Love it or hate it Microsoft’s Office suite of applications which include Word, PowerPoint and Excel are pretty much the go-to for most offices these days. Fortunately for the Mac users out there the Redmond Giant, and specifically its Mac Business Unit, have been putting out versions of the suite for the Mac as well that mostly have feature parity with the Windows versions.

With the Windows version of Office already at the 2011 milestone, we can now announce that Office 2011 for the Mac is available and shipping. Like its Windows counterpart, the Intel only Office for Mac has all the usual applications including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

But wait, there’s more. Not since the days of OS 9, the suite also includes Microsoft Outlook, which replaces the Entourage email client. Finally, right?

Office for Mac 2011 pricing breaks down as follows:

Microsoft Office for Home and Student 2011 (single license): $109.99 – $149.99

Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business (single license): $174.99 – $279.99

With the inclusion of Outlook, the Office suite is now a good deal for Mac using companies or individuals in a Windows dominated environment. Kudos to Microsoft for finally doing the right thing here.

Even if you’re a Mac loving die-hard like many of us here at The Flickcast, you still might have occasion to use Microsoft’s Windows software. Maybe you work at an office that is all Windows or perhaps your parents haven’t made the switch and still make you use that old PC of your Uncle’s?

Or, maybe you use a Mac most of the time but need to use one program like Outlook to get to your company’s Exchange email? Whatever your reasons for needing access to Windows as a Mac user, one of the best tools to help you accomplish this task has just gotten better.

This week VMware Fusion, one of the two main (and our current favorite) Windows virtualization applications for the Mac was updated to version 3.0. This upgrade offers significant improvements over the previous versions including the following:

• Support for both 32-bit and 64-bit Snow Leopard kernels.

• Integrated Migration Assistant guides you through migrating from a PC to a virtual machine.

• First virtualization product to support Windows Aero, including Flip 3D and Aero Peek.

• Support for DirectX 9.0EX with OpenGL 1.4 and new WDDM graphics driver.

• Reduced memory usage with Windows Vista, Windows 7 and newly created Windows XP virtual machines.

• Faster disk and graphics performance in Snow Leopard.

• Banish the Start Menu with Always-on Applications Menu on the Mac menu bar.

• Access to Windows taskbar tray items in Unity view in the Mac menu bar.

• Run 3D games and play 1080p video in Unity view.

The upgrade will run you U.S. $39.99 if you already have a previous version of the software. Or, its U.S. $79.99 if you don’t. Plus, you will still need a copy of Windows if you don’t already have one installed. For that, look for an OEM version of the software, like you can find right here.

For those of you who thought this day would never come and you were relegated to using Entourage at your Microsoft Exchange equipped offices, you’re in for a treat because Microsoft, or at least their Macintosh Business Unit, feels your pain and is going to do something about it. What, you may wonder? Well, they’ve announced today that you’ll be able to get a brand new, improved, feature packed version of Outlook for your Mac once the new version of Microsoft Office ships next year.

Can’t believe what your reading? Well, this official Microsoft press release should convince you. Check it out:

REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 13, 2009 — Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) today shared details about the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac, announcing that a new application, Outlook for Mac, will replace Entourage for Mac. MacBU is providing this early information to meet the planning needs of enterprise customers. For current Entourage users, Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition is available today, providing performance and reliability improvements and enabling users to sync Tasks, Notes and Categories.

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