Microsoft said Wednesday that it will test out a version of its Microsoft Works productivity suite with computer manufacturers that would be free and ad-supported.

Works' place in Microsoft's portfolio has been in question as the company focuses more on its Office suite. Additionally, the company is facing increasing pressure from competitors such as Google, who are offering similar Web-based products at no cost.

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Claiming that copyright warnings are "misleading consumers," the Computer & Communications Industry Association - a trade organization whose more prominent members include Microsoft and Google - filed a formal complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission yesterday. Targeted by the complaint were the two premiere sports leagues, two movie producers, and two book publishers.

The group's claim is that everyday users may be intimidated by the tone of these groups' copyright warnings, to such an extent that their rights to use the material they produce, as protected by US law, is infringed. But the CCIA's language rises even higher than that, accusing the subjects of the complaint with "a nationwide pattern of unfair and deceptive trade practices by misrepresenting consumer rights under copyright law."

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Citing a desire to "deliver a high-quality product," Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit said Thursday that Office 2008 for Mac will not be ready before the end of the year as previously planned. Instead, the long-awaited product will reach customers in mid-January 2008.

The last major release of Office for Mac OS X came in 2004, and customers have been clamoring for an update since the 2006 switch to Intel-based Macs, as Office still requires use of the Rosetta emulation layer that slows the software down. For a brief while, there was a question whether Microsoft would even continue development of Office for Mac.

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In a move that was largely expected legally, but could prove more difficult to explain to the media and consumers, Microsoft is asking a court to dismiss a lawsuit that claims an Xbox caught fire and led to the death of an infant. Microsoft says the baby's parents are to blame for abusing the Xbox.

It's not clear what exact "abuse" Microsoft is claiming, although it says the Kline family "knowingly, willingly, intentionally, and voluntarily exposed themselves to said danger and assumed the risk of incident." Microsoft had recalled over 14 million Xbox power cords in February 2005 due to fire risks, and it's not clear if the family participated in that recall. Microsoft is also demanding the Klines pay for the company's legal costs.

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Responding to a swarm of criticism regarding its integration of a prominent button in its Reader and Acrobat software that enables customers to print their .PDF files at a local FedEx Kinko's, Adobe said Thursday it will be removing the option in a software update this October.

Most complaints came from "mom and pop" establishments who do not have a large customer base to begin with and could lose customers due to the convenience factor of the built-in button. Adobe claims it needs some time to remove the feature, which it turns out was an easy decision because the company makes little money from the FedEx deal. A special version of Adobe Reader with the button will be offered from the Kinko's Web site.

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Late today, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts announced that it has formally ratified the 4.0 version of its Enterprise Technical Reference Policy. As a result, Microsoft's Office Open XML format -- recently ratified by the ECMA standards body -- is now considered in equal stature with OASIS' OpenDocument Format, for use by state employees.

The ratification officially codifies Massachusetts' approval last month of the new default format of Microsoft Office 2007, and opens a new chapter in the strange controversy over something as seemingly uninteresting on the surface as storage formats. A public institution's choice of storage formats dictates the applications its workers use to utilize those formats. Massachusetts has not rejected ODF, nor is it considering ODF in some sort of alternate or subservient stance with respect to OOXML.

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The Bluetooth SIG said Wednesday that it had approved a new specification that would allow some devices to pair faster and easier, as well as bringing other enhancements to improve the overall experience. Called Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, it would pave the way for devices that use Near-Field Communication (NFC) and even auto-paring among devices that support it.

Power optimization features are part of the new specification, which in some cases would increase battery life of devices using Bluetooth. In addition, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR includes enhancements to improve security, the SIG said in a statement. "This leap forward in usability further improves the Bluetooth experience and makes the technology easy for anyone to enjoy," Bluetooth SIG executive director Dr. Michael Foley said.

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The US Government said Wednesday that it had executed 32 search warrants in 16 states as part of a crackdown on devices and chips which allow pirated games to be played on gaming consoles.

Government officials say the targets of the raids were company's that produce devices to circumvent copyright protections on Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii, among others. The industry claims these chips cause billions of dollars in lost revenue each year.

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As predicted back in March, Microsoft moved forward today with plans to submit its HD Photo image format to the Joint Photographic Experts Group, for consideration as a formal standard. If adopted, Microsoft suggests the format be dubbed JPEG XR.

Like a "patent pending," just the move to get HD Photo considered will lend the format an extra degree of legitimacy. Besides utilizing a new and demonstrably more efficient compression scheme whose permissibility for use by Microsoft may not come under fire in court, the scheme depends upon device-specific color profiles as a way of ensuring the integrity of the original image.

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With a new owner, it appears relations between DirecTV and TiVo are on the mend. TiVo says a software upgrade is on the way to owners of DirecTV TiVo units.

Under the ownership of News Corp, relations between the two companies soured after DirecTV said it would opt for its own in-house digital video recorder system. However, the DVRs were not well received by customers, and News Corp's exit from DirectTV opened the door for TiVo to make a return.

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A scheduled event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino next Tuesday has some thinking that a significant update to the company's iMac line is imminent.

Members of the press have been invited to an August 7 press conference at 10am Pacific Time. Apple is remaining typically mum about the details, only saying that the announcements are "Mac-related" and that Apple executives will be present.

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Apple released a bevy of patches for the Macintosh operating system, as well as its first patch for the iPhone late Tuesday. Almost fifty separate vulnerabilities have been fixed as a result.

The move may be in response to the upcoming Black Hat Conference, where at least one of the flaws patched -- the one aimed at iPhone -- was to be the subject of discussion. Apple prides itself on its claims that Mac OS is one of the most secure operating systems around.

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Citing a recent Supreme Court decision declaring obvious improvements to existing inventions unworthy of patent, Northern California District Judge William Schwarzer ruled entirely for RealNetworks last Thursday in a patent infringement dispute brought in 2003 by a San Francisco technology licensing company.

Friskit, Inc. claimed to be the first innovator of a system "enabling consumers to conveniently find, personalize, and play streaming media over a network." The company says it maintains an active index of over 9 million songs, and licenses that index to companies that provide playlist services. That index was based on a patent portfolio that at one time appeared to protect its streaming search and playback system.

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It was not a room where a professional broadcaster would have found the slightest bit of comfort. At a meeting of the House Subcommittee on the Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property Tuesday morning, a jovial and outright jocular spirit of bipartisanship prevailed, where both Democrats and Republicans spoke at length of what they characterized as the historically unfair treatment of performance artists by broadcasters who refused to pay for the privilege of playing their works over the radio.

No less than Grammy award-winning folk artist Judy Collins literally sang "Amazing Grace" at one point, changing the words to include, "How sweet the free sound," as a parody of the long-standing exemption in US law for broadcasters having to pay performance royalties.

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A survey in the United Kingdom has shown a 7 percent increase in the number of people downloading music illegally online, while the legal music download market is slowing. In the United States, however, data from earlier this year has indicated otherwise.

According to the 2007 Digital Media Survey, which was published in the UK by Entertainment Media Research and law firm Olswang, unauthorized downloading of music is at its highest level - reversing the slight decline of last year.

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