Rumor: App Store Plus to offer premium content
Rumors are swirling about Apple partnering with game manufacturers to provide premium content via the App Store, but as usual, everyone's staying mum on the details.
With the App Store filling up so fast and furiously, there have long been rumors floating around regarding a more exclusive sales venue for high-end software sales. The latest rumor comes courtesy of Pocket Gamer, suggesting that Apple might invite developers like EA Mobile and Gameloft into an exclusive arena where they could sell games for $19.99 each. Of course, as is the norm with such rumors, Apple, EA Mobile, and Gameloft all refused to comment on the speculation.
A premium App Store, an "App Store Plus" if you will, does make sense on a certain level, and yet the iTunes Store has done just fine with a single storefront augmented by targeted sales campaigns. A simple visit to the App Store shows how effectively the current system already works at catching the shopper's eye and funneling buyers to the proper areas. Banner ads already promote software and a "new and noteworthy" section brings discovery into the equation. At best, an App Store Plus might work as a boutique sub-page, showcasing a select collection of the best iPhone applications available.
The suggested $19.99 price point is not out of line when compared to other handheld gaming systems, but seems a little high when contrasted against the $7.99 SEGA Super Monkey Ball gold standard. Super Monkey Ball, which debuted at $9.99, reached its current price point in December. Electronic Arts' Spore Origins currently retails for $5.99 and SimCity goes for $7.99.
Price labels, or at least the lack thereof, represent the biggest difference between the iTunes Store front page and the App Store front page. Unlike the iTunes Store front page, which brandishes its yellow-colored price points and sales, the App Store remains distinctly empty of any cost information. You can see that in the two screen shots in the image on this post. There doesn't seem to be a sales point to advertise because the market is still searching for the application "standard". Without that standard, it's hard to put your application on sale. Can a $4.99 app be "on sale" when most units are retailing for $0.99 or $1.99?
The App Store is just six months old. Developers are still exploring pricing structures and trying to balance sales against application sustainability. The idea of a premium App Store distribution channel makes sense in terms of promoting high-quality products, but there's simply no data out there beyond unfounded rumor as to when Apple might introduce it, how it might do so, and how much Apple would charge consumers to buy in.
source:http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/01/rumor-app-store-plus-to-offer-premium-content.ars
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Tourism will erase North Surigao from list of 10 poorest provinces---PGMA
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the development of the tourism assets of Surigao del Norte is the key factor to the province’s economic progress and eventual graduation from the list of the 10 poorest provinces in the country.
The Arroyo administration’s Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (2004-2010) stated that the tourism sector‘s “primary importance in poverty alleviation lies in its potential to generate millions of jobs for various groups of people.”
“Tourism is the best source of employment…from the most skilled to the least skilled, there is an employment opportunity…” the President said when she was in Siargao Island last Wednesday (April 16).
Thus, the President pledged to help rural areas such as Siargao Island, which is part of Surigao del Norte, to develop their natural resource endowments through support infrastructure, such as airports and roads to make the tourist destinations more accessible.
Tourism is a very complex industry encompassing a wide range of economic activities in every tourist destination in the country, and involves a substantial amount of investments—a reason why it is recognized as a major contributor to the generation of foreign exchange earnings, investments, and revenues, and to the total growth of the country’s output. It also creates human resource-intensive jobs.
Over the years, the Philippine tourism industry has been playing a key role in promoting mutual understanding among nations, and as an instrument of national and economic development through poverty alleviation and conservation of fragile natural and cultural resources.
Tourism can directly and indirectly contribute to employment creation in the country: direct employment in hotels, restaurants (food and beverage sector), retail trade (souvenir sales), nightclubs, transport, sports, and entertainment establishments, travel agencies, tour operators;
Indirect employment, on the other hand, occurs through the supply of goods and services needed by tourism-related businesses like the suppliers and makers of souvenirs, and from professions such as consultancies, lawyering and tax accountancy.
Here in the Philippines, its share in total employment is likewise increasing said Tourism Secretary Ace Durano.
These jobs include enterprises within the industry, mostly in micro, small and medium enterprises that the Arroyo administration projected to reach one million in net additional employment from the tourism sector.
Thus, the President is banking on the full development of the tourism assets of Surigao del Norte for the province to finally achieve economic progress.
For a start, she has invited Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific to fly directly from Manila to Siargao, the province’s tropical paradise endowed with white powdery sand, underground caves, game fishing spots and surfing havens.
She has also released some P10 million for the water system in the island as well as the concreting of roads leading to the province’s tourist attractions.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the development of the tourism assets of Surigao del Norte is the key factor to the province’s economic progress and eventual graduation from the list of the 10 poorest provinces in the country.
The Arroyo administration’s Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (2004-2010) stated that the tourism sector‘s “primary importance in poverty alleviation lies in its potential to generate millions of jobs for various groups of people.”
“Tourism is the best source of employment…from the most skilled to the least skilled, there is an employment opportunity…” the President said when she was in Siargao Island last Wednesday (April 16).
Thus, the President pledged to help rural areas such as Siargao Island, which is part of Surigao del Norte, to develop their natural resource endowments through support infrastructure, such as airports and roads to make the tourist destinations more accessible.
Tourism is a very complex industry encompassing a wide range of economic activities in every tourist destination in the country, and involves a substantial amount of investments—a reason why it is recognized as a major contributor to the generation of foreign exchange earnings, investments, and revenues, and to the total growth of the country’s output. It also creates human resource-intensive jobs.
Over the years, the Philippine tourism industry has been playing a key role in promoting mutual understanding among nations, and as an instrument of national and economic development through poverty alleviation and conservation of fragile natural and cultural resources.
Tourism can directly and indirectly contribute to employment creation in the country: direct employment in hotels, restaurants (food and beverage sector), retail trade (souvenir sales), nightclubs, transport, sports, and entertainment establishments, travel agencies, tour operators;
Indirect employment, on the other hand, occurs through the supply of goods and services needed by tourism-related businesses like the suppliers and makers of souvenirs, and from professions such as consultancies, lawyering and tax accountancy.
Here in the Philippines, its share in total employment is likewise increasing said Tourism Secretary Ace Durano.
These jobs include enterprises within the industry, mostly in micro, small and medium enterprises that the Arroyo administration projected to reach one million in net additional employment from the tourism sector.
Thus, the President is banking on the full development of the tourism assets of Surigao del Norte for the province to finally achieve economic progress.
For a start, she has invited Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific to fly directly from Manila to Siargao, the province’s tropical paradise endowed with white powdery sand, underground caves, game fishing spots and surfing havens.
She has also released some P10 million for the water system in the island as well as the concreting of roads leading to the province’s tourist attractions.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Trichet May Overcome Reluctance to Cut Rates as Slump Deepens
Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank will cut interest rates today to counter the deepening recession, even after President Jean-Claude Trichet signaled a reluctance to move this month, a survey of economists shows.
ECB policy makers meeting in Frankfurt will lower the benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point to 2 percent, according to the median of 60 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. That would match the lowest rate since the ECB took charge of monetary policy in 1999. The bank will reduce the rate to a record low of 1.5 percent in March, another survey shows.
Trichet said last month there’s a limit to how far the ECB can cut rates and has refused to give any signal for January, suggesting he favors a pause. At the same time, data show the economy of the 16 nations sharing the euro is slipping deeper into recession as the global financial crisis hurts exports, damps spending and swells budget deficits across the region.
“There’s no other option but to lower rates further,” said Jacques Cailloux, chief euro-area economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. While it’s “highly unusual” for Trichet to refrain from signaling a cut, “I’ve reluctantly moved away from paying attention to ECB rhetoric and started to focus more on the economy,” Cailloux said.
The ECB announces its decision at 1:45 p.m. and Trichet holds a press conference 45 minutes later. The ECB is lagging counterparts such as the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Swiss central bank, which have reduced borrowing costs aggressively as the world’s largest economies slide simultaneously into recession for the first time since World War II.
Close to Zero
The Bank of England on Jan. 8 cut its main lending rate to 1.5 percent, the lowest since the bank was founded in 1694. The Fed last month lowered its key rate to a target range of zero to 0.25 percent. Japanese and Swiss rates are also close to zero.
The ECB has reduced its benchmark by 175 basis points since early October. Trichet told journalists on Dec. 15 the bank was focused on making sure those reductions flow through to the economy. It wants to avoid being “trapped” with rates that are “too low,” he said. Executive Board member Juergen Stark said on Dec. 10 the scope for further moves was “very limited.”
The faltering economy is pushing up bond yields in Italy, Spain and Greece, making ECB rate cuts less effective.
Standard & Poor’s yesterday lowered Greece’s sovereign credit rating one notch to A-, saying the financial crisis has “exacerbated an underlying loss of competitiveness in the Greek economy.” The ratings of Ireland, Portugal and Spain are also under threat.
‘Original Thinking’
European confidence has plunged to the lowest on record and the unemployment rate rose to 7.8 percent in November, a two-year high. The German economy, Europe’s largest, may have contracted as much as 2 percent in the fourth quarter, the country’s statistics office said yesterday. That would be the biggest slump in more than two decades.
“It was clearly the original thinking to keep rates on hold, but the Governing Council will find it very hard to resist a cut in the face of such extreme economic weakness,” said Julian Callow, chief European economist at Barclays Capital in London. “This meeting is one of the hardest to predict -- they could go 25 basis points, 50 basis points, or keep rates unchanged.”
Some council members have signaled they see leeway to lower borrowing costs further. ECB Vice President Lucas Papademos and council member Vitor Constancio both said this month that lower rates may be warranted if inflation falls too far below 2 percent, the bank’s definition of price stability.
The rate declined to 1.6 percent in December.
‘Too Optimistic’
The ECB last month forecast inflation would average 1.4 percent this year and 1.8 percent next year. It predicted the economy would contract 0.5 percent in 2009 before rebounding to expand 1 percent in 2010.
Those projections are “far too optimistic,” said Cailloux. “The economy could be three to four times weaker than suggested by the ECB last month.”
The shadow ECB council, a group of economists that monitors the central bank, on Jan. 13 called for a full percentage point cut. A worsening recession increases the risk of “excessive disinflation” and this should be as much a concern to the ECB as inflation above its target, the economists said.
Investors expect the ECB to lower the benchmark rate by at least 50 basis points today and to take it to as low as 1.25 percent by June, Eonia forward contracts show.
“Economic activity is falling off a cliff, inflation has crashed through the 2 percent floor of price stability, while unemployment is rising significantly,” the European Trade Union Confederation said in a statement yesterday. Another interest-rate cut is “the only sensible thing” for the ECB to do.
sources:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aFGbmXAXYmOE&refer=europe
Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank will cut interest rates today to counter the deepening recession, even after President Jean-Claude Trichet signaled a reluctance to move this month, a survey of economists shows.
ECB policy makers meeting in Frankfurt will lower the benchmark lending rate by half a percentage point to 2 percent, according to the median of 60 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. That would match the lowest rate since the ECB took charge of monetary policy in 1999. The bank will reduce the rate to a record low of 1.5 percent in March, another survey shows.
Trichet said last month there’s a limit to how far the ECB can cut rates and has refused to give any signal for January, suggesting he favors a pause. At the same time, data show the economy of the 16 nations sharing the euro is slipping deeper into recession as the global financial crisis hurts exports, damps spending and swells budget deficits across the region.
“There’s no other option but to lower rates further,” said Jacques Cailloux, chief euro-area economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. While it’s “highly unusual” for Trichet to refrain from signaling a cut, “I’ve reluctantly moved away from paying attention to ECB rhetoric and started to focus more on the economy,” Cailloux said.
The ECB announces its decision at 1:45 p.m. and Trichet holds a press conference 45 minutes later. The ECB is lagging counterparts such as the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Swiss central bank, which have reduced borrowing costs aggressively as the world’s largest economies slide simultaneously into recession for the first time since World War II.
Close to Zero
The Bank of England on Jan. 8 cut its main lending rate to 1.5 percent, the lowest since the bank was founded in 1694. The Fed last month lowered its key rate to a target range of zero to 0.25 percent. Japanese and Swiss rates are also close to zero.
The ECB has reduced its benchmark by 175 basis points since early October. Trichet told journalists on Dec. 15 the bank was focused on making sure those reductions flow through to the economy. It wants to avoid being “trapped” with rates that are “too low,” he said. Executive Board member Juergen Stark said on Dec. 10 the scope for further moves was “very limited.”
The faltering economy is pushing up bond yields in Italy, Spain and Greece, making ECB rate cuts less effective.
Standard & Poor’s yesterday lowered Greece’s sovereign credit rating one notch to A-, saying the financial crisis has “exacerbated an underlying loss of competitiveness in the Greek economy.” The ratings of Ireland, Portugal and Spain are also under threat.
‘Original Thinking’
European confidence has plunged to the lowest on record and the unemployment rate rose to 7.8 percent in November, a two-year high. The German economy, Europe’s largest, may have contracted as much as 2 percent in the fourth quarter, the country’s statistics office said yesterday. That would be the biggest slump in more than two decades.
“It was clearly the original thinking to keep rates on hold, but the Governing Council will find it very hard to resist a cut in the face of such extreme economic weakness,” said Julian Callow, chief European economist at Barclays Capital in London. “This meeting is one of the hardest to predict -- they could go 25 basis points, 50 basis points, or keep rates unchanged.”
Some council members have signaled they see leeway to lower borrowing costs further. ECB Vice President Lucas Papademos and council member Vitor Constancio both said this month that lower rates may be warranted if inflation falls too far below 2 percent, the bank’s definition of price stability.
The rate declined to 1.6 percent in December.
‘Too Optimistic’
The ECB last month forecast inflation would average 1.4 percent this year and 1.8 percent next year. It predicted the economy would contract 0.5 percent in 2009 before rebounding to expand 1 percent in 2010.
Those projections are “far too optimistic,” said Cailloux. “The economy could be three to four times weaker than suggested by the ECB last month.”
The shadow ECB council, a group of economists that monitors the central bank, on Jan. 13 called for a full percentage point cut. A worsening recession increases the risk of “excessive disinflation” and this should be as much a concern to the ECB as inflation above its target, the economists said.
Investors expect the ECB to lower the benchmark rate by at least 50 basis points today and to take it to as low as 1.25 percent by June, Eonia forward contracts show.
“Economic activity is falling off a cliff, inflation has crashed through the 2 percent floor of price stability, while unemployment is rising significantly,” the European Trade Union Confederation said in a statement yesterday. Another interest-rate cut is “the only sensible thing” for the ECB to do.
sources:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aFGbmXAXYmOE&refer=europe
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
IRAQ
Biden Assures Leaders Of Ongoing U.S. Amity
Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived in Baghdad on Monday for the last leg of a trip that included stops in Pakistan and Afghanistan, battlegrounds the Obama administration will inherit in a week.
Biden met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a staunch U.S. ally, whose office said in a statement that Biden had assured the Iraqis that "Obama and the new administration are Iraq's friends."
The Democratic senator from Delaware, accompanied by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), didn't speak to reporters during his first day in Baghdad, and a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy said there was no plan to organize a news conference Tuesday.
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The visit occurred on a day when a series of attacks in Baghdad killed at least eight people and wounded more than two dozen, according to Iraqi officials.
In the New Baghdad neighborhood, in southeastern Baghdad, a suspected magnetic bomb detonated under a crane about 7 a.m., residents said. When police officers and others rushed toward the site of the blast, a man in a white sedan drove toward the crowd, jumped out of the vehicle and detonated explosives inside it. Three people were killed, including an Iraqi policeman who tried to prevent the driver of the vehicle from approaching.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced Monday that it turned over control of one of its largest bases in Anbar province, in western Iraq, to the Iraqi government. Camp Fallujah is the latest of several large bases the U.S. military has shut down.
more information:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/12/AR2009011203352.html
Biden Assures Leaders Of Ongoing U.S. Amity
Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived in Baghdad on Monday for the last leg of a trip that included stops in Pakistan and Afghanistan, battlegrounds the Obama administration will inherit in a week.
Biden met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a staunch U.S. ally, whose office said in a statement that Biden had assured the Iraqis that "Obama and the new administration are Iraq's friends."
The Democratic senator from Delaware, accompanied by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), didn't speak to reporters during his first day in Baghdad, and a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy said there was no plan to organize a news conference Tuesday.
ad_icon
The visit occurred on a day when a series of attacks in Baghdad killed at least eight people and wounded more than two dozen, according to Iraqi officials.
In the New Baghdad neighborhood, in southeastern Baghdad, a suspected magnetic bomb detonated under a crane about 7 a.m., residents said. When police officers and others rushed toward the site of the blast, a man in a white sedan drove toward the crowd, jumped out of the vehicle and detonated explosives inside it. Three people were killed, including an Iraqi policeman who tried to prevent the driver of the vehicle from approaching.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced Monday that it turned over control of one of its largest bases in Anbar province, in western Iraq, to the Iraqi government. Camp Fallujah is the latest of several large bases the U.S. military has shut down.
more information:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/12/AR2009011203352.html
Friday, January 09, 2009
24: Season 7, First 4 Episodes Review
24 season 7 premieres in a couple of days. It's been long coming. The writers' strike impeded its release into the wild by one full year. Now, finally, FOX is ready to unsheathe Jack Bauer. I have watched the first four hours of 24's seventh season, and I'm here to report that true 24 fans will get the 24 they're used to. The first four hours, interestingly enough, are not as good as the first four hours of season 6 (say what you will about the disappointment of that season, but the first four episodes were great), but one gets the feeling that it's building to bigger and better things. Of course, this could be wishful thinking from a staunch 24 fan. Let's all hope not. I fear that parts of the 24 audience will be underwhelmed by what they see on Sunday and Monday, but I think the episodes are solid enough to warrant continued viewership. FOX certainly hopes so.
Season 7 picks up a couple years after the events of season 6, and a couple of months following the events of 24: Redemption. Jack is brought in front of a senate hearing. He has to answer to accusations of torture. Jack will be indicted, it is clear, but before the proceedings can finish, Jack is summoned by a comely FBI agent to assist in a national crises. I didn't know FBI agents could walk in and interrupt senate hearings with such ease, but I guess we can let it slide.
A rogue, domestic terrorist organization has gained access into the government's infrastructure – roads, traffic lights, air traffic control, the water supply, etc. Early in the episode, we find out that Tony Almeida is the leader of this terrorist organization. Jack is informed of this, and from there, the season gets off and running.
I don't want to give away much else away. Just know that these four episodes feel like a precursor for the events to come, more so than the beginning of previous seasons. There's nothing wrong with this, but viewers looking for crazy action right out of the gate might be disappointed.
One worry, that may permeate throughout the season, is that the plot points unearthed during 24: Redemption threaten to undermine a great deal of the suspense of season 7, especially in these first four episodes. I think 24: Redemption, in this respect, was a mistake, especially how they introduced Jon Voight's character. But, the jury is still out on this.
24 is back. It's not a slam dunk so far, but anyone who enters the season with an open mind will find enough to their liking to stick with it.
source:http://www.buddytv.com/articles/24/24-season-7-first-4-episodes-r-25575.aspx
24 season 7 premieres in a couple of days. It's been long coming. The writers' strike impeded its release into the wild by one full year. Now, finally, FOX is ready to unsheathe Jack Bauer. I have watched the first four hours of 24's seventh season, and I'm here to report that true 24 fans will get the 24 they're used to. The first four hours, interestingly enough, are not as good as the first four hours of season 6 (say what you will about the disappointment of that season, but the first four episodes were great), but one gets the feeling that it's building to bigger and better things. Of course, this could be wishful thinking from a staunch 24 fan. Let's all hope not. I fear that parts of the 24 audience will be underwhelmed by what they see on Sunday and Monday, but I think the episodes are solid enough to warrant continued viewership. FOX certainly hopes so.
Season 7 picks up a couple years after the events of season 6, and a couple of months following the events of 24: Redemption. Jack is brought in front of a senate hearing. He has to answer to accusations of torture. Jack will be indicted, it is clear, but before the proceedings can finish, Jack is summoned by a comely FBI agent to assist in a national crises. I didn't know FBI agents could walk in and interrupt senate hearings with such ease, but I guess we can let it slide.
A rogue, domestic terrorist organization has gained access into the government's infrastructure – roads, traffic lights, air traffic control, the water supply, etc. Early in the episode, we find out that Tony Almeida is the leader of this terrorist organization. Jack is informed of this, and from there, the season gets off and running.
I don't want to give away much else away. Just know that these four episodes feel like a precursor for the events to come, more so than the beginning of previous seasons. There's nothing wrong with this, but viewers looking for crazy action right out of the gate might be disappointed.
One worry, that may permeate throughout the season, is that the plot points unearthed during 24: Redemption threaten to undermine a great deal of the suspense of season 7, especially in these first four episodes. I think 24: Redemption, in this respect, was a mistake, especially how they introduced Jon Voight's character. But, the jury is still out on this.
24 is back. It's not a slam dunk so far, but anyone who enters the season with an open mind will find enough to their liking to stick with it.
source:http://www.buddytv.com/articles/24/24-season-7-first-4-episodes-r-25575.aspx
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Expo: Microsoft to enhance Entourage Exchange, SharePoint on the Mac:
A quarter-century after it began making products for the Mac, Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit announced future updates to Microsoft Office that will enhance collaboration and sharing.
Entourage will get a makeover, at least under the hood. Microsoft will stop using the WebDAV protocol in favor of the Exchange Web Services—a change the company said would bring better compatibility, performance, and reliability. When using WebDAV, Entourage sends out up to six instructions when communicating with a server, but with Exchange it uses one.
The MacBU plans to release the Entourage update in late January as a public beta. The final release will come later this year and will be free for all Office 2008 users.
The second update to Office for Mac will give Mac users the ability to work with SharePoint Products and Technologies and Office Live Workspaces. With the help of a new application called the Document Collaboration Companion, Mac users will be able to download and upload documents, use document check-out/in, offline document caching, and SharePoint Workspace, Document Library, and Office Live Workspace.
Document Collaboration Companion—Microsoft’s first full Cocoa application—will debut as a private beta in February, with a final release slated for later this year.
By switching to the Exchange technology and giving users a collaboration application, Mac users would be able to work with shared documents and servers just as easily as their Windows counterparts, according to Eric Wilfrid, general manager of the MacBU.
“Compatibility has always been one of the biggest concerns for us,” Wilfrid told Macworld. “The question is always can Mac and Windows users work on the same team and share information?”
The moves by Microsoft fit into a strategy at the company to deliver software plus services on all platforms. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked about the company’s vision last October when he introduced the concept of the “Windows Cloud” as an operating system that would help developers write Internet-based applications. Last year, Microsoft announced plans for Office Web, a lightweight version of its Office suite that will run online; Office Web apps are expected to work with the Safari and Firefox Web browsers.
“These releases are the first step for the MacBU in harnessing the power of software plus services on the Mac,” said Wilfrid.
source:http://www.macworld.com/article/137950/2009/01/officeupdates.html
A quarter-century after it began making products for the Mac, Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit announced future updates to Microsoft Office that will enhance collaboration and sharing.
Entourage will get a makeover, at least under the hood. Microsoft will stop using the WebDAV protocol in favor of the Exchange Web Services—a change the company said would bring better compatibility, performance, and reliability. When using WebDAV, Entourage sends out up to six instructions when communicating with a server, but with Exchange it uses one.
The MacBU plans to release the Entourage update in late January as a public beta. The final release will come later this year and will be free for all Office 2008 users.
The second update to Office for Mac will give Mac users the ability to work with SharePoint Products and Technologies and Office Live Workspaces. With the help of a new application called the Document Collaboration Companion, Mac users will be able to download and upload documents, use document check-out/in, offline document caching, and SharePoint Workspace, Document Library, and Office Live Workspace.
Document Collaboration Companion—Microsoft’s first full Cocoa application—will debut as a private beta in February, with a final release slated for later this year.
By switching to the Exchange technology and giving users a collaboration application, Mac users would be able to work with shared documents and servers just as easily as their Windows counterparts, according to Eric Wilfrid, general manager of the MacBU.
“Compatibility has always been one of the biggest concerns for us,” Wilfrid told Macworld. “The question is always can Mac and Windows users work on the same team and share information?”
The moves by Microsoft fit into a strategy at the company to deliver software plus services on all platforms. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked about the company’s vision last October when he introduced the concept of the “Windows Cloud” as an operating system that would help developers write Internet-based applications. Last year, Microsoft announced plans for Office Web, a lightweight version of its Office suite that will run online; Office Web apps are expected to work with the Safari and Firefox Web browsers.
“These releases are the first step for the MacBU in harnessing the power of software plus services on the Mac,” said Wilfrid.
source:http://www.macworld.com/article/137950/2009/01/officeupdates.html
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