Updates to Microsoft's low-end personal productivity suite and consumer digital imaging products were released in Aug. 2004, in time for the U.S. back-to-school season. These and other products from the Home Products and Services Division (such as the Encarta encyclopedia and Money personal finance manager) serve as important anchors for Microsoft in the retail channel and provide attractive low-cost add-ons for OEMs to bundle with PCs intended for budget-conscious consumers, including students.

Works 8 Adds Calendaring Features

Microsoft's low-cost productivity suite for consumers, Works, includes a basic word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, and database. Scheduled for release by the end of Aug. 2004, Works 8 includes the following new features and enhancements:

• Up to four users can create color-coded calendars and share this information with one another; support for the Internet Engineering Task Force-standard iCalendar (iCal) format lets users share appointments with applications such as Outlook 2003 or Lotus Domino 6 or with Web sites such as iCalShare
• A new dictionary is available both from within the word processor and as a stand-alone application (accessed through the Works Task Launcher)
• A viewer for PowerPoint presentations is preinstalled (it was previously available as a separate download)
• Users' work is automatically backed up every 10 minutes and can be restored in the event of a system crash.

Works 8 will retail for approximately US$50. Microsoft has not yet announced when or if Works 8 will find its way into the Works Suite, a US$100 product that bundles Works with Encarta, Money, Picture It (low-end digital imaging software), Streets and Trips (trip-planning software), and Word.

For more information on Works, see www.microsoft.com/works.

New Correction Tools for Digital Imaging

Microsoft has updated all three of its products for editing, correcting, and storing digital pictures.

PictureIt Premium 10, the least expensive of the three at about US$55, adds a new library and organizational tools that were previously available only in the higher-priced Digital Image Suite—for example, the ability to assign keywords and rate photos from one to five stars. It also boasts new AutoFix buttons that offer one-click correction for problems with color, contrast, exposure, and levels, as well as a special button to correct pictures from camera phones.

Digital Image Pro 10, which retails for about US$95, is geared toward more serious digital photographers and includes the AutoFix buttons as well as a host of new, more advanced tools to correct images, reduce noise (unwanted pixels), and stitch together photographs into a panoramic view. It also offers a greater selection of templates, filters, and preinstalled images than Picture It, and comes with three years of support, as opposed to Picture It's one year. However, it lacks the organizational features of both its lower- and higher-priced companions.

Digital Image Suite 10, Microsoft's most comprehensive digital imaging product, costs about US$129 and includes all the organizational features of Picture It, all the correction tools of Digital Image Pro, Movie Maker 2.0 for arranging photos into slide shows with music, and tools for archiving photos and burning them to CDs and DVDs. Microsoft will support it for three years.

For more information on Microsoft's digital imaging products, see www.microsoft.com/products/imaging/.