Briefly: Office 2008 info; 'House' to be pulled from iTunes; more

New Office 2008 for Mac Toolbox

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit on Tuesday began offering the second of what it promises to be "several more exciting Sneak Peeks of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac."

The latest info — available via the Office 2008 Sneak Peek site — focuses on the Office Toolbox, which has been revamped as a "one-stop destination for some of the most useful tools in Office for Mac."

Microsoft has incorporated the original Office for Mac Toolbox and Formatting Palette into a single user interface — a Mac-only feature aimed at providing users with "instant access to the tools they need, including Object Palette, Animation Settings, Citations, and Formula Builder."

Office 2008 for Mac is due for a release in mid-January, about the same time Macworld Expo rolls around. Pricing and package details were disclosed last week.

'House' pulled from iTunes

Meanwhile, it appears that Fox's hit television show "House" will become an unfortunate casualty of NBC's rift with Apple over iTunes pricing.

New episodes of show will not be available on the digital download service, a spokesperson for Apple confirmed to B&C.

Despite airing on Fox, "House" is produced by Universal Media Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal, which is severing its ties with iTunes when its contract expires in December.

HTC claims iPhone-like numbers

Taiwan smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp (HTC) said on Monday it had sold 800,000 units of its own branded HTC Touch phone, launched in Europe and Asia around the same time that Apple's iPhone hit U.S. shelves in June.

"This is better than I expected ... We feel very good about our success," chief executive Peter Chou told Reuters in an interview, adding that the smartphone's popularity was close to that enjoyed by the iPhone.

Chou was speaking as HTC launched a second "touch" device, the Touch Dual, which has a keyboard function as well as the touch screen system used in the first phone. Orange has signed on as the Dual's pan-European partner but the handset can also be used by different operators in individual markets.