Microsoft announced today at the TechEd Conference that Microsoft Office for iPad, which includes Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, has been downloaded from the App Store 27 million times to date. The statistic was first shared on Twitter by Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrot and noted by Business Insider:
Following a proposal that many fear threatens net neutrality, a plethora of tech companies today have come together to support net neutrality in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. The group is led by Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, and Twitter, as well as many others. Notably missing, however, is Apple.
When Microsoft launched its Office for iPad apps last month, one of the most requested missing features was printing support. Just over a month later, today the company announced in a blog post that it’s updating the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint iPad apps with support for printing in addition to other new features and fixes.
Your top request is here! You can now print Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations to an AirPrintTM printer. In Word for iPad, you can choose to print a document with or without markup. In Excel, print a selected range, a single worksheet or an entire spreadsheet. Of course, you can select the pages or slides you want to print.
In addition to printing, the company also announced that its updated PowerPoint with SmartGuides, the tool that allows users to easily “align pictures, shapes, and textboxes as you move them around on a slide.” You’ll also find other new features for Excel, as well as fixes and improvements in the other apps:
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You may recall Skype debuted a very useful (and social) feature for Mac way back in 2010: group video calling. Specifically, the feature was in a public beta stage with widespread testing thus carried a price tag of $0 with idea being it would eventually be a paid feature when the service was stable enough. Fast forward a few months to 2011 and Skype rolled the feature out to its official version of the app for Mac and put a price tag on it. As you can imagine, as the price of entry went above nothing, free alternative services including Google’s Hangouts video calling emerged. Three years later, the Microsoft-owned company is back in the business of bringing multiple faces together over video for free (hooray!) as today it announced group video calling for everyone at no cost… again.
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On Apple’s earnings call, Tim Cook directly addresses concerns surrounding iPad. Notably, he calls out Office as helping iPad sales somewhat but ‘frankly’ admits that Microsoft should have released Office for iPad sooner. He says that in the time that Microsoft waited, other companies including Apple have released very-competitive productivity alternates to Office, likely referencing iWork.
Apple has agreed to back a new initiative along with a host of Android manufacturers and all of the major U.S. cellular carriers that would require all smartphones manufactured after July 2015 to come with specific anti-theft features. The program is the latest attempt to prevent theft of smartphones, which some have blamed for increasing crime rates.
To this end, Apple introduced a first-of-its-kind system in iOS 7 that blocks freshly-restored iPhones from being used until the original owner logs in with the Apple ID associated with the device. Today’s agreement between the carriers and handset manufacturers essentially states that all parties will ship this exact type of system on new phones.
Specifically, the required anti-theft measures are broken into four kinds:
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Microsoft is launching a cheaper ‘Personal’ Office 365 subscription today that will give you access to the cloud services and mobile apps for $69/year or $6.99/month opposed to the $99/year Home subscription. The new Personal subscription only provides access for one Mac (or PC) and iPad (or tablet) instead of the 5 PC or Macs and 5 tablets you get with a Home subscription.
You might want to hold off on the new subscription, however, as Amazon is currently selling the full Home subscription for just $63 (37% off). That’s cheaper than the new $69 Personal plan, but it’s possible Microsoft could soon end that discount and change prices on Amazon now that the new Personal subscription is launching.
The Office 365 subscription gives you access to full editing features in Microsoft’s recently released suite of Office apps for iPad, but also access to desktop and online versions of Microsoft’s Office apps, 7GB of cloud storage, and 60 minutes of Skype credit a month.
WPcentral notes that the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update introduces support for Apple’s Passbook iOS app, allowing users to load coupons, tickets, boarding passes, etc, designed for Passbook into the Microsoft Wallet app.
While the Microsoft Wallet app will be able to load the various coupons and loyalty cards usually reserved for Passbook, it’s still a little unclear exactly what’s going on behind the scenes. Microsoft appears to be allowing users to download the Passbook files and rendering its own card for Microsoft Wallet, but the report speculates Windows Phone won’t be able to tap into the push notifications Apple’s uses to update cards like on iOS.
There seems to be some confusion over whether or not Mircosoft is officially supporting Passbook in one way or another, but with a developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 rolling out today, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this soon.
Apple and Intel both declined an invitation to invest in a new round of funding for patent assertion entity Intellectual Ventures, reports Reuters. Both companies had invested in the enterprise in the past. Intellectual Ventures did, however, receive further investments from both Microsoft and Sony.
Apple and Intel’s decision is significant because the biggest tech companies have supported IV in the past. “This would be a dramatic departure,” said Kevin Jakel, chief executive of Unified Patents.
Intellectual Ventures declined to discuss investments. Microsoft, Sony, Intel and Apple also would not comment. It is unclear whether Intel and Apple could still opt to invest in IV’s vehicle at a later time.
As a frequent target of patent trolls, it seemed an odd investment for Apple in the first place, and was most likely a simple protective measure: we’ll help fund you if you leave us alone.
An FTC filing revealed that Apple had been the target of a record 92 patent lawsuits in a three year period. Earlier this month Apple joined Microsoft, Ford, General Electric, IBM and other companies in forming a ‘Partnership for American Innovation’ to lobby against patent trolls.
As Microsoft continues its Office for iPad marketing campaign, the team that developed the productivity software has taken to Reddit for an AMA, or Ask Me Anything, to answer questions and discuss the development process behind Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad. By measure of upvotes, the most popular question as of the time of this writing asked when Office for iPad would gain the ability to print, something Apple’s iWork suite and many of apps already offer, to which the team replied “in due course” while noting the high demand of the feature.
But the team didn’t stop there; Microsoft’s Office for iPad team also shared photos of their lab (as seen in the above photo), talked about the development process for bringing Office to the iPad, and even addressed the notion that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer held Office back from the iPad…
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DhJZAhjbcI]
I’d find this video hard to believe were it not for its credentials. The WSJ reports that StoreDot, the start-up behind the technology, has its background in the Nanotechnology department of Tel Aviv University, and it’s been demonstrated at Microsoft’s Think Next conference.
Ultra-fast battery charging has been seen before, but using special (and not very portable) battery technology. This system charges batteries compact enough for smartphones. It’s demonstrated here with a Samsung Galaxy S3, but the company says that it plans to make versions for other phones, which will could certainly include the iPhone …
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After announcing the release of the Office for iPad apps late last month, Microsoft announced today that the separate Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for iPad have collectively reached 12 million downloads a week after release. The number also included downloads of the OneNote app for iPad, which has been available for a couple of years leading up to the release of the Office apps, but Microsoft didn’t provide a breakdown of sales by app.
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Apple is worried that new legislation will limit its ability to protect its own intellectual property.
Reuters is reporting that Apple, Microsoft, Ford, General Electric, IBM and other companies are forming a lobbyist group called the ‘Partnership for American Innovation’. The group is worried that upcoming legislation focused on patent trolls may adversely affect true ‘innovators’ as well.
Image: smallbiztrends.com
The iPad edition of Microsoft Office has been a long-time coming. This was, it now seems clear, no accident: Microsoft wanted to attempt to boost sales of its ill-fated Surface tablet by pointing to the lack of Office software on the iPad.
Now that the company has accepted the inevitable, that most people would rather have Office on their iPad than buy a Surface, the question is: was it worth the wait … ?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE5wCBb7GwI&list=UUZPiiUjDlrBv4jiiRqk5dSA
At its BUILD conference, Microsoft officially unveiled its personal assistant for Windows Phone named Cortana. The similarities to Siri are rather uncanny (and three years late) but in some areas, Siri could definitely learn from Cortana’s feature set.
Cortana certainly does a good job of cloning Siri’s appearance and functionality. However, it goes further by allowing third-party applications to do tasks and answer questions as well. For instance, you can ask Cortana to add a film to your Hulu watch list with natural language.
Microsoft finally took the wraps off of its long-awaited Office for iPad suite this morning, only to reveal that most of its functions require a $99 subscription to the Office 365 service. Even though you can get a discounted subscription through Amazon, $70 may seem pretty steep. Rest assured, Microsoft is planning to offer free one-year subscriptions to the service tomorrow.
All you have to do to get your free subscription is show up at one of Microsoft’s retail stores with your iPad in hand. The first 50 people to do so will get the sub completely free of charge. Microsoft announced the promotion in a tweet earlier today:
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When Microsoft announced its Office for iPad apps earlier today, it confirmed that the software will require a subscription to Microsoft’s $99/year Office 365 service for most functions. If you don’t have one already, you can get a subscription directly through the Office apps for the regular price of $99.
As you may recall, Apple and Microsoft went toe-to-toe last April on the issue of whether or not Apple should get a 30% cut for SkyDrive storage space purchased through the SkyDrive app. Apple has always maintained the position that any goods or services sold through iOS apps should use the in-app purchase system created by Apple—allowing the Cupertino company to take its regular 30% cut of the price.
In the case of the SkyDrive dispute, Apple’s decision remained unchanged, which prompted Microsoft to simply remove the option to purchase additional storage space through the SkyDrive app altogether. In the case of today’s Office launch, however, the two companies seem to be on much better terms.
Apple has confirmed to Re/code that the company is taking its full 30% share of all Office 365 purchases made through the iPad software. This apparent agreement, along with friendly tweets between the CEOs of both companies, could be the first signs of a much less combative Microsoft under the leadership of new CEO Satya Nadella, who replaced Steve Ballmer in the role this year.
Perhaps in the future we’ll see even more collaboration between the two companies.
In case you missed it, Microsoft finally released its suite of Office apps for iPad today with the introduction of standalone Word, PowerPoint, & Excel apps in the App Store. The Office app for iPhone remains the same apart from dropping the requirement of a 365 subscription (it’s now free for all!), but the new iPad versions of the Office apps WILL require an Office 365 subscription to create or edit documents. So, if you plan on using the Office apps on your iPad in the future, you’ll want to take advantage of a big discount on 365 subscriptions currently on Amazon.
Normally $99/year or $10/month, you can grab a 1 year Office 365 Home Premium subscription for $67.15 with free shipping. That’s a savings of $32.84 (33%) and gets to an access code for 5 Macs or PCs with access to all Office 365 app and services. That includes 20GB OneDrive storage for each for up to 4 household member, 60 minutes of Skype calls per month and all the apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.
1 year Office 365 Home Premium subscription for $67.15
Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are now available on the App Store.
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Microsoft’s Office suite of productivity apps has long been rumored to be in development for the iPad shortly after the tablet’s debut in 2010. Most notably was The Daily (now defunct) reporting it had knowledge (and screenshots) of Microsoft’s software for Apple’s mobile platform in 2011, something Microsoft was quick to deny was legitimate. Three years and one CEO later, Microsoft is finally ready to play nice with the iPad.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s new CEO following Steve Ballmer’s retirement earlier this year, outlined Microsoft’s new cloud and mobile strategy for the company today including full Office for iPad support. Unlike the Office 365 app Microsoft introduced early last year, Microsoft’s new apps today include individual apps for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Microsoft’s Office suite of apps will each be available as a free download, but will require an Office 365 subscription (which offers a 30-day trial) to create and edit documents. Users can still read and present documents with Office for iPad without a subscription. Office documents will rely on Microsoft’s OneDrive service for syncing content.
Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are now available on the App Store.
Fortune drew our attention to a cool interactive graphic that lets you watch in real-time the revenues and profits made by a dozen tech companies. While Samsung wins the revenue race, Apple is by far the most profitable, at $71,000 a minute.
Apple is doomed …
Both The Verge and ZDNet are independently reporting that Microsoft will finally launch Office for iPad at the end of this month on March 27th, according to sources. According to The Verge, the suite will (unsurprisingly) be very similar to the Office app already on the iPhone App Store.
Now that we’ve had our first look at at least an early take on iOS 8, what stands out most to me is how little the basic appearance of the iOS homescreen has changed over the years. On the left is iOS 1, on the right the recently-leaked iOS 8 homescreen.
Seven years apart, yet still essentially identical in form: a grid of static icons. Looked at in one way, that’s incredibly impressive: that a user-interface that worked in 2007 still works today. But it does make me wonder at what point the iOS homescreen will move beyond this format?
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Microsoft has just published a new iOS app for Windows Azure Active Directory users. The app, called “My Apps,” allows users to login to a variety of web apps and services using a single Active Directory login, saving them the trouble of having to manually log into those services through the mobile Safari browser every time.
My Apps is available for free on the iOS App Store. It requires a Windows Azure account to work.
Microsoft is considering taking Xbox Live cross-platform and allowing developers to integrate the service in iOS and Android games, according to a report from The Verge. The report cites a job listing from the company’s website seeking an engineer to work on “a modern framework that is open-source, lightweight, extensible and scalable across various platforms,” including iOS and Android. The report also cites its own sources reportedly familiar Microsoft’s plans to take Xbox Live cross-platform.
“New Devices and Gaming” is looking for passionate and experienced developers to join us. Your contribution will have direct impact on how we win back our game developers from our competitors. As a member of the newly formed team, you will have the rare opportunity to influence our planning and design from the beginning. We will create a modern framework that is open source, light-weight, extensible and scalable across various platforms including Windows Store, Windows Phone, iOS and Android. Working on the gaming technologies, you will collaborate with both internal partner teams across the company and external ecosystem partners to enable end-to-end gaming scenarios.
The idea, according to the report, is that Xbox Live would act as a cross-platform alternative to Apple’s Game Center and similar services, allowing users to earn achievements, manage friends and more through a single service across Xbox and mobile platforms. No details on specific features or when we might expect to see more.
