Wired News

Yahoo News: When Microsoft says that the next version of Office is the most important revision in over a decade, it's not kidding. Both new XML-based default file formats and a major interface revamp are intended to make the market-dominating productivity suite more flexible and accessible than ever. Veteran users may find the changes in the new version, code-named Office 12, unsettling, but they seemed well worth the adjustment in my tests of the first beta release. The final edition is slated to ship sometime in 2006. A New Look Even before the technical beta's limited release, Microsoft had previewed Office's startling new interface, which all but does away with drop-down menus and toolbars in most of the suite's applications. Instead, users get a set of tabs atop what the company calls the "ribbon"--an inch-high toolbar that displays various functions relevant to the selected tab. Click on the Write tab in Word, for example, and the ribbon presents you wit...

Time : Time Magazine has published a list of top 50 Websites for the year 20005. The list is grouped under various categories including : Arts & Entertainment , Blogs , News & Information , Shopping etc. A must visit link .

AOL , Microsoft and Yahoo continue to push out new versions of their respective instant messaging clients with added features like voice and video. But the open source community has been making progress with a client of their own: Gaim . Gaim 2.0 hit beta over the weekend after 15 months of development. Gaim 2.0 Beta 1 features a rewritten status system, smooth scrolling, support for advanced MSN Messenger features like nudges and Yahoo Doodle, improvements to file transfer under AIM and ICQ, support for Apple's Bonjour, and even voice over IP capabilities. Downloads of Gaim 2.0 are available for Windows and UNIX systems.

Rivals stand to gain $300M in savings in first year of the merged entity’s operation. Hard drive manufacturer Seagate Technology said on Wednesday it will acquire rival Maxtor for $1.9 billion in stock. Maxtor shareholders will receive 0.37 shares of Seagate stock for each Maxtor share they own. Seagate shares opened at $19.60 on Wednesday, while Maxtor shares opened at $4.52. That means Maxtor shareholders will get $7.25 per share, a 60 percent premium on their Maxtor shares. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the proposed deal, which will give 16 percent of the combined company to Maxtor shareholders. Seagate shareholders will own 84 percent of the company. Maxtor of Milpitas, California, manufactures hard disk drives used in PCs made by manufacturers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The company also has a very strong retail presence. Its drives can be found in a number of consumer electronics products. Savings on Expenses The combined company expects to gain ap...

International Business Machines Corp. said Wednesday it agreed to acquire Micromuse Inc., which makes software that manages video and voice traffic on computer networks, for about $865 million in cash. Under the definitive agreement, Armonk-based IBM is paying shareholders $10 for each Micromuse share, almost a 40 percent premium to its closing price of $7.21 on Tuesday. Micromuse shares surged $2.71, or 37.6 percent, to close at $9.92 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock had previously traded in a 52-week range of $3.97 to $8.13. San Francisco-based Micromuse's software is used to monitor and manage network traffic by about 1,800 clients such as Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, E-Trade Financial Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and other corporate and government customers. Consumers ultimately benefit when telecommunications carriers and other companies are able to use Micromuse's software to detect and diagnose problems, said Steve Mills, a senior vice president fo...

Google Inc. is buying a 5 percent stake in Dulles-based America Online for $1 billion as part of a far-reaching business and advertising partnership that will link the two companies in many ways and will greatly enhance AOL's financial prospects, according to people familiar with the agreement. The deal between Google and AOL is a setback for Microsoft Corp., which had sought to replace Google as the search engine on the AOL service and had been in talks with AOL's parent, Time Warner Corp, since January. Google is the leader in search, followed by Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft's MSN Search, which is a distant third. "This is our dream come true," one source familiar with AOL and Time Warner's strategy said. "Our fates are intertwined." AOL is already the largest single source of ad revenue for Google, generating about 10 percent of its ad dollars, according to public filings. AOL's business strategy under its chief executive, Jonathan Miller, is to g...

TOKYO - The walking, childlike robot from Honda Motor Co. can now serve tea, push a mail cart and gallop along at twice its previous pace — the latest in the Japanese automaker's quest to replicate human movement. The 51-inch talk, bubble-headed robot named Asimo has already shown it can jog, walk up stairs, wave, avoid obstacles and carry on simple conversations. But in a demonstration Monday at Honda's Tokyo head office, a new version of the robot showed off new skills its maker hopes will make the robot more handy around the office. Honda illustrated how Asimo might serve as a receptionist of the future. Equipped with a sensor that can read microchips in identification cards, the robot recognized a woman approaching from behind, and turned to greet her by name. It then demonstrated further potential as a host by taking a tray of coffee cups from the woman with its own hands and carrying it to a nearby table where it set the tray down for imaginary guests. It also pushed a fo...

A man who posted false information on an online encyclopedia linking a prominent journalist to the Kennedy assassinations says he was playing a trick on a co-worker. Brian Chase, 38, ended up resigning from his job and apologizing to John Seigenthaler Sr., the former publisher of the Tennessean newspaper and founding editorial director of USA Today. "I knew from the news that Mr. Seigenthaler was looking for who did it, and I did it, so I needed to let him know in particular that it wasn't anyone out to get him, that it was done as a joke that went horribly, horribly wrong," Chase was quoted as saying in Sunday editions of The Tennessean. Chase said he didn't know the free Internet encyclopedia called Wikipedia was used as a serious reference tool. He also said he doesn't support more regulations of the Internet, but he said that he fears "Wikipedia is inviting it by its allowing irresponsible vandals to write anything they want about anybody." Chase sa...