Ultimate is becoming a popular word in Redmond. After already announcing plans for an Ultimate edition of Windows Vista, Microsoft confirmed this week that it also plans an Ultimate edition of Office 2007.
The new retail package, which was not part of the Office 2007 lineup announced back in February, will offer nearly all the components available to large businesses in one $679 product. A Microsoft representative said on Thursday that the new entrant in the lineup was "created as a result of customer feedback," but didn't offer more details on its origins.
If it is up to Microsoft, the omnipresent JPEG image format will be replaced by Windows Media Photo. The software maker detailed the new image format Wednesday at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here. Windows Media Photo will be supported in Windows Vista and also be made available for Windows XP, Bill Crow, program manager for Windows Media Photo, said in a presentation.
"One of the biggest reasons people upgrade their PCs is digital photos," Crow said, noting that Microsoft has been in contact with printer makers, digital camera companies and other unnamed industry partners while working on Windows Media Photo. Microsoft touts managing "digital memories" as one of the key attributes of XP successor Vista.
Microsoft is chipping away at development of its new Expression line of software for designers, releasing two new preview versions this week of the evolving applications.
The new community technology previews of Expression Graphic Designer and Expression Interactive Designer follow Microsoft's release last week of the first preview version of the line's third application, Expression Web Designer.
Microsoft's Expression line is squarely aimed at Adobe. With technology like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Dreamweaver, Adobe has enjoyed years of a near-monopoly hold on Web developers. Microsoft's previous entry in the Web development tools market, FrontPage, was generally derided by professionals as a lightweight, standards-unfriendly program for novices.
Microsoft is adding eBay, Equifax and PayPal to the roster of online partners for its next Small Business Accounting software release.
The current offering, Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006, launched with fanfare last fall. But solution providers and competitors say the product pretty much disappeared after that. They said Microsoft's decision to piggyback it on Office at retail hamstrung sales. People look for accounting software in the aisle with Sage Softwares Peachtree and Intuits QuickBooks, not with Office, said one accounting VAR, who requested anonymity.
Microsoft is expanding its local, photo-based search service into the United Kingdom, and adding traffic information for the U.S. service.
The Redmond-based software company, which is battling Google Inc. and others in the ever-expanding field of Internet search, on Wednesday began offering a test version of the online mapping service in the U.K. It also announced a limited trial in Canada.
Microsoft is planning to expand the service into other parts of Europe and North America over the next two years.
The OpenDocument Format has come under attack from Microsoft, which claims its Office Open XML format has significantly better performance.
"The use of OpenDocument documents is slower to the point of not really being satisfactory," Alan Yates, the general manager of Microsoft's information worker strategy, told ZDNet UK on Wednesday. "The Open XML format is designed for performance. XML is fundamentally slower than binary formats, so we have made sure that customers won't notice a big difference in performance."
Yates cited a study carried out by ZDNet.com that compared OpenOffice.org 2.0 with the XML formats in Microsoft Office 2003. But Marino Marcich, the managing director of the ODF Alliance, said this was not a fair comparison, as it did not test Open XML itself and examined only one implementation of the OpenDocument Format.
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer indicated Windows Vista could face further delays beyond a planned January retail release as the company gets feedback from a test version released Tuesday.
The release date could be moved by "a few weeks," Ballmer said at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday. "We are on track for shipping early in the year."
Ballmer's comments come amid concerns Microsoft may have to delay Vista again, further crimping its own sales and those of personal computer makers. Research firm Gartner Inc. and Rick Sherlund, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co., earlier this month said the software, initially slated for 2004, may be pushed further into 2007. On March 21, Microsoft moved the retail launch to January instead of this year.
Like all Windows before it, Windows Vista will introduce a number of new technologies and features--and, as usual, Microsoft has coined terms for each and every one. Here's a quick glossary.
BitLocker:
Drive-encryption technology designed to safeguard data from unauthorized users. The feature is primarily intended to protect systems that have been stolen or hacked.
Certified for Windows Vista:
The wording on a sticker indicating that a peripheral or non-PC device can take advantage of features in Windows Vista, such as SideShow. This is a step up from Works With Windows Vista.
Expect Longhorn Server Beta 3 in the first half of next year, but no Windows Server 'Centro' for mid-size businesses until 2008. And there might be a Windows Server Branch Office in the future, after all.
Microsoft is planning to release a Beta 3 build of Longhorn Server in the first half of 2007, company officials told WinHEC attendees. The final Longhorn Server product will ship in the latter half of 2007, company officials added. Until recently, a number of company watchers were expecting Microsoft to release Longhorn Server in the first part of 2007.
With the first Origami devices out the door, Microsoft is setting its sights on the next generation of tiny tablet PCs--products known within the company as "Vistagami" devices.
The new minitablets are likely to resemble the first of the ultramobile PCs, though they will run Windows Vista, rather than XP. Hopefully, they will come with a lower price tag than the first devices, such as Samsung's Q1, which starts at $1,100.
While Microsoft was under no illusions that it could hit its long-term $500 price goal, the company said Tuesday it was not happy with how expensive the first devices turned out to be.