Technology Blog

On the eve of the biggest sports event of the year, Microsoft has released a 2010 FIFA World Cup theme for Windows 7 which includes 10 amazing high-resolution wallpapers to decorate your desktop with a resolution of up to 1920 × 1200 (HD quality). Theme is based on the latest EA SPORTS’ official 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa game for Windows.

Bring the excitement of the World Cup to your desktop with this Windows 7 theme, featuring stunning graphics from the Electronic Arts 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa game.

I am writing this in Microsoft Word, hardly an unusual way to author a document. But I'm not using Word as you know it—part of the large, complex Microsoft Office suite installed on your computer's hard drive. Instead, I am using a new, streamlined version of Word that for the first time resides on remote servers you reach through the Internet.

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) is disputing Google (NSDQ:GOOG)'s recent suggestion that companies should hold off on upgrading to Office 2010 and instead use their existing versions of Office in conjunction with Google Docs. Google's rationale is that Google Docs actually makes Office 2003 and 2007 better because it can store Microsoft Office documents in the cloud and share them in their original format. Google also plans to add real-time collaboration from within Office documents in the coming months using technology it gained from its March acquisition of DocVerse.
But Alex Payne, director of Microsoft's online product management team, says Google's position that Office 2007 and 2003 can work seamlessly together isn't accurate, in part because Google Docs converts Office files into a different file format for viewing and editing, which strips out fonts, styles, charts, and other page elements.
In fact, Microsoft has made sure that Office 2010 files created with the rich client are "almost identical" when viewed through a Web browser using Office Web Apps, according to Payne. "We strive for high fidelity between the PC, phone and the browser and we are very excited about the new collaboration capabilities this will enable," Payne said in a Tuesday blog post.
Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division and one of the company's foremost cloud proponents, also dismissed Google's claims of Office-Docs interoperability.