Google Apps for Your Domain does not compete with Microsoft Office. Microsoft’s Office market may be $12 billion, but the lion’s share of those billions comes from a relatively small number of large companies. Writely can’t compete with Word, Spreadsheets can’t compete with Excel. They cater to the soccer mom, not the corporate worker. Right now, you need both to do your job. What Google gains from these apps is knowledge about how you use office software and what kind of information you’re sending back and forth. This data goes into its advertising efforts so it can target you better. Everything is in the service of advertising. Google is also firing a shot across the bow of Microsoft Live, which targets the same functionality. Steve Bryant, of eWeek’s Google Watch, offers a roundup of reasons why businesses will and won’t use Google Apps for Your Domain.

When then-open-source developer Jim Hugunin said three years ago he was developing a dynamic open-source language to run on Microsoft’s relatively new .Net platform, folks thought he was crazy. After all, ..Net and open source weren’t supposed to go together. But now, everyone’s doing it, and Hugunin works for Microsoft. Welcome to the world of dynamic programming, where everything from the languages to the players to the partnerships are anything but static. Dynamic languages are flexible languages that enable developers to write code quickly and easily.

ActiveSync 4.2 is the latest sync software release for Windows Mobile powered devices. ActiveSync acts as the gateway between your Windows-based PC and Windows Mobile-based device, enabling the transfer of Outlook information, Office documents, pictures, music, videos and applications to and from your device. Changes in ActiveSync 4.2 help resolve connectivity related issues with Microsoft Outlook, proxies, partnerships, and connectivity.

Bamboo Solutions, a dynamic technology company helping clients deliver portal applications built on Microsoft SharePoint technology, has released two new products for SharePoint–Bulk Import and List Rotator. These new products further enhance the growing and comprehensive suite of Bamboo’s products, designed to assist in the adoption of SharePoint as a tool for collaborative workspaces. Coupled with other Web parts, even greater functionality can be achieved. As with all Bamboo Web Parts, these new products support SharePoint Portal Services 2003, Windows SharePoint Service sites and the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2007.

XemiComputers has released an improvement in Active Desktop Calendar’s connectivity with external data sources. After integration with Outlook the program now offers integration with Google calendars. This new feature is fairly easy to use. All you need is a correct Google calendar’s ICAL address that you will set up as a new data layer in Active Desktop Calendar. Both private and public Google calendars are supported. The program will revisit each calendar’s address on a regular basis (every 60 minute by default) to keep updated with the latest changes.

You have to press "Qallariy" to begin. Pronounced "KAH-lyah-ree," the word replaces "Start" on Microsoft Windows’ familiar taskbar in a new Quechua translation of the program, which gets its Bolivian debut Friday. President Evo Morales, the South American nation’s first Indian leader, has found an ally in the U.S. software giant as he promotes the native tongues of his country’s indigenous majority. Some 2.6 million Bolivians–nearly one third of the country–speak the Incan language, and Morales sees empowering these people as his primary mission. Among the first users of Quechua software will be Indian members of a constituent assembly to rewrite the nation’s constitution.

AOL’s free Internet client software has earned the company a slap on the wrist from StopBadware.org, a consortium set up to combat malicious software. In a report released Monday, the group advises users to steer clear of the software because of its "badware behavior." The report blasts the free version of AOL 9.0 because it "interferes with computer use," and because of the way it meddles with components such as the Internet Explorer browser and the Windows taskbar. The suite is also criticized for engaging in "deceptive installation" and faulted because some components fail to uninstall.

What do you do if Outlook won’t send or receive. One of our readers had this problem and we’ve got a few possible solutions.

Read this OutlookPower article.

After initial courtroom sparring in Symantec’s trade secret lawsuit against Microsoft, the companies are now shaping up for the real fight. A federal judge in Seattle approved an order that lets both parties in the case file documents under seal. They can now fully cooperate in gathering information pertinent to the case, since sensitive details won’t become public record. An actual trial, should it come down to that, is still far away, though. In a court filing last week, both Symantec and Microsoft suggested trial dates in December of next year.

A Florida man who pleaded guilty to copyright charges in connection with multimillion-dollar sales of pirated Autodesk, Adobe Systems and Macromedia software was sentenced Friday to six years in prison. Danny Ferrer, 37, of Lakeland, FL, offered CD copies of the products, packaged with a serial number necessary for activation, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday. He did this through a Web site called BuysUSA.com, from late 2002 until it was shut down by the FBI in October 2005.