Microsoft has announced that Outlook will be included for the next major release of Office for Mac which will launch in time for the 2010 Holiday season. Outlook is the popular MS Office email/calendar/contacts application that is missing from Office for Mac for years.

Outlook for Mac is being built from the ground up as a Mac OS X application using Cocoa. It will have a new database that delivers a reliable, high performance, and integrated experience with Mac OS X. Users will be able to back-up with Time Machine and search email, calendar and contacts with Spotlight. Additionally, Outlook for Mac and the rest of Office will include Information Rights Management, which helps keep sensitive information for only audiences that you intend. IRM compatibility will make it possible for Mac users to share and receive sensitive information using Microsoft Office tools.

In the same note, Microsoft MacBU announced packaging refresh for Office 2008 for Mac. Coming this September, Office for Mac lineup will reduce from three to two editions to make it easier for customers.

Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student will include the familiar Word 2008 for Mac, Excel 2008 for Mac, PowerPoint 2008 for Mac and Entourage 2008 for Mac. A new Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition will, in addition to the applications in the Home & Student edition, include tools to help manage and grow a business:

• Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition: Improves performance, brings new features including task, note and category syncing and support for the latest version of Exchange Server

• Microsoft Document Connection for Mac: Improves access and browsing to documents on SharePoint Products and Technologies and Microsoft Office Live Workspace

• More than 200 business-related templates and clip art

• Training for beginning to advanced users by lynda.com Inc.

Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition will be available for pre-order on August 18 and on sale beginning September 15.

Microsoft starts to embrace Twitter by integrating Twitter data into Bing search. For starter, Bing will only include tweets from more prominent and prolific Twitter users.

When you enter those famous people and do a Bing search for example “Kara Swisher Twitter” or “Kara Swisher Tweets” or even “@karaswisher”, the result will include the latest tweet from the user, together with a link to more tweets from the user.

We did a trial using the search examples “Kara Swisher Twitter”,“Kara Swisher Tweets” and “@karaswisher” provided in Bing’s blog post, but none returns the above result format. Maybe Bing is fine-tuning this feature at the moment.

And now you can follow Microsoft on Twitter. This Twitter account is run by four members of Microsoft’s corporate communications team. There is no verified account logo on the page but it should be the real thing.

So far there are only 3 tweets, with the first tweet being a Xbox promo: “Anyone can make games now, Kodu is available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace http://bit.ly/3wlWKo #microsoft #xboxlive #kodu”.

Compare this first tweet with the stylish first tweet by Google back in February. Do you see a winner already?

Microsoft will release Windows 7 on Oct 22, ahead of its original schedule and in time for the year end holiday season.

“We feel confident that we will deliver Windows 7 with our partners on Oct. 22,” Bill Veghte, senior vice president for Microsoft’s Windows business, said.

There is no news on pricing, and we do not know if there is any licensing restriction to run Windows 7 on virtual machine. And it is still early for Apple to announce support for Windows 7 on Bootcamp. The wait is almost over for the true upgrade to Windows XP.

Microsoft is spending an estimated $80 million to $100million to convince people to go “binging” instead of “googling” when it comes to search. Microsoft will launch the ad campaign when it unveils its new search engine next week.

Code-named “Kumo”, the search engine will most likely be branded Bing, and is Microsoft’s third attempt at winning the lucrative search marketplace, after the not-so-successful MSN Search and then Live Search. Live Search is the fourth most used search engine, after Google, Baidu and Yahoo!. Microsoft Bing is likely to incorporate the semantic search technology of Powerset which Microsoft acquired last year, after its failed bid for Yahoo! search.

Not much is known about the new search engine except for leaks screenshots in March. From the look of it, we could not see how Bing will be drastically better than Google, which is what Bing needs if it intends to sway away users’ search habits. Playing catch-up is not always easy, the problem for Bing is Google is doing a pretty good job at the moment.

Lately it is hard to get excited by anything from Microsoft. We will see if third time is a charm for Microsoft. Let’s hope Bing brings some cool search breakthrough and spice up the competition. Winning the search marketplace is a daunting task, increasingly we are seeing ‘live-search’ capability (Twitter search) gaining importance in the search landscape, and we doubt Bing is equipped and ready for it. Bing’s challenge is Google and Yahoo, and not forgetting Twitter and Facebook search.

Will spending 100 million greenbacks be enough to convince people Bing is a better verb than Google for search? Good luck Microsoft.

It had to happen, Microsoft has announced plans to open its own Microsoft branded outlets, there is no information on details but David Porter, who used to work for Wal-mart, is enlisted to spearhead this effort.

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner said, “We’re working hard to transform the PC and Microsoft buying experience at retail by improving the articulation and demonstration of the Microsoft innovation and value proposition so that it’s clear, simple and straightforward for consumers everywhere.”

It looks like Microsoft is showing keen interest in Apple’s operations lately. Before the retail store, we have an iPod like Zune. And Microsoft recently announced an App Store like service for its Windows Mobile platform called SkyMarket. And the just announced My Phone syncing service looks similar to MobileMe. And iPhone touch features is coming to Windows Mobile too. And no doubt many Mac users would find Windows 7 somewhat familiar.

But retail store is in a territory that is not familiar to Microsoft. Gateway, Palm and Dell boutique stores have come and go. The success of Apple Store is hard to copy. There is no other tech retail store at the moment that is as successful or even come close. Apple open its first store back in 2001. And today it has 251 retail stores with nearly 16,000 employees. 41 of its stores is outside of the US. It is interesting to see if Microsoft could pull it off, especially during this difficult times.

Microsoft has confirmed that there will be six SKUs for the Windows 7 OS. This follows long standing Microsoft tradition of having multiple version of its Windows OS, a practice widely-criticized and mocked for bringing confusion to the marketplace.

• Starter: Available to OEMs on new PCs. Missing Aero UI. Can run 3 applications concurrently.
• Home Basic: For ‘emerging markets’. Missing Aero UI.
• Home Premium: Available to OEMs and retail. Includes Aero UI, multi-touch capabilities, media features. Can create home network groups.
• Professional: Includes all of Home Premium features. Adds enhanced networking, Mobility Center and Presentation Mode.
• Enterprise: Available only in volume licenses. Includes all of Professional features. Adds Branch Cache, Direct Access and BitLocker.
• Ultimate: The same features as Enterprise, with limited availability to OEMs and retail.

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Microsoft aired the first commercial on Thursday of its new Windows branding campaign, with comedian Jerry Seinfeld chance meeting Bill Gates shopping for leather shoe at ‘Shoe Circus’. There is no words of ‘computer’,'Windows’ or ’software’ in the ad. Did you ‘get’ the new ad? Apparently many didn’t as Microsoft officials were calling reporters to explain it.

Microsoft vice president Bill Veghte who is responsible for the $300 million campaign said that the first ad is meant to restart a conversation with consumers. The campaign aims to tell the story of Windows, the story of “how Windows enables a billion people around the globe to do more with their lives today”, and “to re-ignite consumer excitement about the broader value of Windows”. Subsequent ads in the series will focus more on Windows itself, he said.

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