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Nokia's online stores go offline in France and Spain (update: Netherlands too)
Nokia's "around breakeven" outlook announced earlier today is discouraging at best, and now it looks like the company has begun shuttering online stores in response to growing competition from resellers, which offer lower prices on the same hardware. So far, online stores in France and Spain have been replaced with a closure notice, so customers in those countries will need to turn to third-party vendors to get their smartphone fix. European online stores in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, and the UK remain open for business, but low online sales figures (and the inevitable death of Symbian) mean we may see more countries falling offline in the near future. "Prices are too subsidized by the carriers and sales were low, so they will keep providing support," a representative from Nokia Spain told us today, so as expected, the shutdown only affects sales operations -- of course, you'll still be able to turn to your local Nokia site for support. Update: The Netherlands store is closed too [Thanks, Reppu]
Nokia lowers devices and services outlook for Q2, increasingly confident about first Windows Phone in Q4
You know what happens when you tell the world that you're abandoning Symbian for Windows Phone? Right, Symbian sales dry up. No matter how many times you boast about plans to sell an additional 150 million new Symbian devices, and no matter how long you commit to supporting Symbian devices, the OS is essentially dead to developers and consumers alike. So, we're not surprised to hear that Nokia just lowered its devices and services outlook for Q2 of 2011. The updated guidance calls for devices and services net sales to be substantially below the EUR 6.1 billion to EUR 6.6 billion expected in Q2 due to lower than expected average selling prices on lower volumes. It also sees margins drifting below the expected range of 6 percent to 9 percent due to lower than expected net sales -- Nokia expects its non-IFRS operating margin to be "around breakeven." As a result, Nokia is also pulling back its annual targets for 2011 and will provide further updates as its situation becomes more clear. On the positive side, Nokia does say that it has "increased confidence" that it will ship its first Windows Phone product in Q4 2011. Let's hope so. Update: Stephen Elop highlighted the influx of new Android devices in China and Europe as a primary factor for Nokia's revised outlook. During a conference can today, the Nokia CEO said, "It is the case that certain competitive forces, in particular Android, are really gaining momentum in certain regions."
Ask TUAW: AirPlay and the Apple TV, Exchange 2003, enterprise iOS management and MobileMe calendar publishing
Welcome to Ask TUAW, your favorite weekly question-and-answer column. Do you know what my favorite thing in the entire world is? No, besides grilled cheese sandwiches. That's right! Questions! We can never have too many questions! You can't have a Q&A column without the Q, so please go to the comments of this post and ask away. To get fabulous answers, we need your fabulous questions. You can also email your questions directly to ask [at] tuaw.com, or ping us on Twitter. Now, queries! Dan writes: The place I work refuses to upgrade their version of Exchange to anything newer than 2003. They also won't enable IMAP for email. On my iPhone and iPad, I have no problem using Exchange 2003, but on the Mac it's a different story. Apple Mail will only see newer versions of Exchange, and even Microsoft's Outlook 2008 can't use this version of Exchange Server. I know you could use the God-awful Entourage software or run a Windows program in emulation, but isn't there anything else? I would have thought that with the plethora of new Mac-based mail apps, there would be at least one that could do mail as well as the iPhone. Help me!
Xerox's Business of Your Brain liberates your inbox from annoying coworkers
If you work in office, odds are your inbox is full of Oscar polls, baby pictures, fantasy football tips, and various other obstacles standing in the way of finishing up those TPS reports. Thanks to Xerox's Business of Your Brain, you can finally deal with the issue from the passive aggressive comfort of you own mailbox. The free Microsoft Outlook plugin lets you know who's sprinkling in the most exclamation marks and buzzwords per email, who sends the longest messages, and which senders are wasting your time with emails that just say "thank you." It's a nice start, but we think we'll hold out for the premium version that will detonate every Troll doll within a 50-foot radius. Now get back to work -- as soon as you're done checking out video and PR after the break.
Microsoft releases Office 2011 Service Pack 1
Office 2011 version 14.1 (Service Pack 1) is now available from Microsoft's website. As announced on April 6, the update includes a variety of improvements to the new Outlook for Mac, including built-in support for Apple's Sync Services which allows users to more easily synchronize Outlook data with other Mac OS X software (like iCal and BusyCal) and devices (like the iPhone and iPad) through iTunes. The update also includes the usual fixes for "critical issues" and patches a security vulnerability that could allow an attacker "to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code." Microsoft offers more details about the software update on its official Office for Mac blog. Even if the update isn't showing in Office's AutoUpdate utility yet, you can download the 246 MB package here. [via MacUpdate]
Office 2011 Service Pack 1 due next week, improves Outlook compatibility
The upgrade from Microsoft Office 2008 to 2011 has not been without its drawbacks; for users of Entourage who moved to the all-new Outlook for Mac, in particular, there have been a few holes in the feature lineup. None of them are necessarily showstoppers, but the collection of odd omissions has given the flagship mail/calendar/contact management platform an air of unfinished business over the past few months. Good news, though: Microsoft's Office for Mac blog reports that we will be seeing Service Pack 1 for Office 2011 next week. The big-ticket returning feature for Outlook is calendar support in Sync Services, meaning that Outlook calendars may once again synchronize locally with iCal, BusyCal or tethered iPhones, iPod touch or iPad units through iTunes. Outlook's punch list also includes editing support for Exchange's server-side rules (which last appeared on the Mac in Outlook 2001 for Mac OS 9!), the return of the Redirect and Resend options in addition to simple message forwarding, and editing of messages in the Inbox. Excel is also getting better Solver integration, and there are sure to be hundreds of other bug fixes and minor improvements. While the Sync Services calendar support is welcome, it's slightly ironic that it's coming back to Microsoft's PIM at the same time that Apple's MobileMe calendars are transitioning to CalDAV -- which in turn is breaking Sync Services support for those hosted calendars via iCal and BusyCal. That means there still won't be a supported way to get MobileMe calendars to synchronize with Outlook for Mac (or Entourage 2008, for that matter), at least in the short term. There are some Outlook users who will be able to synchronize to MobileMe's CalDAV servers... but they aren't using Mac OS X. 32-bit versions of Outlook 2007 or 2010 on Windows can indeed sync up to MobileMe, with the help of Apple's MobileMe control panel on Windows XP, Vista or 7. The Office 2011 SP1 download will be available sometime the week of April 11; we'll let you know when it drops. Hat tip to The Loop.
ToneCheck's revised email plug-in scans your messages for aggressive, brash overtones
Last year, Lymbix released this so-so software that checked over your typed email messages for signs of "unintended tone." Scumbag. You know, short and explicit phrases that could easily tick somebody off. Jerk. Now, however, they've got a revised version that plays nice with Microsoft's Outlook, and rather than flooding one's screen with idiotic pop-ups that further enhance one's anger, there's a subtle bar that spans 1 to 5 in order to show a user just how hot and bothered the message that they're about to send really is. Cheapskate. Speaking of, it's actually a free download for now, so if you've been sending the wrong message time and time again, you might want to stop making a fool of yourself and hit the source link. Don't even bother thanking us, punk. Ugh.
Ask TUAW: Outlook 2011 attachment problems, Apple TV alternatives, deleting apps and more
Welcome back to another edition of Ask TUAW. Each week this column will feature questions from readers and answers by the TUAW team. If you have questions for the following week's column, drop them in the comments, and I will do my best to get to them. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). If you're asking an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad question, be sure to note which model and version of iOS you have. For this week we've got a new batch of questions about Microsoft Outlook attachments, Apple TV alternatives, keeping an iPad, getting an iPod touch, deleting applications and more. Lee asks: I'm using Outlook 2011 on my iMac and many times when I receive attachments in emails the attachments are Winmail.dat files and I can't open them. How can I fix this? Unfortunately, those 'winmail.dat' files are created when the sender's Exchange server or Outlook for Windows client encodes the file attachment; if they've got your contact flagged in Outlook as someone who can receive 'Rich Text' messages, you'll get the Outlook PC-only winmail file. Fortunately, there is the free TNEF's Enough utility; this tool will quickly and easily decode your inbound attachments. (For those who are using Mail.app, there's also the US$29.95 LetterOpener for Mail.app, which integrates winmail.dat handling and several other Outlook-savvy tools into a Mail plugin. There's a free iPhone/iPad app, too.) You can also contact those people sending you the attachments and ask them to change the format they use when sending email to you.
IRS employee uses Outlook rules to intercept boss's e-mails, convicted of wiretapping
Here's an interesting question for you: if you set up a rule in Microsoft Outlook to forward messages from one account to another, and you do it without the knowledge of the owner of the account you're forwarding from, are you intercepting or merely copying mail? It may seem like a moot point, but for David Szymuszkiewicz, a former IRS worker, it's an important distinction. David was afraid of being fired after his license was suspended for drunk driving (he needed to drive to the homes of delinquent taxpayers), so he secretly set up this rule on his boss's machine to see what the world was saying about him. The rule was discovered and, wouldn't you know it, he was in trouble. The only question now: whether to charge him under the Wiretap Act for intercepting messages or the Stored Communications Act for merely copying of them. So, what was your answer to the question above? You might be tempted to say he was simply making a copy, and indeed that was Szymuszkiewicz's argument, but any Exchange admin will tell you that Outlook rules are executed on the server, not at the client, meaning those e-mails were indeed being intercepted. Szymuszkiewicz was convicted of wiretapping but seems to have avoided a harsh sentence, with 18 months probation being handed down. A light punishment for wiretapping, but a heavy one for diddling menus in Outlook.
Office 2011 gets hefty discounts for Black Friday
The official Office for Mac blog just posted a list of places interested buyers can get Office for Mac 2011 at reduced cost throughout the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. Here are the prices you'll get if you buy during the US Thanksgiving holiday weekend from these retailers (note the special savings from Amazon): Apple Stores (US & Canada): $20 off Home & Student Family Pack for $129 (regularly $149 ERP). Best Buy and MacMall (US): $20 off Home & Student 1-pack for $99 (regularly $119 ERP) and $20 off Home & Student Family Pack for $129 (regularly $149 ERP). Amazon (US): $40 off the Home & Student 1-pack, cost of $79 (regularly $119 ERP) and Home & Student Family Pack for $109 (regularly $149 ERP). OfficeforMac.com (US): $20 off Home & Student Family Pack for $129 (regularly $149 ERP). Office for Mac 2011 was released at the end of last month and has gotten generally favorable reviews, especially for its speed increases. If you're in the market for an Office upgrade, it looks like next weekend is the time to buy.
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 now on sale, downloadable for upgraders
It's been percolating for ages, maturing like a fine wine and fermenting like a premium cheese: the latest edition of Microsoft Office for the Mac, Office 2011 (or Office 14, if you're counting version numbers) has finally made it to market. Enterprise and education customers have had access to the new version for a few weeks now, but as of late last night those users who had registered for free upgrades from Office 2008 (for purchases after August 1) were able to start downloading the software. Note that this version of Office is for Intel Macs only and does require Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later. The various editions are on sale & downloadable from Microsoft (US$150 for Home & Student, $280 for Home & Business which includes Outlook), or you can get the DVD versions. The boxed app suite is also for sale in both Apple and Microsoft retail stores. Education versions with lower pricing are also available. Home & Student allows you to install Office 2011 on up to three personal machines. The big-ticket new features in this edition are many and varied; we'll be digging deeper into them over the next few days. Click "Read More" for a quick rundown.
Office 2011 for Mac is available today.docx
There are plenty of free, paid, web-based, desktop-bound, cross-platform, or uni-platform alternatives, but there can only be one Office. Microsoft's flagship desktop suite of productivity applications just got a major new update. Office 2011 for Mac replaces Microsoft's Mac-specific Entourage email app with the industry standard Outlook, brings in some interface tweaks from Office 2010 over in PC land, and integrates with those Office Web Apps you've been hearing so much about. The entire "Home & Business" bundle goes for $279, and if you're not so into Outlook, you can get the Word / PowerPoint / Excel "Home & Student" version for $149.
Pricing, ship date announced for MS Office For Mac 2011
A few weeks ago Microsoft released the initial preview of Office for Mac 2011. On Monday, the company announced that boxes will hit retail shelves in October (all prices are USD). As usual, there are several editions to chose from. In the case of Office for Mac 2011, there are three. First, Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 will retail for $119 and offer Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Messenger. On the next tier is Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011. For $199 (or $279 for two installs under the same user), Home and Business edition adds Outlook to the mix (you can watch a preview of Outlook '11 here). Finally, the economic Microsoft for Mac 2011 Academic includes Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook and Messenger for $99. It's a single-install edition that will sell at authorized academic stores as well as directly from Microsoft. For more on Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac, watch this space, as the team will be updating it regularly. [Via The Loop]
Microsoft previews Office for Mac 2011
Microsoft has released some details and videos that highlight features of the forthcoming Office for Mac 2011. Way back in the day when I had a G3 iMac, I used Outlook for email. I've since switched to Mail, but Microsoft has gotten my curiosity up with Outlook for Mac 2011. This update features a new Conversation View. With a click it provides an attractive representation of a long thread. It looked nice for the brief time it appears in today's video and rather Mac-like. While Entourage is more than I need, I'll happily check out Outlook 2011. Also new to Outlook is Spotlight integration and improved Time Machine compatibility. It'll only backup new messages, saving disk space. Another marquee feature is what Microsoft is calling Ribbon.Think of it as an evolution the Office 2008 Elements Gallery that includes classic Mac menu and toolbar functionality. There's no firm information on pricing or availability just yet, but keep your eyes on the end of this year.
New Hotmail, Microsoft Office 2010 available now
Just a quick note for those of you who have yet to adopt Open Office (or have yet to give up on being productive altogether). Microsoft Office 2010 is available right now for Windows 7 / Vista / XP users. Right this instant. As you read this. It has entered "the realm of the real," as it were. Depending on your needs and your budget, you can pick up one of various flavors: Home and Student (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for $150), Office Home and Business (all of the above, plus Outlook for $280), or Office Professional (adds Access and Publisher for a cool $500). If that weren't enough for you, it also looks like Hotmail (remember that?) got some massive improvements with Office Web App integration, new attachment limits up to 10 GB using SkyDrive, and more. What are you waiting for? Check out the source links to get started.
Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac screenshots leaked
BoyGeniusReport has posted a series of screen shots from the next version of Microsoft Office for the Mac. The screen shots show the updated versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They also show the first look at the new Outlook for Mac, which replaces Entourage. The screen shots show how the ribbon display, first brought to the PC version of Office in 2007, will be implemented on the Mac. Microsoft's Mac Business Unit first previewed Office for Mac 2011 in February. Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac is being rewritten entirely in Cocoa and is expected to ship later this year. Click on over to BoyGenius for the full gallery.
Microsoft's $358 million damage award overturned, Alcatel-Lucent likely perturbed
We won't go so far as to compare this to the epic multi-year Broadcom vs. Qualcomm saga, but this is certainly shaping up to be the case that never ends, part II. Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent have been at each other's throats over various things since August of 2007, and while we've seen damages awarded and overturned a few times since, the latest ruling to be handed down by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has A-L waiting a wee bit longer to get its (maybe) due. This past Friday, the court decided that while a $358 million damages award against Microsoft for "violating patents relating to technology that allows users to enter dates into calendars in its Outlook e-mail program" was somewhat legitimate, the damages were "unjustified." The result? The whole thing has to be retried, giving the contracted law firms for both companies immense joy.
Tired of those winmail.dat files? Letter Opener 3 can help
If there's anything that drives Mac users into a frenzy, it's those winmail.dat files that can show up in Apple Mail when they receive email from colleagues or friends using Microsoft Outlook. Winmail.dat files can either files that are attached to the message, or they can contain information such as embedded documents, meeting requests, address card info, notes, or forwarded messages sent as attachments. Regardless of the content, they're just plain annoying on the Mac. restoroot, a Mac development firm out of Millstatt, Austria, has the solution for you. Letter Opener 3 (€19.99 or €9.99 upgrade for version 2.0 owners) is an Apple Mail plugin that can ease winmail.dat frustrations. Letter Opener has been recently updated for compatibility with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and it can: Convert Outlook schedules, appointments, and tasks to iCal Convert Outlook contacts to Address Book Open nested messages in winmail.dat files Translate notes from Outlook Let you read delivery status and read receipt messages Especially for Mac users who are the "lone rangers" in a Windows environment, Letter Opener 3 can make life a little bit smoother. It's great to see that this plugin has been made compatible with Snow Leopard.
Microsoft Mac Business Unit announces details of next version of Office for Mac
With Microsoft Office for Mac still owning a hefty portion of the Mac software market, it's always news when the Mac Business Unit decides to spill the beans on their product plans for the future.TUAW's Michael Rose was on the press call this morning and noted the headlines, with details in the press release in the 2nd half of the post: Next month, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac will be trimmed down to 2 editions: Home/Student and Business Edition. The new SKUs for Business Edition 2008 will be available next month. This makes more sense than the 3 editions currently available. The Office 2008 Business Edition includes Entourage Web Services Edition & Microsoft Document Connection Entourage Web Services Edition ships today (August 13, 2009) Office 2008 Business Edition has extra templates, clip art and bundled Lynda.com training lessons Upgrade costs for 2008 Business Edition $240, full licenses $340; Entourage Web Services update will be free for existing Office 2008 users One More Thing: The next Mac Office version will be ready by holiday season 2010, and includes a 'brand new application' -- Microsoft Outlook for Mac (!) Outlook for Mac will be a Cocoa app, will sync tasks and notes, and has a new database supporting Spotlight searches; IRM for confidential data controls. There was no announcement from Microsoft on any Office for iPhone development to date Visual Basic returns in Office 2010 See the continuation of this post for the full press release from the Mac BU.
Video: Google Wave public beta rolling out in September
It's hard to tell if Wave -- Google's new collaborative, universal messaging platform -- is revolutionary or simply, well, neat. It's like a telephone, great when everyone else has one but not so useful if you're the only one. At least that's how it seems after watching the near-universally acclaimed demo presented at Google I/O back in May. Starting September 30th, Google will open up the beta to 100,000 of its closest friends. Just hit the appropriate read link below to register for an invite or click through to watch the 1 hour and 20 minute demonstration. Go ahead, work can wait, innovation can't.[Via PC Mag]Read -- Sign up for WaveRead -- September 30 beta
