AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Microsoft Wednesday added Android to the list of mobile operating systems now supported by Office Mobile. But Office Mobile for Android only covers phones, not tablets, limiting its utility.

The Android version, Office Mobile for Android, is also arguably the weakest of the bunch, in terms of compatibility with Microsoft Office. Microsoft is still tacitly encouraging users to buy Windows Phones, which come preloaded and activated with Windows Mobile and don’t require an Office 365 subscription to use. The problem is, within the Android world, there are a number of other office solutions that provide very good direct competition to Microsoft’s offering.

Nevertheless, Office Mobile for Android is free and downloadable from the Google Play Store. The only requirement is that your phone must contain Android 4.0 or higher, and you must already have purchased Office 365.

In a break with Office Mobile for iPhone, Microsoft doesn’t even offer the option to purchase Office 365 from within the app; instead, users must sign up outside the application itself. And without Office 365, Office Mobile for Android is virtually useless.

“The release of this app shows that we’re committed to keep providing additional value for Office 365 subscribers,” said Guy Gilbert, a senior product manager of the Office apps for Microsoft, in a blog post.

Qualifying Office 365 plans include Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 Small Business Premium, Office 365 Midsize Business, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E4, Office 365 Education A3 and A4, Office 365 ProPlus, and Office 365 University.

There are also Office 365 government plans that include Office Mobile. Users can also visit Office.com and sign up for a free 30-day trial, Microsoft said.

While Microsoft eventually intends to make Office Mobile for Android available across 33 languages and in 117 markets, it’s only currently available for the United States. That will change over the next few weeks, Microsoft said.

Like Office Mobile for iPhone, the Android version comes with mobile versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word; Office Mobile for Windows Phone adds OneNote as well. So far, Android users don’t have access to the Outlook Web App app that Microsoft recently released for the iPhone, either.

Users can create new documents, edit those that they’ve already created, and save, load, or edit files saved to Microsoft’s SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro—which on Tuesday received a few upgrades, as well.

But the ability to create files only applies to Word and Excel; for now, you can review your PowerPoint slides and edit them, but not create a presentation from scratch.

Users can also open a document via email. Office Mobile includes a couple of handy features designed for the phone;

The software knows what documents you’ve recently accessed on your PC, and those are the first options presented when you choose to open a saved file.

A feature that Microsoft calls Rapid Resume also works like Amazon’s Kindle, ‘fast-forwarding” you to the portion of the document last viewed on your PC.

An “outline view” in Excel and Word allow you to quickly navigate through the document, and both apps allow annotations as well.

Within the three supported apps, Microsoft has made efforts to make editing a snap; in Word (shown at top of story), for example, tapping the pencil brings up the most common editing functions. Excel allows you to filter and sort data and create charts, using the local processor to calculate data.

Within PowerPoint, users can review slides and edit speaker notes, move and hide slides, and make text edits directly from the phone. Holding the phone in a portrait orientation allows edits to be made and includes a quick navigation bar; a landscape orientation serves as presentation mode.

In general, Office Mobile for Android and Office Mobile for iPhone should function quite similarly, with two exceptions: Android users can not sign up for Office 365 within the app itself, and Android users may need to fully qualify documents that are accessed via an on-premise SharePoint server.

To date, however, Microsoft has been keenly cognizant that productivity apps are the foundation of the Windows platform, and users who purchase a Windows Phone will have these benefits:

Office 365 includes a license of up to five mobile devices—but Windows Phones don’t count against that limit.

The biggest annoyance, however, is that—like the iPad—tablets aren’t supported in either Office Mobile for the iPhone or the Android version, either. Those trying to hunt and peck at keys in the back of a jouncing taxi are likely to grit their teeth and muddle through; by doing so, however, Microsoft is tacitly encouraging customers in the direction of a Surface tablet—now at a new low, low, price—or even a full-fledged Windows 8 PC. (“Phablets” like the Samsung Galaxy Note II should still be supported, however.)

“If you have an iPad or Android tablet, we recommend using the Office Web Apps, which provide the best Office experience on a tablet,” a spokeswoman for Microsoft said via email. “We have made lots of enhancements to Office Web Apps including a touch experience for tablet users.”

Microsoft also has native apps for OneNote, Lync, and SharePoint, in addition to supporting Exchange Active Sync for email, calendar and contacts, she said.

”I’m not sure how many people are going to want to do a lot of Office work on a phone,” Michael Silver, an analyst at Gartner, said recently. “A tablet’s going to be a lot more important.”

Of course, there’s no reason that users have to live in the world that Microsoft has created. Plenty of Android office apps allow document creation or editing, both on a phone or tablet: Google Drive, of course, allows for Google’s own documents to be created; and Google’s own QuickOffice, Documents to Go, and OfficeSuite Pro 7 are all arguably as good or better choices than Microsoft’s offerings.

In one way, editing or creating an Office document on a mobile phone is counter-intuitive; too many people still append some sort of signature file on a mobile phone to explain away any typos or shorthand.

Within a business document, however, typos simply shouldn’t appear. Office Mobile can certainly stand in to enable last-minute changes while on the go, but they shouldn’t be considered as serious tools for document creation. And that’s exactly how Microsoft appears to want it.

View the original article here

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The rapid-fire spread of mobile devices being used by enterprise employees can be a huge boon for businesses in productivity and customer service gains, but those advantages don't come without a price.

The inherent flexibility and freedom to get business done anywhere, anytime, also makes it much harder to maintain the security and control of corporate data when employees are accessing and storing business information on their smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices. And the rush of new devices never seems to end, making it hard to stay out in front of innovations.

"Enterprises must plan now for the mobile devices of the future that they don't even know of yet," says Kevin Benedict, principal analyst at Netcentric Strategies LLC in Boise, Idaho. "So you build an infrastructure that says it doesn't care what devices are on the end of it and you have a framework that you just plug into."

Getting there isn't easy, however. One approach that can make implementing a mobile workforce easier--or at least consistent--is through mobile device management (MDM) strategies that can help enterprises address all related mobile issues in a top-to-bottom approach.

Among the challenges that an MDM strategy can help with: Which mobile devices to support, whether to allow employees to choose and bring their own devices into work, and how to handle security for mobile devices, including whether to have remote data wiping capabilities for lost or stolen devices.

One of the first decisions to make with an MDM strategy is to figure out which devices your employees will use and whether the individual or the company will pay for them.

At New York-based Edelman, the global PR firm, most of the 3,800 employees use RIM BlackBerries, unless they have a compelling work-related reason to use something else, says John Iatonna, the vice president of information security. Those cases are decided individually by business managers -- workers can be allowed to use iPhones or iPads if needed for the work they do, but RIM devices are Edelman's enterprise standard mobile devices.

Two reasons Edelman prefers using corporate-owned BlackBerry devices: The firm can negotiate more competitive pricing through its relationship with its enterprise phone carrier and it can maintain tighter management and security compared to other devices. "It's much easier to get hold of and track your BlackBerries than it is [other types of] smartphones," Iatonna says. "We do have an Apple and Android population, but those devices weren't designed with an enterprise environment in mind."

"BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is a much more developed and mature enterprise MDM system than the other smartphone MDM vendors," Iatonna said. And even though RIM has been losing market share to other vendors, its products and enterprise-level security capabilities still offer the best answers for Edelman's needs, he said.

For its part, SAP AG, the Germany-based software vendor, began its mobile workforce project in 2010, says global CIO Oliver Bussmann. At the time it included some 14,000 SAP-purchased Apple iPhones and iPads, and personal iPhones or iPads for another 500 users, who had to sign consent forms agreeing to SAP's terms of use, which vary from country to country depending on business requirements. The first employees to be brought into the mobile strategy were workers in the development organization, followed by executives and the entire global sales force, he said.

The reason for that specific order of rollout, Bussman explains: "We made the development teams that were building the apps test them as part of the process." Then, "executives demanded solutions quickly after that and then drove direction to focus on sales and other field resources."

Starting this past January, SAP expanded the program to also include more than 500 SAP-purchased Samsung Android Galaxy SII smartphones and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets, with more to be deployed by employees who request them based on a compelling business reason.

"Our strategy is to be device agnostic," Bussmann said, "The IT organization has to be in the driver's seat. If the CIO doesn't embrace the mobile trend, then the business organization bypasses the IT organization and that's not a good thing. Then it's being done without control and security and that can have an impact potentially on the company."

Centreville, Va.-based Carfax uses a blended approach, with some workers using company-issued iPhones and iPads and others using their own Android devices, says CIO Phil Matthews. "We allow other employees to use a BYOD (bring-your-own-device) approach where it works better for them or where they want to keep their device on their personal mobile plan."

The company's 400 field workers use devices that are company-provided or paid for through reimbursements. "We actually wanted people to have a consistent experience, so we chose iPads and iPhones as our main devices, but some people wanted Android devices" and are allowed to use them, he says. Workers previously carried laptops and printers along with BlackBerry devices, but productivity rose with the iPads and iPhones, he explains. "Our sales reps can complete more activities with the iPads and iPhones and we can provide them with mobile applications that allow them to collaborate much more easily than in the past."

Next page: Managing the expense associated with mobile devices

View the original article here

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Microsoft Wednesday added Android to the list of mobile operating systems now supported by Office Mobile. But Office Mobile for Android only covers phones, not tablets, limiting its utility.

The Android version, Office Mobile for Android, is also arguably the weakest of the bunch, in terms of compatibility with Microsoft Office. Microsoft is still tacitly encouraging users to buy Windows Phones, which come preloaded and activated with Windows Mobile and don’t require an Office 365 subscription to use. The problem is, within the Android world, there are a number of other office solutions that provide very good direct competition to Microsoft’s offering.

Nevertheless, Office Mobile for Android is free and downloadable from the Google Play Store. The only requirement is that your phone must contain Android 4.0 or higher, and you must already have purchased Office 365.

In a break with Office Mobile for iPhone, Microsoft doesn’t even offer the option to purchase Office 365 from within the app; instead, users must sign up outside the application itself. And without Office 365, Office Mobile for Android is virtually useless.

“The release of this app shows that we’re committed to keep providing additional value for Office 365 subscribers,” said Guy Gilbert, a senior product manager of the Office apps for Microsoft, in a blog post.

Qualifying Office 365 plans include Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 Small Business Premium, Office 365 Midsize Business, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E4, Office 365 Education A3 and A4, Office 365 ProPlus, and Office 365 University.

There are also Office 365 government plans that include Office Mobile. Users can also visit Office.com and sign up for a free 30-day trial, Microsoft said.

While Microsoft eventually intends to make Office Mobile for Android available across 33 languages and in 117 markets, it’s only currently available for the United States. That will change over the next few weeks, Microsoft said.

Like Office Mobile for iPhone, the Android version comes with mobile versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word; Office Mobile for Windows Phone adds OneNote as well. So far, Android users don’t have access to the Outlook Web App app that Microsoft recently released for the iPhone, either.

Users can create new documents, edit those that they’ve already created, and save, load, or edit files saved to Microsoft’s SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro—which on Tuesday received a few upgrades, as well.

But the ability to create files only applies to Word and Excel; for now, you can review your PowerPoint slides and edit them, but not create a presentation from scratch.

Users can also open a document via email. Office Mobile includes a couple of handy features designed for the phone;

The software knows what documents you’ve recently accessed on your PC, and those are the first options presented when you choose to open a saved file.

A feature that Microsoft calls Rapid Resume also works like Amazon’s Kindle, ‘fast-forwarding” you to the portion of the document last viewed on your PC.

An “outline view” in Excel and Word allow you to quickly navigate through the document, and both apps allow annotations as well.

Within the three supported apps, Microsoft has made efforts to make editing a snap; in Word (shown at top of story), for example, tapping the pencil brings up the most common editing functions. Excel allows you to filter and sort data and create charts, using the local processor to calculate data.

Within PowerPoint, users can review slides and edit speaker notes, move and hide slides, and make text edits directly from the phone. Holding the phone in a portrait orientation allows edits to be made and includes a quick navigation bar; a landscape orientation serves as presentation mode.

In general, Office Mobile for Android and Office Mobile for iPhone should function quite similarly, with two exceptions: Android users can not sign up for Office 365 within the app itself, and Android users may need to fully qualify documents that are accessed via an on-premise SharePoint server.

To date, however, Microsoft has been keenly cognizant that productivity apps are the foundation of the Windows platform, and users who purchase a Windows Phone will have these benefits:

Office 365 includes a license of up to five mobile devices—but Windows Phones don’t count against that limit.

The biggest annoyance, however, is that—like the iPad—tablets aren’t supported in either Office Mobile for the iPhone or the Android version, either. Those trying to hunt and peck at keys in the back of a jouncing taxi are likely to grit their teeth and muddle through; by doing so, however, Microsoft is tacitly encouraging customers in the direction of a Surface tablet—now at a new low, low, price—or even a full-fledged Windows 8 PC. (“Phablets” like the Samsung Galaxy Note II should still be supported, however.)

“If you have an iPad or Android tablet, we recommend using the Office Web Apps, which provide the best Office experience on a tablet,” a spokeswoman for Microsoft said via email. “We have made lots of enhancements to Office Web Apps including a touch experience for tablet users.”

Microsoft also has native apps for OneNote, Lync, and SharePoint, in addition to supporting Exchange Active Sync for email, calendar and contacts, she said.

”I’m not sure how many people are going to want to do a lot of Office work on a phone,” Michael Silver, an analyst at Gartner, said recently. “A tablet’s going to be a lot more important.”

Of course, there’s no reason that users have to live in the world that Microsoft has created. Plenty of Android office apps allow document creation or editing, both on a phone or tablet: Google Drive, of course, allows for Google’s own documents to be created; and Google’s own QuickOffice, Documents to Go, and OfficeSuite Pro 7 are all arguably as good or better choices than Microsoft’s offerings.

In one way, editing or creating an Office document on a mobile phone is counter-intuitive; too many people still append some sort of signature file on a mobile phone to explain away any typos or shorthand.

Within a business document, however, typos simply shouldn’t appear. Office Mobile can certainly stand in to enable last-minute changes while on the go, but they shouldn’t be considered as serious tools for document creation. And that’s exactly how Microsoft appears to want it.

View the original article here

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The oversized "sail" on VeriFone's SAIL card reader is intended to prevent the reader from swiveling when you swipe a card.VeriFone, one of the largest payment-processing companies around, developed SAIL after startups such as Square successfully created a new market to provide very small businesses with payment-processing services. SAIL comes with a free card reader and an app for iOS 4.3+ devices; a beta version for Android phones and tablets was announced on June 27, after this review was published. Using the SAIL pay-as-you-go plan, you can accept Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards for a per-transaction fee of 2.7 percent, or 3.7 percent for keyed-in transactions. The transaction fee for American Express cards is higher, at 3.7 percent.

Sign up for the SAIL subscription service at $10 per month, and your per-transaction fees will drop to 1.95 percent per swipe or 2.95 percent per keyed-in transaction. You can void and refund sales using the app, but only for the full transaction amount; you can issue partial refunds through the Web interface. You can also view and download transaction details (including sales, tax, and tip amounts) on the Web.

SAIL accepts and tracks cash payments and tips, and you can email customized receipts--including links to your pages on social networks--to your customers. Text messaging is not supported. The SAIL app did not support printing when this review was originally published, but the company announced on June 27 that printing can be performed by linking VeriFone's VeriFone VX 520 countertop device (which must be rented at a cost of $15 per month) to your SAIL account.

The SAIL card reader is the largest of the four mobile payment processing devices we tested, with a wide plastic arm on its back that’s designed to prevent the reader from swiveling while you swipe a card. In our experience, the arm didn’t prevent all movement, but it did help.

VeriFone's SAIL can sync inventories across multiple devices.One impressive feature: The service allows you to sync inventory items (including SKUs and UPCs) across mobile devices and via the SAIL Web interface. This option is convenient if you have more than a handful of items and will be taking payments using multiple devices and locations. We also liked using the device’s camera to add items to an order by scanning UPC bar codes. Among the four payment processors we looked at, SAIL was the only one to offer sync and bar-code features.

Though the SAIL app and service are both quite appealing, there’s plenty of room for improvement. While you can run the iOS app on an iPad, it doesn’t take advantage of the larger screen. VeriFone says that it will have an iPad-specific version in July. The company's app designers should make the interface more user friendly, while they’re at it: Switching between manually adding sale items and adding them from your inventory is unnecessarily confusing and difficult. And even if you prefer to use the app in portrait orientation, you must switch to landscape orientation to capture a signature.

Note: This review is part of a four-product roundup. You can read the introduction to the roundup here.

Note: This review has been updated to reflect that receipts can now be printed with the addition of a rented VeriFone VX 520 countertop device, and that Android tablet support is now available in a beta version. 7/6/2012

View the original article here