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Microsoft apps now come with Android devices from 74 companies
If finding Microsoft apps on the Galaxy S6 caught you off-guard, you're in for a real surprise this year. Microsoft has announced that its apps are now bundled with current and future Android devices from 74 companies, including newcomer Acer as well as ASUS, LG, Samsung and Sony. That's a healthy boost from 31 vendors last year. There are bound to be gaps in coverage, but the odds are now fairly high that you'll find the Office suite, OneDrive, Skype and other Redmond-made tools on your brand new smartphone or tablet.
Dropbox adds real-time collaboration for Office Online docs
Following the release of a Windows 10 app for tablets, Dropbox is expanding its Microsoft Office integration. The cloud-based repository allows multiple users to edit a file with Office Online with all of the updates synced in real time. This means you won't have to alert someone when you're making changes to avoid overwriting tweaks from a colleague.
Skype for Android lets you schedule calls, open Office files
Skype is constantly getting new tools to make call-related tasks easier, and today the Android version received two more. First, there's now an option for scheduling calls in the mobile app. Select the contact you want to schedule a call with and select the appropriate item from the drop-down menu. This will allow you to block off time in Outlook or your calendar app of choice.
Microsoft and Harman want to put Office 365 in your car
We get it, driving to work is a period of time where we're not particularly productive. We're usually listening to some Serial episodes or swiping through emails in the passenger seat. But do we really need full access to Office 365 in our vehicles? Apparently so. Harman has teamed up with Microsoft to integrate the productivity suite into its infotainment systems. You won't be polishing off Excel spreadsheets or writing up reports in Word, however. Using "personal assistant software," the experience will be geared towards scheduling and communications -- setting up meetings, responding to emails, joining conference calls and the like.
Getting Christmas right was never this hard for my parents
The most my parents generally had to do for a Christmas present was remember to buy batteries. Okay, maybe I'm underselling their role. One year they got me a bike, and somehow kept it hidden from me until the big day. I would've been five at the time, and it was worth it, I'm sure. I don't actually recall my reaction but it was probably joy interrupted by despair at being told I couldn't ride it indoors. Some 25 years later, and I've spent what seems like a lifetime setting up Christmas presents this year.
Court says violating your work's computer policy isn't a crime
Your employers might shake their fists when you check Facebook at work, but they can't have you sent to prison for it. A US appeals court has ruled that breaking corporate computer policies isn't against the law all by itself -- you have to commit a specific crime to get in trouble. Prosecutors had tried to argue that an NYPD officer was violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by looking up people for non-police purposes (which violates policy), but the court thought this was an overly broad interpretation. If that's illegal, the court says, "millions of ordinary computer users" would also be breaking the law.
Epson wants to put a paper recycling machine in your office
If Seiko Epson has its way, your office paper recycling bin could soon become obsolete. The company's PaperLab, an 8.5-foot-wide device that turns used paper into clean white sheets, is set to go on sale next year. The machine strips paper into fibers before using additives to bind fibers back together, remove colors and calibrate the white appearance for the final result. PaperLab works at a rate of 14 sheets per minute or around 6,720 sheets in an 8-hour workday. In addition to convenience, the PaperLab should also reduce the environmental impact from transporting paper waste and new recycled sheets back and forth. Epson isn't discussing pricing specifics just yet, but expect the requisite investment to be quite substantial.
Skype video and voice chats come to Office and Outlook on the web
You can already have Skype text chats while you're collaborating on Office Online docs or checking mail at Outlook.com. But wouldn't you rather talk to your colleagues and keep your hands free for, you know, work? You're about to get just that: Microsoft says it will bring Skype's video and voice chats to everyone using Office Online and Outlook.com, starting in November. On top of this, it's trotting out a Chrome extension that lets you quickly work with Office and Sway content in the browser, whether it's stored on your PC or in the cloud. All told, you don't have to worry quite so much about leaving Office's native apps behind.
Outlook on iOS and Android gets a facelift from the Sunrise team
Microsoft's Outlook mobile apps got a solid revamp last year, thanks to its acquisition of the email app Acompli. Now, it's ready to integrate the spoils of another mobile acquisition: the calendar app Sunrise. The latest versions of the Outlook apps, launching on iOS today and Android in November, feature several design updates that would be familiar to Sunrise users. The calendar portion of the app now has a daily view that puts all of your activities in an easily scrollable list, and event entries now display their relevant information more clearly. On the email side of things, event invites are highlighted in your inbox, and you can even RSVP to them without opening up the message. For most users, these sorts of changes will be subtle experience upgrades, but it's nice to see Microsoft integrate some of the design elements that made people fans of Sunrise. The new app also makes it clear what Microsoft is trying to do with Outlook on mobile: Bring all of the best design decisions from disparate apps into a single location. (One email app to rule them all, yadda yadda...)
Google lures your workplace away from Office by covering app costs
Google really, really wants your company to jump from Microsoft Office to Docs. So much so, in fact, that it's willing to pay a lot to make sure that happens. It just launched a promo that will cover your firm's Docs costs so long as it's stuck in an enterprise agreement with someone else -- your workplace only starts paying when the old contract runs out. That's no small offer when Docs costs at least $50 per person per year, which could add up to tens of thousands of dollars at an outfit with hundreds of employees.
Microsoft persuades ASUS to install Office on its Android phones
ASUS will install Office apps and other "innovative product solutions" from Microsoft on its Android phones thanks to a new patent licensing deal. The arrangement builds on an existing, private deal over Android phones between the two companies, according to ZDNet. Despite holding most of the patent cards, Microsoft magnanimously said the pact "opens the door to the kind of collaboration between Microsoft and ASUS made possible only through mutual respect and alignment on intellectual property." ASUS joins Samsung, LG, Sony and 20 or so other manufacturers that signed deals with Microsoft to bundle Office apps on Android devices.
Office 2016 arrives with features meant to take on Google (and everyone else)
Office 2016 is out of preview today, and in a sentence, it represents Microsoft's most obvious effort yet to catch up with Google Drive. Though the new release looks generally the same as the last version, it's designed for sharing and collaboration in a way that Office 2013 really wasn't. In particular, Office 2016 introduces real-time co-authoring (a feature already available in the web version of Office), along with the ability to attach OneDrive files to emails in Outlook. In addition to Google, though, the new software takes aim at various other tools businesses might be using, including Slack (for chatting) and Trello (for to-do lists and task management). You might even be able to avoid the browser sometimes, thanks to built-in Bing search results. Microsoft's goal with Office 2016, then, wasn't just to match what Google Docs can do, but to ensure business users in particular barely need to leave the app.
Outlook plays nicely with Office for iOS, PayPal and Uber
Outlook is now a more powerful tool if you get a lot of work done on your phone... or just need a quick ride to the airport. To begin with, the iOS versions of Excel, PowerPoint and Word have received tight integration with Outlook. You can send a document you're working on as an Outlook email attachment, or edit someone else's attachment and return directly to Outlook with a new message ready and waiting. Also, some big, promised third-party Outlook web add-ons have gone live. You can set Uber ride notifications in your calendar, or put Evernote clippings into email. Boomerang will schedule both meetings and messages, while PayPal lets you pay a friend for last night's meal. Tie-ins with IFTTT, Wunderlist and Yelp are still "coming soon," but there's already plenty here to keep you busy.
Skype for Business is coming to your mobile device
Two months after Microsoft launched Skype's Business edition, which integrates into MS Office Calendar and allows for group messaging/video chats/calls for up to 250 people, the video conferencing company announced on Tuesday that a mobile version for both iOS and Android devices is in the works. The mobile app will feature a central dashboard from which the user can search for contacts, check for and RSVP to upcoming meetings and dig through past archived conversations. Additionally, actually contacting people will be easier thanks to larger onscreen buttons and a full-screen video chat option.
Microsoft's document sharing service, Docs, is available to everyone
Sure, you can technically use OneDrive and other cloud services to share your Office files, but wouldn't it be nice if there were a dedicated site for that? Apparently, Microsoft agrees -- it quietly launched the public beta for Docs, a dedicated website (this was previously a Facebook-only service) that simplifies sharing your Office files, PDFs and Sway presentations. Think of it as a parallel to offerings like SlideShare or Scribd, where the focus is more on preserving the formatting of your work than anything else. You can comment on and download documents, but you'll have to turn to other tools to collaborate on that upcoming report. You only need a Microsoft account to give Docs a spin, so it won't hurt to sign up.
Office Mobile apps are now available for Windows 10 tablets
Have you already installed Windows 10 on your trusty slate? Well, Microsoft released its mobile productivity apps for the new shiny new version of the OS, too. Touch-friendly versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are available for download from the Windows Store. The new version of OneNote is available as well, but it's pre-installed on Windows 10. On top of those gesture-friendly interfaces, the apps play nice with OneDrive for easy cloud-based storage and save changes automatically so you don't have to worry about losing any work. Of course, if you want the productivity suite on all of your desktop and mobile devices (especially when Office 2016 arrives in September), you'll need to splurge for an Office 365 subscription.
Google Drive syncs files directly from Windows Office apps
Google already added tools that help Drive play nice with Office files, and now it's offering easy access from inside Microsoft's apps. With a new plug-in, you can open files for Word, Excel and PowerPoint from Drive. When the time comes, you'll be able to save them in Google's cloud-based repository, too. It seems simple enough to use, and it's sure to come in handy for folks who prefer Google's storage option over Microsoft's, but still use Office to get work done. For now, the add-on works for Office on Windows machines, and there isn't any mention of when or if we can expect the same tool to arrive for the productivity suite for Mac.
Office for Mac 2016 exits preview, bridges the gap with Windows
The last time a new version of Office for Mac came out, the year was 2010. Microsoft had recently released the Kin; our favorite e-reader had a QWERTY keyboard; and people were still snickering at some awkwardly named gadget called the iPad. A lot has changed since then: OS X looks a little different; Windows looks a lot different; and believe it or not, people actually want to use Office on that weird iPad thing. Until recently, though, Mac for Office looked the same as it did when it first came out on OS X Snow Leopard. Finally, earlier this year, Microsoft released a preview of Office for Mac 2016, which brings feature parity with the Windows version (Office 2013) and also better matches OS X's current aesthetic. The final version is out today, and you can download it now for free -- with an Office 365 subscription, or if you're a student. What's that, you say? You'd rather use Google Docs or OneDrive? You prefer Pages?! You can have a peek anyway at the screenshot gallery below, and then read on for a summary of what's new.
Dubai building will be entirely 3D printed, right down to the furniture
The uses for 3D printing are seemingly endless. We've seen the tech used by doctors, to build cars and for construction. While parts of a building have been 3D printed before, the United Arab Emirates National Innovation Committee is working to use the method for an entire office building in Dubai. Working with WinSun Global and a few other companies, the committee plans to use a 20-foot tall 3D printer to make everything on-site rather than fabricate the pieces and have them transported for assembly. WinSun Global has already printed a six-story apartment building and a house in China. As you might expect, the structure is small, measuring 2,000 square feet.
Microsoft's Office apps officially launch for (some) Android phones
Right, well that was fairly quick. Microsoft gave us a taste of how its Office apps would look on Android phones in a preview just last month, and now they're ready for public consumption. Word, Powerpoint and Excel are available for your delectation -- for free, no less -- in the Google Play Store right now, just with one big caveat. Those pesky prior limitations are still in effect here, so don't expect to run these things on a phone without at least 1GB of RAM and anything older than Android 4.4 KitKat.
