Windows 7 Ultimate Office 15 What's Microsoft's n

You will discover reports that a new early build of Microsoft;s Workplace fifteen have escaped the Redmond halls. Far more intriguing than the mere existence of these pre-alpha develop, nevertheless, is another point out of a new application that can turn out to be part of Microsoft;s next-generation Office suite.Despite the truth Microsoft only began shipping Office 14 (a k a, Workplace 2010) a few months in the past, an August twenty Softpedia report (through the Russian web site Wzor) statements there;s a brand new Office fifteen create floating around.Softpedia;s report also includes something near and dear to this Microsoft watcher;s heart: a new codename. “Microsoft Limestone Integration Application” (also known as “Microsoft Lime”) is a new application development element that will be part of Office fifteen, according to information that allegedly is component of the newly leaked create. (Update: A single of my contacts says Lime is just a user-interface utility for Office, and probably not considered a brand new application in and of itself. Update 2: Microsoft blogger Rafael Rivera agrees and shares a bit extra on Lime/Limestone….Nevertheless, it nonetheless sounds like there is a new Workplace 15 app coming. Read on….)Stephen Chapman noted on his Microsoft Kitchen website, back in early June this year, that there were indications Microsoft was planning to add a brand new application to its coming Workplace suite. Chapman connected the dots and discovered a point out of “a major new feature” coming to Office fifteen by way of a LinkedIn profile of a former Microsoft intern. That intern worked around the Excel team.That;s not a whole good deal to go on, but it;s got me thinking Limestone/Lime the new mystery Office 15 application could involve integrating Excel with one more technology. Could it be some kind of business-intelligence-related app? Something to do with charting/data visualization? Hmmm.Robert McLaws, a Microsoft consultant and former Windows blogger, offered a possible (and convincing, in my opinion) guess as to what the new mystery feature might be: “I’d say that the new app is most likely the extension of the co-authoring features of Office Internet Apps into a shared desktop runtime. Think about it… why were Groove’s best features missing from the last release? Likely because they were being re-architected into an Azure-based next-gen real-time collaboration platform.” (McLaws emphasized this is just his own speculation and not based on anything from Microsoft about its Office fifteen plans.)A single last point: According to Softpedia/Wzor,Windows 7 Ultimate, Office fifteen is planned for delivery in early 2014. I;m skeptical of that date; I;d say 2012 or 2013 is a lot more likely, given the Office team;s typcial two- to three-year development/release schedule (and that group;s tendency to under-promise/over-deliver so as to ship “early,” rather than late).Microsoft, unsurprisingly, isn;t commenting on anything related to Office fifteen. “Wave fifteen is currently under development, but we have nothing further to share at this time,” a spokesperson mentioned on August twenty.Any guesses of your own as to what kind of new app Microsoft might add to Office fifteen?