PC Magazine has this review of the Sony Ericsson P800, a PDA/Phone that uses Symbian OS. The Symbian synchronization software works with Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook files, and the email reader includes viewers for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat.

Microsoft is touting partner benefits as a part of its promotional message for the launch of Office System, a new family of products that’s built around its productivity suite. News.com reports that some of the most significant changes in Office involve the adoption of Extensible Markup Language (XML), an increasingly widespread standard for exchanging data between computing systems. XML is expected to allow companies to tie Web services into Office applications and ease connections between Office documents and corporate computing resources.

IBM announced DB2 Content Manager Express, which IBM says will have tighter integration with IBM’s software portfolio, enabling WebSphere Business Integrator Server and Lotus Workplace Web Content Management to leverage business content across applications.

Visto Corporation announced support of the new Windows Mobile software for Smartphones. Visto’s solution, MessageXpress, will allow Windows Mobile-based Smartphone customers to access their corporate email from Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange, or POP3 Internet email including attachments.

David Coursey of ZDNet, UK says in this commentary that the only reason you should upgrade to Office System is Outlook 2003. He says that the best new feature in Outlook the new Outlook junk-mail filter.

Outlook 2003 has launched and the BBC has this article all about it. The article says that the latest version of Outlook 2003 will, Microsoft claims, allow users to send emails that will self-destruct after a set time. The development is designed to improve security – and avoid potentially embarrassing messages coming back to haunt senders.

Bill Gates launched a new version of Microsoft’s Office software package, Office System. Tuesday also marked the release of several products affiliated with Office System, most notably Exchange 2003. Changes in Exchange 2003 include numerous filtering and organizing tools that work in conjunction with Outlook, the email client included in Office 2003, to reduce exposure to junk email and make it easier to find relevant messages.

JP Mobile announced at Gartner ITxpo that JP Mobile’s SureWave Enterprise Server (SureWave) supports the new Handspring Treo 600 series smartphones. Customers can continue to use the device’s familiar applications, without learning new ones, to access their Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino corporate email server.

FranklinCovey and Agilix Labs announced the launch of PlanPlus 2.0 for Microsoft Outlook. PlanPlus operates on a PC, laptop, or Tablet PC, within the familiar environment of Microsoft Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002 (XP), and the new Outlook 2003. PlanPlus also supports electronic walk-around tools such as Palm OS handheld devices and Pocket PC handheld devices through specialized applications and synchronization for tasks and daily notes.

iAnywhere Solutions and Intel Corporation announced plans to further the development of mobilized software for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The companies unveiled a toolkit that will enable software developers to deliver applications for SMB mobile computing and Wi-Fi users. The Wi-Fi Toolkit includes Pylon Anywhere, a solution for extending existing Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange infrastructures to mobile and wireless devices.