Bill Gates has done his second interview with Channel 9, this time with Charles Torre. Some things we learned:
- Gates is addicted to 24, and almost only watches TV on the treadmill
- Bill plays more video games than I do. Damn!
- Gates and Ballmer will critique each other’s schedules
- Gates’ Mix ’06 keynote will be just him sitting on a stool; no PowerPoints
- Gates refers to any non-Windows Vista versions as “downlevel”, and never by name. I guess they’re dead to him
- If you break compatibility, you’re throwing away an asset. A great philosophy, but what good is that asset if you only let us install it once?
- Gates describes Office 12 (2007) as “sexy”. Sadly, I agree
- Websites Gates uses: Hotmail (surprisingly. He must have 50 gigs of storage), Engadget, video sites.
- Microsoft TV: “Way too early”.
- Gets get sent links all the time by people, the same “This is cool!” emails we all get.
- Channel 9: A phenomenon
(via Weblogs)
February 16th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Corporate, General |
no comments
The AP is reporting that Bill and Melinda Gates went with talk show host Oprah Winfrey to a San Diego high school to talk about the Gates’ Foundation’s $11 million school reform project in the area.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave $11 million to the San Diego Unified School District in 2003 to reform three large high schools, said Music McCall, a spokeswoman for the district.
The district used some the money to divide San Diego High School itself into six smaller schools specializing in business; international studies; media, visual and performing arts; and science, among others, McCall said.
The visit will air as a segment on an upcoming Oprah episode.
UPDATE: Valleywag says, not only was the event closed to the press, but they actually had security guards turn away the reporters from the school newspaper. They “no comment”ed 13-year old high school kids!
Hey Bill, these kids were pretty dissapointed. Why not invite them to Microsoft?
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Staff writers for the school’s newspaper, The Russ, were not so forgiving.
“This is the biggest story that’s ever happened at San Diego High and they won’t let us do the interviews,†said freshman Tara Hackett. “We’re expected to keep people up to date on news and we can’t even get access.â€
Hackett and fellow writer Nia Tikoo tried to cover the story.
“The security guards kept telling us to go back to class,†Nia said. “It might have been important to talk to Bill Gates about his work and the small schools here.â€
February 16th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Corporate, General |
one comment
Microsoft has officially announced the the twelth version of Microsoft Office will be sold as Office 2007 at the end of the year. They’ve also announced the various programs and versions that will be sold:
- Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 New!
Includes:
- Microsoft Office Excel® 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office Access 2007
- Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007
- Microsoft Office Communicator
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
- Microsoft Office OneNote® 2007
- Microsoft Office Groove® 2007
- Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
Includes:
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office Access 2007
- Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
- Microsoft Office Communicator
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
- Microsoft Office Professional 2007
Includes:
- Microsoft Office Excel® 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office Access 2007
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager
- Microsoft Office Small Business 2007
Includes:
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager
- Microsoft Office Standard 2007
Includes:
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
Includes:
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
- Microsoft Office Basic 2007
Includes:
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
I like the various SKUs, including the idea that the Student version, with its lower student pricing, will be available to home users as well and will include OneNote. What I wish they could have done was include OneNote as an option in more versions, like the Professional version. It would be a simple matter to make OneNote a low-priced addon with any purchase of Office, just releases Office 2007 Pro and Office 2007 Pro + OneNote, and it would have given OneNote so much more exposure.
As is, to get OneNote, you have to buy the Home and Student Version, which means anyone who needs Access or PowerPoint will opt instead to buy Professional, and maybe OneNote later as a boxed copy. Only including it in Home and Student (and Enterprise, which is only for volume licensing), means there is no full Office 2007 version with OneNote. Not everyone needs OneNote, but for some people, like myself, its not optional.
Pricing for the various versions:
- Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 – volume licensing
- Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 – volume licensing
- Microsoft Office Professional 2007 – $499 retail / $329 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 – $449 retail / $279 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Standard 2007 – $399 retail / $239 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 – $149 retail / no upgrade
- Microsoft Office Basic 2007 – OEM only
- Microsoft Office Access 2007 – $229 retail / $109 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Communicator – volume licensing
- Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 – $229 retail / $109 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Groove® 2007 – volume licensing
- Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007 – $199 retail / no upgrade
- Microsoft Office OneNote® 2007 – $99 retail / no upgrade
- Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 – $109 retail / no upgrade
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007 – $229 retail / $109 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007 – $599 retail / $349 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 – $999 retail / $599 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 – $169 retail / $99 upgrade
- Microsoft Office SharePoint® Designer 2007 – $299 retail / no upgrade
- Microsoft Office Visio® Standard 2007 – $259 retail / $129 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 – $559 retail / $349 upgrade
- Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 / Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007 / Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 / Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 / Microsoft Core CAL / Microsoft Enterprise CAL / Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access / Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access / Microsoft Office Project Web Access / Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager – volume licensing
- Microsoft Office Groove Enterprise Services – volume licensing
- Microsoft Office Live Groove – $79 yearly subscription
- Microsoft Office Live – various subscription levels
So, what programs do you need? I need:
- Word
- Excel
- Access
- Powerpoint
- Outlook
- OneNote
My cheapest option: Office 2007 Standard upgrade ($239), plus Access ($109) upgrade and OneNote ($99), which would cost $447. Damn. I guess I could get Office 2007 Pro upgrade ($329) plus OneNote ($99) for $428, and walk away with Publisher as an extra. Considering a Publisher upgrade costs the same as OneNote retail, I with I could just trade the two.
Anyway, despite my annoyance over these things (a pretty pointless annoyance, since I’ll likely get a review copy), I’m hugely excited about Office 2007. The Office 12 beta is the best software Microsoft has released in years, and is going to be a huge hit, I predict.
February 16th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Applications, General, Office |
one comment
MSN Search has gotten a facelift, junking most of the blue for lots of white space, a look very consistent with Windows Live offerings. The user interface itself is exactly the same, just the design is new.
Interestingly, this actually gives MSN the cleanest, most consistent, simplest homepage, when compared with Google’s seemingly random placement of links and homepage ads, and search.yahoo.com‘s news headlines.
(via Philipp)
February 16th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
General, Live, MSN, Search, Windows |
one comment
