It’s rather ironic that while most first time Mac users seek comfort in Microsoft Office for Mac, more so if Office is what they use on a regular basis on their work PC, the Office on Mac experience has largely been the poorer country cousin of the Windows version, one that is a clear generation behind in terms of both look and feel and features. With the highly anticipated Office for Mac 2011 though, Microsoft has in large part closed the gap. Does it dazzle enough to be the productivity suite of choice on a Mac? Let’s find out.

Word 2011: Word 2011 inherits the significantly improved collaboration tools that are commonplace on the Windows version, and it includes support for Microsoft SharePoint and SkyDrive, not to forget simultaneous document editing and in-edit-chats, and much improved user review and edit rights.

If you use the option to save via SkyDrive, you can access the Word Web app, and edit and access your documents via any web browser. Apart from these, you get some stunning document templates and themes to layout your content, and much improved ‘track changes’ integration with Windows versions — essentially if you share and review documents heavily like I do.

Excel 2011: Besides the visual overhaul that the Ribbon interface has brought across the suite, Excel 2011 contains a ton of stock templates to create the data representation you need, and I found this most helpful. Also helpful is an Office 2010 feature that I have loved on Windows — Sparklines. Sparklines let you add a simple line graph next to a single cell, letting you visualise trends in a row of values, say over several months in different years, without necessarily explicitly drawing a chart — perfect for quick visual comparisons. Conditional formatting, the ability to format a cell based on its value is vastly improved as well. Downside? The application runs a little slow with large sheets, which is surprising since the rest of the suite has seen dramatic speed improvements as compared to previous versions.

PowerPoint 2011: For long, Apple’s own Keynote software has bested PowerPoint for Windows with its brilliant transition effects, and for those looking to compare on that single parameter, PowerPoint 2011 still doesn’t meet Keynote’s high standards. That said, it has some neat tricks up its sleeve including a new way to view many slides at one go. Image tweaking and video editing within the app is excellent as well, and I liked the Internet slideshow feature.

Outlook 2011: A new entrant in the suite, Outlook 2011 shares almost no DNA with the email client from previous Office versions, and it’s fully compatible in terms of migrating all of your mail, calendars, contacts, and settings from a Windows version of Outlook. Plus it offers the unified inbox, threaded conversations and the ‘clean up’ feature that are fast becoming everyday must-haves on the Windows version.

In conclusion, Office for Mac 2011 improves significantly on look and feel and performance, though Mac purists may complain that the suite lacks the soul of a Mac app in terms of simplicity and clean design. Folks switching from Windows will do just fine though.

• Rating: 8/10

•Price: Home and Student version: Rs 5,180 (no Outlook), Home and Business: Rs 12,900

• URL: http://bit.ly/e9xRSp' http://bit.ly/e9xRSp

Game play

Fans of the God of War series on the Sony PlayStation thought they had bid their farewell to the mighty Kratos in God of War III recently, but boy, is he back, and how! In God of War: Ghost of Sparta, out exclusively for the PlayStation Portable platform, the game is back in an epic fashion, and that’s not something you say very often about a portable game. Fact is, in spite of the diminutive hardware, you still get the same breathtaking sense of scale and visuals for which the series is known.

In Ghost of Sparta, Kratos’ ultimate goal is to discover the fate of his brother who was forcibly separated from him when they were both still children, and for a change, Kratos comes across more human and less of a god slayer that he was previously portrayed. The story develops slowly, for ever so often your PSP screen is flooded with enemies that Kratos must annihilate before proceeding, and it is in these scenes that it is difficult to locate the pint-sized Kratos. In the end, slicing extras in a variety of stunning locales is exhilarating in itself, and is enough to keep you engrossed for a good while.

• Rating: 8/10

• URL: http://bit.ly/fg5HVe

• Price: Rs 999

Google calling

Google’s been a lot in the news of late, first with the announcement of a new flagship phone that will be out by the time you read this (the Nexus S), then a new Android version (2.3 Gingerbread) and a preview of the next Android build (Honeycomb) on a never-before-seen Motorola tablet, and finally, the debut of its cloud-based laptop platform (Chrome OS). We’ve seen Android on the phone a lot of late, but a tablet ready version is something that can’t come soon enough. Watch this space.

• URL: http://bit.ly/eGZh5r

• Price: To be announced