Tag: 2007

The fourth annual Global Piracy Study, conducted by tech market research company IDC on behalf of the Business Software Alliance, was released this morning. The researchers estimate that again this year, 35% of all software on PCs worldwide is pirated. This is despite claimed advances in legitimate sales in traditional problem areas like China, where the government's decision to license ...

The Academy has asked YouTube to remove all content related to last weekend's 2007 Oscars. It was great while it lasted, and allowed for many who missed bits and pieces of the show to search out clips on the worlds most popular video sharing site. An administrator sighted that the content was pulled to help manage the value of the Oscar telecast and brand. What does that mean? They were exposing ...

Version 1.0 of the OpenXML document translator launched this past Friday. This initiative translates native document formats into OpenOffice and Microsoft Office. The translator will work between Microsoft's OpenXML, and OpenOffice's OpenDocument formats. The project took eight months to complete and ensure it met a high quality and standards level. So far, over 8,000 copies of the translator ...

We all saw Bill Gates sell something no one was buying, and Steve Jobs selling many things people really want in their respective keynotes this week. I am always the kind of person trying to find the meaning in it all. So, what do you think? I think Microsoft is putting out some decent software (Vista, Office, etc) but I think they have largely missed the boat on the digital lifestyle. Apple has ...

Office 2007 is actually amazing. It is light-years beyond the last iteration of Office, which took four years, but hey, at least it is done right? Its new features and interesting Ribbon have garnered much praise and criticism alike. PC World has named it the most innovative product of the year (last year, 2006). "Most Innovative" can sometimes be code for weird and revolutionary, but not in a ...

What will happen in 2007? Who knows what the future holds, right? I am willing to bet that you already have a good idea what will happen next year. Care to share? I want to hear what you are most looking forward to this year, are there any apps that you think will go critical and be the next big thing? Also, what was your favorite app of 2006? Let me know. In case you can't remember your ...

One of the complaints I hear a lot about Office 2007 is how inextensible the Ribbon is. The truth is that you can customize it, granted it takes a bit of knowledge and the right software tools to make changes to it. This involves a bit of programming in a language much like (and based on) XML called RibbonX. RibbonCustomizer aims to help you change it up without a lot of programming. There is a ...

I'm not much for my prognostication myself--which is to say that I'm terribly bad at it--but it seems like everyone else in the tech industry can't get enough of it. The LA Times has predictions from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, paidContent's Rafat Ali, Wired editor Chris Anderson, and other industry notables. Ali predicts that talents bred on the internet will start breaking out, getting their ...

Has anyone noticed that the Ribbon in Office 2007 does not extend to all Office programs? Publisher doesn't have it, as well as some other programs. It seems that Microsoft only saw fit to include in the most loved and used applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. I can't help but brace for the fallout from users. First Microsoft tries to build a "zero-learning-curve" model into ...

Microsoft is entering the world of free software. Who would have thought? Today, Microsoft released Office Accounting Express 2007 for free. The software is an updated version of the previous Office Small Business Accounting 2006 that was sold for $179 US. A higher end version of the application will be for sale early next year. Microsoft has integrated eBay and Paypal into the system which I ...

What feature do you wish Office 2007 had? Is there something that you think Microsoft should have included, or something they shouldn't have left out? If you could have one thing in Office that it doesn't have, what would it be? I often think of many things that I really wish a developer would include in their products, and it seems that in comments, a lot of you feel the same way. So, what would ...

Microsoft is great at catering to the enterprise. Their new Office system (2007) will follow this trend and deliver value to enterprise customers, I have no doubt. Microsoft is also catering to small businesses with Office 2007 as well. Microsoft realizes that small business owners also want the same kind of collaboration tools that enterprises have, but can't or don't want to have to pony up the ...

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 takes advantage of new hardware virtualization technologies present in Intel and AMD systems. The idea is to use Virtual PC 2007 to run legacy applications, including operating systems in it, as it has always been with Virtual PC. This release has one slight difference, Vista now runs as either host or guest operating system in this latest version. The beta is available ...

Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Statoil, Toshiba and the The United States Library of Congress have all approved the Office Open XML (OOXML) specification to be sent to the ECMA (a European standardization association). This is the next step in Microsoft's spec being accepted across many systems, platforms and applications. This is ...

If you downloaded the Microsoft 2007 Office system Beta 2 Technical Refresh (pardon me while I eat a bunch of jello, saying that just hurt my mouth) you may have noticed that all the Office splash screens and icons are now more slick looking and different. They area partially-rounded box shape, as seen in the pic here, and I think it adds a little something to the look and feel of Office. Of ...