Just in time for the holiday season, Microsoft's Mac BU (Business Unit) is offering discounts on the various versions of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. The best deals are going to students, who can buy the business edition at 70% off ($119.95).

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation

The rest of us will have to be content with smaller, but still attractive discounts.

Home & Student Edition: $20 off

Business Edition: $50 off

Business Edition Upgrade: $40 off

Microsoft's Mac BU routinely provides special deals during the holiday season. This year's deals may be just the thing to put a copy of Office 2008 for Mac in the hands of a friend or loved one this holiday season.

I'll be updating the Mac Gift Guide to include this nice offer from Microsoft.

You can find details about the offer, and how to redeem the discounts, at Microsoft's Office for Mac Blog site.

I found it funny to read that the Apple tablet has been delayed until summer 2010. Remember, there is no product from Apple called an Apple Tablet, nor has Apple yet made any statement on the likelihood of its existence, or when it might be released if it did indeed exist.

Nevertheless, rumormongers, in this case Digitimes, have decided that the Apple tablet that was supposed to be released in early 2010 will now be delayed until the summer. The reason? A new rumor of course. According to this rumor, Apple plans to use an OLED (Organic LED) display for the device. OLED displays are currently very costly, but not to worry, they say; by next summer, prices will have fallen dramatically and Apple will be able to use one in the Apple tablet.

I'd like to see an Apple Media Tablet (my name for the rumored device) as much as the next person, but don't you think it's getting a bit crazy when a rumored device has a rumored component that, rumor has it, will cost less by next summer, so, rumor has it, the rumored device has been delayed?

The prices of nearly all electronic components fall over time, so there wouldn't be much reason for Apple, or any other manufacturer, to wait on a price drop to introduce a new product. If a company keeps waiting for a price drop it will never introduce anything, because there's almost always another price drop around the corner.

And even if the rumor about the rumored tablet having an OLED screen is on target, that doesn't mean the rumors about the price or the price drop are correct. Right now, the price for bulk purchases of 9- to 10-inch OLED screens is still way above $1000. Does anyone really expect an Apple media tablet to occupy the same price point as a Mac Pro?

I certainly don't. With a price that high, a tablet would need to be paired with a subsidized pricing scheme, perhaps a phone company's data plan. I don't know about you, but a vampire business plan that bleeds the budget every month would kill the whole tablet idea for me.

Remember, though, it's all just rumors.

It's been a few weeks since Snow Leopard shipped, which means it's high time Apple developers got back to work. And now there's a wee bit of evidence that work on OS X 10.7 has actually begun. MacRumors spotted a reference to 10.7 in change notes inserted into the LaunchD framework, an open source module Apple uses to control the boot process of OS X. The change note lists an OS X build number that can be deciphered to read as 10.7.0.47.

Courtesy of Apple

While it's not news that Apple would be working on the next major version of OS X, this is the first evidence that 10.7 is a work in progress.

Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) was mainly a performance and stability tweak, but OS X 10.7 is expected to be a major update, with many new features and capabilities. If you were overseeing the development of OS X 10.7, what features would you like to see? Leave a comment and let us know!

Adobe Labs, that fun-loving group of Adobe developers, has announced the release of Adobe Flash Player 10.1. Available for immediate download, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is available in versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux OSes. A beta version is expected to be available soon for Palm OS.

Flash Player 10.1 has a long list of new features and enhancements to existing features. The ones that caught my eye include improved video playback, support for hardware accelerated h.264 playback, access to additional device hardware, such as microphones, and multi-touch capabilities.

Unfortunately, not all features are available on all platforms. The Mac version, at least in this release, doesn't support hardware acceleration of h.264 video. That's a shame, because one of the main complaints of Mac users is that current versions of Adobe's Flash player are CPU hogs, requiring a pretty potent CPU to play Flash video full-screen without jitter and freezes.

Adobe doesn't explain why the Mac version doesn't support hardware acceleration, but Apple and Adobe have been like two kids fighting in a playground for a while now. It would be nice if these computing titans would realize they have more to lose by feuding than by making peace, once and for all.

A funny thing happened on my Mac today: I noticed printer driver updates available in Apple's Software Update system. What's funny about that? Well, it's the first time I've seen Apple make printer driver updates available via Software Update.

Snow Leopard was supposed to bring third-party updating capabilities to the Mac, starting with printer drivers. Apple said printer driver updates would be available via Software Update the day Snow Leopard was released, but while there have been printer updates, I've never seen them show up in Software Update.

Today, I saw HP Printer Driver Update version 2.3 in Software Update. After a little snooping around, I'm pleased to tell you that the following printer driver updates should be available:

• Brother Printer Drivers version 2.2
• Canon Printer Drivers version 2.2
• HP Printer Drivers version 2.3
• Lexmark Printer Drivers version 2.1

All of the driver updates are for OS X 10.6.x. This should go a long way toward correcting the printing problems many Snow Leopard users have been experiencing.

You can get the printer driver updates via Apple's Software Update service (Apple menu, Software Update), or you can download the drivers directly from the Apple web site.

• Brother driver download
• Cannon driver download
• HP driver download
• Lexmark driver download

If you're still having printer issues after installing the appropriate updates, stop by and let us know.

Apple delivered a one-two punch against Mac clone maker Psystar. Judge William Alsup decided in Apple's favor, returning a summary judgment against Psystar. Judge Alsup agreed with Apple that Psystar violated copyright laws by creating and selling PCs with unauthorized copies of Mac OS X pre-installed. The judge also agreed that Psystar modified the Mac OS X bootloader and OS kernel to allow non-Apple hardware to load and use OS X, thereby violating Apple's right to determine what devices are allowed to run OS X.

The second punch to Psystar was the judge's decision to dismiss its request for summary judgment, which was based on the idea that Apple is abusing copyright laws to create a monopoly on the use of OS X.

Judge Alsup's decision doesn't guarantee that a trial will not go forward, but at this point, Psystar's ability to convince a jury on the remaining issues is a long shot. Which leaves the ball in Apple's court, so to speak. Apple could allow the case to proceed to trial, hoping that an outright victory would not only shut down Psystar but also establish precedent to prevent others from entering the Mac clone market.

I suspect we will hear from both Apple and Psystar this week about how and if the trial will occur.

Keynote Themes FX 4.0 delivers 10 motion-based themes for use with Apple's Keynote.

Taking your presentation to the next level can be a tough assignment when all you have to work with are the themes and backgrounds included with Keynotes. Adding your own themes can help make your presentation stand out from the crowd.

Motion themes provide visually stunning elements that draw the viewer's attention to your message. You can use motion elements to highlight key points of your presentation, then fade back to a still image as you cover sub-topics.

The ten themes provided in this pack are Blue Cubes, Finance, Cinema '60, Velvet Draft, Vacation, Autumn Tune, Ocean Vivacity, Redsmoke, Cells, and Brushstroke. Each theme includes 14 different master layouts; at least one layout style should fit your needs.

Keynote Themes FX 4.0 from Jumsoft is $39.

See other software choices from Tom's Budget Software Picks.

Have a suggestion for applications to be considered for Tom's Budget Software Picks? Stop by and submit your Software Nomination.

Macworld noticed a new browser-based component of iTunes released under the radar by Apple. The new service, called iTunes Preview, doesn't provide a traditional preview; it doesn't let you listen to a sample of a song, or see a movie or video clip. Instead, it allows you to share links to movies, TV shows, podcasts, and other iTunes-based content with individuals who don't have iTunes installed on their computer.

Until now, if you sent someone a link to content in the iTunes Store, their copy of iTunes would open and take them to the same iTunes page that you saw. If they didn't have iTunes on their computer, they would simply see a page suggesting they download and install iTunes.

iTunes Preview will render the page in their browser. They won't be able to listen to music or view a video, but the web page will otherwise be very similar to its counterpart in the iTunes Store. Links to preview or buy are replaced by a link to view in iTunes.

Your iTunes-adverse friends can now enjoy your iTunes browsing with you. And who knows, maybe they'll even be tempted to give iTunes a try.

Keith Ward, About's Guide to Windows, points out that according to a recent interview, one Microsoft executive thinks Windows 7 used many design elements from the Mac.

Of course, Microsoft was soon up in arms over the comments from its own personnel, claiming the individual's comments were uninformed and inaccurate. And that he should stop by HR and pick up his things.

OK, I added that last sentence, but hey, it could happen.

Earlier this year, Google said it expected to have a beta version of its Chrome browser available for the Mac before the end of year. It appears that Chrome may be on track for an early December release.

Nick Baum, product manager for Chrome, recently posted on the Chromium mailing list that the beta launch is set for early December. Nick's note specifically addressed a new browser extension called BrowserActions that provides presentation capabilities within the browser. While BrowserActions seems to be working well for Windows and Linux, the Mac version of this extension may not make the grade for the December beta release.

I think most Mac users are more interested in seeing how well the Chrome browser will run on their Macs than in how well the BrowserActions extension works for cross-platform presentations. So, a bit of a delay for a few niceties is fine in my book, as long as we can try out the Chrome browser itself and see how well it stacks up against other Mac browsers.