MacWorld: Sybase, Microsoft Unveil Apple Wares

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, due the first half of the year, adds a new single view for all messages, files and contacts, according to the company. It also will sport a Word Notebook Layout view, resembling traditional lined notebook paper to ease note-taking.

Three SKUs will be available. The standard edition includes new versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint as well as Entourage and MSN Messenger. Entourage is a personal information manager that lets users manage their contacts, tasks, notes and e-mail accounts, according to Microsoft, Redmond, Wash.

A professional edition adds Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac Version 7 along with Windows XP Professional to ease co-existence with Windows-based machines. A discounted version also will be available for students and teachers.

People who license the current version of Office for the Mac starting Tuesday will get the new release for free when it ships, according to Microsoft.

Sybase, meanwhile, is now offering its Adaptive Server Enterprise database for the Mac OS X Panther operating system. ASE 12.5.1 offers better performance, faster application development and new administration tools, according to the Dublin, Calif.-based company.

The new database starts at $1,495.