Microsoft News Log Podcast

Microsoft on Wednesday offered further details on the next version of Office, announcing plans for a new home version as well as new server-based products and a new high-end enterprise edition of the desktop suite.

The software maker also offered pricing details for some, though not all, of the new products. In general, Microsoft said both businesses and consumers should expect to pay about the same for the new Office as they have paid for past versions.

“We do not expect our customers to notice any significant change in our pricing,” said Parri Munsell, a group program manager in Microsoft’s information worker unit. Office Standard, for example, will sell for $399, while Office Professional will sell for $499. Also, as widely expected, the version formerly code-named “Office 12″ will be known as Office 2007 when it ships in the second half of this year.

Continue Reading… (CNet News.com)

Microsoft plans on Wednesday to kick off the test version of Office Live, the company’s collection of Web hosting and business applications for small companies.

The company is targeting businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Although nearly nine in 10 such businesses have Web access, only about half have their own Web site, Microsoft says.

“That’s a lot of small businesses without a Web site,” said Dean Nicolls, senior product manager for Microsoft’s information worker services group. In one sign of the demand, Nicolls said, more than 100,000 businesses have signed up for the test. All of those companies are being included in the test of Office Live, while additional companies can sign up on Microsoft’s site.

Continue Reading… (ZDNet News)

Microsoft has begun e-mailing its corporate customers worldwide, letting them know that they may need to start using a different version of Office as a result of a recent legal setback.

The software maker said Monday that it has been forced to issue new versions of Office 2003 and Office XP, which change the way Microsoft’s Access database interacts with its Excel spreadsheet.

The move follows a verdict last year by a jury in Orange County, Calif., which found in favor of a patent claim by Guatemalan inventor Carlos Armando Amado. Microsoft was ordered to pay $8.9 million in damages for infringing Amado’s 1994 patent. That award covered sales of Office between March 1997 and July 2003.

Continue Reading… (ZDNet News)

The Microsoft Office Live beta is expected to go live any day now.

Office Live is not a hosted version of Microsoft Office. Instead, it is a set of software services Microsoft Corp. is developing as extensions to its shrink-wrapped Office product. Microsoft introduced the Office Live concept in November, at the same time as it rolled out its Windows Live strategy. Company officials said at that time to expect a first beta of Office Live in early 2006.

Microsoft sent invitations the first week of January to testers the company had selected to participate in initial Office Live testing, according to the LiveSide Weblog—an independent site dedicated to tracking Microsoft’s Live efforts. The first Office Live beta is expected to be available for U.S.-based participants running Windows XP and Office 2000 or later versions of Microsoft’s desktop operating system and Office suite.

Continue Reading… (EWeek)