In 2020, Microsoft announced it would be bringing text predictions to Word with the feature using Machine Learning to make suggestions based on the text being typed by the user. Shortly after that initial announcement, the feature was rolled out to about half of the Beta Channel users. Microsoft is now set to make the feature available to everyone according to the Microsoft 365 roadmap.
Office 2021 for PC and Mac is coming later this year, Microsoft has confirmed, but despite what many believe you won't need an Microsoft 365 subscription in order to use it. Although Microsoft has shifted its focus in recent years to subscription-based software and services, particularly as it weaves in cloud functionality and storage from OneDrive, there's still a subset of users that would prefer the familiarity of an upfront purchase instead.
There was a time when Microsoft's supremacy in the productivity suite market was challenged by the likes of Google Docs and even open source office suites like OpenOffice and LibreOffice. That phase, however, has come and gone and Microsoft Office still remains the household name in that arena. Unfortunately, it also remains one of Microsoft's more complicated and confusing products, offered in a dizzying array of options. There's always room for more, of course, and Microsoft just what's coming for its "perpetual" release of its Office suite.
There's a newly fully-functional Microsoft Office app available now for Apple's iPad. This app isn't free - it's part of Microsoft's Office subscription program(s). The least expensive option for acquiring functionality from this newly updated Microsoft Office app is approximately $6.99 per month. If you're looking for an app that's different from the iPhone version of the app, don't - It's listed under the same title.
Earlier this week, Apple unveiled a new Mac lineup consisting of a new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini running on Apple's own M1 CPU. This is a major shift for Apple, which for years has used Intel CPUs in its Macs. With this pivot to its own in-house silicon, there will obviously be some changes to the way apps are developed for Macs.
The arrival of trackpad support on iPads ushered in a flurry of updates for apps that now leverage this feature, giving users a laptop-like experience with the portability of a tablet. In an announcement today, Microsoft said that it has updated several of its Office apps for iPadOS to take full advantage of this feature. Likewise, the company has also enhanced the apps' interface.
Microsoft has been known to be rather aggressive and unsubtle when pushing its products to people's consciousness. That was true back when it was pushing people to upgrade to Windows 10 and it's true now as it uses Windows' Start Menu as a home for advertising its own apps. Things seem to be coming to a head again as Windows users, both Insiders and regular users, start seeing what they thought were Office web apps automatically installed without their permission. It turns out, it's partly intentional and partly a bug.
You can almost do anything on smartphones these days, especially if you connect a large display and peripherals. Even more so on tablets with their large screens and keyboard accessories. That said, there are still many things you can't do on a phone, or at least can't do comfortably on such a small screen. One of the biggest culprits there is productivity or office suites that are designed by nature to be used on larger devices. But with the world moving towards a more remote and more mobile reality, Google is updating its G Suite to make the experience less painful on phones.
Microsoft's online email service Outlook on Web has been updated with support for integration with Google Calendar, according to the company, making it a little more useful for those who mostly rely on Google's ecosystem. The new feature is limited to Outlook work accounts at this time, which can now be linked with Google Calendars or a personal Outlook.com account for expanded functionality.
Microsoft delivered a news alert today tipping a "massive" phishing campaign using COVID-19 and Excel files to hook in unsuspecting users. Much like MOST phishing campaigns, users could avoid any harmful nonsense by avoiding downloading attached files or entering personal information prompted by email. This email campaign began on May 12, 2020, and posed as the Johns Hopkins Center to deliver a so-called "WHO COVID-19 SITUATION REPORT."
We've known about Microsoft's Fluid Framework since Build 2019, but now it seems the company build out its feature set. As part of its Build 2020 announcements today, Microsoft announced that new Fluid Framework integrations will be made in Office 365, specifically in Outlook and Office.com. On top of these new integrations, Microsoft also made a big announcement today regarding making Fluid Framework open source.
Microsoft 365 is getting new text predictions, echoing Gmail's Smart Compose by adding easier ways to compose replies in Outlook. The new feature will suggest words and phrases as users write messages in Outlook.com and Outlook on the web, based on predictions as to what they're likely to want to say.