Microsoft Office for iPad review

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCmNpXQvRK5NM32Q4OQVgOhw0U61OG-2lJ9CkXKoRiRCK3o83P2DmCwNAPO0KxEWTFzmVGh4yMfrGsPoi7tb5biiR0U46QhyOBOFBRNIavXCBchwVL3GMdRZZZR1O4VH9jMlqkpOxCyh0/s1600/office-for-ipad-powerpoint-edit-100252400-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCmNpXQvRK5NM32Q4OQVgOhw0U61OG-2lJ9CkXKoRiRCK3o83P2DmCwNAPO0KxEWTFzmVGh4yMfrGsPoi7tb5biiR0U46QhyOBOFBRNIavXCBchwVL3GMdRZZZR1O4VH9jMlqkpOxCyh0/s1600/office-for-ipad-powerpoint-edit-100252400-large.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Microsoft Office for iPad</span></i></td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Apple announced that its iWork suite would be bundled, free of charge, with new iOS and Mac devices, it seemingly slammed the door on Microsoft’s Office ambitions for the iPad. How could Microsoft bring its pricey Office suite into a world of free (and almost free) apps?</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The answer: Outdo iWork in both form and function. Apple claims that products like its Pages are the most beautiful office software for iPad and other Apple devices. With Office for iPad, Microsoft has stolen that crown.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Microsoft’s Office for iPad is a collection of three apps: Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. (OneNote for the iPad has been available since 2011, and Microsoft's Lync, Skype, and Yammer are also available.) Users can download each, free of charge, from Apple’s iTunes on an iPad running iOS 7.0 or above. And each is free to use to view documents that have been created elsewhere.</span></div> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.75em;">But Office 365 also includes a subscription to OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage solution, a central repository from which one can withdraw and store documents. In a nice twist, you can connect both your personal OneDrive and OneDrive for Business accounts and connect to SharePoint as well. </span>However, to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">create</em> or <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">edit </em>documents, you must subscribe to Office 365: either Office 365 Home Premium ($9.99 per month), the upcoming Office 365 Personal ($6.99 per month), or one of several business options. Each Office 365 subscription includes at least one tablet subscription, which covers Office for iPad. // <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2111900/microsoft-office-for-ipad-review-finally-true-productivity-on-your-tablet.html" target="_blank">PCWorld</a></span></div>

Microsoft Office for iPad review

Microsoft Office for iPad When Apple announced that its iWork suite would be bundled, free of charge, with new iOS and Mac devices, it ...

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Microsoft Surface Pro 2 : Microsoft's office tablet

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4HrwjDYGwPaIXOaFJRlR1hxrfneMZ6bBZRUp0Kp0XzYXbw36UhtXyZkQD5Rlv_7SaAV4tsUctY8H8lpD80v46WXxQ-e7f9QdHsy0YV20ojxk49s-yR7eqcPZp2WYsGuOGoVnuQyx_mFg/s1600/microsoft-surface-pro-2-64gb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4HrwjDYGwPaIXOaFJRlR1hxrfneMZ6bBZRUp0Kp0XzYXbw36UhtXyZkQD5Rlv_7SaAV4tsUctY8H8lpD80v46WXxQ-e7f9QdHsy0YV20ojxk49s-yR7eqcPZp2WYsGuOGoVnuQyx_mFg/s1600/microsoft-surface-pro-2-64gb.jpg" /></span></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Surface Pro 2 is best described as a tablet with the performance of an Ultrabook. The follow-up to the first Pro looks very similar to the original, but the hardware has been overhauled. The Pro 2 runs on a fourth generation Intel Core i5 processor and comes in a number of different versions.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; color: #333333; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Compared to the new iPad Air or the Surface 2, the Surface Pro 2 feels thicker and heavier. The tablet itself weighs 907 grams and measures 1.3 cm in height. In comparison, the Surface 2 measures 0.94 cm and the iPad Air 0.75 cm. The Surface 2 weighs 680 grams and the iPad Air weighs about 470 grams. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; color: #333333; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Pro 2 is really for consumers that want a real PC in tablet form, with the performance of a fast Ultrabook. So while it's bulkier than the products we just mentioned, for actual productivity with more demanding Windows applications, this is the better option. Unlike the Surface 2, the Surface Pro 2 comes with the full version of Windows 8.1 and is compatible with all standard Windows software.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; color: #333333; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 12px; padding: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Source & Image : <a href="http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/4969/microsoft-surface-pro-2-review-microsofts-office-tablet">Hardware.info</a></span></i></div>

Microsoft Surface Pro 2 : Microsoft's office tablet

The Surface Pro 2 is best described as a tablet with the performance of an Ultrabook. The follow-up to the first Pro looks very similar to t...

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Office 365 makes the grade with Canada’s second-largest public school system

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQVz6BLYYE75Ma9vnqv8fjREKg4GXStDpNm2WYOHcmuiMrrigAneB0uYFJUFNB0vVQrF8rTR4eB1E2Z0fVNZNOCB5tB86m53lyxk7cjjTuMpM0MHzDEc8kUKwF5z1vQSx_JfCUgl8S-s1Z/s1600/office+_365.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQVz6BLYYE75Ma9vnqv8fjREKg4GXStDpNm2WYOHcmuiMrrigAneB0uYFJUFNB0vVQrF8rTR4eB1E2Z0fVNZNOCB5tB86m53lyxk7cjjTuMpM0MHzDEc8kUKwF5z1vQSx_JfCUgl8S-s1Z/s1600/office+_365.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Office 365 </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Canada’s second-largest public school board – the <a href="http://peelschools.org/Pages/default.aspx" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Peel District School Board</a> – has deployed <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Microsoft Office 365</a> to more than 150,000 students, administrators and staff members.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The launch provides the district with the capabilities once reserved for the world’s largest corporations and, according to a recent <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/download/presskits/education/docs/idc_101513.pdf" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">IDC study</a>, allows the board to give students the technology needed to gain the third most-valued skill, Microsoft Office proficiency, for the high-growth, high-wage jobs of the future,” according to a press release over on the Microsoft News Center.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The district considered offerings from other companies, but chose Office 365 because it supports multiple operating systems and mobile platforms, thereby supporting the district’s <a href="http://www.peelschools.org/byod" style="cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiative</a>.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Office 365 includes Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, all of which have been instrumental in creating a more productive working environment for the district’s employees, as well as delivering cost-saving benefits.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The district serves approximately 153,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12 at 242 schools in the Peel Region, which includes Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga, Ontario.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><i><a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2013/12/04/office-365-makes-the-grade-with-canada-s-second-largest-public-school-system.aspx"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Source : TechNet</span></a></i></div>

Office 365 makes the grade with Canada’s second-largest public school system

Office 365  On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Canada’s second-largest public school board – the  Peel District School Board  – has depl...

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Microsoft to deliver Office 2013 SP1 in early '14

<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP4jJIf37eHlrI2p-DIkRktbdlC89sofKlewIRQa9xnMPALL03w6T-QoNUaoE72TWtKu8Ctokdsu-3xFqxUKTfCi_1NPngwHDgak2n7J2JRcZJMlgm-dEjKGJr_Px2hjHbdoTKZ01pM04/s1600/cpt.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP4jJIf37eHlrI2p-DIkRktbdlC89sofKlewIRQa9xnMPALL03w6T-QoNUaoE72TWtKu8Ctokdsu-3xFqxUKTfCi_1NPngwHDgak2n7J2JRcZJMlgm-dEjKGJr_Px2hjHbdoTKZ01pM04/s640/cpt.PNG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Microsoft today said it will ship the first service pack for Office 2013 sometime early next year.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Office 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) will launch alongside similar service packs for SharePoint and Exchange, the two most important server-side software products that tie in to the Office environment, said Chris Schneider, a marketing manager on the Office team, in a brief Wednesday <a href="http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2013/11/20/office-2013-service-pack-1-coming-early-next-year.aspx" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">blog</a>.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Right. On. Time,” said Wes Miller, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, in a tweet today.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Miller was referring to the cadence of the last two Office SP1 updates: Microsoft delivered both <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217989/Microsoft_delivers_Office_2010_SP1_upgrade" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">Office 2010 SP1</a> and <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9052300/Microsoft_delivers_Office_2007_SP1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #25a7d7; text-decoration: none;">Office 2007 SP1</a> about 13 months after their respective original editions’ debut.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Microsoft started selling Office 2013 at the end of January 2013. Assuming the Redmond, Wash. company sticks to the same 13-month timetable, it would release SP1 near the end of February 2014.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Traditionally, service packs—whether for Windows, Office or any other product in the Microsoft portfolio—have been little more than collections of past security patches and other non-security bug fixes.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But that’s changed: Microsoft has done away with service packs for Windows, at least, and instead has moved to a faster development and release tempo. That’s best exemplified by October’s Windows 8.1, a major revision of the original Windows 8 that included numerous new features, revamped apps, user interface (UI) changes, and some backpedaling from design decisions that many customers couldn’t swallow.</span></div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-top: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Faster releases?</span></h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Microsoft seems determined to retain service packs for Office, Miller expects that they will be quite different from past examples. “It will be ‘Blue’-like,” Miller said today in an interview, referring to the umbrella label some have stuck to Microsoft’s faster release rhythm. “It will be the same sort of thing [as Windows 8.1], a bit of new features, a bit of updates.”</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Microsoft has made it clear that for Office, and server software such as Exchange and SharePoint, changes and new features are offered first to subscribers of Office 365 and the cloud-based la carte services like Exchange Online. On-premises software, like Office 2013 when sold as a “perpetual” license—paid for once, then used as long as the user wants—presumably receive the same updates and features, although at a later date.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“You’ll have to wait,” said Miller of Office service packs compared to Office 365. “But [service packs] will be more frequent and more regular than in the past.”</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Microsoft has issued Office service packs for the last two editions—Office 2007 and Office 2010—about every 17 months.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still, Microsoft’s practice of issuing service packs for some titles, but ditching them for others, is confusing, Miller acknowledged. “Microsoft needs to clarify things,” he said, noting that Directions has fielded questions from corporate clients perplexed about which products receive service packs and which do not.</span></div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-top: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Service pack warning</span></h2><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s likely that Microsoft will hew to past practice and give customers at least a 30-day warning before shipping Office 2013 SP1. It’s done that to give companies time to prepare for the update, or put in place mechanisms to block the update until they can test it on a subset of their systems.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Microsoft will be busy in 2014 launching additional updates for Office, including touch-enabled versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and probably also a new edition for Apple’s OS X.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-bottom: 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The latter was last refreshed in October 2010; Microsoft typically takes a year to craft a new edition of Office for the Mac after shipping a new one for Windows.</span><br /><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Via: <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2065602/microsoft-to-deliver-office-2013-sp1-in-early-14.html">PCWorld</a></span></i></div>

Microsoft to deliver Office 2013 SP1 in early '14

Microsoft today said it will ship the first service pack for Office 2013 sometime early next year. Office 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) will lau...

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Why is Microsoft's Office for iPad taking so long?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jlZWATCcIkhlbaAm82Rt8zOOeVT1HBAH2LG7FtAtNA1dNvSDdi_PWHxDx8umlQkldFYQQvPWveKyWXCtzdfg1BF0FQWp4WFQOiBG0abC7J9qNX18zK4cgpUiPePmuM36sSP8FKsPLVs/s1600/officeipad-189x121.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jlZWATCcIkhlbaAm82Rt8zOOeVT1HBAH2LG7FtAtNA1dNvSDdi_PWHxDx8umlQkldFYQQvPWveKyWXCtzdfg1BF0FQWp4WFQOiBG0abC7J9qNX18zK4cgpUiPePmuM36sSP8FKsPLVs/s400/officeipad-189x121.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two years ago this month, a report on The Daily claimed Microsoft had built a version of Office for the iPad and was demonstrating it privately. Ever since, folks have been on the hunt for the elusive Office for iPad.</span></div><figure class="alignRight" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; float: right; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 20px; max-width: 220px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;"></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A month ago, Microsoft execs basically confirmed Office for iPad exists, but said it wouldn't be released until after Microsoft delivers its own, touch-first set of core Office apps, which I've been calling "Gemini."</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Along with other Microsoft watchers, I've been wondering whether Microsoft was simply sitting on Office for iPad, delaying it to give its own Surface tablets a leg up. A year ago, Microsoft's ARM-based Surface RT shipped with Office RT bundled for free, and this October, the ARM-based Surface 2 shipped with Office RT plus Outlook RT, bundled for free.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But now that Apple's cut to zero the price of iWork (not the original, mind you, but a less feature-rich version), what's Microsoft waiting for?</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After digging a bit, I've heard from my sources that Microsoft's "delay" in releasing both its own "Gemini" apps, as well as touch-centric versions for the iPad and Android tablets may be about a new and evolving product strategy as much (if not more than) about internal politics.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And no, it's not Microsoft execs telling me this to save face. I haven't been able to get the Softies to talk about Gemini or Office for iPad, in spite of repeated requests. </span></div><h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Revisiting the 'Gemini' waves</span></h3><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As I've blogged before, Microsoft's original "Gemini" plan wasn't <em style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">just</em> about the development of touch-centric versions of Microsoft's core Office apps. Gemini also was about bringing Office to platforms beyond Windows.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gemini, as originally conceived, consisted of a series of waves. I'd heard the Metro-Style/Windows Store versions of the core Office apps -- Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote -- were supposed to be part of Gemini Wave 1, according to the original plan. Microsoft execs, for their part, have said a touch-first/Metro-Style version of PowerPoint that was demonstrated publicly at Build this year was always supposed to debut in 2014.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Office apps weren't initially designed in a way that made them easy to port from Win32 to other operating sytems, as cross-platform support wasn't part of Microsoft's goal for Office from the get-go. They also weren't built for touch devices; they were built to work best in a desktop/mouse/keyboard world. Yes, Microsoft has developed a suite of Office Mobile apps that work on touch-first iPhone, <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-delivers-office-mobile-for-android-phones-7000018797/" style="border: 0px; color: #005399; cursor: pointer; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Android</a> and Windows Phone devices. But these Office Mobile apps don't share the same core as the current desktop Office suite.One of my sources told me that the apps I've been calling Gemini are referred to internally as WinRT apps. This makes sense, given these apps, unlike the current Word, Excel and PowerPoint that run on Microsoft's Surface devices, are not Win32/desktop apps. The WinRT apps are going to be Metro-Style/Windows Store apps. (OneNote already exists as both a desktop app and a Metro-Style app.)</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To get the core Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote apps to work natively on touch platforms, Microsoft is basically having to start almost from scratch. The Office team is having to redo the UI to include an updated ribbon model. They've had to rethink what a touch-first (as opposed to afterthought "touch mode) interaction experience should be. These days, Office apps need to be able to work on devices with screens of all sizes, from phones, to laptops, to desktops, to servers, to Perceptive Pixel displays.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are more new development requirements. These WinRT apps, along with their non-Windows siblings, also need to be designed to take advantage of the cloud, since the new default is to save files to the cloud. And they need to insure that document formatting isn't lost when moving between/across different Windows- and non-Windows environments.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The WinRT apps won't replace entirely the desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, I hear. Desktop versions will remain for the foreseeable future those who want all the Office bells and whistlesm as well as the adjunct Office apps like Publisher, Visio, etc. (I do hear InfoPath is one of those apps that won't be carried forward, although Microsoft officials aren't saying this publicly.) But WinRT apps will become the focal point, and their newly designed UI and core will be the basis for Office on all other Windows and non-Windows platforms, including phones, tablets and the Web.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I do strongly believe there is a version of Office for iPad out there. I've talked to individuals who say they've seen it. But it sounds from my sources like Microsoft's thinking and development strategy may have evolved on the Office front since 2011 when company reps began shopping around and showing off Office on the iPad.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll be interested to see if the Metro-Style WinRT suite of apps that Microsoft is building, and which might debut by late spring/summer 2014, includes the Reader and Remix apps that Microsoft execs supposedly demonstrated at the company meeting in September, alongside the core Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #252525; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Via: <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/why-is-microsofts-office-for-ipad-taking-so-long-7000022754/">ZDNet</a></span></i></div>

Why is Microsoft's Office for iPad taking so long?

Two years ago this month, a report on The Daily claimed Microsoft had built a version of Office for the iPad and was demonstrating it privat...

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Will Google Docs kill off Microsoft Office?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5VfMVnrKJYD0UOKMyDedn3IN7rSkiA5vO87KRzPuogoRwod4wL7tPtvxTr7JUryyaNOJPQWZ4b_KigPydkCOB-PeIK6iuAGhfNk1GcdTXG6Yk4lxMI6WeaezS7gvI4_1lFHe4Fxt3B4Y/s1600/131113104046-google-doc-620xa.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5VfMVnrKJYD0UOKMyDedn3IN7rSkiA5vO87KRzPuogoRwod4wL7tPtvxTr7JUryyaNOJPQWZ4b_KigPydkCOB-PeIK6iuAGhfNk1GcdTXG6Yk4lxMI6WeaezS7gvI4_1lFHe4Fxt3B4Y/s400/131113104046-google-doc-620xa.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-weight: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></h2><h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-weight: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">For years, Microsoft has stockpiled a large amount of cash from sales of its Office productivity software suite.</span></h2><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet over the past year, something peculiar happened. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Microsoft</span><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="inlink_chart" style="background-image: url(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/.element/img/5.0/buttons/assorted_icons.gif); background-position: -200px -160px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px 19px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">MSFT</span>, Fortune 500)</span>has made it easier for consumers to access Office via the cloud and online downloads, regardless of what computer you're using. In the past week, Office even enabled real-time, collaborative document editing for its free offering, Office Web Apps.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When Google Docs first launched in 2006, it was mostly a curiosity. Cloud-based services were not yet a way of life, and support with Microsoft's Office formats was minimal. But Google Docs has been improved upon bit by bit over the past few years and is now an extremely useful and increasingly popular collection of software.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Google Docs is no longer a curiosity. It's a legitimate threat to Microsoft.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Google's productivity tools may lack some of Office's advanced features, but are easier and simpler to use than anything Microsoft offers -- especially when it comes to the cloud-centric features.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Microsoft is still a huge player in this business of course. It claims that Office is installed on more than 1 billion machines. In 2012, Gartner estimated that Office had a 90% market share in the enterprise market.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you focus on the cloud, however, the story changes.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The next decade looks like Google's to lose.</strong> Gartner estimates that in 10 years, there will be 1.2 billion people using productivity suite services ... but more than half of them will be using a cloud-based productivity suite of some sort. Gartner's research also shows Google quickly gobbling up market share in that space. It could be as high as 50%.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Google recently disclosed that there are 120 million accounts using Google Drive (which houses the Docs services), and 5 million businesses and institutions using the Google Apps platform (the latter is not a free service).</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As of September, Microsoft has sold 2 million Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions, which allows the suite to be installed on 5 different devices concurrently. Separately, it says that 60% of Fortune 500 business have purchased enterprise versions of Office 365. It also claims to have 50 million users for its Office Web Apps.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/12/technology/enterprise/iwork-free-microsoft/index.html?iid=EL" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #004276; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span class="inStoryHeading" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 6px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Related: Microsoft is the biggest iPhone 5S loser</span></span></a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But Google's suite is quickly becoming the standard for tech startups, small businesses and newer large companies. Demographics are on Google's side as well. Those who have grown up with the Internet don't really think twice about using something that is free, saves your work in a centrally accessible location, and makes it easy to share and collaborate with others.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Office is slowly losing its status as the software of choice. It's becoming something that people just use when they need specialized formatting ... or when they're dealing with someone who only uses Office.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still, even that is changing. Google's 2012 acquisition of Quickoffice was made to help to bridge the format divide between the two services. And it's even possible to use Google Docs without an Internet connection.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to a Google spokesperson, the goal isn't to match the Office suite feature for feature. While Google still wants to appeal to the vast majority of traditional Office users, the company is more keen on getting to the point where file format is no longer an issue.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Google can afford to give away software for free. Can Microsoft?</strong> Google makes money off its productivity suite by selling web ads. But there is a bigger goal as well. The company is offering services like Google Docs in order to keep users close to its other, more lucrative offerings such as Gmail, Search, Chrome and Maps.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 26px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But Office remains a cash cow for Microsoft. Office sales are about a third of the company's total annual revenue. It is not in a position to simply make Office free. With Office 365, Microsoft is charging $100 a year, which guarantees perpetual updates, and has produced modest, but encouraging rewards to the tune of $1.5 billion a quarter. But it's awfully difficult to beat free.<br /><i>Via: <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/13/technology/enterprise/microsoft-office-google-docs/index.html">CNN</a></i></span></div>

Will Google Docs kill off Microsoft Office?

For years, Microsoft has stockpiled a large amount of cash from sales of its Office productivity software suite. Yet over the past year, som...

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