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Bloody typical. As if we haven’t got enough to worry about with terrorism, aids, bird-flu, global warming, meteors, turbulent money markets, the rising price of oil, and a looming recession. Now Fortune is reporting that Microsoft may be eyeing the iPhone as a potential outlet for their software, including Office applications and voice control for Apple’s iPhone.

For a little more than a week, a team of the company’s Silicon Valley software engineers has been examining the iPhone software development kit (SDK for short), a set of tools Apple (AAPL) released this month that let outsiders build software for the iPhone and the iPod touch. Microsoft (MSFT) executives aren’t sure yet whether they’ll find worthwhile opportunities to sell iPhone software – but they seem eager to find out.

“It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone,” Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices and Applications Group, told Fortune on Monday. “To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now.”

I know Microsoft has had a large development team dedicated to Mac for some time, but give us a break.  The guys at Redmond are stalking us. Everywhere we turn, Office is there, watching, waiting. I can’t bring myself to take a shower without hiding the kitchen knives away first. Is Steve Ballmer really Norman Bates in disguise? Coming mother.

photo credit: Brymo

The expectation is that at a special event next Thursday Apple will reveal improvements in the iPhone, including access to corporate email through Exchange and Lotus Notes. Despite its success the lack of enterprise functionality has been seen as a weakness in the groundbreaking cell phone. In addition to email, analysts are predicting improved security, better support of VPNs and possibly a level of CRM support.  Watch the stock rise!! 

So the great Mr Scoble has come clean as to what he saw at Microsoft that made him cry. It was a “World Wide Telescope”. What’s so special about that I ask myself. Well Robert fills us in .. 

But it has one difference between any telescope you’ve ever looked at.You can zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.We picked a point of light inside the big dipper. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Holy shit, it’s two galaxies colliding. It looked like a star. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.Now the magic happened.Curtis Wong said: “let’s switch to a different telescope and see what these two galaxies colliding are spitting out.”He clicked a button and we saw a completely different view of the same colliding galaxies. This time we weren’t looking at visible light, but at something else. I think it might have been infrared, or maybe a look at radiation being kicked out. He had about 10 of the world’s telescopes to look at. I forget all the names, but that detail is in the video coming on Monday.Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Pan over to Mars. What a glorious view. You’ve never seen Mars like that through your $2,000 Celestron Telescope.   

  OK my eyes are welling up a tad. But there’s more …. 

So, why cry over a telescope?Because I just saw the world I live in, er, excuse me, the universe I live in in a new way that I never had imagined before.I cried because I imagined all the kids, like my sons, who will be inspired by what they see. It took me back to the days when John Kennedy wanted us to go to the moon. Hint: there’s a lot more out there to explore.I cried because I realized just how much work, money, and all that went into making these images. I never had access to them before. Certainly not in this way so I could compare them by clicking a button. As a taxpayer who’s helped pay for some of these telescopes it’s the first time I’ve seen the results of my and your, investments in our scientific research.It’s human to look out at the sky and wonder what’s going on out there. This takes us a LOT further into our understanding of just what is.And,, yes, that’s worth crying some inspirational tears. Thank you to Microsoft Research for inspiring me in a way that Microsoft hasn’t inspired me in years.    

I guess you had to be there.

Apparently Yahoo have changed their company severance policy in order to protect employees in the event that a Microsoft takeover bid is successful. They have extended the pay protection for full time employees to between four months to twenty four months of base pay. The benefits take effect if an employee’s contract is terminated without cause by Microsoft — or another acquirer — or if the employee leaves with good reason within two years of a change of ownership.  My first impression is that it is a sensible move that should slow any exodus of key employees and ease the pain of severance should it come. However apparently the twenty four months will be offered to CEO Jerry Yang, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, and certain other executives still employed by the company and named in the SEC proxy filing for Yahoo’s 2007 annual general meeting. That list includes former CFO Susan Decker, now president of the company. If true then they should hang their heads in shame. Shouldn’t the lower paid employees be paid the 24 months and the executives 4 months?

A recent posting by tech blogger Robert Scoble has set the industry alight with wild speculation and rumour. So much so that he has followed up with a retraction - or kind of!

His original post talked about an impending announcement by Microsoft of ’something’ so amazing it literally made him cry. Here’s what he said ..

While watching the demo I realized the way I look at the world was about to change. While listening to Wong I noticed a tear running down my face. It’s been a long while since Microsoft did something that had an emotional impact on me like that.

Scoble could not give any details, citing an embargo until 27th February. He did say that “It’s too inspiring to stay a secret for long.”.

Following the post, TechCrunch got in on the act with a Duncan Riley post speculating in the tradition of a news analyst on a slow day.

So I’m guessing that maybe Microsoft has picked the date as a spoiler to come after the Adobe event. It could be anything, but I’m thinking that it may be Silverlight related, and it might be related to online/ offline applications. Possibly a kick-ass web office package, or new tools to bring online apps offline. Either way it will be something that made Scoble cry, and I want to see the product, and Scoble cry some more.

This was followed by a second TechCrunch post in the style of Miss Marple, digging for clues in the original Scoble post.

In my earlier post on Scoble crying I guessed Silverlight or online Office. It might be something powered by Silverlight, but I’m now changing my predictions. It’s either an amazing online astronomy program, or it’s heavily interface related to I don’t know what. Guesses given where Fey and Curtis work: media management in images, audio and video.

Scoble tried to put the lid back on the mystery with a further post entitled “Misreading Scoble on Microsoft cry”, saying

“…that TechCrunch took my post a little too far in an incorrect direction. It’s my fault for getting everyone worked up. In hindsight, I probably should have kept my mouth shut until I was released from an embargo. “

Slow news day on the web methinks.