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Microsoft Brings Office Online To Chrome OS; Ars Reviews Windows Phone 8.1
SmartAboutThings (1951032) writes "While we are still waiting for the official Windows 8.1 touch-enabled apps to get launched on the Windows Store, Microsoft went and decided that it's time to finally bring the Office online apps to the Chrome Web Store, instead. Thus, Microsoft is making the Web versions of its Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote apps available to users through the Chrome Web Store and also improving all of them with new features, along with several bug fixes and performance improvements."
More on the Microsoft front: an anonymous reader wrote in with a link to Ars Technica's review of the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 release: "It is a major platform update even if it is just a .1 release. Updates include the debut of Cortana, using the same kernel as Windows 8.1 and the Xbox One, a notebook reminder app, inner circle friend management, IE 11, Nokia's camera app by default, lock screen and background customizations, a much improved email client with calendar support, more general Windows 8.1 API inclusion for better portability, and a notification center. Ars rated it more of a Windows Phone 9 release than .1 update."
Apparently some company in Redmond, WA is putting out a mobile clone of OpenOffice.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It might have been funny, if I hadnt gotten complaints from every single person Ive recommended oOO to over the years, and had every single one end up buying office.
And its not even like its just that theyre familiar with Office; oOO lacks serious polish and is sometimes maddening to work with.
Instructions are available here?
Keep in mind it is a one way ticket. No way to downgrade back to 8.0 and reset wont work. If you are not an American you lose your metric standards too and have miles and temperatures in F. Cortana is optimized too for American accents in this release.
SO it is caution if you own a Windows Phone. I own one and I will not be upgrading as I use the conferencing feature on my phone anyday and do not want to take risks.
http://saveie6.com/
Agreed! It's quite refreshing to hear positive news about Office for a change.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan
They become politically active, and then continue to loudly claim to represent the vast majority even though they don't.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I originally bought my 920 for just the camera; I have kids so I wanted to have a good camera at all times.
It wound up being better then the iPhone in a lot of ways, and now with the update (yes, I went to the developer preview mode) it's actually far better than iPhone or Android. And I have a Galaxy S4 I use for work, so it's not for lack of trying everything.
The only quip I have right now is the way that associations for things are handles (open with), but I think there has been some work done here, apps just have to take advantage of it.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Too right. MS Office is bad. Open Office is worse.
Similarly, Photoshop is bad, and Gimp is worse.
Why is the open source community incapable of outdoing commercial de-facto standard apps with poor UIs?
Is it that they make the mistake of thinking it's about feature lists?
I have seen a similar situations with open textbooks. I have seen lately several that have clearly used MS Word. The layout and formulas are awful. I do technical work in LaTex. Obviously, because these authors have never used anything else but MS Office, and when all one has it a hammer everything is a nail, they just assumed that MS Word is the best thing to in which to write a book.
As an aside, I did write a short, 60 pagish, book back in the late 90's. I specifically chose OO.org because it had some features at the time that made putting together such a thing very easy. Also, 10 years ago, OO.org was much better at open old MS Word files than MS Word. Ms Word is still the absolute best way to right a Memo. MS Excel is still the best spreadsheet, but it is no longer so good that it is the only choice for many projects. MS Powerpoint is the worst presentation creator that I have used. OO.org, Libreoffice is better, and Keynote used to be way better before Apple shoehorned it into the iPad and made that the official version.
MS Ofiice is the defacto format for file transfer though, and because MS is horrible at managing such a thing is becoming increasingly difficult to see such files with an MS tool.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
They join some Libetarian populist movement and demand all government services with the exception of those they partake of to be slashed or eliminated?
And yes, oh ye mighty moderators, this is trolling.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Why is the open source community incapable of outdoing commercial de-facto standard apps with poor UIs?
Software is hard, and the complexity and manpower needed for projects is continuously increasing.
They become old and bitter, just like those mainframe guys. Everything comes with a trade-off. When we went from the mainframe to PC's, software for a little while had to take a step back so it will work on systems with less power. The same thing is happening now with mobile devices. Software is taking a step back so they can operate on their mobile devices, where speed was sacrificed for weight and power usage. However, the fact we have smaller lighter carry anywhere technology, allows us to be more connected and less reliant on paper.
Trade-offs, they happen. Just like the mainframes, the PC will move more towards business only usages, while home stuff will go to mobile devices, as well as those light end business apps.
The Mainframe isn't dead yet, neither will the PC go away any time soon. However they will get more specialized for particular work.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
But but but... I thought Chromebooks weren't "real" laptops and were useless because they didn't have Windows or Office!
my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
Cortana is optimized too for American accents in this release.
Not much of a problem. I have a strong English accent, and the same technique works with Cortana as speaking abroad... I just speak LOUDLY AND CONDESCENDINGLY. :)