Ready for Custom Time? Cool new Gmail feature: "Just click "Set custom time" from the Compose view. Any email you send to the past appears in the proper chronological order in your recipient's inbox. You can opt for it to show up read or unread by selecting the appropriate option." And Bill Gates says Google doesn't understand business needs! Hmm, checking calendar...

MSFT buys a standard. In some very fishy voting, Microsoft's OOXML was approved by the ISO. A number of countries who had previously voted no switched to yes, after some heavy pressure and some rather odd shenanigans. Now there is a call for reform of such ISO procedures as allowing fast-tracking of standards. (ZDNet).

GOOG takes Docs Offline. Huge step forward for Google Docs/Apps: Google Gears now supports Google Docs (text doc only for now; spreadsheets and presentations in the "future"). Users will see an Offline link over the next few weeks. And more: At the Google I/O con, GOOG will show developers how to support Gears in their own apps. Gears could be the engine that drives a whole new class of hybrid apps. (PC Mag)

AAPL monitor made customers see red. But only a few shades of red. Law firm KBK has launched a class action suit against Apple for selling a monitor allegedly advertised as sporting millions of colors (8-bit color) but in fact a 6-bit device. The lawyer takes some "pleasantly cheap shots," says the Register. "Apple is squeezing more profits for itself by using cheap screens and its customers are unwittingly paying the price.
Apple is duping its customers into thinking they're buying 'new and improved' when in fact they're getting stuck with 'new and inferior."