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By Michael Liedtke, The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - New versions of Microsoft's word processing, spreadsheet and email programs will sport touch-based controls and emphasize Internet storage to reflect an industry-wide shift away from the company's strengths in desktop and laptop computers.

The new offerings appear designed to help Microsoft retain an important source of revenue as more people access documents from mobile devices.

The new Office suite also reflects the fact that people tend to work from multiple computers perhaps a desktop in the office, a laptop at home and a tablet computer on a train and a smartphone at the doctor's office.

Like an upcoming redesign of Microsoft's Windows operating system, the new Office will respond to touch as well as commands delivered on a computer keyboard or mouse.

The addition of touch-based controls will enable Office to extend its franchise into the rapidly growing tablet computer market. Apple dominates that market with the iPad, though Microsoft has plans to compete with its own tablet, called Surface.

The programs will store documents online through Microsoft's SkyDrive service by default, meaning users will have to change settings to store documents on their own computer. The programs will also remember settings, including where you last left off in a document, as you move locations.

The Internet-based services approach is one Google has been promoting with its own suite of similar programs, threatening Microsoft's dominance.

"This is the most ambitious release of Office that we have ever done," CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday in unveiling the new Office in San Francisco.

A preview version of the new Office suite is being made available online at http://office.com/preview. Microsoft Corp. isn't saying when it will go on sale or what the price will be. Those details will come in the fall.

Originally posted here:
Microsoft shows off redesign of Office franchise with touch screens, Internet storage in mind

If news about Word, Excel, and PowerPoint makes you writhe with anticipation, watch this live stream of Microsoft's Office 2013 announcement. Microsoft hosts this broadcast from San Francisco.

Instead of talking tablets, the company is discussing the next edition of its Office suite, Office 2013.

(Here's a photo (left) that PCWorld Senior Editor Melissa J. Perenson shot earlier today at the event site in San Francisco.)

PCWorld is covering the event and providing liveblog commentary as well.

Although the company hasn't made any details of the event public, USA Today reported last week that the new Office will be the topic of conversation, citing industry sources. Microsoft previously said that it would announce details on its productivity suite during the summer, so the timing is right.

The news should be significant, as this new version of Office is the first iteration of the software that must straddle the line between the new Metro-style interface in Windows 8 and the traditional desktop.

From the leaked screenshots we've seen so far, the new Office will be a desktop app with some Metro design flourishes, and a touch mode that will make tablet use easier.

It's unclear whether Microsoft will offer a proper Metro-style app, or a version of Office for other tablets. (The latter is on my wishlist of new Office features.)

Go here to see the original:
Microsoft Office 2013 Press Conference with Steve Ballmer

STEPPING OVER THE LINE Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, known for her outbursts, recently offended advocates and parents of children with Down syndrome with her 'mongoloid' remark during a Senate forum.

She may not be aware of it but Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has disappointed and earned the ire of a certain sector of the society with her recent pronouncement at a Senate forum.

Last week, Defensor-Santiago labeled her political enemies as mongoloids, a long outdated derogatory term for people with Down syndrome. News reports have quoted the solon as delivering this statement: I tell all my enemies who just want to get off me, stop molesting me, you mongoloids!

Advocates and parents of children with Down syndrome took to social networking sites to condemn the feisty senators pronouncement. Describing Santiago as insensitive, uneducated and even racist, members of the Down Syndrome Association of the Philippines, Inc. (DSAPI) are demanding a public apology from the senator.

Ferdy Valdivia, parent of a child with Down syndrome, wrote a note on the Senators fan page to get their message across.

On behalf of the Down syndrome Association of the Philippines, I would like to tell you that your behavior using the mongoloid word to describe the members of Congress is very unbecoming of a statesman like you. First, you have denigrated our children with Down syndrome by referring to them as unintelligent, inefficient, and unproductive. In other words, you have described our children as inutile and no use to society, he said in the note.

Valdivia adds that what the senator had said is the exact opposite of who the children and persons with Down syndrome really are.

This is not the case with our loving, sweet, and full of love children. They have always shown how much they care for us parents, to their siblings, and to other people. In fact, they manifest more their humanity than normal people like us. They all have a heart and they all have a brain that they use to love and to care for others. The children with Down syndrome are very functional and have truly shown other people their talents and intelligence which has become so obvious in the way they act and care, he added.

USE WORDS WISELY

For many years now, advocates and parents of children with Down syndrome all around the world are working hard to stop the use of the term mongoloid to describe their children. Like the term retarded, the term mongoloid is a word advocates are seeking to be banned from usage in media and in society due to its derogatory nature.

More here:
PWD advocates score solon for use of word ‘mongoloid’

The family of a Dorchester pastor is praying for his safe return from captivity in Egypt, after he and an Everett woman and their tour guide were kidnapped while traveling on a religious mission.

Michel Louis, 61, pastor of the Free Pentecostal Church of God, appears to be all right but has diabetes and may require medical attention before long, his son said.

Were all in good spirits because we know the God we serve is in control of the matter, his son, Jean Louis, the churchs youth pastor, said.

He said his father was on an annual mission to Israel with a group of clergy. Jean Louis confirmed the identity of the female captive as Lisa Alphonse of Everett.

Louis family thanked clergy from around the world for their support.

The Egyptian Bedouin who kidnapped Louis and Alphonse and their guide Friday said hell take more hostages of different nationalities if police dont release his uncle from prison.

If my uncle gets 50 years (in prison), they will stay with me for 50 years. If they release him, I will release them, Jirmy Abu-Masuh said of the captives.

But Abu-Masuh, a 32-year-old truck driver from the Tarbeen tribe in the Sinai Peninsula, said the hostages will remain safe.

He said they were treated as guests and given tea, coffee and a traditional lamb dinner reserved for special occasions in Bedouin culture.

I told them nothing will happen to you. You are my guest, he said.

Read the rest here:
Family of pastor kidnapped in Egypt waits for word

Bucks County's voter ID task force has come up with dozens of ideas about ways county officials can get the word out concerning the state's new voter ID law.

They range from simple things like posting information to the county website and social media sites to wacky things like asking Bucks County Commissioner Charley Martin to do a rap video about the new law. (Though the rap video was only a half-serious suggestion.)

They cover every possible means of communication face-to-face conversations, mailers, print media, blogs, social media and videos and touch all age groups.

And most of them shouldn't cost the county a single dollar.

"We're trying to be fiscally responsible," said Neil Samuels, a member of the task force and deputy co-chairman of the Bucks County Democratic Committee.

Task force moderator Richard Coe, who is also the executive director of the Kids Voting program in Bucks County, said county officials didn't know the state would pass the voter ID law and didn't budget money for informing residents about it.

Making the recommendations cost-neutral also makes it easier for the county to implement them.

The committee will present its full list of more than 30 recommendations to the commissioners at their July 25 meeting.

"We dont expect that the county commissioners will be able to do all of these things, but it will give them a list to work from," Coe said.

More than 25,000 voters in Bucks County roughly 6 percent of registered voters do not have a driver's license or state-issued photo ID, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. State officials have said they plan to mail information to each person on the list.

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Voter ID task force recommends ways to get the word out