As part of Office 2010 software that will be pre-loaded by the PC manufacturers on their PCs, we’re introducing Microsoft Office Starter 2010. Office Starter 2010 is a reduced-functionality, advertising-supported version of Office 2010, available exclusively on new PCs. Office Starter 2010 will provide new PC owners with immediate exposure to the Office 2010 experience on new PCs right out of the box.

I wonder how many people will settle for that version. [Technet]

That’s because this steamer trunk has a secret — it doubles as a portable office worthy of the Titanic. That said, don’t let it sink because it costs almost four grand. [Mayfair via Boing Boing]

First, the place you go to with the homeless guy is not a library, and second, the Ruckstuhl Acoustic Panel looks like a better fit for a couple of desks in open office or a home office. This, in fact, looks exactly like my home office, with two iMac 24s facing each other:

The Ruckstuhl Acoustic Panel is made of 100% wool felt, and comes in various colours. It even comes with a magnet holder accessory, so you can put things on it. [Ruckstuhl via Unplggd]

Warning: Pictures in the gallery contain NSFW illustrations with nudity

According to its creators—the Centennial Society—the pamphlet is really designed to strike back against junk mail companies:

This small, sixteen-page pamphlet is produced to put inside the postage-paid, business-reply envelopes that come with junk mail offers. Every envelope collected is stuffed with the pamphlet and mailed back to its original company.

Whatever. Here’s my idea: Let’s all follow the instructions and start a new world order. One in which I can go naked outside my office hours too. [Centennial Society via Boing Boing]

[Brando via Foolish Gadgets]

There’s a simple truth when it comes to keeping your email, calendar, contacts and to do list in order: Nothing competes with Outlook in terms of offering a complete solution. This is especially true for Mac users. Despite the fact that Mail, iCal, and Address book all do a pretty solid job on their own, sharing information between the apps can at times be problematic. And of course there’s the almost primitive implementation of a ToDo app as part of Mail… There are decent third party apps out there to manage this, yet once again they struggle to share that information across the other applications.

In comparison, Outlook does it all. It may not be as visually appealing as each of Apple’s solutions, and it may seem a tad convoluted if you don’t use some of the features, but it is a very complete solution to managing your day-to-day life. But what really makes Outlook stand out as an exemplary performer is its ability to work seamlessly with a smartphone. Pairing a Blackberry or WinMo phone with Outlook allows you to truly stay on top of your workload in a way the iPhone can only dream about. Being able to create, edit and tick off appointments, to do items, notes, and emails both on your PC and your smartphone allows you to manage your time and workload much more effectively.

That’s what makes the decision to port Outlook to the Mac is such a huge move. Instead of requiring four separate apps running in order to stay on top of your hectic day-to-day existence, Mac users will now have one centralised program that manages everything. And that is going to appeal to a lot of businesses, especially those using Exchange to run their company email.

On top of that, it’s going to force Apple to improve not only the way their calendar, email and contacts apps work together, but also how the information is shared with the iPhone. At the moment, syncing an iPhone with a Mac is done exclusively through Apple’s dedicated apps, but when Outlook is available, that’s going to have to change. Sure, Apple can (and probably will, for a while) argue that their programs do a good enough job of sharing information, but that won’t be enough for larger corporations who use Exchange. And considering Apple’s arguments that the iPhone is a great business-oriented smartphone, the only way they’ll be able to persuade businesses to their way of thinking is by native Mac outlook support. Which in turn leads to a much more complete time management solution for Mac users.

It will be interesting to see just how Apple reacts to Outlook when it’s released as part of the next Office suite for Mac. It’s a huge opportunity for them to promote the OS X platform, so long as they do their best to welcome it into the Apple ecosystem by supporting it with the iPhone and improving their own software interoperability. Let’s hope they don’t screw it up…

They’re starting work immediately, although there isn’t any word on how long it will actually take to roll out to consumers. It will first appear on Nokia’s E Series handsets though, but will expand out to their other smartphones in time.

While this is the kind of announcement that should be good for both companies, I can’t help but be sceptical that this will ultimately slow down Symbian even more, which can’t be a good thing. But then again, more features equals more better. Right?

Microsoft and Nokia form global alliance to design, develop and market mobile productivity solutions
Companies will collaborate to bring Microsoft Office Mobile and related communications and collaboration software and services to Nokia smartphones

New York, NY, USA – The worldwide leader in software and the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer have entered into an alliance that is set to deliver a groundbreaking, enterprise-grade solution for mobile productivity. Today, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Oistamo announced the agreement, outlining a shared vision for the future of mobile productivity. This is the first time that either company has embarked on an alliance of this scope and nature.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professional, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia’s Symbian devices. These solutions will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the company’s business-optimized range, Nokia Eseries. The two companies will also market these solutions to businesses, carriers and individuals.

Both Microsoft Corp. and Nokia possess a rare combination of enterprise experience and consumer understanding and, in addition to the collaboration on existing software and services, will use these assets to jointly design a range of new user experiences for future Nokia devices. These experiences will be identified together, and will be created by dedicated teams inside both companies to better meet the growing needs of the mobile professional.

“With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us,”said Elop. “Today’s announcement will enable us to expand Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia smartphone owners worldwide and allow them to collaborate on Office documents from anywhere, as part of our strategy to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser.”

“If you are going to provide a seamless and integrated productivity experience on a mobile device, Microsoft is an ideal partner,” said Oistamo. “Together with Microsoft, we will develop new and innovative user experiences for employees of small and large businesses alike, ensuring Nokia’s smartphones are an integral part of the office and home-office environment, and addressing the significant opportunity in mobile enterprise productivity.”

This announcement builds on the existing work Nokia is doing by optimizing access to e-mail and other personal information withExchange ActiveSync. Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future. These will include:

- The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote
- Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
- Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server
- Enterprise device management withMicrosoft System Center

“Having these two major players cooperating at this level will help us continue to meet our customer’s needs and reinforces our future business mobility strategy,”said Diane Sanchez, head of Telefonica USA.

“The scope of the alliance between Microsoft and Nokia, and potential value for the enterprise and individual is significant,” said Stephen Drake, VP of Mobility & Telecom at IDC. “By bringing Microsoft’s productivity solutions to Nokia’s large customer base, the two companies should be better able to serve the needs of the growing mobile worker population, which IDC estimates to reach 1 billion worldwide in 2011.”

Remember that insane water slide jump video? Unsurprisingly, it was a fake viral video. Surprisingly, it was made to promote…Microsoft Office?

The site is still in German, but now it’s covered in Microsoft Office Project 2007 branding. I don’t get it as I don’t speak German, but I can only imagine how well this makes a potential daredevil realise that they need a Microsoft product to complete their most ambitious of stunts.

[Mach es Machbar; Thanks, Adam!]