Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Tuesday said the software maker would not release Office 14 this year, which means the company is also unlikely to release a Web-based version of the productivity suite in 2009. In a meeting with financial analysts in New York, Ballmer said the successor to Office 2007 “will not be this year.” While Microsoft had not set a release date, industry speculation built expectations of a 2009 release. Microsoft has said that a Web-based version of Office would debut with the release of Office 14. People who buy the boxed version of the suite would also get access to its components, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, over the Web.In addition, Office Web, as the online version is called, would include a service called OneNote, which would allow users to collaborate with others and across multiple devices more efficiently.

Ballmer did not discuss plans for Office Web. No reason was given for waiting on the release of Office 14, but Ballmer did paint a gloomy picture for the second half of Microsoft’s fiscal year, which ends in June. The current recession is expected to impact all of Microsoft’s businesses, Ballmer said. Microsoft is heavily dependent on PC sales, which are down as people and companies delay purchases. While large companies aren’t replacing Office with Google Apps or similar offerings from others like Zoho, they are using the low-cost products to save money. Companies are using the services for temporary employees or for workers that use very limited capabilities in Office, such as only Word to create simple documents.

Source: InfoWeek

Windows Mobile 6.5 is slowly coming up a public release, but however already discussions are going on about the next iteration, Windows Mobile 7. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that the 7th iteration of Microsoft’s popular mobile OS will be released to manufacturing next year. WM Power User reported the news, which was announced at a Microsoft conference call earlier today, and was stated alongside Ballmer’s thoughts that the growing popularity of smartphones is going to greatly help WinMo in the future, despite the economy woes at the moment.

Ballmer also said that Windows Mobile will get more and more shared technology with Windows, bringing in technology such as, “browsers, presentation services, and even, in the future, the kernel, and that the amount of shared technology will only increase over time.” Perhaps by presentation services, he is referring to Silverlight. Lastly, Ballmer confirmed that Microsoft will not be producing a Microsoft Phone, but only sticking to the phone operating systems. For more information, keep your eyes peeled as more Windows Mobile information is released.

Source: Neowin

he latest version of Google’s geospatial mapping app lets users dive beneath the seas, explore the effects of climate change, and view high-resolution NASA images of Mars. The stars came out Monday morning at San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences to reveal Google Earth 5.0 beta, the latest version of Google’s geospatial mapping application. Google Earth 5.0 includes several significant new features. The biggest change is that Google’s globe now includes the world’s oceans, an addition prompted in part by Earle’s suggestion several years ago that Google rename its then soil-centric geo-application Google Dirt. Ocean in Google Earth allows users to navigate beneath the waves, view videos of ocean life, and see data layers that reveal information about how oceans function.

Another new Google Earth 5.0 feature called Touring allows users to record and share narrated fly-through tours of Google Earth using imagery from the application. Google’s goal is “to enable people to tell stories and share them,” said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps. Google Earth 5.0 also adds the ability to upload GPS tracking data from GPS devices. Finally, Google Earth 5.0 adds high-resolution images from Mars. By selecting “Mars” from the toolbar in Google Earth, users have access to what amounts to Google Mars Street View — a way to tour the portions of the Martian surface mapped by NASA’s rovers. Google Earth is available in 41 languages and has been downloaded more than 500 million times since its launch in June 2005.

Source: InfoWeek