AfterTek

The European Commission will be investigating Microsoft’s new plan that will allow its Office software to edit and save files in a rival format. The EU is skeptical on whether or not the ability for Microsoft to support Open Document Formats in Office will give consumers a fair choice.

“The Commission will investigate whether the announced support of Open Document Format in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice,” the commission said in a statement reported by Dow Jones.

We were not at all surprised to see that Microsoft has delayed the release of the new Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP. Microsoft released a statement yesterday stating they were trying to fix certain compatibility issues and would be suspending downloads on a massive scale.

It said in an email that the update, which was released to manufacturing and volume licensing customers a week ago and was supposed to be generally available from yesterday, will not be pumped out to the masses via its Windows Update (WU) website as planned until the company fixes the bug. However, the firm hasn’t pinpointed when XP SP3 will be available, much to the chagrin of Vista-shy customers who have been patiently waiting for the update to land.

Microsoft has decided to discontinue the MSN Music Service that allows consumers to plays songs that they have purchased and downloaded onto their new music devices. “As of August 31st, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers,” Microsoft said in an e-mail that was sent Tuesday to former MSN Music customers.