Microsoft Office for Android phones is free now

It was almost a footnote in Microsoft's big reveal of Office for iPad today, but the iPhone and Android version of Office Mobile is now free. Previously, these phone-focused apps required an Office 365 subscription. But with a new mobile platform to exploit, Microsoft has decided to allow us to view, edit, and create Office documents on our Android phones without shelling out for a subscription.

So if you have a need for native Word, Excel, and PowerPoint editing on your phone, hop over to the Google Play Store and grab it. Note that this version of Office is optimized for phones, not tablets, so it's not quite as capable as the new Office for iPad. Still, you can't beat the price, right?

NOTE:  Office for iPhone is also completely free.  Creating or editing content on the iPad requires a 365 subscription.

Microsoft is sweetening the pot to get you to upgrade...how's $100 sound?

Last week, Microsoft said it would offer a $50 discount for users upgrading from Windows XP. Now, it has upped the ante.

On Friday, a representative from Microsoft said that the company will now offer $100 off for those customers upgrading from older PCs running Windows XP. "Now through June 15, XP users looking to upgrade their hardware can save $100 and get free data transfer at MicrosoftStore.com or by bringing their old XP devices to their local Microsoft retail store," the representative said.

A representative for Microsoft said the deal won't even appear unless a user visits the Microsoft Store site via a Windows XP machine, however. And the $100 discount will only apply to certain PCs priced at over $599.

People can also physically bring in their old XP device to one of the more than 80 Microsoft retail store locations and instantly save $100 on the purchase of a qualifying PC priced at $599 or above, the Microsoft representative said, as well as receive free online data migration services to the new PC.

 Last week, Microsoft said that a new Microsoft Store offer would entice holdouts with a $50 gift card, 90 days of free support, and free data transfer (using Laplink's software) to their new PC. The old deal covered four laptops, four tablets, four hybrids, and four all-in-ones to choose from, all running Windows 8.1.

The free support is par for the course for Microsoft, while the Laplink data transfer is open to all Windows XP users.

If you insist on using XP, at least install Malwarebytes Premium!

As Malwarebytes announces its new Anti-Malware Premium suite Monday morning, it comes with a nice present for Windows XP users: lifetime support.  Perhaps it isn't entirely surprising given that, according to the company, 20 percent of its user base remains on Windows XP. Microsoft is actually extending malware support well beyond the XPocalypse date of April 8th, but knowing other companies have your back is a rare bright spot.

(Not that we’re encouraging anyone to stick with Windows XP. Cyber criminals are ready and waiting to pounce on the holdouts. There are some things you can do to protect your XP machine, but most people should upgrade to Windows 7/8, or consider Linux as an alternative safe haven. Microsoft’s campaign to move everyone off Windows XP involves increasingly lucrative enticements.)

Image: Malwarebytes

Regardless of your OS, the new Anti-Malware Premium suite unites five handy Malwarebytes products and offers a new interface for managing them. The heart of the suite is a new malware detection engine that uses behavior to identify suspicious software, rather than signatures that constantly have to be updated. That’s where the industry in general is going, because it’s better to nip malware in the bud than wait for it to be confirmed and fixed.

Should malware make it onto your system, a new Anti-Rootkit feature can dig deep into your computer to eradicate all traces of the foul creature. Another tool, called Chameleon, can force a system restart and malware scan even if your system’s been crippled by an attack. The suite also provides protection against browser-based risks, such as malicious URLs and aggressive adware and toolbars.

The company recommends its Anti-Malware Premium suite as a complement to a full-fledged antivirus suite. The $24.95 annual subscription covers up to three PCs, or Anti-Malware PRO lifetime-license holders may upgrade for free. Even better: The suite is a lightweight 16MB download. Separate from this suite, the company’s well-known cleanup tool will remain a free product.

Microsoft Office for IOS has arrived!

Microsoft on Thursday launched Office for iPad as a free suite of its flagship productivity software for Office 365 subscribers using Apple's tablet.

The software that has been customized for the iPad includes Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, each tailored for the tablet with a full range of tools and tricks familiar to users of Office on Windows PCs and Macs.

Office for iPad is available in Apple's App Store as a freemium product. The new iOS-optimized productivity suite also incorporates Microsoft's OneDrive and OneDrive for Business cloud storage and collaboration services, the company said.

With Office for IOS, anyone can view documents and present presentations via their device.  To edit or create anything, you must have an active Office 365 subscription.  At least this is a start!

Your Gmail messages are not secured in transit

Google is upping the security of Gmail with new measures to protect your email from prying eyes.

The Web giant on Thursday announced that from now on, Gmail will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check and send email. Gmail has always supported HTTPS, and in 2010 Google turned it on for everyone by default, but users still had the option to turn this protection off. From now on, Gmail is HTTPS-only, meaning the mail service no longer allows the more insecure HTTP connections.

"Today's change means that no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail's servers — no matter if you're using public Wi-Fi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet," Gmail Security Engineering Lead Nicolas Lidzborski wrote in a blog post.

One reason to avoid HTTPS is that it could be a tad slower than HTTP. But Google said it has been working for some time to address performance issues and now feels it has reached a point where it no longer makes sense to allow HTTP connections, a spokeswoman for the company told PCMag. Most Gmail users already use HTTPS, so this is just the final step in the transition.

Moreover, Google said that all messages you send and receive are now encrypted while moving internally on its servers. This means that your messages are not only safe when they move between your computer and Gmail's servers, but also as they move between Google's data centers.

Google said this change was something the company made "a top priority after last summer's revelations" — a nod to reports that the NSA collected data from companies like Google and Yahoo as that information moved between data centers.

Meanwhile, Google also provided an update about Gmail reliability. Last year, Gmail was available 99.978 percent of the time, which comes out to less than two hours of downtime per user per year.

"Our commitment to the security and reliability of your email is absolute, and we're constantly working on ways to improve," Lidzborski wrote.

Is Google going to kill Google Voice?

You know how some things are just inevitable? Like, a plant will wither if it doesn't have an adequate amount of sunlight and water? That's kind of what's happening Google Voice, if the latest hearsay is to be believed.

9to5Google reports from its own unnamed sources that Google plans to do the inevitable: roll up its Voice functionality into the Google+ Hangouts app for both Android and iOS devices. Hangouts will be able to do VoIP calls and SMS via your Google Voice number, in addition to the video calls and instant messaging it's capable of now.

It all makes perfect sense: once sequestered as its own standalone app, SMS messaging integration was recently rolled up into Hangouts after the launch of KitKat in an effort to kickstart Google's idea of a unified messaging app. Google Talk and Google Plus instant messaging are also a part of that package, and every service is easily accessible through one unified Omnibar that lets you search for anyone, whether they're in your Contacts or a public Google+ user.

Also consider Google's insistence for its users to use Google+. The social network is slowly transforming into a portal for every Google service you utilize. All the Google things that are not tied to a Google+ account are slowly being swallowed up by the things that do.

None of this is a new concept, but rather the proper evolution of Google's myriad of services. Its competitors, Apple and Microsoft, both insist you have a user ID to log into its services. Both companies also offer their own unified messaging portals: Apple's Messages on the Mac and iOS, and Microsoft's Lync on the desktop.

Either Google will push forth a silent update for Hangouts—as the company is known to do with some of its high profile services and apps—or we'll expect to hear an official announcement during the Google I/O keynote. For now it's just an unconfirmed rumor—and a wish that Google would just pull the trigger on the inevitable.