Office for Mac: A Suite Deal on Student Productivity Tools

Office 2008 for Mac is available for up to 30 percent off with the purchase of any Mac at Apple resellers now through Sept. 8, 2008. A full list of participating Apple resellers is available by going to http://www.microsoft.com/mac/promotions/default.mspx and clicking on a “Save Now” link. In addition, many schools have volume licensing agreements with Microsoft Corp. and are able to provide discounted licenses of Microsoft software for student use. To learn more about academic pricing and software availability, students should contact their school’s bookstore or visit http://www.microsoft.com/education/howtobuystudents.mspx for special pricing.

Source- Microsoft Press Release

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Windows Mobile misses annual shipment target

Microsoft sold more than 18 million Windows Mobile software licenses in its recently completed fiscal year — about 2 million short of its widely publicized 20 million-unit target — the senior vice president in charge of the business acknowledged this afternoon.

However, Microsoft was still able to increase Windows Mobile’s overall share of the worldwide mobile-phone operating system market, despite increased competition from Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and others, said Andy Lees, senior vice president of the Redmond company’s Mobile Communications Business, in an interview.

Lees, a veteran Microsoft executive who moved from the Server & Tools unit in February, attributed the lower-than-projected Windows Mobile sales to some devices coming to market slightly later than previously expected. He declined to say which ones.

“That would be unfair to the OEMs,” he said, using the common abbreviation for original equipment manufacturers, or phone makers. “The OEMs give us predictions as to when they’ll ship the devices, and I don’t want to put them in the dunk tank, if that’s a phrase, by implying that they didn’t stay on time. That’s confidential conversations that we have.”

Source-seattlepi.com

Apple To Launch MobileMe Wednesday Night, .Mac Site Will Briefly Shut Down

Two days ahead of its much-ballyhooed 3G iPhone launch, Apple is rolling out its new Internet service, MobileMe, Wednesday night. However, Apple said .Mac users won’t be able to access many of the online services between 6 p.m. and 12 a.m. Pacific Time Wednesday night while it tweaks the new service, with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone or iPod touch.

Apple describes MobileMe as “Exchange for the rest of us.” It replaces the .Mac online service that enabled users to check e-mail, publish Web sites and sync personal information such as e-mail, calendars and bookmarks. MobileMe stores e-mails, calendars and a picture gallery on an online server—or “cloud”—and pushes them down to an iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC. When changes are made on one device, the cloud automatically updates the other devices.

Source: CRN

Microsoft helps connect Apple iPhone Users to Microsoft’s Exchange Server

People today depend on being able to stay in touch no matter how close or how far away they are from the office or home.

For businesses, that means a host of challenges to make sure their communications foundation is secure, reliable and accessible across many mobile devices – from notebooks to PDAs and smartphones.

Microsoft has been helping companies overcome those challenges and streamline their communications infrastructure with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, and the popularity of Exchange Server 2007 among corporations has influenced many mobile device makers to support Exchange right out of the box.

Today, Apple announced it plans to join the list of mobile device makers that offer built-in support for Exchange mobile e-mail, licensing Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for the iPhone.

For a detailed information, please find the following article, which was represented by Terry Myerson, corporate vice president for Exchange, talks to PressPass about the importance of the new agreement between Microsoft and Apple to offer built-in support for Exchange on the iPhone, and the increasing popularity of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 among mobile professionals.

Source- MSDN Blog

Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2

Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2 lets you connect from your Macintosh computer to a Windows-based computer or to multiple Windows-based computers at the same time. After you have connected, you can work with applications and files on the Windows-based computer.
System Requirements
* Supported Operating Systems: Apple Mac OS X
* Operating System Versions: Mac OS X version 10.4.9 (Tiger) or a later version of Mac OS
Note To verify that your computer meets these minimum requirements, on the Apple menu, click About This Mac.
To connect to a Windows-based computer, you must have network access and permissions to connect to a Windows-based computer that is running Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Services. These services are included with the following Windows products:
* Windows Vista Business
* Windows Vista Enterprise
* Windows Vista Ultimate
* Windows XP Professional
* Windows XP Media Center
* Windows Server 2008 Datacenter
* Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
* Windows Server 2008 Standard
* Windows Server 2003 Datacenter
* Windows Server 2003 Enterprise
* Windows Server 2003 Standard

Download here

Reliability and performance update is available for Windows Vista SP1

This update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista SP1-based computers. These issues have been reported by customers who use the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services.
This update improves the performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista in various scenarios.
This update includes the following improvements on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer:

•This update improves the stability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by addressing some crashes that may occur when you try to check e-mail by using a POP3 e-mail client such as Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird. The crashes may occur on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer in the following scenario:

•Incoming POP3 and outgoing SMTP traffic monitoring is enabled.

•Both a third-party antivirus application and an antispyware application are installed, such as the following applications:

•ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

•SpySweeper by Webroot Software, Inc.

•This update improves the reliability of the Windows Vista SP1 based-computers by addressing some problems that occur when you delete user accounts by using the User Accounts item in Control Panel. When this problem occurs, the system may stop responding (hang).

•This update improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers that experience issues in which large applications cannot run after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time. For example, when you try to start Excel 2007 after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time, a user may receive an error message that resembles the following:

EXCEL.EXE is not a valid Win32 application

•This update improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing the number of crashes that may be caused by the Apple QuickTime thumbnail preview in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

•This update improves the performance of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing audio and video (AV) stuttering. Such AV stuttering may occur when the audio or video component is streaming high definition content from a Windows Vista SP1-based computer that has a NVIDIA network adapter nForce driver version 67.5.4.0 that is installed to a Windows Media Center Extender device.

Source: support.microsoft.com

Windows 7 Will Not Inherent the Incompatibility Issues of Vista

Microsoft is hard at work aiming to prevent the Windows 7 apple proverbially falling close to the Windows Vista tree. In fact, Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President, Online Services & Windows Business Group, promised that that incompatibility issues would not be among the legacy that Vista leaves for Windows 7. Otherwise, the next version of the Windows client will inherent the vast majority of the architecture of its predecessor, most importantly the core of Vista. But, in addition to the kernel, Windows 7 will also feature the same graphics and audio subsystems

as Windows Vista, context in which existing hardware and software products will continue to be compatible.
"You’ve let us know you don’t want to face the kinds of incompatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista. As a result, our approach with Windows 7 is to build off the same core architecture as Windows Vista so the investments you and our partners have made in Windows Vista will continue to pay off with Windows 7. Our goal is to ensure the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward," Veghte stated.
This is, in fact, Microsoft’s vision: Windows Vista will be a transition operating system, streamlining the migration to Windows 7. Officially planned for availability within three years since Vista hit the shelves on January 30, 2007, Windows 7 is heading for a more realistic launch date at the end of 2009, but ahead of the holiday season.

Source: Softpedia

Apple Introduces the New iPhone 3G

Apple® today introduced the new iPhone™ 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.** iPhone 3G will be available in more than 70 countries later this year, beginning with customer availability in 22 countries—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US—on July 11.

iPhone 3G gives users ever faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds. The new iPhone 3G also makes it easier to multi-task with simultaneous voice and data communications, so with iPhone 3G you can browse the web, get map directions, or check your email while you are on a call.

iPhone 3G includes the new iPhone 2.0 software with both the iPhone SDK and key enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide over-the-air push email, contact and calendar syncing as well as remote wipe and Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to corporate networks. The iPhone SDK allows developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone’s groundbreaking Multi-Touch™ user interface, animation technology, accelerometer and GPS technology on the world’s most advanced mobile platform.

iPhone 3G takes advantage of MobileMe™, a new Internet service that pushes email, contacts, and calendars from an online “cloud” to native applications on iPhone, iPod® touch, Macs and PCs. With MobileMe email, messages are pushed instantly to iPhone, removing the need to manually check email and wait for downloads, and push keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes made on one device are automatically updated on other devices. With iPhone, you can even snap a photo and post it directly to a MobileMe Gallery to share with friends and family.

iPhone 3G will be available in the US on July 11 for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 8GB model and $299 (US) for the 16GB model in both Apple and AT&T’s retail stores and requires a new two year contract with AT&T for qualifying customers. iPhone 2.0 software will be available on July 11 as a free software update via iTunes® 7.7 or later for all iPhone customers. For further information about iPhone 3G pricing and availability in the US and internationally, visit www.apple.com/iphone.

Source- Apple Press Release