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Google Attacks Microsoft Again: Android 4.4 Ships With Quickoffice
An anonymous reader writes "With Android 4.4 KitKat, Google's biggest blow to Microsoft isn't against Windows Phone. It's against Microsoft Office. You see, KitKat ships with Quickoffice, letting you edit Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the go, without paying a dime, straight out of the box. This tidbit was largely lost in the news yesterday, given the large number of improvements and new features that KitKat offers. Yet it's a very big deal: every Android user that upgrades to KitKat will get Google's Quickoffice, and every new Android device (starting with the Nexus 5) that ships with KitKat or higher will also get Quickoffice."
Is this optional or am I required to have it taking up space on my Nexus 4 regardless?
Since they acquired them it seems they have dumped no money into improvements. While it is an office editing App, it really needs some work to be "great." Granted, it is much more functional than Microsofts Office 365 backed App.
It's NOT super effective.
Let's get real. An office-ish app on a smart phone is NOT a challenge to a full blown desktop office suite. To suggest that it is indicates an absolute lack of understanding of the user base and use cases for office suites.
In other news patent cartel created by Microsoft and Apple attacks Google and others. Somewhat sad to see when one side of this battle uses product superiority and the other one resorts to lawyers and patent trolls. It just underscores roteness and corrupion of US corporate economy.
...these medialess new microsoft office versions, where you have to make an account just to download the installer is a pita.
And only being able to upgrade to win 8.1 with the market, not by windows update??? can't download the service pack to a stick??
And the switch to monthly subscription for office is a very bad thing, i hope people realize this aswell!
i hope ms get's a salted bill for all this.
Wouldn't that only apply if MS made an Android office app, and Google was preventing the user from installing it?
I don't see how it could be considered antitrust to create something that competes with nothing.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
The version that allows for editing MS docs has been recently released in the play store for any android user. Kitkat only has it installed by default, but otherwise it's one install away.
This is more of an attack against Apple giving away the iWork package for free. MS is barely a blip on the radar.
Trolling is a art,
Quickoffice? How is ths news? Not long back they made it free, and we even got free extra Google Drive space for downloading and installing it. And it doesn't need to be KitKat, it works with earlier versions as well.
Again, how is this news?
Right.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Bundling it where it can't be removed, preventing OEMs from installing other browsers, a patch to prevent downloading Netscape ...
Quickoffice was a document-editing program way back in the PalmOS days, and it was the only major player to make a WebOS version.
Quickoffice does not require Google Docs to work. Although it does have some features which are counter-intuitive and don't work depending on the view you're in.
If you are not paying for it, you are not the customer.
yeah, great, another android fuck-up if you're tablet or phone is pre-loaded with it, you can't update to a newer version unless the manufacturer releases a newer version.. therefore i'm stuck to a very old version of quickoffice on my xoom...
That's not an Android fuck-up. That's the OEM's problem, and it has nothing to do with Android. I chose Nexus devices (4 and 7) to avoid this, as these are the devices Android was written for. For any non-Nexus device, you depend on the OEM for certain things that may or may not occur. As a Slashdot person, surely you know this, right?
Place nail here >+
You can still install the newer version on Google Play if your tablet came installed with the old QuickOffice HD, I just did it on a Dell Streak 7.
That's why you root your android device; in fact it's the first thing you do to it - install remove anything you want...
-- Fuck Beta
Um. No it was not. MS did not get in trouble merely by bundling IE with Windows. They got in trouble for threatening partners and OEMs not to do business with competitors like Netscape and Java. For example, OEMs could lose licensing rights to Windows if they installed Netscape. MS hinted to Intel that they would give preferences to AMD in the next version of Windows if Intel released an optimized JVM for Java.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I needed to view a Word document in a hurry. I got a copy of QuickOffice from Amazon when it was a free app-of-the-day last year, but opted to try Google's more recent flavor. Google insisted I logged in, and refused to do anything if I just wanted to use a Word document on my SD card. There was NO reason for this. I, for one, disapprove of this change, regardless of any of the others.
Your OEM probably changed the signature on the APK they pre-installed.
You can upgrade a pre-installed APK from Google Play. This is not a problem. Unless, that is, the package name for the new and old APKs is the same, but the signing certificate is not. This is not a bad thing, except when %!@#(*# OEMs re-sign APKs they pre-install.
I made a living off localizing android systems for the local market, and I always had a bit of a hard time explaining to the clients why I couldn't localize none-core apps (which include the Google Play itself, for which the Hebrew translation seems to have been done by someone quite illiterate).
Shachar
fosspatents is run by a Microsoft shill. I forgot his name but he admitted to being a shill after he was caught with his pants down
Florian Müller would be the name of the particular douche-nozzle in question.