New Lumia phones come with Office 365 subscription in Singapore till June

Bloggers were introduced to the two new Lumias in Singapore last evening.

Microsoft yesterday announced the availability of the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL in Singapore for only S$299 and S$429 respectively. The new devices offer more personal computing and increased productivity through seamlessly integrated Microsoft Office experiences, OneDrive* storage and 4G connectivity. Both devices are eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 as it becomes available later this year**.

Highlights include:
 Smooth operations from the on-board 1GB of memory and quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

 Crisp images on the Lumia 640’s 5” HD display and the Lumia 640 XL’s 5.7” HD display.

 Long-lasting battery life with the Lumia 640’s 2,500 mAh battery and the Lumia 640 XL’s 3,000 mAh battery.

 Detail-rich photos even in low light, thanks to the 8 MP camera on the Lumia 640 with LED flash and 13 MP camera ZEISS Optics on the Lumia 640 XL with LED flash.

“People are looking for a device which brings them more flexibility to switch easily between work and play, without breaking the bank,” said Bruce Howe, General Manager, Microsoft Mobile Devices Sales for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. “With the long lasting battery and full range of Microsoft experiences – including Office and OneDrive – the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL are the perfect enablers of productivity for consumers.”

From now to 30 June, the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL will also come with a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal, which includes the latest Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote) on the Lumia as well as on one PC or Mac and one tablet. With Office 365 Personal installed, users will receive an additional 1TB of OneDrive storage, and 60 Skype world minutes. To redeem the offer, users will need to download the Office 365 gift app from the Windows Phone Store by 30 June and activate it by 14 August 2015.

The Lumia 640 will be available in glossy cyan, orange, white and matte black, and the Lumia 640 XL will be available in matte cyan, orange, black, and white. Both phones will be available in Singapore at Microsoft Authorized Mobile Resellers in Funan DigitaLife Mall and GadgetWorld, 3Mobile and Handphoneshop outlets from 18 April. All three local operators and A-Mobile will also be retailing the device with data plans. 

*15 GB of OneDrive access comes standard. Additional 15 GB of OneDrive access with activation of Camera Roll. 1TB OneDrive access with activation of included Office 365 Personal subscription.

**Like any upgrade to a new operating system, not every phone will support all possible Windows 10 features. Certain features and experiences will require more advanced future hardware.

Office 365 users now eligible for unlimited OneDrive storage at no additional cost

All Microsoft Office 365 subscribers will now receive unlimited OneDrive storage at no additional cost, the company announced in its OneDrive Blog and Office Blog.

Source: Microsoft.

"For OneDrive for Business customers, unlimited storage will be listed on the Office 365 roadmap in the coming days and we will begin updating the First Release customers in 2015, aligned with our promise to provide ample notification for significant service changes," said Chris Jones, Corporate VP for OneDrive & SharePoint at Microsoft in the OneDrive blog post.

The feature will roll out over the coming months, starting with subscribers of Office 365 Home, Personal, and University. 

"OneDrive makes sure you always have all your important content on all your devices and enables multiple people to collaborate and co-author a single document at the same time. Gone are the days of not having that document right when you need it or managing multiple versions of the same document. 

"With OneDrive there is always just one source of truth available across all your devices. What’s more, with Office Delve, that important document your co-worker shared with you on their OneDrive actually finds you, versus you having to find it," adds Julia White, GM, Office 365 Technical Product Management, in the Office 365 blog post.

Users who can't wait to try the storage can click here to get on the list.

HP Stream notebooks come with a year's free Office 365 and OneDrive

HP today expanded the HP Stream line of thin and light Windows products that leverage the cloud with the addition of two new notebook PCs. While users traditionally pay a premium for thin and light notebooks, HP says that HP Stream makes such notebooks more affordable.

Source: HP. The HP Stream notebooks are available in
horizon blue and orchid magenta.

“Today’s consumers demand mobile products that fit their personal style and allow them to work and play where ever they are,” said Serena Yong, General Manager, Printing & Personal Systems, HP Singapore and Malaysia. “The HP Stream products announced today hit the mark with sleek design, portability, access to free cloud storage, and the familiarity of Windows and Office 365.”

The HP Stream includes value-added services with free cloud storage for instant access and sharing of content. It comes with 1TB of Microsoft OneDrive for one year*; Office 365 Personal for one year** to edit, share or collaborate in real-time.

Customers can enjoy images and video in high-definition (HD) with an 11.6” HD display or 13.3” HD optional touch display. A fanless design with high efficiency Intel Celeron processor and 32GB of eMMC flash memory allows for quiet, cool operation and quick file recall. 

The HP Stream products announced today are expected to be available in Singapore at the end of November.

*The OneDrive free cloud storage offer is available for a limited time. Check the activation card inside the package for details. For more information, go to http://onedrive.com/windowsoffer.

**Office 365 Personal 1-year with activation required within limited time. Internet access is required and not included. For more information, see www.office.com/information. Sixty minutes of Skype per month is included with subscription to Office 365. Actual application must be downloaded from skype.com.

Microsoft introduces new Office 365 plans for SMBs

Microsoft has announced three new Office 365 plans tailored for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) ranging from 1 to approximately 250 employees, to be available on October 1, 2014.

The new plans are:

• Office 365 Business – The full Office applications – Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Publisher, with 1TB of OneDrive for Business cloud storage to access, edit and share your documents across your Windows PC, Mac, iPad, Windows tablet and smartphone. 
• Office 365 Business Essentials – The core cloud services for running your business – business class email and calendaring, Office Online, online meetings, IM, video conferencing, cloud storage and file sharing and much more. 
• Office 365 Business Premium – Everything from both the Office 365 Business and Business Essentials plans. 

The new plans will replace Microsoft's current plans for SMBs over time – Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business, while the current Enterprise plans will remain the same.

"This new lineup reflects the feedback we’ve received from SMB customers about how they want to get started and grow with Office 365," says blog author Kirk Gregersen in the blog post. 

The new plans provide the following benefits: 

Choice: The Office 365 Business plan (US$8.25/user/month) makes it simple to get just the familiar, full Office apps at a great price – always up to date and available on all of the subscriber's devices including your PC, Mac, iPad and smartphone. The included 1TB of cloud storage makes it easy to access and edit important files from anywhere. 

Value: Business Premium includes Midsize Business’ services at the Small Business Premium price of US$12.50 user/month. Business Essentials matches Small Business on price (US$5/user/month) with improved features and additional services like Yammer and Active Directory support. There is a higher seat limit of 300. 

Flexibility: The plans allow moving a company or just specific users to an Enterprise plan, a different Business plan, or to add solutions like Project, Visio, Dynamics CRM Online.

Existing customers do not have to take any action until their first renewal after October 1, 2015. They will still receive some of the new benefits starting October 1, 2014. "Small Business and Small Business Premium customers will see their seat cap raise from 25 to 300 while Midsize Business customers (whose seat cap is already 300), will see their price be reduced from US$15/user/month to US$12.50/user/month. New Midsize Business customers will be able to take advantage of this reduced price starting August 1, 2014.


Source: Microsoft blog site.

After that date, subscribers will need to select one of the new plans at their next renewal date. Microsoft recommends that most customers continue using their current plans as they do today and move to the similar new plan at their first renewal after October 1, 2015.

"With the matching updates for our existing plans, only a small number of customers with very specific needs would realise value from moving plans before October 1, 2015," said Gregersen. "Some customers will be unable to opt-in and move to the new plans immediately at launch. We are delivering an update for these customers to enable them to move to the new subscriptions by October 1, 2015."

Learn more about Microsoft's existing plans on Office.com.

*All prices in the blog are listed at Estimated Retail Price per user per month, in US dollars with annual commitment. Local prices may vary.

Office for the iPad, finally

Microsoft has announced Microsoft Office for iPad, targeting the more than 170 million iPads shipped to date. 

Nadella discusses the intersection of cloud and mobile in the US.

“Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device. It’s a unique approach that centres on people — enabling the devices you love, work with the services you love, and in a way that works for IT and developers,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.
 

Office 365 subscribers can now add an iPad as one of their chosen devices included in their subscription benefits, and begin creating and editing documents with Word for iPad, PowerPoint for iPad and Excel for iPad in 29 languages. Office for iPad apps retain the Office look and feel but are built from the ground up for the iPad.

Office for iPad brings full file fidelity across Office on PC, Mac, tablet and phone, and along with cloud storage from OneDrive or OneDrive for Business so files are up to date, wherever needed, on whatever device as required. The apps are available as free downloads from the App Store and will work with iOS 7 or later, but only for reading, viewing and presenting documents, spreadsheets and presentations. To get the full editing and creation experience, an Office 365 subscription is required. More detail the announcements can be found in the Office blog.

In addition to Office for iPad, Microsoft also offers other iPad-optimised productivity applications, including OneNote, Dynamics CRM, Dynamics AX, Bing, Lync, Outlook Web Access, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, Yammer and Skype.

Industry observers have noted that the push for iPad share may be a little late as iPad users have had ample time to make use of productivity software from other companies, including Apple itself. The familiarity of Office may still be a draw, however. The number of downloads for Office for iPad will be a good indication of interest.

*Images from Microsoft.