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Nine years after Sun Microsystems bought StarOffice, the resulting OpenOffice.org project is ready to roll out its 3.0 release. Enhanced format compatibility and features put it on par with Microsoft Office.

When Sun Microsystems bought the little-known StarOffice productivity suite in 1999, and soon thereafter released the product’s code base as open-source software, it was unclear how far the arguably quixotic initiative might reach—and what damage it could possibly wreak on Microsoft’s ironclad grip on the office productivity market.

View: The full story @ eWeek

It has been long rumoured that Microsoft would introduce Zune software onto the Windows Mobile operating system.

In an interview with CIO magazine Steve Ballmer confirms that Microsoft is looking to port the software to Windows Mobile devices.

When questioned why Microsoft developed the zune, Ballmer replied:
"At the end of the day, one of the big trends is that all content is going digital. And if we don’t have the software and services that are useful, helpful and valuable for the consumption of music and video, we are sort of not really a player.

Now, we built the Zune hardware with the Zune software - and what you’ll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc."
This is the strongest indication that Microsoft will be porting the software. We’re not sure when exactly but you can bet that Windows Mobile 7 will have it included.

AMD has updated server makers that it is planning to bring forward the launch of 45nm server processors (Shanghai) from the original schedule of January 2009 to mid-October. Nine CPUs with core frequencies between 2.3-2.7GHz will be offerer ed initially, according to sources at server makers.
The nine Shanghai processors will include five 2-way and four 8-way models. All will support the company’s socket F (1207), and include an on-die DDR2 memory controller and 6MB L2 cache.

View: The full story @ DigiTimes

Hewlett-Packard Co., aiming to grow its device business beyond corporate users, is preparing to release a new smart phone that will also be marketed to consumers, according to people briefed on the plan. The device will debut in Europe, these people say, and will be sold by a mobile carrier in retail stores.

The new device will have a touchscreen and keypad and will use Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, say people briefed on the plan. It will be able to send and receive emails, and access the Internet.

The phone is the latest version of H-P’s iPaq devices. H-P, which has been selling iPaq-branded devices since it acquired personal-computer maker Compaq Computer Corp. in 2002, primarily focused earlier iPaqs on businesses and typically didn’t sell them through retail stores.

The new phone will likely be released in Europe within the next two months, say people familiar with the matter. It will later be released world-wide.

Read more @ The Wall Street Journal

US Democratic candidate Barack Obama is set to turn the iPhone into a political recruiting tool with an application aimed at getting the vote out.

The software has a "Call Friends" option to help organize contacts in swing states.

A note about the software on Mr. Obama’s blog said: "This tool is designed to help you become more directly involved in our campaign to change the country."

The free application was developed by volunteers in less than three weeks.

"This really has the potential to help the campaign," said Jason Grigsby, one of the project leaders.

Read more @ BBC

Symbian has released the latest version of its Series 60 (S60) mobile phone operating system, and has added features to make it more competitive with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android.

The fifth edition of the S60 will integrate touch screen control to new handsets, support for higher screen resolutions and a widescreen mode for viewing. Mobile internet use has also been improved, with touch scrolling of web pages and support for Adobe’s Flash Lite 3 built in. Motion control has been added, so that users can silence an incoming call by simply turning the handset upside down.

View: The full story @ vnunet