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Microsoft Office for Android now available in Google Play Store

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Spreadsheet warriors, your time has come – Microsoft’s Word, Powerpoint, and Excel productivity applications are now available for Android phones. Back in May, Microsoft launched a beta of the suite that anyone could try, and says that through these preview users the company managed to test the apps on over 1,900 different Android phone models in 83 countries.

These apps aren’t for creating documents, however, but rather for accessing and making quick edits to ones you’ve made from your tablet or desktop PC. Here are a few of the highlights from Microsoft’s announcement post:

  • On the go reviews and edits
  • Present spreadsheets from mobile
  • Quick access to my documents from OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box
  • Available in many worldwide app stores 

Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are each available as separate, free apps (extra features for Office 360 users, of course) in the Google Play Store as well as through the apps stores of Tencent, Baidu, Xiaomi, CMCC, and through the Samsung Galaxy Store worldwide.

Microsoft launches its Office Lens document scanner app on Android

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Continuing with Microsoft’s new mission under CEO Satya Nadella to make its productivity software available everywhere that potential customers are, the company officially released its Office Lens document scanner app for Android today to the Google Play Store.

Microsoft ran a public preview of Office Lens for Android from April 2nd up until today through the Google+ communities method, which they say had over 130,000 testers, and Android was the only place where they tested it with users before launch. Here’s how the company describes the functionality of Office Lens in its announcement:
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Microsoft launches Word, Excel, and Powerpoint for Android phones in beta

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Microsoft has this morning launched the smartphone counterpart of its previously tablet-only word processing suite for Android. Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps on the Play Store have now—appropriately—ditched the “for Tablet” part of their name, and beta testers now have access to these apps with smartphone support baked right in…
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Microsoft brings its OneNote scanner to Android with Office Lens preview

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Microsoft is bringing its OneNote scanner app called Office Lens to Android after first launching on Windows Phone a year ago. Office Lens is similar to other on-the-go scanner apps letting you use your Android smartphone camera to capture information from receipts, documents, and other information around you. Office Lens is different, however, because it’s connected directly with OneNote, Microsoft’s cloud-syncing notebook service.


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Dropbox’s Microsoft Office integration arriving in mobile apps today

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Following an announcement earlier this month that Microsoft was adding Dropbox integration for syncing and sharing to the Office mobile apps, Dropbox announced today that the feature is now available in its latest app updates for Android and iOS.

The integration essentially allows users to tap into Dropbox storage directly from within the Office mobile apps, but it will also include the ability to send links to files from Office using Dropbox, open documents from Dropbox in Office, and more. Dropbox has instructions on how to use the new integration with Microsoft’s Office apps on its website.

To get started, make sure your Dropbox app is up to date on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone, then open any Office doc, spreadsheet, or presentation in your Dropbox. Tap the new Edit icon (shown above) to start editing in the latest Office apps. When you’re done, your changes will be saved back to Dropbox automatically.

Earlier this month the Microsoft Office Mobile for Android app was updated with its part of the integration allowing users to “open, edit, and save documents from Dropbox.”

You can get the new features through the latest Dropbox app for Android starting today and the latest version of Microsoft’s Office Mobile for Android app. The integration is also expected to arrive for web users early next year.

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Microsoft adding Dropbox integration including syncing and sharing to Office for Android

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Microsoft and Dropbox announced a new partnership between the two companies today and a commitment to bring integration between Dropbox and Office apps on Android and iOS. Currently Office users rely on local storage for saving files or Microsoft’s own OneDrive service for saving and syncing files, but the newly announced partnership will allow Office users to use the popular Dropbox service as an additional storage and syncing option and introduce new features between the productivity apps and syncing service.
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Microsoft announces OWA for Android coming later this year

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Microsoft made some announcements related to upcoming Office features and the evolution of its email products today and within the blog post announced an upcoming OWA app for Android.

OWA, that’s Microsoft’s Outlook Web App that is already available on Windows Phone and through an iOS app, will arrive later this year as a native Android app. That doesn’t mean that Microsoft won’t continue working directly with Android manufacturers to integrate Exchange support, but the app will give Android users access to the latest OWA features whenever they are ready to roll out.

Microsoft didn’t provide any other details but said that OWA for Android along with other email features announced in the blog post will roll out to Office 365 subscribers later this year. 
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Office Mobile for Android goes free for all users

Screen Shot 2014-03-27 at 3.46.47 PMWhile Microsoft’s biggest news of the day might have been the debut of its Office productivity app suite for iPad, there was also news on the Android side as well.

Microsoft didn’t make dedicated apps for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, but the company did make Office Mobile for Android free for all users. Previously, Office Mobile for Android required an active subscription to Office 365.

Just like Office Mobile for Windows Phone, we are making Office Mobile for iPhone and Android phones free for everyone. With Office Mobile, you have the ability to view and edit your Office content on the go. Office Mobile is available in the App Store and Google Play.

Now that Microsoft has moved that requirement to its dedicated iPad apps, Android and iPhone users can now enjoy Office Mobile’s full feature set without any limitations and not subscribe to the membership.

Office Mobile for Android is available for free on the Google Play Store.

Survey: workers willing to pay out-of-pocket for Google and Marketplace apps

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The Wall Street Journal points to a recent survey in which over 1,100 IT administrators and business users were asked about their use of Google Apps in the workplace. According to the report, over two-thirds of respondents said that they prefer Google’s services to the point that they would be willing to spend their own hard-earned money on Google Apps for use in the office.

The survey also indicates a strong correlation between businesses that allow workers to bring their own devices for use at work and support for Google’s software. Of those surveyed, 83% said they brought their own mobile devices to work. It seems that Google’s move to create software for everyday usage has created an path to the workplace through employees who want to make their work tasts as easy to manage as their personal tasks.


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Microsoft releases yet another anti-Chromebook advertisement

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Imagine my shock and surprise as yet another anti-Chromebook advertisement hits the YouTubes courtesy of Microsoft. The latest in the company’s anti-everything-Google campaign attacks the notion that a Chromebook has “everything you need” as a laptop.


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More images emerge of Google’s upcoming London headquarters, set to open in 2016

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In 2016, Google plans to open a brand-new one-million-square-foot office in London. We’ve already seen some images of the planned headquarters, but yesterday some fantastic new images were published that detail even more of what Google is planning to do with the massive campus.

The office will house a 20,000-square-foot bike shed, a public promenade, swimming pools, a rock-climbing wall, and more. There’s probably some work space in there, too, but details on that aren’t as plentiful. Quartz describes Google’s goal with the new office as an attempt to “make an office so you never want to leave.” It certainly sounds like Google is well on its way to accomplishing that goal.

You can find more images of the campus plans below.


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Microsoft Office file editing now on by default in latest Chrome OS dev build

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After rolling out the ability to edit Microsoft Word and Excel files for the developer build of Chrome OS back in June, Google Chromium evangelist François Beaufort today notes that the feature is now on by default in the latest build:

Microsoft Office files editing is now enabled by default in the last Dev Update of Chrome OS. As we can see below, the UI has been slightly updated since the first time we’ve seen it. Moreover if you encounter any issue, don’t forget to open the “Help” Menu and click on “Report an issue”.

Previously the feature had to be enabled by the user, but it appears that Google might be getting closer to introducing the functionality in the stable build of Chrome OS in the near future.

Earlier this year, Google released a Chrome Office Viewer beta allowing users to view Office files in the browser, but not yet the ability to edit the documents.

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Google adds ability to open Microsoft Office files directly in Chrome on Mac & PC

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Previously only available to Chromebook users, Google announced today on its Chrome blog that Mac and Windows users will now have the ability to open Microsoft Office files directly within Chrome. The functionality works for users running the latest Chrome Beta and requires installation of the Chrome Office Viewer (Beta) extension.

In addition to saving you time, the Chrome Office Viewer also protects you from malware delivered via Office files. Just like with web pages and PDFs, we’ve added a specialized sandbox to impede attackers who use compromised Office files to try to steal private information or monitor your activities.

Report claims Microsoft roadmap has iOS/Android support scheduled for fall 2014

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Since we first heard rumors that Microsoft was working on Office for iOS and Android as far back as 2011 and got a look at alleged leaked images of an iPad app that Microsoft later denied were real, every couple of months we’ve seen reports that say the app is coming soon. First it was November 2012, then early 2013, and others claimed “sometime after” March 2013. Along the way  The latest rumor: Microsoft has Office for iPhone and Android is scheduled for fall 2014.

Zdnet claims to have got its hands on Microsoft roadmap for next year and says on it is “iOS/Android support for Office”:
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Samsung offices raided in ongoing case over leaked OLED tech

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According to a new report from Bloomberg, police in South Korea searched offices belonging to Samsung yesterday in a raid connected with an ongoing case related to whether or not Samsung was involved in the leaking of trade secrets. Police originally charged six employees from LG Display related to the theft of OLED technology from Samsung. Reports from last year claimed Samsung employees were fired in connection with leaking the technology, and today an LG spokesperson confirmed the latest investigation is related to its OLED TV panel technology:

“The latest investigation is related to large-sized OLED TV panel technology, but the police have made the allegation themselves,” Son Young Jun, a Seoul-based LG Display spokesman, said by phone today. LG said in July the information its employees were charged with leaking or stealing at the time was widely known in the industry and wasn’t considered to contain trade secrets.

Police in the South Korea wouldn’t comment on yesterday’s raid, but LG reportedly said “it didn’t report Samsung to police in connection with the current investigation.” 
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Google releases free Quickoffice Android & iPhone apps for Google Apps for Business customers

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QO blog nexus7 image (4-2-13)After releasing a free version of the Quickoffice iPad app for its Google Apps for Business customers in December, Google today announced free iPhone and Android versions of the app exclusively for its Apps for Business customers.

Google Apps for Business can already edit Microsoft Office files using Quickoffice on an iPad, and starting today they can do the same on iPhone and Androiddevices. From Word to Excel to Powerpoint, you can make quick edits at the airport or from the back of a taxi and save and share everything in Google Drive… iPad and iPhone users can open and edit Office files directly from the Drive app. Just open Drive and select the file, make edits using Quickoffice and save it back to Drive.

Google noted the updated apps also bring new features including support for multiple Google Drive accounts, improved chart rendering, ZIP folders from multiple files, and the ability to sort Drive files by “Shared with me, Starred, and Recent”:

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Microsoft Office for Android and iOS shows its face, release in early 2013

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The Verge has what it says are previews of Microsoft Office for the two platforms that own 90 percent of the smartphone and tablet markets.

The Verge has learned through several sources close to Microsoft’s plans that the company will release Office versions for Android and iOS in early 2013.

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Office Mobile will debut in the form of free apps that allow Android and iOS users to view Microsoft Office documents on the move. Like the existing SkyDrive and OneNote apps, Office Mobile will require a Microsoft account. On first launch, a Microsoft account will provide access to the basic viewing functionality in the apps. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents will all be supported, and edit functionality can be enabled with an Office 365 subscription.


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WSJ profiles how Google Docs costs one-tenth of Microsoft [Video]

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Microsoft is slated to unveil its next iteration of Office today, and The Wall Street Journal’s Shira Ovide is prepping the announcement with some comparison data about the productivity suite and its direct cloud-based rival Google Apps.

According to the WSJ’s video above, Dominion Enterprises held a $2 million annual contract with Microsoft, but it recently decided to switch to Google Apps. The company now pays $200,000 for Google’s services.

Despite the loss, the Office sodtware remains a hugely successful product for Microsoft. It is one of the company’s most profitable goods, and it continues to maintain a stronghold in the desktop productivity market. Google Apps, on the other hand, is still in its infancy, but it is rapidly gaining steam and attention.

Today’s announcement from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will surely set the pace for the company’s future against the ever-growing Google Apps.


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