Isaiah's Tech

At least that's what Tech Radar has said. Microsoft Office 2010 "will ship to manufacturers by January 2010, with no public beta of the software suite likely to be issued." Since it will ship to manufacturers in January, everyone else can expect the release of the consumer version in 6 weeks to 4 months after that comes out. As of right now, there is still no word on the pricing, but Microsoft has also confirmed that both 32-bit and 64-bit versions will be available.

[Tech Radar]

Yesterday we found out that Microsoft will be changing the name Office 14 to Microsoft Office 2010. Today is a new day, so it's time for a new rumour. Apparently, Microsoft will be offering an online version of Office 2010 that will be free, but the offline version will still have to be paid for. Weird. The catch is that the online version will have ads and obviously the offline version won't - since it'll be the standalone program. Looks to me like I'll be using OpenOffice for my offline usage and either Zoho or Google Docs for my online word processing. I don't really know what Microsoft has up their sleeve with this new version, but they're going to have something good to get me back as a user.

[Tech Radar]

No surprise here. Office 14 will be renamed to Microsoft Office 2010 when it is officially launched. I'm hoping that a free version of Microsoft Office gets released because I really want to try it out. I love OpenOffice, but sometimes it's good to have Microsoft Office - sometimes.

[ZDNet Blogs]

A new Russian "leak" has mentioned that the Windows 7 RC1 will be delayed until early May - instead of the expected April 10 public release date. The Windows 7 RC1 was supposedly leaked out as Build 7057, but since Microsoft is still working on ways to improve it, I guess it's not truly the Release Candidate. Since the RC may be delayed, the official and final Windows 7 OS may also be delayed until "later in Fall." I don't really know what to believe, but in a couple of weeks (or days) I'm sure we'll know when the RC will really be released. I hope that it is released on April 10, but I also don't want Microsoft to rush this OS. They need Windows 7 to save them (and the public from Vista). On a side note, the Russian leak also says that Office 14 will be shipping in March 2010.

[Electronista]

Gateway has released a new laptop under their FX-series department. It's a so-called multimedia laptop and has a decent spec sheet for the price. The Gateway P-7808u FX has a 2GHz Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor, NVIDIA's GeForce 9800M GTS graphics card, 4GB of DDR3 memory, 500GB SATA harddrive, 9-cell battery, 3 USB ports, FireWire, a 1.3MP integrated webcam and Bluetooth. The laptop itself is fairly heavy, tipping the scale at 9.05 pounds. You get this all for a total of $1699.99 USD and this already includes shipping.

Microsoft may have hinted at some great news. The fact that there may be a free version of Microsoft Office 14 and that it may work for Windows XP also. Excellent. A free Microsoft Office 14 might stop me from using an alternative aka OpenOffice. OpenOffice is great and for my online documents i use Google Docs. I still don't know why i would need an online document though, but it seems cool to a certain extent. Anyways, Office 14 may also work on XP which is great because if it is free and also works on XP then i will be able to use it on my laptop also. Although i don't mind using OpenOffice since it's an excellent alternative, Office 14 will be better, i guess. Office 14 will have online and offline needs, so it's like my Google Docs and OpenOffice bundled into one.

Acer is reportedly considering their own app store. This would be for their Windows Mobile phones (a majority of them running the sad, sad WinMo 6.1). They're considering whether their efforts for an app store will be worth it, since they're not exactly one of the "big" mobile companies out there.

Before i started this blog, i had to decide on either putting it on Blogger or Wordpress. And clearly, i chose Blogger, but i could be moving to Wordpress soon. Although, Blogger has more visitors they also get tons of spammers (traffic-wise). Wordpress has the more "quality" traffic and that's where the big companies are looking. Well, i might not have the time to switch to Wordpress right now, but i may move to Wordpress during my March Break. Blogger.com does have its advantages, being simple to use and a couple of my friends are on here. Wordpress, on the other hand, is a bit more advanced, but i love their templates and has 2 versions: Wordpress.com (free) and Wordpress.org (not free). I'm obviously going to go for the free version, but i need to think of a new URL name first because "ijcopon925" is quite boring. I don't know, we'll see, hopefully you'll still be able to follow me since i don't know that much about Wordpress right now. The reason why i thought about this Blogger or Wordpress topic was because i read this article which talked about which companies Google should buy. Update: I most likely will be sticking to Blogger because of Wordpress.com's lack of updating HTML (CSS) and such. I just decided to compare them side-to-side the best that i could. Although Wordpress.com is initially free, for simple add-ons and such you have pay for most of the "advanced" stuff on there (custom CSS for $0.04 a day) which i don't have the money for since i'm no professional blogger. I'll be comparing them more throughly the next couple of days.

Gateway P-7808u FX (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/06/gateway-slips-out-17-inch-p-7808u-fx-multimedia-laptop/
Microsoft Office 14 (and picture): http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/microsoft_may_ship_a_free_version_office_14_will_still_work_windows_xp
Acer's App Store: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/03/07/acer-considering-its-own-app-store/
Blogger or Wordpress? (trigger article): http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/6-companies-google-should-buy-right-now-570740?artc_pg=1
Blogger logo: http://www.vwnw.co.uk/
Wordpress logo: http://www.xe-media.ch/software/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=37

It kind of sucks if you don't live in Germany this Summer. The Toshiba TG01 smartphone with the infamous 4.1-inch touchscreen will be hitting Germany exclusively through O2 this Summer. The TG01 has a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU inside its small 9.9mm body. It runs on a customized Windows Mobile Pro and we will see if it receives any complaints. Like i said, the TG01 will be hitting Germany through O2 this Summer, but i forgot to mention that they will be selling the white model. There is no word on the price or the exact release date. Oh yeah, also no word on when the black model will be sold.

The Dell Studio 15 laptop will have its very own special edition model. It will rock a so-called "Black Vapor" paintjob and has a 1,440 x 900 resolution on its gorgeous LED-backlit display. You have a couple of options here, including: Pentium Dual Core or Core 2 Duo processors and Intel's integrated GMA 4500MHD or an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 graphics card. You also get a 320GB HDD with up to 4GB of RAM. These special editions will range in price from $799 USD - $949 USD which isn't too expensive.

At CeBIT, a new gaming laptop was found utilizing Intel's Core i7. It is the Clevo D900F and it's a massive laptop. The screen is a 17.1-inch WUXGA display with a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. It will also have an integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam, a TV tuner and an HDMI slot. You can view Engadget's gallery on this laptop here . If you bother to look at them, you will notice that this thing must be pretty darn heavy. It is really thick, so i don't think it's too "portable."

If you're used to using Google Gears for some of your Google Offline needs, here is another one to add to the list. If you have Google Gears installed on your computer, you will be able to use Google Calendar Offline. It is still in beta, but i don't think it really matters since Gmail is still in beta.

As you may know, Microsoft Office 14 is not being released this year, but you could have your chance to try it out before this year ends. Microsoft could be releasing a public beta for Office 14 by the end of this year. The new Office will have online access (similar to Google Documents) meaning it will be able to function in a browser. You will possibly be able to share stuff on Office 14 with others, by using its online capabilities.

Toshiba TG01 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/toshiba_tg01_will_hit_germany_exclusively_through_o2-news-818.php
Dell Studio 15 Special Edition (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/03/dell-rolls-out-studio-15-special-edition-laptop/
Clevo D900F (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/03/hands-off-with-core-i7-packin-clevo-d900f/
Google Calendar Goes Offline: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/03/offline-google-calendar-available-for.html
Microsoft Office 14: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10187360-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5