The best sold product by Microsoft is ready to be delivered to the market with a new face and a new modern feature: the Cloud integration. Steve Ballmer was eager to unveil this product as fast as possible, preparing the media and the new customers to accept it as part of the Windows 8 “revolution”.

Microsoft Office 2013 Home Premium, which is part of the Microsoft Office 365 family, is already available for free as a preview version, which will expire on its official release. All you have to do to get it and make it run, is to download the installer from here, then sign-in into Office 365 Home Premium account with your Windows Live credentials. A new online UI will appear from where you can open your applications, documents, and custom settings on any PC (PC running Windows 7 or 8 and Internet connection required).

The package offers new full versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. In case you are already using Windows 8 Release Preview, these apps are fully integrated into the interface with lots of extra add-ons on Windows Store. You will have 25 GB of free online space on SkyDrive to store your documents for easy access and sharing. When the Preview version will expire, the free access will be gone.

The full version Office 365 Home Premium will come also with full Skype integration, additional 20 GB of SkyDrive online storage and Mac compatibility. All these will be available on up to five PC’s or mobile devices. It is not clear what prices will Microsoft ask for their four cloud subscription plans: Home, Small Business, ProPlus and Enterprise, but all these will be available only if you pay a monthly fee.

Stay tuned, for our full preview of Microsoft Office 2013.

Related Posts:

• Are Software Subscriptions a Good or bad Idea for Consumers?
• Microsoft plan to funnel people towards their newer products
• Office 365 – Is Office Online the Right Choice for You?
• Windows 8 Release Preview has been officially launched
• Microsoft Project Professional the ultimate in project management

Microsoft announced today the release of the Windows 8 Release Preview, the prerelease of the highly anticipated Windows 8 operating system. Since the February release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which was downloaded more than 1 million times in the first 24 hours, Windows 8 has become the most tested Microsoft operating system of all time, and with the Release Preview, it enters its final phase of development before it releases to manufacturing.

Windows 8 Release Preview delivers the already popular apps like Bing Travel, News and Sports apps, as well as Gaming and Music Xbox apps that integrate with your Zune pass. Compared to the Consumer Preview, this latest version brings notable improvements to the Mail, Photos and People apps that will replace the Windows Live suite. In addition, Microsoft has worked closely with its partners to deliver apps from around the world through the Windows Store.

Beginning June 2, 2012, Microsoft will roll out the Windows Upgrade Offer in 131 markets, including the U.S. and Canada. Consumers who buy eligible Windows 7-based PCs through Jan. 31, 2013, can purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of $14.99 (U.S.) during the time of the promotion. More information about the Windows Upgrade Offer will be available June 1.

Windows 8 Release Preview is prerelease software that may be substantially modified before it’s commercially released. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here. Some product features and functionality may require additional hardware or software.

download Windows 8 Release Preview

Related Posts:

• Windows 8 Release Preview Review
• Review – Windows 8 Consumer Preview
• Office 365 – Is Office Online the Right Choice for You?
• Steven Sinofsky has left the building
• Windows 8 still a bit glitchy

Both Apple and Microsoft are bringing their desktop and mobile computing experiences closer together. Is this a good idea, or a recipe for disaster?

Current rumor has Apple releasing Mountain Lion next month.  Windows is due to hit the streets outside of Redmond, likely in October 2012.  While considered polar opposites, these two new versions of OS X and Windows have one key ingredient in common – they are both trying to bring their desktop and mobile computing experiences closer together.

Microsoft Windows 8
You can see Soft32′s Windows 8 deep dive, here.  In Windows 8, Microsoft is designing an operating system that can be used on either a desktop or laptop as well as a tablet.  Windows 8′s new user interface, Metro, is heavily touch based. It has the user physically interacting with the hardware and the computing objects on it via touch.  If the hardware being used doesn’t have a touch layer, then the user can use both keyboard and mouse to simulate touch.

As I pointed out in my review (URL), this doesn’t always lend itself to the best computing experience. Using the mouse to simulate a touch and swipe to scroll through a screen isn’t as intuitive as it sounds, and is really rather clumsy. I think I’ve established, with Windows 8, that having one OS for either hardware types or categories doesn’t create a good user experience. However, in my opinion, this is clearly in response to only Google’s Android (to an extent), but to Apple’s Lion and Mountain Lion releases of OS X.  Microsoft sees the movement towards a unified computing experience and has taken a unified approach in developing a single operating system to cover all computing hardware types.

Last time, we looked at Microsoft and Windows 8. Let’s take a quick look at how Apple has decided to converge iOS and OS X.  Mountain Lion continues Apple’s desire to blur the lines between the two…

Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
Apple’s approach is much different.  Instead of putting OS X on your iPhone or iPad or iOS on your Mac, Apple is bringing specific iOS features to the desktop.  These mobile device features are adapted to the desktop or laptop for, what Apple feels is a better experience on the non (or not as) mobile hardware.

The difference here is approach and design.  Apple is taking specific features from iOS – Messages, Notifications, Reminders, iCloud Integration, etc., those that make sense to have on the desktop and are finding a way to implement those. The features are similar, but not identical, given the differences in the hardware.  Their addition is subtle, even elegant in some cases, as in the implementation of Notifications.  The point is though, that while both platforms have similar features, while they may share a similar look and/or feel, they are implemented and presented differently, taking advantage of the benefits of each platform.

continue reading

Related Posts:

• Industry In-Fighting is Really Starting to Tick Me Off
• OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3
• Windows 8 – Dual Mode UI Dichotomy
• Nokia Windows 8 tablet to hit the stores in early 2012
• Mountain Lion Day

Is the dual mode UI – Metro and classic Desktop Windows – realistic for today’s computing; or did Microsoft screw the pooch?

One of the biggest problems with Windows 8 that I saw in my review here on Soft32, was Windows 8′s dual mode user interface.  The OS could easily be split in two between both its classic desktop interface and Windows 8′s new MetroUI.  There’s been a lot of debate over this lately.

There are two schools of thought on this – Microsoft should take MetroUI out of Windows 8 and Microsoft should kill off Desktop Windows.  Both represent challenges to the organization. Part 1 of this series will deal with Microsoft taking Metro out of Windows 8.  Part 2 will address what would happen if MS killed off Desktop Windows.

Microsoft Should take MetroUI out of Windows 8
There are a lot of people that are Window experience purists and have been arguing that MS made a serious mistake when they introduced a tablet OS as part of their traditional desktop OS.  In many ways, with certain, realistic and reasonable modifications, Windows Phone can handle tablets very easily.

The OS is already optimized for handheld hardware. It works well on smaller screens. The MetroUI interface is already standardized there, and its users know and understand what it can and cannot do.  They’re used to Live Tiles. They understand what the apps look like and are used to task switching as opposed to true desktop multi-tasking.

I’ve heard both Leo LaPorte and Paul Thurrott speak to this in a recent episode of Windows Weekly.  Both are MS pundits and are on the inside with MS and came out in favor of the combined UI.  I disagree with them; and my review of Windows 8 Consumer Preview outlines why.  The two interfaces are in many ways totally disconnected and create a completely disconnected computing experience.

However, both Leo and Paul brought up a decent point, and I have to agree with them on this 100% – if you pull MetroUI and all of its components out of Windows 8, you kinda forego a reason to release an “upgraded” version of the OS.  In other words, if you pull Metro out of Windows 8, you remove the purpose for the new version.

While the optimizations in Windows 8 totally blow Windows 7 out of the water, if you release those by themselves, what you have is really nothing more than a Windows 7 service pack at best.  If I had my wish, this would be the way that I would go. MetroUI and Classic Windows Desktop are two totally different experiences, and don’t really belong together. Unless and until Microsoft kills off desktop Windows completely, I really don’t think combining the two user interfaces makes sense.

Color me too Apple influenced if you must, but forcing the two to live together is clunky. It creates a confusing end user experience. Developers won’t necessarily know or understand how to develop for the combined interface.  While I’m relatively certain that sandboxing requirements will stay in place regardless of interface, dual mode apps don’t work well and don’t share data very well, either.

Users are used to the classic desktop UI. They understand how it works, and they understand how to pass data to and from apps.  MetroUI is too drastic of a change and too limiting for the standard desktop crowd.  Leaving MetroUI in Windows 8 is going to confuse a great many people and slow its adoption.

In the next page, I’ll speak to what would happen if MS killed off Desktop Windows.

Continue reading…

Related Posts:

• Is Convergence the Way to Go?
• Nokia Windows 8 tablet to hit the stores in early 2012
• Industry In-Fighting is Really Starting to Tick Me Off
• Microsoft Behind the [Mobile] 8-Ball
• Fast and Fluid Future at Mobile World Congress 2012

Introduction

This year is going to be action packed. Apple is on track to deliver Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 to Mac users in late Summer/early Fall of this year. Microsoft is on track to deliver Windows 8 by the end of the calendar year. With all of the excitement coming from both companies throughout the year, you’re likely to hear a great deal on what’s hot and what’s not.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 29-Feb-12.  This will likely be the last public release of Windows 8 before the software is released to manufacturing later this year.  Users of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview should be able to use the software until January of next year.

It’s clear that Microsoft is attempting to unify the computing experiences in the latest version of its operating system. With the release of Windows 8, Microsoft is clearly making a bid for the enterprise tablet market. The big question is – Have they made the impact that they were hoping for; and will Windows 8 draw people away from iOS and Android?  Let’s take a long look at Windows 8 Consumer Preview and see how they did.

Microsoft has made the download of Windows 8 available in both executable and ISO 32bits and 64bits forms.  The total download, regardless of installation method requires 2.5GB of space. I initially had trouble getting the OS, but was able to successfully download the software by late Thursday evening, 01-Mar-12.  I used Microsoft’s new 5MB executable method.  After running the install stub, the complete installation downloaded and was placed in a folder called WindowsESD.

I’ve been playing with the OS for a while now; and while it can and does run on most any Windows capable machine, even under-powered PC’s like netbooks, it’s really not meant for traditional computers.  The interface is based on touch, and while you can use Windows 8 with a mouse and a keyboard, the OS really wants to be manipulated with your finger.  Using a Windows 8 powered PC with a mouse isn’t as natural an activity as you might think…

Continue reading…

Related Posts:

• Windows 8 still a bit glitchy
• Windows 8 Release Preview Review
• Windows 8 Release Preview has been officially launched
• Is Convergence the Way to Go?
• 10 years of Windows XP