hits the stores. Apple: We *know* the iPod touch's core is the same as the iPhone's. You can't seriously argue that "people who buy a media player don't care about notes and E-Mail". - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 21:11 [article link]  2 comments