Microsoft Office

Microsoft's Ballmer disses Dropbox as a 'little startup'

SkyDrive or Dropbox? That's a decision many people face when seeking online storage. But Steve Ballmer doesn't see much in the way of competition.

In a chat with BusinessWeek published yesterday, Microsoft's head honcho touted his own company's online audience over that of Dropbox.

SkyDrive had more than 200 million users as of October, according to comments from then Windows president Steven Sinofsky. DropBox reached 100 million users in November.

"Well, you've got to remember, 100 million sounds like a pretty small number to me, actually," Ballmer told BusinessWeek. "We've got … Read more

Microsoft Office 2013: Everything you need to know (FAQ)

Microsoft has finally unveiled Microsoft Office 2013. CNET's already had a chance to do an in-depth review of Office 365, the subscription version of Office 2013. Have more questions? Check out our answers below.… Read more

How and where to buy Office 365 and Office 2013

Updated at 2:27 p.m. PT: This story has been updated to further clarify the differences among the Office options.

Along with all the new features, the latest version of Microsoft Office, released today (read CNET's review), is now available as a standalone suite and by subscription. The options are tailored toward different use cases, depending on your productivity requirements.

Office 365 Home Premium, $99.99 per year, five PCs/Macs/Windows tablets: This is the "Microsoft recommended" version of Office. It comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access, 20GB of SkyDrive storage, 60 … Read more

Office boss: Within 10 years, every customer will subscribe

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer insists the software giant is really a devices and services company.

Today, the company makes one of its biggest pushes yet, launching a subscription service of its Office franchise to consumers who are increasingly doing their computing on mobile gadgets and Web applications. The software giant debuts Office 365 Home Premium, the latest offering from its widely used productivity software group.

The new service, which costs $99.99 a year, offers consumers access to the most recent version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. The license covers up to five devices and … Read more

Microsoft said to be testing Windows RT Outlook client

File this one in the "sources said" folder, but I've now heard from three of my contacts that Microsoft has completed and is testing internally a version of Outlook that runs on Windows RT-based devices.

This "Outlook RT" would run on Microsoft's ARM-based Surface RT devices, as well as any/all other ARM-based Windows RT tablets and PCs.

Here's the catch, though: According to two of these three sources, when/whether Microsoft will make Office RT commercially available is not yet decided. This might not ever happen, these sources stressed.

Again, according to … Read more

Microsoft Q2: By the numbers

Microsoft has issued its first earnings scorecard since the introduction of the Windows 8 operating system and of Surface, its first branded tablet computer. The company's fiscal second-quarter report also opens the latest window -- no pun intended -- onto the pace of decline of PC shipments as more people switch over to smartphones and tablets.

Here are some of the highlights by the numbers:

Revenue: $21.5 billion Net income: $6.38 billion Windows: $5.88 billion, up 24 percent year-over year. (That number includes revenue deferrals tied to an earlier upgrade offer as well as presales. On … Read more

Office 2013 pricing: What to expect

As expected, Microsoft is pricing its next-generation Office 2013 lineup in a way to try to convince users to pay an annual subscription fee -- with multiple device-installation rights as a carrot -- instead of buying the Office 2013 software outright.

Microsoft is believed to be ready to launch its next-generation Office product within the next few weeks, possibly before the end of January. The newest version of Office -- known both as "the new Office" and "Office 2013" -- will be commercially available on that date. In preparation for the launch, Microsoft has been … Read more

Microsoft serves up 60-day trial version of Office 2013

People who want to take Office 2013 for a spin can download a 60-day evaluation edition.

The version available is the full Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 suite, which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, and Lync. The software contains all the features in the paid edition, so you won't miss out on anything.

You will need a Microsoft account in order to access the download page, but otherwise there are no strings attached.

Here's how you can grab the free trial version:

Head over to the Office Professional Plus 2013 download page on TechNet. Click … Read more

Five days, two e-mail outages for Microsoft's Office 365

On November 13, some Microsoft Office 365 customers in North America were reporting (via Twitter and e-mail) that they were experiencing e-mail problems -- just like they were five days ago.

A Microsoft representative provided the following update around 11 a.m. PT today:

"On Tuesday, Nov. 13, some customers served from our North America data centers are experiencing intermittent access to e-mail services. Customers are being updated regularly via our normal communication channels. We sincerely apologize to our customers for any inconvenience."

This tweet was posted shortly thereafter:

This isn't the first time this month some … Read more