New and Noteworthy: Details of Office 2007 for Mac OS X: All new UI; It's On: Zune vs. iPod/iTunes; New nano inspected; more

Details of Office 2007 for Mac OS X: All new UI APC reports some preliminary information about the upcoming, Universal release of Office for Mac OS X. "On the surface is a revised interface which borrows ideas from the Office 2007 for Windows 'ribbon' and has already been radically changed due to user feedback. The new versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint will all adopt the native XML file formats of their Windows siblings. [...] the Mac team isn?t concerned that the ability of Intel-based Macs to run Windows, and thus the Windows version of Office, might eat into their market. 'Mac customers would prefer to run a native version of Office on their Mac' says Sheridan Jones, Lead Marketing Manager for the MacBU 'We don't expect and I don't think Apple expects lots of their customers and our customers to be running the Windows version of Office on their Mac." More.

It's On: Zune vs. iPod/iTunes E-Commerce Times paints a pro-Apple picture of the iPod vs. Zune battle. "It is interesting to note that while Apple will miss the fourth quarter with its living room media player, Microsoft's Vista-based Media Center misses this quarter as well and doesn't appear to take Zune into account at all. Frankly, the Apple product line appears to be much closer to what the market actually wants. Finally, Zune has created a problem with Microsoft's other high-profile music effort 'Plays for Sure.' I interviewed one partner who had been set to launch a 'Plays for Sure' offering this week who said that now, thanks to Zune, 'Plays for Sure' support is on indefinite hold." More.

New nano inspected T3 has a tactile report on the new iPod nano second generation. "For a start the scroll wheel feels nicer than the original nano, and it?s all due to a simple indenting of the centre button. It welcomes your thumb, and feels much more thought out than the original. The hold button?s larger too, despite the player being slightly slimmer than its predecessor. It makes flipping the nano?s switch much easier in practice, while keeping the diminutive dimensions we first fell in love with. Then there's those rounded edges -- less harsh than the original nano and helpful in settling the player snugly in hand. The metal's cool to the touch too -- although it still picks up the smudges and smears which dogged the original." More.

Apple, Google to team up for video downloads? CNET speculates that users of Apple's iTV device might be able to get video from Google as well as the iTunes store. "New videos could also be purchased through a link to the iTunes store, and now Google's video service might also be a part of Apple's offerings, according to the report, which quoted Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• iTunes 7.0 (#4): Persistent crashes: Delete .plist files, turn off plug-ins; fix for broken podcasts; selecting libraries; more
• Special Report: Troubleshooting the Mac Pro

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