Office 365 includes the Microsoft Office suite of desktop applications and hosted versions of Microsoft’s Server products (including Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Lync Server), delivered and accessed over the Internet, in effect, the next version of Business Productivity Online Services.

Features of Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Exchange Online

Microsoft Exchange Online is a messaging/personal information management service hosted in the cloud. The service is based on Microsoft Exchange server and offers 25 GB of email storage per licensed product. In addition, Exchange online offers users personalized calendars and contacts with sharing capability and 99.9% reliability in online secure back-up. Exchange ActiveSync provides mobile connectivity to Exchange services and mobile email applications.

Microsoft SharePoint Online

Microsoft SharePoint Online is a collaboration, sharing, and document editing service using internal and external sites. It can also be used to create public-facing Web sites.

Microsoft Lync Online

Microsoft Lync Online provides communications features including presence information, instant messaging, PC-to-PC audio/video calling and online meetings that can include PC audio, video and web conferencing with application sharing, whiteboards, and other collaboration tools.

Office Professional Plus

Microsoft Office Professional Plus in Office 365 provides the same client software as the Office Professional Plus product available through Microsoft Volume Licensing. Office Professional Plus in Office 365 has month-to-month, per-user licensing. It can be installed by users from Microsoft Online Services.

Office Web Apps

Office Web Apps are browser-based versions of Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint that enable viewing and lightweight editing of Office documents in Web browsers while preserving the formatting of the original documents.

Microsoft Office 365 Plans

Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses

This service plan is designed for up to 25 employees who want:

• A solution without dedicated IT staff
• Essential email, calendar, and website services
• Free online community support
• Month-to-month subscription

Microsoft Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises

This service plan is great for any size organization that wants:

• Advanced IT configuration and control
• Office Professional Plus, Active Directory or advanced archiving
• 24×7 IT Administrator support
• Choice between monthly and annual contracts

Microsoft Office 365 for education

Plans for academic and education institutions are also available.

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This article All about Microsoft Office 365 was originally published on Techonzo

The most fuzzy rumor about Microsoft as of now is ‘Microsoft buying Nokia‘. There are ‘n’ number of sources which indicate a high probability of this deal. This rumor was originated by a Russian blogger back in 2010, who was even sued by Nokia. But today as I said this rumor is coming from many sources.

If at all Microsoft buys Nokia, this will gonna be the biggest deal of the year, as the numbers expected for this deal is more than $35 billion. And if we look at this deal from Nokia’s point of view, its gonna be a tremendous deal for them. Nokia anyways loosing its market share from 41 percent (last year) to 29 percent (March/April 2011). They also revealed that they are going to discontinue the OVI branding.

Lets wait and watch how this whole picture turns up. Stay tuned with us..

This article Microsoft to buy Nokia – A rumor or truth? was originally published on Techonzo

But did Microsoft come through with a stable computing platform, with decent hardware requirements and a hardened security model? The definite answer is yes. I’ve been running Windows 7 on my laptop for over a month, installed all the applications I’d normally use – iTunes, Office, Firefox, Mozy – and they all worked fine, without any compatibility settings or whatnot.

While my computer is far from being state of the art, it is able to run Firefox, iTunes, Word and Photoshop at the same time, with decent speed. On just 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 2,2Ghz AMD Turion 62 single core processor. The visual effects are fluid on a two year old ATi X200M graphics chipset with just 64MB of RAM. What they did under the hood, optimizing the code to run faster, is simply amazing. Running Vista on this laptop was like swimming with cement boots, even with the visual effects turned off.

A very important aspect for Windows users, security, has also been addressed in many ways, and while most of the technologies were present in Vista, they have been improved in Windows 7. The UAC (User Access Control) dialogs are less frequent and not so annoying, executables are scanned for digital signatures of their vendor, you are notified about files downloaded from the internet as well as an improved firewall and notification center. DEP (Data Execution Prevention) is enabled by default, we still have the KPP (Kernel Patch Protection) and a significantly improved Autorun. Also, the privilege level of your account is not root, which would grant you unlimited access to system resources, but a member of the Administrators group. To affect changes that may affect system integrity and security you have to accept an UAC prompt. In addition to this, all start-up items that access critical system areas are also required to be manually approved via an UAC prompt. Checks and flags are implemented all around, to the point that you would have to ignore multiple security warnings in order to get infected. These are all significant changes from Windows XP. All around, you can see that the engineers have dedicated a significant amount of time to securing the operating system.

From such an important aspect as security,we go on to examine the improvements in the user interface department. The taskbar, part Mac OS X dock, part Start menu is an elegant and comprehensive UI element. The functionality offered is simply amazing; We have quick access to commonly used applications, an amazing way to find the window you’re looking for with Quick Look, a streamlined notification area which is clean yet retains usability and instant search from the Start menu. I’m sorry to disappoint the Linux and Mac OS fans, but Windows 7, as it is today, has the most advanced and usable UI.

With Windows 7 Microsoft has changed the game. I for one was saving money for a MacBook, which from a Windows XP viewpoint is an incredible upgrade. But compared to Windows 7, not so much. We have performance, stability, a not too shabby security model, an incredible selection of hardware and software. If lastly, we consider the price – free until June next year – we have an incredibly attractive offer. The ball is at Apple and the pitch is going down at WWDC. Unless something amazing comes out, it’s going to be a homerun for Windows 7.

This Time, Windows 7 Editions Build On Each Other

There are three Windows 7 editions that will be sold at retail in the US market:

1. Home Premium
2. Professional
3. Ultimate

If you tried out Windows 7 in its public Beta or RC versions, you used a pre-release of the Ultimate edition, although it’s possible to tweak the installation process to install other editions. So, what are the major “core” features of these editions of Windows 7?

According to Microsoft’s ”Which One Is Right for You?” , here are the common features (many of which we will cover in current or upcoming Feature Focus articles):

• Improved GUI and desktop navigation
• Windows Search
• Internet Explorer 8
• Windows Media Center

HomeGroup (Windows 7-specific networking) o et
 es were present in Vista, they have been improved in Windows 7. The UAC (User Access Control) dialogs are less frequent and not so annoying, executables are scanned for digital signatures of their vendor, you are notified about files downloaded from the internet as well as an improved firewall and notification center. DEP (Data Execution Prevention) is enabled by default, we still have the KPP (Kernel Patch Protection) and a significantly improved Autorun. Also, the privilege level of your account is not root, which would grant you unlimited access to system resources, but a member of the Administrators group. To affect changes that may affect system integrity and security you have to accept an UAC prompt. In addition to this, all start-up items that access critical system areas are also required to be manually approved via an UAC prompt. Checks and flags are implemented all around, to the point that you would have to ignore multiple security warnings in order to get infected. These are all significant changes from Windows XP. All around, you can see that the engineers have dedicated a significant amount of time to securing the operating system.

From such an important aspect as security,we go on to examine the improvements in the user interface department. The taskbar, part Mac OS X dock, part Start menu is an elegant and comprehensive UI element. The functionality offered is simply amazing; We have quick access to commonly used applications, an amazing way to find the window you’re looking for with Quick Look, a streamlined notification area which is clean yet retains usability and instant search from the Start menu. I’m sorry to disappoint the Linux and Mac OS fans, but Windows 7, as it is today, has the most advanced and usable UI.

With Windows 7 Microsoft has changed the game. I for one was saving money for a MacBook, which from a Windows XP viewpoint is an incredible upgrade. But compared to Windows 7, not so much. We have performance, stability, a not too shabby security model, an incredible selection of hardware and software. If lastly, we consider the price – free until June next year – we have an incredibly attractive offer. The ball is at Apple and the pitch is going down at WWDC. Unless something amazing comes out, it’s going to be a homerun for Windows 7.

This Time, Windows 7 Editions Build On Each Other

There are three Windows 7 editions that will be sold at retail in the US market:

1. Home Premium
2. Professional
3. Ultimate

If you tried out Windows 7 in its public Beta or RC versions, you used a pre-release of the Ultimate edition, although it’s possible to tweak the installation process to install other editions. So, what are the major “core” features of these editions of Windows 7?

According to Microsoft’s ”Which One Is Right for You?” , here are the common features (many of which we will cover in current or upcoming Feature Focus articles):

1. Improved GUI and desktop navigation
2. Windows Search
3. Internet Explorer 8
4. Windows Media Center
5. HomeGroup (Windows 7-specific networking)

Microsoft’s list leaves out some significant core features, though, including:

1. 32-bit and 64-bit editions provided in retail/upgrade versions
2. Windows Aero desktop (with supported graphics cards and drivers)
3. Improved wireless networking
4. Improved network management for mixed Windows 7/Vista/XP networks
5. Improved audio and video codec support
6. Improved digital TV support
7. Windows Backup for both files and system image
8. Devices and Printers management interface
9. Device Stage enhanced driver support for multifunction devices

This article Is Windows 7 The Best Ever ??? was originally published on Techonzo