The web swirled this week when it was learned that Microsoft was prepping a version of Office for the iPad.

Say what?

Sure, Office for iPad. Why not? Because Microsoft is light years behind Apple and the iPad’s growth curve is why not.

The Windows maker is scrambling to introduce a new version of Windows, and presumably Office, for PC tablets. Why in God’s little acre would Microsoft create Office for iPad?

Wouldn’t Office be a compelling reason for iPad users to switch to a PC-based tablet running Windows? Of course it would.

Hence, Brian X. Chen’s Microsoft Denies Rumor of Office Software for iPad. Chen quotes a Microsoft spokesperson.

The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment.

Wait a minute. Is that denial? Or, is there a window still open for Office on the iPad?

As Chen notes, why would Microsoft even do that?

…Office, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, has been around for years but remains one of the company’s top drivers of revenue and growth. It would not appear to be beneficial for Microsoft to release an Office app for iPads before releasing Windows 8, its operating system for tablets that is arriving this year. Windows 8 is crucial to Microsoft’s efforts to challenge Apple in the fast-growing market for tablets…

It’s the math.

By the time Microsoft gets Windows-based PC-tablets to the marketplace later this year with volume shipments next year, Apple is likely to already have 100-million iPad customers. That’s a big market for Office.

Either Microsoft is shrewd as a fox, and ready to launch Office for iPad to keep the sheep in the fold, or they’re crazy confident that a Windows-based tablet will eat the iPad for lunch, and Office on a tablet will be the compelling reason for iPad users to switch.

If Microsoft is smart, they’ll move Office to iPad as quickly as possible. Why? The reality is in the numbers. It will take years for Microsoft to catch up to iPad numbers with a Windows-based tablet platform (if they do at all).

In the meantime, having some Office revenue from Apple’s customers would be a good thing for Redmond.

You knew this was coming, right? Except for the name, Mac OS X is on a path to become iOS. Apple introduced OS X Mountain Lion. Yes, it’s another in a long line of OS cats, but just think of this version as iOS for Mac.

If you’re an iPhone or iPad user, these 10 new Mountain Lion functions will look familiar:

#10 – iCloud: More integration with Apple’s wildly successful iCloud (100-million users so far). Documents will sync between Mac and the cloud.

#9 – Messages: Say goodbye to iChat. It’s all about messages, including text messages, all built-in to your Mac. Just like iPhone and iPad.

#8 – Reminders: Keep your simple to-do list synced between all your iDevices.

#7 – Notes: Your note taking just became a serious pastime. Not only does Notes sync between devices, but there’s newfound word processor-like power.

#6 – Notification Center: Goodbye, Growl. Hello drop down and pop up notices.

#5 – Share Sheets: Just like on your iPhone or iPad, a one-click option to email, text, or send information; built-in to the apps.

#4 – Twitter: But no Facebook? Just like iPhone and iPad, Twitter access is built-in to Mountain Lion.

#3 – Game Center: Play games with your friends on your Mac. Or, iPhone, or iPad, or iPod touch. Game Center goes to the Mac.

#2 – AirPlay Mirroring: Another reason to get an Apple TV. Whatever is on your Mac’s screen is auto displayed onto the TV connected to Apple TV.

#1 Gatekeeper: Apple acknowledges malware with a unique way to control which apps can run on your Mac. Mac App Store apps are safe. Certified apps are safe. Everything else is suspect but you control what runs on Mountain Lion and what doesn’t. Goodbye malware.

iOS users outnumber Mac users by a wide margin, so it’s not a surprise that iOS features are regularly rolled back into the Mac. Mountain Lion is available for developers now, but the rest of us will get it later this year.

One more thing. It’s not Mac OS X or Mac OS X Mountain Lion. It’s just plain OS X.

From the Whimsical Street Art of Nomerz, the kind of graffiti you don’t mind. Unless you own the building.

And another…

Priceless.

Here’s another episode of Microsoft Doesn’t Get It. This time, it’s Microsoft’s TellMe vs. Apple’s highly-touted and loved Siri. Eric Savitz in Forbes, interviews Microsoft executive Craig Mundie. Mundie:

TellMe facility’s been in the Windows 7 Phone (sic) for more than a year! I just think that people are infatuated with Apple announcing it… it’s good marketing. At least as a technological capability, you could argue that Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows phones for more than a year. You could take these Windows phones and pick them up and say, ‘Text Eric,’ and it’ll say, ‘What do you want to say?’ and it transcribes it… You can query anything through Bing by just saying the words. I mean, all that’s already there. Completely functional, been there for a year.

So, TellMe is the same thing as Siri and it’s been there for a year. Let’s compare the two side-by-side:

Microsoft’s executives have no shame.

From Seeking Alpha, Stephen Rosenman takes a look at Apple’s relatively small R & D budget compared to Dell, Nokia, HP, Intel and RIM.

In 2006, Apple spent $500 million and in 2007, it spent $800 million, and came up with the iPhone and a host of other products. In 2007, Microsoft spent over $7 billion and, in 2008, came up with what? I’ll let you be the judge which company spent more wisely. This year Apple devoted $2.4 billion to R&D. Imagine what Apple’s got up its sleeve.

So, research and development, as a percentage of Apple’s revenue has been going down, while the overall amount has increased.

And, Apple is now devoting over $2-billion to R & D, three times the amount that brought us the iPhone.

What’s up Apple’s sleeve indeed.

This is a movement I could get behind. David Goldman in CNN Money on Occupy Flash.

“Occupy” movements have taken over Wall Street, London, Chicago and Oakland. Now an “occupy” group is trying to take control of your Web browser.

Not quite. It’s more of a movement to get rid of Adobe’s Flash plug-in forever.

Among the movement’s complaints are that Flash is “buggy,” “crashes a lot,” “requires constant security updates,” and “doesn’t work on most mobile devices.”

From the Occupy Flash manifesto:

Flash Player is dead. Its time has passed. It’s buggy. It crashes a lot. It requires constant security updates. It doesn’t work on most mobile devices. It’s a fossil, left over from the era of closed standards and unilateral corporate control of web technology. Websites that rely on Flash present a completely inconsistent (and often unusable) experience for fast-growing percentage of the users who don’t use a desktop browser. It introduces some scary security and privacy issues by way of Flash cookies.

Flash makes the web less accessible. At this point, it’s holding back the web.

Flash is dying, but not dead. Using Flash only prolongs the life of an ill-mannered, proprietary technology that can be easily replaced by a new and better standard, HTML5.

What’s next? Occupy Windows?

PCWorld gets it right in a 2.5 (out of five) star review:

All eyes are on the Amazon Kindle Fire to provide fresh competition for Apple’s iPad 2, today’s dominant tablet. Not so fast: Beneath the Kindle Fire’s slick veneer and unparalleled shopping integration lies a tablet that fails to impress as either a tablet or as an e-reader.

The bottom line?

The Amazon Kindle Fire makes trade-offs to achieve a $200 price. It’s easy to dismiss some of the compromises and weaknesses of the Kindle Fire as the sacrifices necessary to achieve a price point, but the reality is that the Fire may not meet your expectations if you’re looking for an Apple iPad 2-like tablet.

For those people who go in knowing what they’re getting, and who want an inexpensive tablet that capably–though not spectacularly–handles their Amazon books, music, and video, the Kindle Fire’s limitations may be acceptable. However, the Fire falls far short of providing a full and satisfying tablet experience.

You get what you pay for.