The Microsoft rumour-mill goes into overdrive

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Following Google’s Chrome OS announcement yesterday, there is much speculation on the web today that Microsoft is going to make a big announcement of their own at their conference on Monday.

The rumours began after notorious tech-blogger Robert Scoble claimed via FriendFeed to have some information regarding a possible announcement to his pal Diego. “Diego, no, it’s one of Microsoft’s primary businesses,” he wrote. “Did you know Microsoft has 14 billion dollar businesses?”

Reports are now suggesting the Microsoft may be announcing a new version of Office that not only syncs via the cloud, but will work in the cloud without the need for any actual software to be installed.

If true, this would be a major attack on Google Docs. It’s interesting to note that the domain office.com has recently been sold and is currently unoccupied. I wonder…..

Be sure to visit Tech Digest on Monday where we’ll be bringing you any important news from the Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans.

(via TechCrunch)

Microsoft planning Office for iPhone?

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Microsoft is planning an iPhone version of Office, if you believe the President of Microsoft Business Division, Stephen Elop. He has hinted that Office might be making its way to Apple’s smartphone sooner, rather than later.

Several unofficial solutions are available – Quickoffice being the most recent – but officially, users can only read Office files – not edit them. There’s no Microsoft app.

When questioned further on how soon an iPhone office client would be available, Elop took a step back, saying “not yet, keep watching”. in the meantime, users will be provided a web version of Office over the next couple of years, so hold tight for that.

(via TechCrunch)

VIDEO: See how fast SSDs can get

Most people know that the hard drive is one of the slowest bits in most modern computers, and we’re all eagerly anticipating the arrival of affordable, capacious SSD drives, but I hadn’t quite realized how fast these things were until I saw this video, from Samsung’s marketing team. Watch it above.

A set of 24 SSDs in RAID can open the entirety of Microsoft Office in half a second, the entire start menu (53 programs!) in 18 seconds, and can copy a DVD from place to place in less time than it takes to throw the aforementioned DVD out of the window. Best of all, the system can defrag in just three seconds. Impressive!

(via Gizmodo)

NOISE GATE: How to create an awesome office jukebox in five easy steps

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If you work in an office, then how does the music work? Is it a tinny radio in the corner blaring out Radio 1? If so, I feel sorry for you, and I suggest you take control.

We moved offices over Christmas, and switched from a benevolent musical dictatorship run by Stuart from My Chemical Toilet to a much more democratic approach using communal playlists in Spotify. It’s very simple, and all you’ll need is some speakers, as well as someone volunteering to take charge. Click through to the post to find out how.

Panasonic to launch first fully paperless fax machine

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Hey faxers, don’t get too excited, but Panasonic will be releasing a paperless fax machine before the end of January. The bad news? For the moment, it’s Japan-only. I’m actually quite surprised that it’s taken the human race this long to develop a machine that sends faxes without actually having to feed in paper.

To send, you can type messages mobile-phone-keypad-style on the big built-in buttons, or alternatively you can send Word docs, as well as docs saved in ‘other formats’. Presumably PDF will be among them. Fax messages can be read on the device’s screen and, sadly, printed out if you absolutely have to.

Panasonic Paperless Fax (via CrunchGear)

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SHOCK: Seagate releases rap video and it's actually pretty awesome

When technology and rap meet, the results are usually catastrophically awful, but this… this is damn catchy. Seagate has sponsored a track – “Computer Friends” [Stack the Memory], made by the Sniper Twins, who are a pair of New York rappers that make awesome 8-bit influenced tracks. “Check out Salad Wrap”, on their MySpace, too. All together now… “it’s been a while, baby, on a thirty day trial, lady…”

Seagate (via TechCrunch)

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