Since Apple released the iPhone 4 on June 24, users have complained about losing reception when they cover the lower-left corner of the device. Consumer Reports said this week it wouldn’t recommend the phone because of the problem, and some analysts have said Apple needs to address the concerns or risk harming sales.

iPhone sales could be compromised if Apples does not explicitly address the issue of what it believes is wrong with the phone,” Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, wrote in a note to investors earlier this week.

Apple can either issue free cases to owners of the iPhone 4 to cover the antenna trouble spot or conduct a product recall, he said. While the recall isn’t likely, such a move could cost Apple $1.5 billion, Sacconaghi said.

The iPhone, first introduced in 2007, is Apple’s top- selling product, accounting for about 40 percent of revenue. The company sold 1.7 million in the first three days after the release of the fourth-generation model. Apple reports earnings on July 20.

The latest model has a new design that encases the antenna in a metal band surrounding the phone, instead of making it a separate piece. In response to the complaints, Apple has advised users to either not touch the phone in the lower-left corner or use a case. Apple climbed 93 cents to $252.73 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading today. The shares have risen 20 percent this year.

We at techreview have not had a bad word to say about the apple iPhone, we like many other Australian’s have been wearing apple tinted glasses every since its release in 2007, so much so that we failed to pay real attention to other smart phones brands and their development. Recently Apple released the latest version of their iPhone + iTunes software (OS Firmware 4.0), after a quick glance we found some of the additions to this software to be a great improvement; however ever since updating the firmware we have found a number of issues of phone performance, mainly how sluggish the phone has become. If you have had any issues with your iPhone e.g. slow performance, frozen screens, lost reception then please share your comments and views below.

We are interested to know whether this is a one off or something more.

If you have Alienware’s reputation, morphing an 11-inch laptop into a mighty gaming rig is easier than it looks. The Alienware M11x (Core i7) ($1,175 direct) is literally the size of a netbook, except it’s outfitted in Alienware’s signature stealth armor and adorned with color-changing LEDs. This second iteration of the Alienware M11x line has been updated with a low-voltage Intel Core i7 processor (from a Core 2 Duo) and Nvidia’s Optimus switching graphics technology. More important, the laptop’s powerful Nvidia gaming card breezed through all our gaming tests, while costing a fraction of what would pay for an adult-sized Alienware laptop. Though it won’t replace bigger, hardcore gaming rigs, the M11x is a perfect fit for competitive road-gamers.

Design
It’s hard to realize how small the M11x is until it’s placed next to the Alienware M17x (Core i7) ($4,850 direct, ) and M15x (Core i7) ($3,244 direct, ). The design is meticulously detailed to mimic that of its larger siblings, particularly the stealth armor—a hard plastic, with a rubbery texture—and the front bezel, which was designed with the grill of a utility car in mind. It’s solidly constructed so that you don’t hear the plastics creaking when the laptop is held by the palm rests. It’s heavy for an 11-inch laptop, although this can be attributed to its rugged design. At 4.5 pounds, it’s as heavy as the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz) ($1,199 direct, ) and Asus U30Jc-1A ($899 street, )—laptops with 13-inch screens. At 11.2 by 9.1 by 1.2 inches (HWD), it will fit nicely on a plane’s tray-table and is ideal for cradling on your hip.

A surplus of embedded LEDs is another hallmark of Alienware laptop designs. They are pervasive and can be found under the keyboard, in the front bezel, below the screen, and in the power button. Close the lid and you’ll see them in the signature alien head logo, too. Each of these lit areas can display any color from a mind-numbing array offered by Alienware’s included Command Center software. For instance, the front bezel can be designated to glow green, while the keyboard and alien head logo take on flaming red colors. No other laptop I’ve seen has this capability.

The 11-inch widescreen is completely covered in glass but configured with a very generic 1,366 by 768 resolution. Like its bigger siblings, the M11x has glare issues, especially if you’re gaming under a bright fluorescent light or in the outdoors. The physical size of the screen might seem small, too, compared with the 14-inch one found in the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 ($1,049 direct, ). Still, games are absolutely playable on a screen this size. The 92% keyboard is as small as that of your average netbook, which might be a deal-breaker for those with meaty hands. I absolutely adore the textured touchpad and the very soft mouse buttons. After all, they’re built on engineering principles similar to that of Dell (Alienware’s parent company).

Features
You won’t find an internal optical drive in the M11x. With the advent of downloadable games and media content, you don’t really need one. Larger laptops like the Asus U30Jc-1A and Lenovo Y460 have a DVD burner built-in, for those who still want one. A VGA port is another casualty (the previous version came with one), but the M11x is equipped with both HDMI and DisplayPort technologies. And given the viewing limitations of an 11-inch screen, using either one of these ports with a large flat panel comes highly recommended if you’re using the M11x at home. It has three USB ports, which should easily accommodate all your external gaming peripherals. This little laptop even comes with a FireWire port, for those who still own legacy camcorders and external storage drives. A SIM card slot is located right above the multi-media card reader, so with a service contract (i.e via AT&T), you can reap the same 3G broadband benefits as Smartphone users.

Performance
The low-voltage Intel Core i7-640um processor sacrifices some speed for energy efficiency, a necessary move so that both it and the Nvidia graphics can live together without scorching the system. Had the M11x used a standard volt processor, heat would have been an unbearable side effect. Despite running a low-powered processor, the M11x (Core i7) is equipped with plenty of backup muscle, including a fast 7,200rpm hard drive (up to 500GB) and 4GB of DDR3 RAM (expandable to 8GB).

The M11x trailed the Asus U30Jc-1A and Lenovo Y460—which run on standard volt processors—in video encoding (1 minute 7 seconds) and Cinebench R10 (5,618) tests. In other words, real-world tasks like video editing, working with Adobe Photoshop CS4, and database programming will be faster on laptops that run on standard volt processors. The differences are negligible with day-to-day tasks, such as Web surfing, composing emails, and word processing. But the M11x (Core i7) is more about gaming prowess than raw horsepower.

Currently, the M11x (Core i7) runs the most powerful graphics card in its class, the Nvidia GeForce 335M. It’s the single reason why Alienware opted out of a standard voltage processor and put in a huge fan (to cool the Nvidia chip). As a gaming platform, the M11x is more powerful than the Lenovo Y460 and Asus U30Jc-1A. Our gaming benchmark tests are good indicators, ran at both low (1,024-by-768) and native resolutions (1,366-by-768) to better gauge graphics performance. In 3DMark 06, the M11x delivered the best scores (6,868) at native resolutions and with all the eye-candy turn on. Though it didn’t fare as well against the others at low resolutions (since processor speeds are factored into this score), games like Crysis and World in Conflict ran smoothly and fragment-free on both the 11-inch screen and when the laptop was hooked up to an external flat panel (via HDMI).

The M11x (Core i7) also benefits from Nvidia’s Optimus technology, a graphics switching mechanism that allows you to take advantage of an integrated Intel chipset when the laptop is running on battery power. The previous version also had a switching mechanism in place, but the switch had to be done manually, via software. With Optimus, switching between graphics chips is done automatically, based on what application is running. So when the laptop is running a battery rundown application like MobileMark 2007, which doesn’t have any 3D components, the M11x drained its 64WH (8-cell) battery in 5 hours 21 minutes. This is impressive, considering what this laptop is used for. The Asus U30Jc-1A, on the other hand, includes a bigger battery (84WH) and leverages Optimus as well, fueling a MobileMark score of 8 hours.

It takes guts to make a gaming rig out of a laptop the size of a netbook, but Alienware seem to have found a good recipe. A drop-dead gorgeous design and impressive lighting effects are the foundations of this gaming laptop. Though the processor isn’t best of breed and the keyboard is cramped, Alienware channeled its resources into the one part that mattered most to gamers—a powerful Nvidia chip (now powered by Optimus). Mind you, it won’t trump the performance of an Alienware M15x (Core i7) (though it can still run multimedia tasks well) and caters to a different audience than an Asus U30Jc-1A. But the Alienware M11x (Core i7) will get a nod from me every time gaming and travel are used in the same sentence.

The Dell Studio XPS 7100 ($1,149 direct) is a genre-straddling kind of desktop PC. On one end, it has a quick multimedia PC with a six-core AMD processor and 1.5TB hard drive. On the other, it comes with an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, so it’s a contender as one of the better entry-level gaming rigs. Packed with a lot of future proof technology, the system’s price tag won’t break the bank. All in all, that translates into an Editors’ Choice win for the Studio XPS 7100, in mainstream multimedia system under $1,500.

Design
The Dell Studio XPS 7100 comes in a silver version of the tower we’ve seen on the Dell Studio XPS 8000 (SX8000-1479UWH) ($798.98 list, ). The system is angled, so it appears to be leaning backwards, which makes it easier to access the media card bays and optical drives if the system is sitting on your floor. The matte silver color evokes the hues seen on German and Japanese luxury cars of the past few years: a little cold, yet undeniably attractive. The system still has the embedded multi-card reader on the top, and a sliding door covering two of the system’s front facing USB ports. The top has an indented tray with two USB ports to connect cameras, external hard drives, and the like. In the back are four more USB ports with an eSATA and SPDIF port. There’s also an HDMI and DisplayPort on the ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card in addition to the DVI ports. Last but not least, there are two leads for the 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi card on the back. The system has the usual hidden optical drive bays, one of which has a Blu-ray player/DVD burner combo drive.

The system has some internal expansion room, including space for 1 PCI card, two hard drives, and one optical drive. There are plenty of ports and space—it’s just that most of the slots have already been populated. You’ll have to pop out some of the included memory DIMMs if you want more than the included 6GB of DDR3 memory, though 90 percent of this system’s users won’t need more memory than that. You’ll need a screwdriver to get in and add components, but everything is well laid out and easy to get to. The ATI Radeon HD 5870 card has an immobilizing bracket on it, which is a great addition for a system that has to travel cross-country during shipping. The bracket prevents the heavy graphics card from moving, so you’re more likely to get the system in one piece.

Features
The desktop comes with a 1.5 Terabyte 7,200rpm SATA hard drive, Blu-ray player/DVD burner, and ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card. My review unit also came with a pretty standard Dell multimedia keyboard and optical mouse. The XPS 7100 can be outfitted with a TV tuner, but my configuration didn’t come with one.

The system is notable for what it lacks—namely, bloatware. No Office trial, no Wild Tangent games. The system comes with 15 months of McAffee Security Center included in its purchase price, which is something I would recommend. The closest thing to bloatware I could find was a copy of Skype. The system does come with the Dell Dock, an app launcher that floats at the top of the screen. Inside the dock, there’s a shortcut to get more software. The shortcut launches a Dell Software Store Website, and that is how I would want users to get a hold of software to load on their systems. Instead of having bloatware forced on the users, they can use the Dell Software Store to find and download only what they need or want.

Performance
The Studio XPS 7100’s performance keeps you moving with its six-core AMD Phenom II X6 1055T processor and ATI Radeon HD 5870 gaming-class graphics card. It was able to complete the Windows Media Encoder (WME) test in a speedy 38 seconds, and the Photoshop CS4 test in 1 minute 38 seconds—that’s reasonably quick. To put it in perspective, a dual-core system like the Apple iMac 21.5 inch (Core 2 Duo) ($1,199, ) is a bit slower at WME and a smidge faster at CS4 (0:49 and 1:32, respectively). Intel CPUs generally perform better at CS4 than AMD CPUs.

The Studio XPS 7100 as configured here trumps its sibling, the Dell Studio s7100-1060NBK ($899.99 list, ), at 3D benchmark tests thanks to the faster graphics card. The XPS 7100 is fully playable at three of our four game tests, including Crysis at 1,280 by 1,024: where it scored 65 frames per second (fps), World in Conflict (WiC) at 1,280 by 1,024 (82fps), and WiC at 1,920 by 1,200 (48 fps). Its score on Crysis at 1,920 by 1,200 was an unplayable 35 fps, but you could get close to playable scores at 1,920 by 1,200 if you tweak the quality settings. Contrast this with the Dell s7100-1060NBK’s unplayable scores on all four 3D tests.

So how does the system do against the Editors’ Choices in similarly priced categories? One area you might be interested in is entry-level hardcore 3D gaming. And so far there’s no better bang for the buck than our current EC for that category, the Gateway FX6831-01 ($1,300 list, ). For about $50 more, the Gateway gives you much faster/smoother game results at 1,280 by 1,024 resolution on both games, though the gap narrows at 1,920 by 1,200 resolution. It was also significantly easier to upgrade the hard drives on the Gateway FX6831-01e. For these reasons, the FX6831-01 holds on to the gaming crown. On the multimedia desktop side, it’s a little tougher. The HP Pavilion Elite HPE-140f ($1,029.99 list, ) is $119 less expensive, but the XPS 7100 has more hard drive space and is the faster competitor at the 3D tests. The XPS 7100 also has much less bloatware. Sure, the HP HPE-140f has better older technology support (like the analog AV inputs and a TV tuner), but the XPS 7100 is better equipped with more examples of future looking tech (1.5TB drive, HDMI, eSATA, DisplayPort, Blu-ray). The XPS 7100 is for the new multimedia PC buyer, unless you still have a lot of VHS videos to convert to digital formats or need a system that supports older analog technology. Otherwise, the Dell XPS 7100 makes for an attractive multimedia Editors’ Choice PC.

Source: PCMAG

With the recent release of iTunes, iPhone and iTouch software updates, TechReview take a quick look whether you should leave things as they are or go through the painstaking task of updating you Apple software. Read the best and worst things about upgrading.

1. Improved camera performance. The camera on the iPhone 3G3 performs an order of magnitude faster than it did with software 3.1.3. It is quicker to focus, quicker to take pictures, and quicker to get back to the capture screen. It also now has a digital zoom feature.

2. Folders. Other smartphone platforms have had folder support from Day 1. Now, in its fourth generation software, so does the iPhone. It is visually pleasing, and I like the way they work. I especially like to be able to reduce the number of home screens I am using by stuffing apps into the folders.

Get a robust mobility plan to improve productivity, reduce costs

Application Mobilization Best Practices

3. Spell check. When composing messages, the iPhone now goes beyond the predictive software it had been using to aid typing. It now has a spell check that lets you select the word you really mean to type instead of arbitrarily choosing one for you.

4. Unified inbox. I have a lot of email accounts. One thing I’ve always liked about BlackBerries is their support for a unified inbox — all the emails go to a single master inbox rather than separate inboxes. iOS 4 now supports this, too. For the serial email addict who has way too many email accounts, this makes checking them all just a bit easier from the iPhone.

5. Multitasking. It’s not a perfect implementation, and I have yet to put it through any real battery tests, but it is nice to have multitasking that works on the iPhone. Switching between apps is faster and more seamless. It also preserves the “state” of each app. If you’re in the middle of composing an email, it doesn’t lose or delete the email if you switch over to the browser, etc. I expect as more apps are enabled with background support, multitasking’s true benefits will become clearer.

The Not So Good Stuff

1. Semi-threaded email. Apple has brought threaded email to the iPhone’s email inbox, but it doesn’t quite go far enough. In Gmail, for example, every email that has the same subject is lumped together in a threaded conversation so it is easier to see all the messages. The iPhone attempts to do this, but falls short. The threaded feature will show users all the messages in a conversation that they’ve received, but not the ones they’ve sent. That means you’re really only seeing half the conversation.

2. No real iPod improvements. Access to the iPod has been improved somewhat from the home screen, but the player itself is pretty much identical to what’s been available on the iPhone for three years. The biggest missing feature? A user-adjustable graphic equalizer. It does, however, have better support for creating playlists.

3. No new additional ringers/alerts. This one is a personal pet peeve of mine. iOS4 has all the exact same (lame) ringtones and alert tones that the original iPhone had three years ago. Sure, you could choose to pay for ringtones from the iTunes Music Store, or even create your own. But seriously, Apple, couldn’t you add a few new ones into the mix?

4. No lock screen improvements. Apple has done nothing to change the lock screen of the iPhone. You still have to fully unlock the device to interact with missed messages, calls, voicemails, etc.

5. Still no attachment support in email. One of the email app’s biggest failings is the inability to attach something to the message after you’ve started composing it. Instead, you have to go to your photo library, for example, choose the photo you want, and then choose to attach it to an email. It limits the iPhone’s abilities in the enterprise, if you ask me, which often require files be passed back and forth. It’s a weird bug that I hope garners Apple’s attention at some point in the future.

Overall, the improvements in iOS 4 are incremental. Sure, Apple hasn’t addressed everything, but it has addressed a lot. The software can only get better, but the competition isn’t as far behind as it used to be.

Apple has just released the iOS 4 update for iPhone and iPod touch owners. The iPhone 4 might not be in stores until Thursday, but existing owners can take advantage of the new software features coming to the new device starting now.

iOS 4 is a free update and is compatible with iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS models, as well as second- and third-generation iPod touches. Multitasking will only work with the iPhone 3GS and third-generation iPod touch, however.

On the backend, iOS 4 has more than 1,500 changes or additions to the API, which will enable developers to build even better apps on these devices. We’ll be posting a more complete video overview of what is new in iOS 4 later this afternoon, but check out some of the highlights first:

Multitasking — A combination of persistent-state applications and backgrounding functions for certain services. The end result means better battery performance when doing things like listening to Pandora() while browsing the web.

Folders — Organizing your iPhone Home Screen is easier now that you can use folders to store groups of apps in one icon. This is a huge time-saver and makes finding and keeping more apps on your device much easier.
iBooks — First appearing on the iPad, iBooks is now available for iPhone users. Just like the Kindle app, your purchases and page marks are synchronized across devices.

iPhone 3GS owners can now tap to focus their videos just like you can when taking still shots. The new software also includes a 5x digital zoom for the built-in camera.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support – You can now pair your iPhone with a Bluetooth() keyboard, which will make typing long documents much easier.

Better Spell Check – The spell check utility now works across Mail, Notes, Safari() and other apps.
There are tons of other new features in iOS 4 and we’ll be showing them off over the next few days, as well as highlighting some apps that take advantage of the new features.

When will you upgrade to iOS 4? What feature are you most excited about?

Apple, days after starting to accept US preorders for its latest iPhone, is having trouble procuring enough touch screens to meet demand for the device, according to Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw.

The shortfall may push back the international release of the device, which is scheduled to launch in Australia in late July, a month after the US. The iPad’s Australian release was also pushed back somewhat due to high demand.

The display production bottleneck has caused Apple to cut the number of iPhones it can ship each month, previously estimated at four million units, by about half, Kumar said in a research note today. The New York-based analyst cited checks of Apple’s component suppliers.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs poses with the new iPhone 4 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

“Demand for the iPhone is chasing supply on a near-term basis,” Kumar said in an interview. Similar problems caused an initial slowdown in the production of Apple’s iPad, he said.

Apple logged more than 600,000 early orders for the iPhone 4 in a single day this week, a record, imposing a strain on computer systems and prompting carrier AT&T to suspend sales of the device before its June 24 debut. In Japan, Softbank suspended advance sales of the iPhone as demand threatened to exceed supply.

Download the latest iPod iTouch Applications at 

Apple is facing a “non-trivial risk” in the September quarter as demand for the older iPhone 3GS drops faster than the company can ramp up production on the iPhone 4, Kumar said. “If indeed they hit an air-pocket in September, Apple will catch up in December,” he said.

Analysts said Apple had a similar production delay related to its iPad tablet computer earlier this year. In April, the company delayed by a month the international debut of the iPad after shipping more than 500,000 of the devices in a week and underestimating how quickly they would sell in the US. LG makes screens for the iPad and iPhone 4, Kumar said.

“It seemed that LG had gotten these production problems behind it,” he said. “Now it appears that this is not the case.”

Download the latest iPod iTouch Applications at

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has detected a number of scams related to the international football event.

“These types of messages typically come in waves and play on a person’s topical interest in the event as a hook,” ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said in a statement.

“Congratulations from Fifa (sic) World Cup Promo you won $1,000,000.00 contact our agent to claim your prize Mr Fred Samuel Email: (email address)”

“Your mobile number has won $100,000 and to watch the finals live at the FIFA WORLD CUP PROMO REF: SA3T10.send email to (email address) or call: (phone number)”

“This is to confirm your cell have won US$5.8M for FIFA 2010 International Award. To claim contact Mrs. Martins via: (email address)”

ACMA recommends recipients ignore such messages and should never provide their banking or personal details.

“Even if money is not taken from your account, this information might be used to steal your identity in the future,” Mr Chapman said.

Recipients of SMS spam can forward it to “Spam SMS” on 0429 999 888 or report it online at www.spam.acma.gov.au

AAP

On Tuesday, Microsoft Office 2010 began appearing on retail shelves, and a lot of people have asked me whether they should upgrade. The answer, as always, depends on what you are going to do with the product.

In general, I think this is a more important upgrade for larger businesses than for home users and small businesses. But it does have a number of neat features many individuals will like.

I’ve been using Office 2010 as my primary office suite, and have to say I’ve been very happy with it. Here are the five new features I think will be most attractive for home and small business users:

The Return of the “File” Menu: A lot of people liked the “ribbon” user interface that Microsoft introduced with Office 2007; and a lot of people hated it, at least at first. If you currently use Office 2003 or earlier, you will still find the change a bit jarring and it will take you some time to get used to it, but after a few weeks, you probably won’t notice it unless you were a power keystroke user.

But one thing that tripped up a lot of people has been notably fixed. There is again a “file” tab in all of the applications, so it’s pretty familiar for users of the older version. Clicking on it brings up all the controls for saving, sharing, printing, and so on, in what Microsoft calls a Backstage area.

The name is a bit hokey, but the organization of the page gives you much easier access to all sorts of options, such as previewing what you are printing and saving to different file formats. It can be a real time-saver. One suggestion: I added the “Quick Print” option to the “Quick Access” toolbar on the very top of the Window, so I can again print without going to a menu.

Word’s Navigation pane: A version of this, called Document Map, existed in earlier versions, but it’s been markedly improved. You first use styling to indicate the different levels within your document–title, headings, and so on. Then, when you turn on the navigation pane, all the headings appear in an outline fashion on the side of the screen. You can just click on a heading to navigate to it, or rearrange your document by dragging headlines. I find myself using this all the time.

PowerPoint video editing: The new version lets you import a video clip into PowerPoint and then trim the clip, setting start and end points. It sounds simple, and again, you could always use a separate video editor to to this. But it’s incredibly convenient to have this capability within the presentation tool itself. In addition, PowerPoint adds a number of ways for making a video look better within a presentation.

Better graphics editing: Just about all the features now include new tools with which you can better edit graphics within your documents. The one I’ve used most lets you remove the background from a photo fairly easily, so you just get the parts you want. Sure, you could do this with a graphics program, but being able to do it within your document in much more convenient, and I’ve found myself using it more and more. There’s also a new feature for doing screen captures.

Sparklines: These are “in-line” graphics that you add to cells in a spreadsheet, letting you see trend lines at a glance. For instance, if you have monthly sales listed for each product, one more column in the grid can now just show a tiny chart representing sales.

Those are the five features inside the basic Office 2010 that I think are of most interest to consumers and small businesses. But of course the biggest change is….

Online Apps: The biggest change in the 2010 versions is the ability to edit and create your documents online, with Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. These applications are free: They are meant to compete with free online Web applications from Google Docs (or alternatives such as those from Zoho or Glide), so you don’t need to buy Office 2010 to use them. Documents are stored on on Skydrive, a Microsoft service that you can log into with a Hotmail or Live password. Microsoft is initially limiting this to 25 gigabytes, but that should be more than enough for most casual users.

If you buy Office 2010, though, you’ll find that integration with the online applications is a bit easier. You can create the documents locally, then use options in the Backstage area to save directly to Skydrive and share them. And you can take documents you created online and just simply click “open in Word” to move them to the desktop version for more advanced editing.

I found the online apps to work pretty well, for online applications, though they’re not advanced as the desktop versions. Microsoft talks about how they do a better job than competitiors of preserving the look of documents as you import and export from the desktop equivalents, and certainly, even complex documents did look quite good. For instance, in Word, basic editing was simple, and the word processor worked well with tables and inserted graphics; but it lacks the fine control of photos, charting, and reviewing options that the desktop version gives you.

Again, you don’t need Office 2010 to use the Web apps, but it makes using them easier. Web apps are pretty new, so I haven’t done a lot of sharing with them so far, but it does seem like a credible entry in the market.

If you’re a business user, a number of other features may be more compelling to you: Outlook now has the ribbon interface, with a social connector and a conversation view; the Web Apps can be used with SharePoint so you can share documents more easily on an internal server; and Excel can now handle bigger models, offers an easier way to work with Pivot Tablets, and adds PowerPivot, an in-memory tool for dealing with lots of data. (More on these later.) My guess is that the Excel and Outlook upgrades will be enough to make a lot of businesses want to upgrade.

Here is PC Magazine’s full review of the complete suite (note the Home and Office version just includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, and lists at $149 for the boxed version that supports up to 3 PCs, and $119 for the Key Card version). And here’s a post on how Office uses the latest PC hardware.

As I’ve said before, I’m surprised at the number of people who take Microsoft Office for granted. Yes, there are open source alternatives like Open Office, other reasonable traditional packages such as Corel’s WordPerfect Office, and now a number of good online tools such as Google Docs, Zoho, and Glide. All of those are more than adequate to create a basic document or add up a set of numbers, but none has the depth of features as the traditional boxed Microsoft Office.

In short, for the home user, if you have Office 2007 and just use it locally, you’ll find Office 2010 a useful but not necessary upgrade. If you have an earlier version of Office, though, now may be the time to think about upgrading.

Originally posted to Michael Miller’s blog, Forward Thinking.

Microsoft will release a smaller, redesigned Xbox 360 console in Australia on July 1 featuring built-in wireless networking support and an internal, removable 250GB hard drive.

Don Mattrick, Xbox Senior Vice President, says the new console is “sleeker, smaller and whisper-quiet”. It will cost $449 in Australia.Microsoft’s unveiled the redesigned machine at its press conference today at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, the first official event of this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). E3 is the biggest annual event on the world’s gaming calendar.

 Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 console
The 90-minute presentation was evenly split between hardcore games designed to keep existing Xbox 360 fans glued to their consoles, and new motion-sensing games for the Kinect add-on, which Microsoft hopes can attract a wider audience to their system.

Kinect, which was previously known by the code-name Project Natal, will launch on November 4 in the US and before Christmas in Australia. Around 15 titles will be available at launch.

“For lots of people, that controller is a barrier,” says Microsoft creative director Kudo Tsunoda. “We set out to make a new control paradigm where anybody can get in and play, without having to read the instructions or learn a complicated set of controls.”

Microsoft soon will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Xbox brand, and Don Mattrick describes the next 12 months for Xbox as a year of “transformation”.

Today’s press conference kicked off with a tense tunnel sequence from Treyarch-developed Call of Duty Black Ops, which led to an open fire-fight and a brief flight in a Hind helicopter equipped with devastating missiles.

Black Ops is due November 9 and Microsoft announced that all future add-ons and map packs for Call of Duty titles will be initially exclusive to Xbox 360 for the next three years thanks to a deal with Activision.

Japanese gaming auteur Hideo Kojima then showed Metal Gear Solid Rising starring a sword-wielding Raiden. The focus of the game is on slicing-and-dicing enemies, which could present difficulties for classification in Australia given the Classification Board’s concerns with decapitations and dismemberment in the past.

Another game which featured plenty of graphic violence was Gears of War 3. Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski demonstrated Gears of War 3’s new four-play co-operative mode in a raucous battle against some huge, fast-moving foes.

Peter Molyneux then very briefly showed Fable III, promising the game would have lots of interesting choices with dramatic consequences but not providing any new detail.

One of the few announcements that wasn’t rumoured before the event was news of an Xbox 360 exclusive from Crysis developer Crytek code-named Kingdoms. Little footage was shown beyond a gladiator wielding a sword and shield dripping with blood.

Bungie then got the opportunity to thank the 2.7 million gamers who sampled Halo Reach during last month’s successful beta, before unveiling footage of the story-based campaign for the first time ahead of the blockbuster’s September release. 

The sequence shown included Spartan soldiers rushing an industrial facility as enemies dropped onto the battlefield in pods from the sky.

No downloadable games were shown at today’s event, but Microsoft later revealed that the upcoming line-up for Xbox Live Arcade includes Castlevania Harmony of Despair, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Lara Croft and the Guardian of the Light, Limbo and Monday Night Combat.

Hardcore gamers are unlikely to have had their scepticism for motion-based gaming threatened by the line-up of games shown today for Microsoft’s Kinect.

Games in development for Kinect include mini-game collections Kinect Adventures and the Rare-developed Kinect Sports.

Kinect Sports is clearly Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo’s hugely popular Wii Sports, and includes Track and Field events such as the 200m hurdles and javelin, as well as soccer, 10-pin bowling, table tennis, boxing and beach volleyball.

Microsoft is also publishing a virtual pet game called Kinectimals which is very similar to Sony’s EyePet, as well as kart racer Joy Ride, which presumably is no longer the free downloadable game that Microsoft promised this time last year.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft is making a Wii Fit game called Your Shape Fitness Evolved, Disney is supporting the device, while LucasArts is making a Star Wars game for release next year featuring lightsaber combat that looked suspiciously like it was on rails.

Dance Central by Rock Band creators Harmonix was also demonstrated on stage. The game features a wide range of music and over 600 moves. Harmonix promises it can even teach those who have two left feet to bust a move.

Forza developer Turn 10 also showed a driving game for release next year featuring Kinect-based steering. The device also tracks your head movements so you can get different views from the very detailed interior of your vehicle, which seems to have fully controllable instrumentation.

Microsoft also demonstrated controller-free navigation of the Xbox 360 console’s interface along with online services like Facebook and the Zune video download service. A new Kinect Hub will provide a direct portal to controller-free games and applications.

Users can use voice commands like “Xbox Pause” or “Xbox Play Music” instead of using a joypad, or just wave their hands to control an on-screen pointer. The system can learn your face and recognise you next time for automatic log-on.

Video Kinect is an upcoming video conferencing application that allows users to talk to other Xbox 360 users as well as those on Windows PCs via Messenger. The camera can track your movements to always keep you in the frame.

Microsoft has also signed a deal with ESPN to provide live and on-demand sports broadcasting including NBA basketball and Major League Baseball, which will be provided free to Gold members (at least in the US). Viewers will be able to barrack as they watch. Over 3500 events are promised. 

Meanwhile, the Xbox 360’s Zune service is being expanded to include music. Microsoft says Zune will deliver seven million music tracks and 16,000 music videos.

Xbox Live is also coming to Windows Phone 7 to allow users to check their GamerScore wherever they go.

Sony and Nintendo will hold their E3 press conferences tomorrow, the opening day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.