Google is very seriously planning to add a version of the Google Voice product to its Apps/Office suite of applications for businesses. Currently, businesses are offered enterprise versions of Google Docs (online Office), Gmail, calendar and other applications. More than 2 million businesses and 20 million people use Google Apps.

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eldavojohn writes “A new initiative is being piloted where ‘green’ patents are given special priority over other patents in the backlogged system. David Kappos (Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO) said, ‘Every day an important green tech innovation is hindered from coming to market is another day we harm our planet and another day lost in creating green businesses and green jobs. Applications in this pilot (more…)

Writing in the ribbonfarm.com blog, Venkatesh Rao uses The Office to explain and illustrate a theory of management he calls the Gervais Principle (after the TV series’s creator). Taking off from Hugh MacLeod’s cartoon laying out a corporate hierarchy in layers of Sociopaths, the Clueless, and Losers, Rao riffs on and updates the Peter Principle, in these terms: “Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote over-performing losers into (more…)

Office Web Apps merges key elements of the Microsoft Office productivity suite into the cloud. Does it have what it takes to fend off Google Docs?

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CWmike writes “Today Microsoft launched a limited beta test of its Office Web Apps, the company’s first public unveiling of its rival for Google’s Web applications. Dubbed a ‘technical preview’ by Microsoft to denote that it’s by invitation only, Office Web Apps will be available on the company’s Windows Live site via a special ‘Documents’ tab. ‘Tens of thousands have been invited to participate in the Technical Preview,’ said a spokeswoman in a reply (more…)

eldavojohn writes “It’s frequent that we hear of a country or city or company switching from Windows to Linux, but it’s rare that we hear of one third of a million employees being told to use Lotus Symphony (IBM’s OO.o variant) over MS Office, and also to use the Open Document Format when saving files. The change has been mandated to take place in the next 10 days. Of course, they are doing this to illustrate that they actually offer a full-fledged (more…)

A Sony Music office in Mexico has been raided after the label refused to hand over the recordings of one of Latin America’s biggest artists, Alejandro Fernández. Police took over 6,000 CDs that Sony refused to return, even though Fernández’ contract with the label had ended.

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Who needs the Bronx Zoo when you have the NY Mets’ off-field and on-field meltdowns. The latest: Mets’ freak VP of Player Dev — #2 guy in front office — strips from waste up & challenges minor league players to fight.

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This summer movie season is filled with more box office potential than perhaps any year previous. So, when the summer 2009 box office has closed, which movies will be at the top? (Here’s a hint: Invest in Transformers.) Here are some educated guesses for the final box office tallies for (what should be) the 20 highest-grossing movies of the summer.

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