2013

Still running XP or Vista and eyeing Office 2013? Sorry, you're out of luck.

Unveiled Monday, the upcoming new Office suite won't support Windows XP or Vista, meaning users who need or want Office 2013 will have to upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Microsoft confirmed the tighter requirements on its Office 2013 Preview Technet page. Only Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012 will be able to run the new suite.

Users will also need a PC with at least a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM for the 32-bit version (2GB … Read more

Microsoft is aiming Office 2013 at touch-screen devices as well as PCs. So the company is starting to pull out the stops to convince tablet users that the new Office is just right for them.

In a blog post yesterday, Clint Covington, a lead program manager for Microsoft's User Experience team, explained how touch works in the new suite. Products such as OneNote and Lync have been redesigned from the ground up to fully support touch. The other applications in Office have been "touch-enabled," which means they support certain touch features but remain true to their roots … Read more

Ultrabook and MacBook Air shipments numbers will grow by about 7 million units in 2013, according to market researcher Gartner.

"We are looking at about 5 percent of total mobile notebook shipments in 2012. That includes Apple's MacBook Air, which is a big portion of that five percent," Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner, told CNET.

Kitagawa went on to say that "big" does not necessarily mean more than 50 percent but would not get more specific.

Gartner describes the combination of ultrabooks and the MacBook Air as "ultramobile notebooks." Typically, ultramobile laptops … Read more

As you've no doubt heard by now, Microsoft just announced Office 2013 and The New Microsoft Office suite.

Not announced: pricing.

Call it a hunch, but I suspect Microsoft will charge at least as much for Office 2013 as it does for Office 2010. After all, the new suite is chock-full of new features, giving Microsoft ample justification for keeping prices the same -- or even raising them.

Currently, Office 2010 Home and Student and Office 2010 Home and Business sell for $119.99 and $199.99, respectively. That's for a single-user license. The three-user version of Home … Read more

Today, Microsoft announced the latest version of its popular productivity suite, Office 2013. The Office suite has been reworked with Windows 8 and touch-screen tablets in mind. One more key feature is that it will rely heavily on the cloud.

If you're eager to get your hands on this new set of tools, you'll be glad to know you won't have to wait. Microsoft has posted a Customer Preview of Office 2013 here. You'll need to be running Windows 7 or the Release Preview of Windows 8 in order to install it. You will notice the … Read more

Microsoft unveiled its plans for Microsoft Office 2013. CNET's already had a chance to do an in-depth hands-on with the new Office. Have more questions? Check out our answers below. … Read more

With the newest version of Office, Microsoft is touting more flexibility regarding where and on what device you can access its key productivity software.

Office remains a crown jewel for Microsoft, and its latest revamp puts the software in line with the new Microsoft look, where it fits in with Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and the updated Xbox, among other products. While Office remains a dominant product used by most people in businesses, it faces competition from low-cost alternatives, including Google's suite of Web-based office applications.

Microsoft hopes to keep its lead going with Office and is embracing … Read more

Announced today, Microsoft's latest Office suite will try to help users collaborate more easily through social media.

Demoing the new version of Office at a press conference, Kirk Koenigsbauer, a corporate vice president for Office, showed a five-person video chat using Microsoft's Lync application. In the demo, Koenigsbauer revealed how he could drag and drop someone from his buddy list into the live meeting.

Another participant was able to drop a PowerPoint presentation onto the shared canvas for all to see. Koenigsbauer then showed how users could draw directly on the presentation via a touch-screen device, which then … Read more

Micosoft VP of MS Office Kirk Koenigsbauer showed off a new OneNote today, with a demo of the program's added features, including the ability to add media and edit quickly.

Koenigsbauer's demo shows the digital note-taking program's abilities with text, media, inking, and more, according to the CNET Live Blog from today's press event.

The program features a new "radial menu" -- a circular toolbox of sorts designed to let users easily edit the note's content -- and an ability to easily grab content to bring into OneNote. This includes using a tablet … Read more