Microsoft Office 2013 And Office 365

Microsoft Office 2013 And Office 365 On Sale Now!

Redmond-based Microsoft is today launching its Office 2013 and new Office 365 subscriptions, bringing an end to the speculation of exactly when the new Office was going to land. Having taken to Twitter yesterday to tease an event in Bryant Park, NYC occurring today, a banner plastered across the Office website, which read: “Coming January 29th. More time to do the things you want,” left us in no doubt. The big launch is a significant date in the Windows maker’s calendar, especially with the Surface Pro just around the corner, it also spells the beginning of the end of the preview grace period, which will expire 60 days from now.
So, while the clock begins to tick on those free previews copies released last year, Office 2013 and Office 365 will now begin to take their first legitimate steps into the market. More than likely, as the case tends to be, users of the preview will simply ignore and put-off upgrading until the reminder messages begin to pop up. As somebody who has been in that predicament before, there’s only so much spam one can take, and once the messages become more incessant around March, we’ll be able to properly analyze how many users have adopted Office 2013 and Office 365. Office 2013 hit RTM back in October of last year, and was finally available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers later the same month.

Once the sixty or so days have passed, the Preview version will revert to read-only, and those reliant on Microsoft’s productivity suite will have to stump up the cash in order to continue using fully. The Home & Student version, which provides the bare basics, will set you back $139.99, with an additional $100 annual fee slapped on for those requiring Office 365 Home Premium. Anybody purchasing Office 2010 (which costs less than its newer counterpart), will be treated to a free upgrade of Office 2013 or Office 365, provided the purchase is made prior to or on April 30th.

Meanwhile, those on Office for Mac 2011 should see an update today, which will render it compatible with these new subscription services.
Microsoft makes a large chunk of its revenue from sales of Office, and as with the big Windows 8 push towards the close of last year (one which has just begun to bear fruit), the software maker will be hoping to secure a healthy early user base.

Point your browser to Office.com for more details.
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Microsoft Office Coming

Microsoft Office Coming To Linux In 2014, According To Report

Prepare yourself Microsoft software lovers, as it seems that potential changes are afoot over at the Redmond headquarters. It seems that well-placed sources are suggesting that Microsoft is taking a very serious look at introducing a fully functioning and official version of the Office productivity suite in 2014 for the Linux platform. We aren’t suggesting that a release of Office for Linux would instantly make desktop Linux a more appealing proposition to every computer user in the world, but it would certainly act as encouragement for those who have been dicing with the idea of introducing Linux into their lives.
The information about a potential Office release for Linux is coming courtesy of an individual based out of Brussels who has been discussing the plan with companies at the FOSDEM conference. Although, we haven’t heard any official confirmation from the Redmond company themselves, the leaked information suggests that Microsoft executives are taking a "meaningful look" at the pros and cons attached to introducing Office for Linux and will be assessing the situation further based on their findings.

Microsoft hasn’t really shown any prior indication that the Linux operating system was on their official support agenda. Concentration has been mostly paid to updating and re-inventing Office to compliment their own Windows operating system as well as rolling out support for OS X users due to its growing popularity with the desktop market. However, the company’s stance seems to have changed due to their belief that Linux is beginning to show significant signs of growth, bringing with it commercial viability as an OS.
It seems that Microsoft are in a particularly explorative mood at the moment, with the same reports suggesting that users of the Android operating system looking like they could also welcome in an official port of Office in 2014. Android is essentially a Linux-based operating system that has been tweaked and created for primary use on touch-screen devices, meaning that a port to both full Linux desktops and the Android OS would be part of the same process for Microsoft.

As always, we will wait patiently to see if Microsoft makes any kind of official announcement about these rumors, but it’s highly likely that the any port of Office to Linux would depend entirely on whether they believe it would be commercially viable for them to do so.
(via TechCrunch)
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Microsoft Office Mobile

Microsoft Office Mobile For iPhone Released, Supports Word, PowerPoint, Excel Editing

After numerous rumors and intense speculation, Microsoft’s fantastic and extremely popular Office package has managed to find its way onto the iPhone. The package, which landed on Apple’s App Store today, is a mobile optimized companion app that has been built from the ground up to provide access to the loved Office suite of applications directly from an iPhone. This is a fairly notable release by the Redmond company and has been expected for some time, but for some reason has managed to come with minimal fuss and a distinct lack of celebration.
The gratis price-tag associated with the Office Mobile application may get a lot of iPhone users initially excited, but nothing everything is as it seems. The app is indeed free to download, but requires an active Office 365 subscription to be able to use the functionality and features that are built into the mobile optimized product. For those that would consider such a subscription to be able to get those enhanced levels of mobile productivity, the Office 365 package is currently retailing at $99.99 annually. The inclusion of this latest Microsoft release should be enough in some cases to entice a new wave of subscriptions.

As for the product itself, well it offers pretty much everything that you would expect from a mobile Office companion application. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents can be created, viewed and edited with minimal fuss and the powerful features within the app ensures that documents are displayed in their original format regardless of how they were created. The built-n support for charts, animations and various shapes means that the integrity of the document should be maintained regardless of whether it is accessed from a desktop app or this mobile variant.

Cloud based documents are easily accessible through the Office for iPhone offering, meaning that any compatible creation stored in SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro are within reach. The support for complex documents, the aesthetics of the app and the impressive feature set clearly show that Microsoft have gone all out on this one and are dedicated to increasing their Office 365 subscription based by offering this free app as a deal sweetener.

There’s no denying that the app looks like a very polished release, but we should all know by now that there is usually a downside attached to these things. Aside from the fact that the product requires the Office 365 subscription, it is also only available for US based users at the moment. Hopefully by the time it filters through to other countries there will also be an iPad variant available.

So what do you guys think? Is this subscription based Office release for iPhone enough for people to pay for the most popular Office productivity suite on iOS? Or do you think alternatives such as Apple’s own iWork and Quickoffice are more than enough for all the documents and presentation needs? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
(Source: Office Mobile for Office 365 for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store).
Update: Office Mobile for Office 365 is now available in the UK.
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Get 12 Months Of Free Xbox LIVE Gold

Get 12 Months Of Free Xbox LIVE Gold With A New Office 365 Subscription, Limited Time Offer!

Microsoft is well known for throwing out deals to entice users into long-term adoption of its flagship products, so it should come as no surprise to see the Redmond outfit use a free Xbox LIVE subscription as leverage for those signing up to Office 365. The productivity suite has been the subject of heavy promotion of late, and if you were tempted to subscribe to Office 365, you now have twelve more reasons to go ahead and take advantage.
The deal runs from July 18th through September 28th, and offers those purchasing a one-year Office 365 Home Premium subscription or a full four year Office 365 University subscription a free year on Xbox LIVE Gold. It’s a fantastic deal, but smart also from a business point of view for Microsoft, with many consumers likely to then go on and pay for repeat subscriptions of both services in the future.

Unfortunately, the offer doesn’t apply to current subscribers, so if you only recently jumped on the Office 365 bandwagon, you’ll unfortunately have to live with the fact that you missed out on a good deal. Some users who signed up in the past couple of days have reported success in applying the offer, suggesting there is a few days’ cut-off point, so if you have only activated in the last two or three days, it might be worth a shot.

Here’s the complete list of supported regions / countries, as laid down by Microsoft in a handy chart:

Notice anything strange? The United States is missing. It’s strange to see why is that so, considering it’s a huge market with a lot of potential.
The Office 365 subscription, was introduced earlier on this year, and despite a good start in hitting the one million subscriber mark in May, Microsoft has been keen to push things on even further. This move to subscription services is something many of the larger tech companies have been trying to push, and in using Xbox LIVE as further bait, the software maker is essentially setting itself up for a double dose of subscriptions when the time comes to renew both Office 365 and Xbox LIVE.

With strong early sales, the system appears to be working for Microsoft and Office 365, and if the company can increase its following on Xbox LIVE in the process, a 12-month free subscription to Gold is certainly the right way to go about it.
Follow the steps outlined here on Microsoft’s Office page to claim your free Xbox LIVE Gold membership when you sign up.
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Microsoft Office Mobile

Microsoft Office Mobile For Android Released, Download Now!

The mobile community has waited a long time for Microsoft Office to finally begin supporting devices other than the Redmond’s own range, and today, the launch of the famed productivity suite on Android begins. Although there’s not yet any support for Android tablets, the smartphone community on Google’s mobile OS can today enjoy Office on their handsets, provided they’re running Ice Cream Sandwich or higher. Details after the break.
Microsoft has been working for quite a while on broadening its horizons with the popular Office group of applications, and with a rollout for iOS having already begun in the past few months in the form of Office Mobile for iPhone, the Play Store is now seeing its first taster of one of the software maker’s most famed products.

For those wondering, Office for Android smartphones is almost a straight port of Office for iPhone, boasting a very similar interface and set of tools out of the box. To get started, you will, of course, need to activate your Office 365 subscription and from there, you can begin viewing and editing your documents on-the-fly.
Unfortunately, there’s no free, read-only version, so if you do wish to use Office on your Android smartphone, you will need to pony up for the subscription.

Since Office is of infinitely more use on a tablet, at least from the point of view of productivity if not convenience, let’s hope it hits the Play Store sooner rather than later. Same goes for the iPad version.
Editing on the Android version of Office is quite limited at the moment, with most of your formatting non-existent beyond the bare bones. Then again, the purpose of the mobile versions are to help users make quick corrections when they’re away from the computer and besides, future improvements are likely to bring a more recognized experience to the smaller screen.

Office for Android now available over at the Google Play Store for those residing in the United States, and will rollout to other countries in due course.
(Download: Office for Android on the Play Store)
Make sure to check out our Android Apps gallery to explore more apps for your Android device.
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It’s Official: Microsoft Office

It’s Official: Microsoft Office For iPad With Touch Optimized UI Coming Soon

It has taken a fairly long time for Microsoft’s Office suite to reach the mobile scene, and even though the launches for iOS and Android are now official, the Redmond company neglected to bring support for Apple’s iPad right off the bat. Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has assured iPad users that touch support for the larger displays of Apple’s iDevice is forthcoming, adding that work is “in progress,” and that users can still access Office Web Apps using their browser.
Adapting Office to the touch first user interface is something that Microsoft has been working incredibly hard on, and although it would seem that, quite naturally, Windows devices will be among the first to see this support, those on iPad should hopefully not be too far behind.

Like with most of Microsoft’s mobile endeavors of late, the company has been rather lax in bringing Office to the fore, and although the reputation of the famed productivity suite perhaps precedes itself enough to make a solid impression on mobile consumers, it’s fair to say that it will face stiffer competition than if it had arranged its tanks a great deal earlier.
Everything about Microsoft in the mobile market seems delayed and subsequently hasty, and it remains to be seen whether the inevitable purchase of Nokia’s products and services division will wind up paying any tangible dividends. The omens are certainly not great right now, but with Mr. Ballmer having recently announced his retirement and the Windows maker now on the hunt for a new head honcho, perhaps the company’s mobile fortunes will improve.

Although the buck doesn’t necessarily stop with Office, the company’s eventual success or failure in mobile space rests quite significantly upon it, and one cannot help but feel that the sooner Office for iPad is released, the better.
There’s currently no ETA on the release, but we can probably presume that an Office 365 subscription will be a prerequisite, if the iPhone version is anything to go by. We’ll keep you posted as and when we hear more, so stay tuned!
If you’re using Office 365, then be sure to check out Office Mobile for iPhone and Office Mobile for Android.
Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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Office Remote For Windows

Office Remote For Windows Phone Lets You Control Microsoft Office Documents On Your PC

Microsoft seems determined to make the most of its ecosystem and that’s never been more clear than the news that the company has launched the somewhat less than exciting Office Remote app for Windows Phone. If you’ve ever wanted to interact with Microsoft’s Office apps by using your Windows Phone instead of a mouse, then you’re in luck.
Launched and available to download directly from the Windows Phone Store on a device running Microsoft’s mobile operating system, the Office Remote app allows users to control apps such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint using their phone instead of more traditional methods. While not exactly likely to set the pulse racing, there’s no doubt that such a capability could prove hugely useful to those who run presentations from their laptops or even simply run meetings using something like PowerPoint on an external display.

Users of Apple’s Keynote have already been able to do something similar using their iPhones for some time, and Microsoft is right to offer parity using its own software and hardware combinations. Business users will no doubt get plenty of use out of the Office Remote app, though there has yet to be any confirmation whether Microsoft will be bringing the app to platforms other than its own Windows Phone. In a world where the iPhone and select Android phones are beginning to fill the pockets of those in corporate environments, it’s a safe bet that an Office Remote app would be of use to those not packing one of the Windows Phones currently on the market.

Those that want to get their hands on Office Remote can download it from the Windows Phone Store right now, and the best news is that it costs absolutely nothing.

Aside from tying into its own hardware in interesting ways, Windows Phone has not really set the world alight since its inception, even with Nokia throwing its then considerable weight behind it. Now though, with Nokia becoming part of Microsoft and changes afoot in the boardroom in Redmond, we can’t help but think that giving users a way to control Office from within Windows Phone may be too little, too late.

You can download the Office Remote PC app from here, which is a requirement for the whole setup to work.
(Source: Office Remote for Windows Phone on the Windows Phone Store)
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