When Office 2011 for the Mac ships this holiday season, it will be available as a 32-bit product only, Microsoft officials said in a blog post on June 8.

iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.

Apple Inc has sold 1 million iPads since their April 3 launch, as the company passed that sales milestone faster than many analysts had expected.

Regulators are considering an inquiry into whether Apple Inc violates antitrust law by requiring that its programing tools be used to write applications for the iPad and iPhone, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.

The iPad is not ready for some universities, Dow Jones reports.

George Washington University and Princeton are rejecting the iPad, citing security issues, according to Dow Jones. Cornell University is seeing connectivity issues.

GW says its wireless network’s security features don’t let the iPad, or iPhone or iPod touch connect.

Dow Jones says Princeton blocked 20% of iPads from its network when it realized malfunctions could screw up the school’s computer system.

Maybe there’s something to Israel’s plan to ban to the iPad, after all?

Microblogging sensation Twitter. which has now signed up more than 100 million users, outlined on Wednesday several revenue-generating initiatives, declaring that making money was now a primary goal.

The popular Internet service hopes to snag hundreds of millions more users in coming years by making the service easier, integrating Twitter directly into Web sites and focusing more on customizing the service for mobile devices.

At the company’s first conference for Twitter developers on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer Evan Williams said generating revenue was among the key priorities going forward — a change of tone for a firm that had previously said it focused mainly on improving the user experience.

Microsoft Corp launched two new phones aimed at young people on Monday, marking a fresh assault on the low end of the growing smartphone market, where BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd and Apple Inc now dominate.

The software company’s first foray into designing its own phones comes six months before it rolls out its new Windows software for phones made by handset makers HTC Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and others, which should be a more direct challenge to Apple’s iPhone and Google Inc’s Android phones.

“Kin is an interesting attempt to target the 15 to 25 market,” said Ross Rubin, consumer electronics and wireless industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group.

Success will depend heavily on the pricing of data plans, said Rubin, which is not expected for a few more weeks. Microsoft did not say how much the phones would sell for.

Apple Inc has accepted distribution of Opera Software’s Internet browser for its iPhone after a long review, opening a new and potentially lucrative market so far closely guarded by Apple.

There are numerous versions of Apple’s own browser on App Store, but Norway-based Opera is the first rival to get access to iPhone.

Opera applied on March 23 for its mobile browser to be distributed on iPhone, and it was available for downloading to consumers early Tuesday, three weeks later. Usually the review process takes up to one week, developers say.

Apple’s plunge into the advertising market announced this past week gave Google a big boost in arguing for regulators to approve its acquisition of mobile advertising leader AdMob, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on Sunday.

U.S. antitrust enforcers are apparently concerned the AdMob purchase could hurt applications developers, who often sell their apps for very little and make their money by selling advertising space on them.

But Schmidt, speaking after a speech at the American Society of News Editors, said Apple’s plan to make a foray into the advertising market with iAd, was “evidence of a highly competitive market.”

Apple has made Adobe’s list of potential risks to its business because it won’t use Flash in the iPhone or iPad.

In its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Adobe said (emphasis mine):

We offer our desktop application-based products primarily on Windows and Macintosh platforms. We generally offer our server-based products on the Linux platform as well as the Windows and UNIX platforms. To the extent that there is a slowdown of customer purchases of personal computers on either the Windows or Macintosh platform or in general, to the extent that we have difficulty transitioning product or version releases to new Windows and Macintosh operating systems, or to the extent that significant demand arises for our products or competitive products on other platforms before we choose and are able to offer our products on these platforms our business could be harmed. Additionally, to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed.