Apple & Microsoft extend Office software contract. - Jan. 13, 2006

Apple & Microsoft extend Office software contract. - Jan. 13, 2006

Why is this such a suprise, even though Apple have moved to Intel they are still using MacOS X which only runs on Apple hardware.

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit is still the largest provider of software for MacOS and though they've killed of IE (which is free and all Macs come with the Safari browser) and more recently Media Player (though there's still the current one available which they wont kill) many Mac users still want to use Microsoft Office.

Office for Mac is undoubtable better than Office for Windows, and the new version of Messenger is also an improvement over the PC variant.

Killing off such a large part of Microsoft's revenue is plain dumb.

Signing a 5 year agreement just means more money for the MS empire, which makes even more sense since MS bought into Apple (with a $250m cash injection when they were going through a very bad patch and MS thought they might become the single OS for personal computers - this was before Linux rose to popularity).

If Apple do gain more market share in laptops and desktops, then it's still more money for MS.

Digit LIVE news - Adobe upgrades video tools

Digit LIVE news - Adobe upgrades video tools

Adobe has upgraded it's video suite as Ceative Suite Production Studio in both standard and pro verions which include new versions of of After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore DVD and Audition.

The standard collection contains After Effects 7.0 standard, Premiere Pro 2.0, Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Bridge, while the pro version also contains Audition 2.0, Encore DVD 2.0, Illustrator CS2 as well as After Effects 7.0 Pro.

The bundles utilise Adobe's new Synamic Link technhology allowing After Effects compositions in Premiere and Encore without pre-rendering.

The bundles allow direct HDTV editing and support for both 720p and 1080i formats, as well as directly supporting newer cameras which support HDTV. Premiere will also drive standard editing decks through RS-232.

Encore DVD now supports a flow-chart system for navigating DVDs and supports DTS audio (including the 6.1 channel ES format).

All the packages now utilise the After Effects interface.

Google bundles up desktop tools - IT Week

Google bundles up desktop tools - IT Week

Google has bundled various packages together, it includes Google Earth, Google Talk, Google Toolbar, Google desktop, Mozilla Firefox, Norton AntiVirus and Adobe Reader 7. There's also an update system that keeps all the packages updates.

Though these are all indivually available, the Google Pack makes it easy to install them and ensure they are up to date.

This is potentially a direct move against Microsoft by moving into the traditional desktop envirtonment. It's likely Google are looking for an "office" environment, though they may wait until they have a hosted version.

This is likely to raise the profile of Google in both the consumer and maybe enterprise markets.