Hasta La Gadget!

The once-mythical Office Mobile for iPhone has been available for a while, but what about that rumored Android version? As of today, it’s equally real: Microsoft has launched Office Mobile for Android. Its cloud-focused approach to editing Excel, PowerPoint and Word documents will be familiar to those who’ve tried the iOS release, including SkyDrive storage support. What differences exist are there primarily to accommodate Google’s Holo interface guidelines — as on iOS, there’s no tablet-native interface. The pricing certainly hasn’t changed. While the core app is free, you’ll need an Office 365 subscription to start working.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Source: Google Play, Office News

It hasn’t been hard to get Exchange support on iOS devices, but there’s some for whom third-party apps and web clients just won’t do. Microsoft has them covered today — it just repackaged the Outlook Web App as a pair of native iOS releases. Both OWA for iPad and OWA for iPhone deliver email, calendar and contacts to Office 365 subscribers with access to Exchange Online. The developer is quick to note that this isn’t a recreation of the Windows Phone environment, and there are a few elements borrowed from Outlook’s web version. Still, we see a few reasons to give OWA a try: the native iOS software sends push notifications, takes voice commands, and supports both passcodes as well as remote wipes. Between the new apps and Office for iPhone, it’s clear that iOS users are now welcome in Microsoft’s world.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Via: Office 365 Technology

Source: App Store (1), (2)

Almost five months after its debut, Office 365 is getting 38 new passport stamps. Clippy’s hitting such exotic locales as Fiji, the Bahamas and Barbados, and it’s even picking up new languages along the way. The subscription-based productivity suite now includes support for Vietnamese, Arabic and Malay. What’s more, Redmond is happily accepting five new currencies for payment, too. Brazil, Hong Kong, Mexico, Malaysia and India can all use their native money to pay for the software as a service. Sadly, there’s still no word from Microsoft about accepting Bitcoins.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

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Source: Microsoft Office Blog

It wasn’t a question of whether Microsoft would release Office for iOS, but when. The company just released a free Office Mobile app for the iPhone, and it’s available today in the US, with other regions to follow over the coming days. Before you all go rushing off to the download link, though, there’s something you need to know: an Office 365 subscription is required in order to use the app. That’s a bummer for people who bought a traditional copy of the suite, or who normally use other word processors, but it makes perfect business sense for Microsoft. After all, the company doesn’t want to give folks too many reasons to use iOS, and it also needs to protect the precious revenue stream that is Office sales.

In any event, if you do have a 365 subscription, you’ll be delighted to know that the iOS app does not count toward your limit of five PC / Mac installations. Rather, you get to install the application on up to five iPhones, the same way you can put the full suite on up to five computers. Also, in addition to merely viewing whatever Word, PowerPoint and Excel files you already had stored in SkyDrive, you can also make light edits. Additionally, you can create new documents from your phone, though this only applies to Word and Excel, not PowerPoint (understandably so, we think). Again, the app is available today in the US, and for the iPhone, specifically; for the iPad, Microsoft is steering people toward its Office web apps. As for other platforms, the company won’t comment on whether an Android version is in the works. At any rate, all you iPhone owners with 365 subscriptions can get your download on now. And then you can read on past the break, where we’ve got some screenshots and hands-on impressions at the ready.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Source: iTunes Store, MS Office News blog, MS Office Technical blog

Microsoft has tried more than a few publicity stunts to get us using Office 365, including WiFi hotspots in UK park benches. A magazine with a hotspot, however, is fresh — and might just get us to notice the ads we normally skip. Americans who’ve received a special issue of Forbes have flipped past the articles to discover a fully functional (if stripped down) T-Mobile router tucked into a cardboard insert. Once activated, it dishes out 15 days of free WiFi for up to five devices at once, at up to three hours per charge. Microsoft is naturally hoping that we’ll see the value of always being in the cloud and pony up for an Office 365 subscription, but we’re sure that many will just relish having an access point while they’re reading on the train home — it sure beats settling for a Twitter feed.

[Thanks, Britton]

Filed under: Wireless, Networking, Microsoft

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Source: Slickdeals