14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit has released new versions of Office 2008 and Office 2004 for Mac, improving the security of the software. Versions 11.5.9 and 12.2.5 of Office 2004 and Office 2008, respectively, are free to download for existing users of Microsoft’s office suite of applications.
“This update improves security,” Microsoft bluntly states. “It includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code,” it adds, these being the only details the company’s Mac Business Unit was willing to provide.
Luckily, we have more interesting details to fill our time with on Microsoft news concerning the Apple fanbase. For starters, the Microsoft MacBU has confirmed its presence at WWDC10. A blog post entitled “Office for Mac Drinking Cocoa at WWDC” reveals that Microsoft’s MacBU is looking at “ways to work with Apple to meet the needs of our mutual customers.” The team adds, “That’s why we are here at WWDC this week participating in the developer sessions.”
“In fact, we send dozens of people to WWDC every year to make sure MacBU products take full advantage of core Apple technologies, such as Cocoa. If you haven't heard - Outlook for Mac and the new user interface elements in Office 2011 such as the ribbon are built on Cocoa. We like using Cocoa because it makes it easier to do what the MacBU specializes in: marrying Microsoft software and services to the look and feel Mac users want,” the Microsoft MacBU states (read full blog post here).
Also noteworthy for the Apple community is that leaked internal Microsoft documents show clear evidence of increasing competition between the two software vendors. Microsoft aims to pit its Windows Live Essentials suite against Apple’s iLife suite, comparing the two from a cost standpoint.
It claims Essentials is free, whereas iLife is not. This is only partially true, since iLife ships for free with every Mac. It also notes that cost of services through MobileMe has customers forking $99 a year, but fails to mention that MobileMe is optional. Apple may, in fact, give this inaccurate comparison chart a final blow by making MobileMe free soon, going by the latest rumors. Microsoft also implies that iChat and Mail are part of the iLife price tag, whereas the two applications come with Mac OS X.
It is interesting, to put it mildly, that Microsoft’s marketing department is already using Windows Live Wave 4 to attack Apple's products and services, yet the software is still in beta.
