PC World: Office 2007 beats Wii as "most innovative" product

Well atleast the Wii beat the PS3 which landed at number 16.

It should go, Core 2 Duo, the Mac virtualization stuff (they mean bootcamp?), Office 2k7 (more than just menu changes, Blake), and then maybe the Wii (probably some stuff more innovative than the Wii I'm not thinking of).

Good list. Office 2007 is a huge step-up from previous versions, so I don't know about the comments made by the author of this post, but I guess everyone has their own opinions.

"1. Well atleast the Wii beat the PS3 which landed at number 16."


At least the PS3 is on the list... unlike the Xbox 360

Well...the 360 is a product from last year...so it wasn't even eligible for the list...

@ crazy goat:

the 360 was released last year, so it wasn't eligible to be on the list.

ps3tard.

#3: The Xbox 360 isn't a 2007 product. Last year's list didn't give numerical rankings, but the 360 was on it under entertainment.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123942-page,4/article.html

barely changed the menu system from 3.1? has the author of this post even used office since 3.1? the changes made to 2007 were drastic compared to even office 2003, let alone whatever version office was on back then. i thought comments like that only came from sites like macdailynews

socrates: They probably mean Parallels, which is a pretty innovative product in the virtualization market. I forget the name of it, but the newest version has a pretty cool new feature that effectively lets you run Windows apps within OSX (not Windows in a OSX window, just the program by itself).

Sony's innovation is in how much bull they can spew that people will actually believe.

"We would comment that Microsoft merely updated its old menu system used since the 3.1 days for Office 2007, but we won't. Or just did we?"

I would like to comment that Nintendo merely kept it's same old hardware and only updated the control style used since the NES days, but I won't. Or just did I?

Not to crack on Nintendo, but Office 2007 is a huge improvement over previous versions, and when you break it down to the essentials, as this author has, what exactly has the Wii innovated? Innovation is a term that can be described in many ways. Per the dictionary it means "the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new" if you break it down to the essentials that way, then the 360, PS3 and Wii are all innovative. For some reason, the innovations made by Sony and MS get overlooked because Nintendo has somehow duped everyone into believing that "graphics and hardware don't matter" the 360's unified shader model GPU was innovative, in that the 360 is the first consumer device to sport the technology, ATI and nVidia are now following suit and going to the unified shader model in the near future. The PS3 totes the very unique 7-core cell processor and blu-ray, two things that have previously been un-introduced into the gaming world.

For some reason, people sweat Nintendo's nuts and say things like "it's all about the gameplay, graphics don't matter" and "Nintendo has revolutionized gaming with it's new controller" I say horseshit. Sure, it's new and innovative, but it's not "revolutionary" let's not jump to conclusions yet. The 360 and PS3 are deemed "evolutionary" because they supposedly take the same ideas and concepts and improve upon them...but wait a minute...

How is the Wii controller any different? It's the same idea and concept right? Play a video game to have fun but using user-operated control schemes to command the actions that take place on screen. Nintendo has merely taken that same idea and concept and improved upon it in a different way.

I own a Wii, and it's alot of fun, but I am growing tired of it already. The lack of online play in every single game has really crushed the replay value of almost every title I own. Wiisports is fun, but the same old golf course and the boring limited gameplay in games like baseball and tennis gets old after a while. Why is it that I can only bat and pitch? No catching fly-balls? No running to base or stealing bases? My point is, all the hype about the new controller is covering up the fact that beyond that, the Wii has very very very little to offer that is evolutionary at all. The GUI is boring and dull, the whole thing seems like it was thrown together in 30 days, the inability to use the Wiimote/nunchuk to play a game like Mario 64 makes no sense at all, I could go on and on. Nintendo needs to get it's act together, because once the initial vail of deceit that is the Wiimote hype falls...they need something to keep things going.

Is it me, or is Nintendo's new controller just a less accurate analog stick? I'm actually getting less control with this thing than I ever was. Also I'm not "aiming" any different than I was before. It's not like the dot shows up exactly where I'm pointing. I end up just moving the controller relative to what I'm seeing on screen. Which kind of reminds me of an... analog stick.

As a point and click input system, yeah, it's more accurate. As anything else, no, it's worse, and thanks to this "innovation" the number of buttons that I have direct access to while playing goes down. Oh well.

@5 it's amazing you have 5 stars (lots of sucking must be involved, but I shall not delve into your personal life)

Could you help me settle an argument?
I'd like to know the difference between innovative and evolutionary.

Also, I'd like to know if the DS "gimmick" dual-screen setup as worn off and if the initial games were enough to keep most people glued to a DS. I don't know, I kind of thought most of them weren't enough to buy one. So....I didn't for about a year.

To those that "tire" of a system already and are unsure if it's enjoyableness - sell it and quit bitching. The forms are already full of ass fucks like you that use bad grammar and babble shit that irritates everyone.

Back to the point of the article, I'll let you all battle out what should be first. I don't care either way as long as I've something fun to do with my spare time.

-I have no system preference, but watching douches bash any of the systems without THINKING before typing is nauseating and pretty damn irrational-

Office was, is, and always will be pure crap. I own a copy of Office 2000, which predates the absurd bloat of Office XP, and I just don't install it anymore. Anything I would want to do with it, and more, can be done in OpenOffice, which since it's not written in Java anymore, no longer sucks.

Now how one even goes about comparing an office suite with a gaming console, I have no clue.

Disregard my previous post. I suck cocks.

Over the years, I have lost faith in Microsoft. Any version of Office sucks. Yeah, I'll admit, Office 2007 is better than its predecessor but with Office 2003 being such crap to begin with, that's not saying much.

Virtualization with Parallels is really an innovation. So are multi-core processors. So is the Wii. But Office? All I can say is if you like dealing with crap all day (I don't. It tends to stink), then yeah, by all means, Office 2007 should be first in the list.

The Core 2 Duo is not innovative. It's not the first multi-core processor and not the first 64 bit processor. Neither is it the first processor to combine those two things for the desktop. It's a nice processor but nothing special.

Office 2007 is a huge improvement, but its not innovation.

Kudos to poster #15 -- that's honesty. For the Dell XPS, I guess innovative doesn't actually mean anyone will buy one. As for the Logitech NuLooq, I've been using a Griffin Powermate for years. Yes, Parallels is the first decent vitualization product for the Mac, but it is hardly innovative as products like these have existed for years.

Well, the worst part of this discussion is that we haven't really qualified what innovative is in relation to. In particular, is it supposed to be innovative to the mass audience, innovative to oneself, or innovative compared to similiar or prior products?

Office 2007 - For me personally, it's an absolute yawn. I have been using the Office Suite since Windows 3.1 and there's no feature that I couldn't find nor contextual-menu that I need. The document management features are nice, but hardly what I would call innovative. However, the improved interface could be a true blessing to the many users I know who are always asking me how to do something.

The Intel Core Duo processor - While I do understand that there were processors before it that were designed the same way, the innovation is in the fact that Intel has brought the chip to the masses. Multi-threaded CPU's have always been a mixed bag and you don't get the same kind of parallel processing as with a true multi-core so it's innovative in that it is truly preparing us for better multi-tasking on our computers.

As for the Wii - Well I would say it's primary innovation isn't the immersion factor, but the fact that it is incredibly intuitive. The controller IS the talking point and it has enabled many non-gamers to enjoy our hobby that could have never done so with a traditional controller. All of sudden our gaming community is growing by leaps and bounds and I firmly believe only an innovative console could pull that off.

I personally would have put the Wii above the Office and Mac innovations, but that's my *opinion* and mostly based on what I use on a daily basis.

Lastly, all I can say to those of you who disagree with Blake is: "Have you seen Microsoft's feature list for Office 2007?" Their number one feature is the re-vamped UI and several other bullets merely break it out in more detail. Can any of you quantify what ELSE is so different and unique to make it an *innovative* feature? Maybe I'm just missing something.

As much as I hate Nintendo products, I must say this is a bit ridiculous. Then again, they're only PC World and receive so much from Microsoft :)

I'm getting sick of the hype over the Wii. It's not revolutionary, I've been playing motion tracking games in arcades for years (personally I don't care for them)

The Wii is another product in Nintendo's new assault on the average person as opposed to the average gamer. They are marketing their hardware and software at people who didn't already play games, and alienating hardcore gamers in the process. Why do I want a nearly 300 dollar console that is worth about 100 dollars (I'm being generous) more than the Gamecube I already payed for? Why are people so willing to pay 250 dollars FOR A GAMECUBE WITH A SPECIAL CONTROLLER. I've saved my money by getting Zelda:TP for the Gamecube (Same damn game) and I laugh at anyone who payed 250 bucks to be able to (sorta) swing the remote and have link swing. Woohoo, you'd be better off with 5 50 dollar call girls.

Office? Ew. No. PC World, you lose.

Well, I haven't tried Office 2007 yet but as an owner of a Wii, a MacBook with a Core Duo processor, and Parallels, I can say that I really enjoy all three. What I can say about each:

1. The Wii is about way more than the controller. It's about bringing console video games to the masses. Remember that before the DS became popular, growth in the video game market was slowing in North America, and the market in Japan was already shrinking. The brilliant design of the Wii and the clever marketing from Nintendo has already resulted in skyrocketing demand. And in the eyes of the public, Nintendo has gone from "going the way of Sega" to potential #1 system for this generation.

2. The Intel Core Duo processor rocks my MacBook, but this is not just a feat of Intel, it's also a feat of Apple. The Core Duo is a completely different animal than the PowerPC, yet Apple has managed to port their entire OS over, and do it seamlessly. The 'Rosetta' emulation software for PowerPC programs is completely invisible, and Intel-native software runs at cheek-sucking speed.

3. Parallels is not just another emulation software, it lets you run Windows at the same time as Mac OS X yet still run it at full speed. It works amazingly well, but this is more an innovation of Intel than anything else. The Core Duo processor is what makes this "virtualization" possible. My only complaints are that 1) you need TONS of RAM, I have 1.5GB and I still think I need more, and 2) you don't have direct access to hardware so some hardware devices don't completely work properly. For example, connecting a Blackberry and getting Windows to see it is an iffy situation at best.

So are all three "innovative"? Well that's subjective, but I an say I use all three very often and I'm very happy with them.

"The Wii is another product in Nintendo's new assault on the average person as opposed to the average gamer. They are marketing their hardware and software at people who didn't already play games, and alienating hardcore gamers in the process. Why do I want a nearly 300 dollar console that is worth about 100 dollars (I'm being generous) more than the Gamecube I already payed for?"

I'm going to say this right now, and I'm going to get slammed for it.

Hardcore gamers don't drive the industry.

Hardcore gamers early adopt, hardcore gamers buy more per system...but the average gamer, the average person whose dollar the companies are fighting for rather than expecting, doesn't have an HDTV, doesn't know what the Japanese name of the NES was, would never even think of coming to a site like Joystiq.

There's a reason that systems sell more as they hit mass-market pricing, and it's not because hardcore gamers are just value shoppers. It's because videogames are a mass market commodity, and just the same way most iPod users have no clue about DRM rules and regulations, most people just want to have (or give) a reasonably cheap system with reasonably cheap games.

Why isn't the 360 selling better? Take a look at their list of games - if you aren't playing a game about a soldier in a blighted wasteland shooting Nazis and/or aliens, you're playing a racing game, a port, or a sports game. We all bemoan the proliferation of licensed crap, but that balance of "safe" titles with other titles helps bring in the more casual gamer that drives sales.

And what's weird is that the only "hardcore gamers" I see alienated by the Wii are the ones who care more about making sure their shiny, expensive TV has something shiny and expensive to play on it. In my experience (and the experience of many, many others), the Wii succeeds because it lacks the intimidation factor of most "hardcore" choices. You don't have ten buttons to keep track of, you don't have a half-hour tutorial to get through, you just pick it up and you play it.

Will the Wii win the system wars? It all depends on how they support the system long-term. But the way they're going to win (and the way that the 360 and PS3 become mass-market heirs) is to step off the emphasis of the current era as the HD era and start thinking of it as the accessibility era.

If you don't believe me, try to find a DS.

Can a screw-up still be innovative? Two words: Virtual Boy.

wii sux, end of story. 360 and ps3 are much better, although i do have all 3 :) (lucky me)

Control is absolutely everything in a game. I'm a hardcore PC gamer, and I want a Wii. I haven't used the products that were listed about it, but to me, it doesn't matter that it wasn't #1. It's the most innovative thing to happen to gaming since the mouse. I've never understood how people can play first person shooters on a console, using a joystick. The Wii might actually make it possible. Bottom line, if you can simplify the controls, and end up with MORE control, that's a feat of innovation. Mark my words, the Wii control scheme IS the future.

"Can a screw-up still be innovative?"

One word. Shenmue.

@28, the Wii control scheme is not the future, you cannot beat mouse / keyboard, sorry if that offends all you Wii lovers out there but you'll get over it, you have a nice little console, there you go.

what in the name of holy fuck is wrong with you people? Why are the same TIRED ASSED "ps3 sux for no games" "360 sux because ms blows" "wii is just a gamecube" good call. So you get your kicks by trolling gaming forums and having little internet arguments...

Sammy im looking at you. If you don't get why ppl are buying wii's like mad, then you never fucking will. give it a rest and stop polluting forums

Here's why most people buy the Wii...it's accessible, easy to play, less expensive and fun. If you don't want that, then don't buy it...it's simple.

Another reason: Invite some family or friends over. Get a game of Wii sports going...and you sit back and watch what happens...you may understand then why it's in such demand. And even then, if you still don't want it...your choice.

On the topic of this article, I've never read PC World, but it strikes me odd that a PC magazine would list game consoles on their "most innovative" product list.

"Back to the point of the article, I'll let you all battle out what should be first. I don't care either way as long as I've something fun to do with my spare time."

Shouldn't there be a "got" before "something" and after "I've"?

"The forms are already full of ass fucks like you that use bad grammar and babble shit that irritates everyone."

I believe you mean to say "forums" not "forms". Now, what were you saying about bad grammar?

You want to know why I have five stars? Because instead of wasting my time nit-picking someone else's writing habits, I actually commented on the subject at hand. I'm sorry you don't agree with my point, and it's too bad that you lack the ability to present a valid arguement so you instead attack me personally. If that's how you wish to "argue" then so be it.

The DS is a handheld, you can argue all day long that the Wii will be successful because the DS was as well, but in the end the DS' success means nothing. The Gameboy Advance was extremely successful for nearly 10 years...all the while Nintendo was falling from first last in North American sales slowly with the N64, and then the Gamecube.

I'm not "condemning" the Wii, but I am saying that is way to early to start calling this thing "revolutionary" we haven't even seen if it can grow legs and sell itself beyond it's launch hype. Had you taken the time to read my post and pay attention to it, you would've understood this, but based on your assumption as to where my "stars" came from apparently you were to distracted imagining males performing fellatio.

Enjoy your day.

I think the fact that the PS3 made the list is enough to call this list bullshit, but they made another reason! Office 2007 beat the way by three spots?! Why do I have the feeling MS has something to do with this list? It's Office! MS doesn't make new things, they just slightly update their old shit. Yeah I know Office 2007 is supposed to be so much better and different, but give me a break.

dsub:

If you're growing tired of the Wii already, please don't buy a Ps3. I'm sure with the plethora of stellar titles that you would be playing it for 15 hours a day.

Last year when the Xbox 360 came out, the system undoubtedly had the greatest launch in the history of gaming. With the most diverse launch line-up and the most incredibl....

Wait, what?

So far, I've had more fun with the Wii at launch than I have with any console since the SNES, at least. Maybe ever. I'd say the Wii is far more fun to play than either of the offerings by Sony and MS right now. Just because you're getting tired of it... well... maybe it's because you've played it a lot and need some new games? Honestly, if you were locked in a room for a week, what would you rather have at your disposal? The current Ps3 library or LoZ: TP, Wii Sports, Trauma Center, Madden, and Rayman?

Since it's a PC magazine, I would suspect you'll see PC related items higher rated than non PC related items.

Although Office 2007 is a HUGE step in the office line. Not only are the menu different, but simplied. The file format changed for all office products, and instead if now one common file format (that's huge in itself). There's a lot of other nice features.

Anyway, the readership is more likely to be of the Office crowd than the Wii or PS3 crowd.

@Tim (#12)

I've actually had the opposite experience. Using the Wii remote+nunchuk is incredibly intuitive, more accurate, and more fun than a standard pad, IMO. Because the setup is realtive (you don't point at the screen), all stress from aiming like a Light Gun is gone. This also allows you to aim from any comfortable position. I play Zelda and Madden with the nunchuk on my left knee and the remote on my right, and I can sit comfortable without worrying about losing control.

The number of buttons has gone down, but not really since the D-Pad is used as four separate buttons. That gives the Wii 12 useable buttons plus an analog stick, which is pretty comparable to other standard pads. Plus, you actually get access to MORE control when you figure in the motion aspect.

@30

Think before your post, because the future is neither the keyboard or wiimote. Instead it'll be an entirely different beast.

But for the mean time they both work well enough

How can Office 2007 be "Innovative"? Microsoft works for 3.1 was innovative. It gave people a suite of tools that they previously didn't have. Office 2007 is just a repackaged version with some new bells and whistles. What does it offer that is truly innovative?

RE: PC FPS fans contemplating the Wii...

I used to be a console FPS fan (Goldeneye/Pefect Dark) but have not been able to play console FPS since I started WASDing on PC in 2001. That said, as an example, Call of Duty 3 on the Wii is a CHORE to play, moving the pointer is like playing an FPS mixed with that old "Operation" game. It's like shooting a real gun with it duct-taped to your face. Whereas I had a lot of fun with the "standard" console-control FPS Resistance: Fall of Man on the PS3. Played that all the way through on co-op, but had to force myself to play COD Wii for a few hours just to feel I'd got my money's worth on the rental.

Wii is great for non-gamers, die-hard Sony/MS haters and parties (Wii Sports IS fun in spurts) As a real system... no thanks. News flash - Nintendo is just as big and "evil" of a corporation as MS or Sony, no need to shower them with "underdog love"

Say, I'm posting this from a 2002 model computer. If anyone would like to buy it from me for 2006 prices (if I attach a mercury switch to the mouse) let me know.

What we really need is that Infinium Labs lapboard for 360/PS3.

@40
You are right, nintendo could be considered an evil company. They once owned whore houses all over Jpaan (as well as taxi cabs, but i'm sure they aren't as "evil") At any rate, Nintendo hasn't been the underdog for a while. And the only reason why Nintendo became the underdog was because they asked Sony for too much money (Sony was gonna colloborate with Nintendo to produce a super nintendo add-on cd drive called the "Playstation" but nintendo got too greedy). Therefore, they created their own competitor...out of greed.

as for me. I LOVE nintendo.. I am a fanboy... true most of you could exclaim that I trashed 'em. But i Didn't I just gave you guys the honest truth about the company. Besides, that whore house stuff hasn't happened for at least a 100 years. But I do have the WII and I LOVE IT!!! I cannot get enough of it. And I can speak from personal experience that people who have never played a game before can get totally into it and have fun within seconds. I have seen the same people try to play Halo and just they just gave up in frustration.

I would consider myself a hardcore gamer. I do want an xbox360, but i don't have HD yet, nor the dinero. I am currently on winter break, and I have not stopped with my wii.

but as far as innovative, yes, it has acceleromets involved. The gyroscopes are not a big deal because MS came out with a sidewinder 6 axis controller about 7 years ago... it seemed awesome, came with a motocycle game, but flopped shortly after (i think). But it seems that Nintendo has found a good, comfortable controller that ANYONE can pick up...and that is innovative. Before, game systems were not exactly intuitive. And at first, 3d games seemed clumsy to control (remember Mario 64 and the camera changes). Long story short, the ability for almost anyone to pick up a wiimote and play and have fun is innovation