Microsoft is billing Thursday's CEO Summit as a coming-out party for Office 12. But Microsoft is still talking in nothing but platitudes about the next major version of Office, declining to offer any kind of real details about the product. (So much for greater company "transparency.") The only new news that the Information Worker unit shared today about the suite is that Beta 1 is due out this fall (a few months later than company officials were projecting last year) and the final product, in the latter half of 2006 (also slightly later than company officials were telling partners last fall).