VentureBeat

Here’s the latest action:

Microsoft releases beta test downloads of Office 2010 — This is basically the first time the public has a chance to play with the much-vaunted web application versions of Office. Due to a bunch of restrictions, I wasn’t able to try the apps out myself, but Harry McCracken at Technologizer took a look and said they were so rough he has to give them “an Incomplete rather than trying to grade them.”

Judge won’t stop Verizon from running anti-AT&T ads — This is part of larger legal battle that AT&T is conducting to block Verizon from running its ads. The mobile carrier asked the court to stop the ads until the matter is settled, and the judge said no.

Microsoft also releases beta version of Silverlight 4 — The software giant launched the last version of its technology for web applications and media in July. Now developers can try out version 4, which includes features like multi-touch, deep zoom, and a 200 percent faster starting time.

Viva Vevo on Dec. 8 — Vevo is the music video site owned by Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Sony’s music label, and Abu Dhabi Media, with video technology from YouTube. Now it has a launch date.

Techmeme makes three new hires — Some folks complained when the news aggregator hired a human editor to augment its algorithmically-generated links last year, but founder Gabe Rivera liked the results enough to hire three more. Now tech bloggers have three more targets for complaints about how they’re being ignored.

iFart developer slams iPhone app approval policy — Of course, complaints about the arbitrary nature of App Store approvals are nothing new, but Joel Comm’s “open appeal to Steve Jobs” distills many of the complaints into a funny 3-minute video (embedded below).

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