Always there is a say, if you had your stuff with you, you are good to go, but if you depend on someone, wait for their schedule.

Microsoft has released their flagship product Office 2013 at the end of Feb 2013 and till today the rollout plan/ Service upgrade is just under way for Office 365 users.

Office 365 users will be the last to know the taste of Office 2013 product. (I had the impression that O365 users will be the first to taste it)

If you are a small business users, click here

If you are an Enterprise user, click here

Also what to expect during and after the upgrade….Click here

I am a good fan of Microsoft products, but it seems i should not keep my expectations high

Office 365 Home Premium kit, you can purchased from local dealers/ electronics shop in Dubai @499 Dirhams for 1 year (Price may vary from stores to store and this blog cannot guarantee that).

I believe this is a good move with lot of features built into the package.

Enjoy!!!

The redesign goals were to create a fast and fluid sign-in experience that’s optimized for modern devices, reduce the number of times users need to sign in, and provide the best possible performance and usability on computing devices.

The new sign in experience automatically adapts to the screen resolution and capabilities of different devices, Operating Systems and browsers. It looks best on recent versions of IE (8+), Chrome, Safari, Windows Phones, iOS and Android devices. It’s optimized for touch and also works great with mouse or keyboard-only navigation.

This update provides easier and enhanced access to Single Sign On for federated users and is designed to save you and your users’ time by simplifying your subsequent sign-in process. No action required from the user end for this task.

Enjoy!!!

What to do after the service update
Microsoft will start a gradual rollout of the Office 365 service update in late February 2013. As soon as you notice the changes, follow these steps to check your Lync recording and external communications settings:

1. In the Office 365 portal, click Admin, and under Service settings, click IM, meetings and conferencing.
2. Turn the External communication and Recording settings on or off as required.

Microsoft O365 portal will send these type of notification to all the O365 administrators.

Enjoy.

• 24/7 access to your documents.
• Read and edit while you’re offline.
• Everything syncs with SharePoint whenever you go back online.
• Browser-free interaction with your documents.
• Opening your documents in a Web browser is fine, but working directly in your file system is usually more convenient.

To sync a library: Go to the library > click Sync at the top of the page > click Sync Now in the SkyDrive Pro wizard. (Keep in mind the following restrictions and limitations related to syncing SharePoint libraries.)

How many items can I sync?

• You can sync up to 20,000 items in your SkyDrive Pro library, including folders and files.
• You can sync up to 5,000 items in other SharePoint libraries, including folders and files. These are the libraries you find in various SharePoint sites, such as team sites and community sites.

What’s the size limit for downloading files?

In any SharePoint library, you can download files of up to 2 GB.

What’s the character limit for files and folders?

These limits apply to files and folders that you add to a synced library folder for uploading to SharePoint. In normal practice, you’re unlikely to hit these limits. But I’ll mention them here, just in case:

• File names can have up to 128 characters
• Folder names can have up to 256 characters
• Folder name/file name combinations can have up to 260 characters

If you have a file, folder, or combination that exceeds the limit, the item will remain in the synced library folder, and an error icon will appear on the item to tell you that there’s a sync problem.

Invalid characters

You cannot upload files with names that contain any of the following characters: \ /:* ? ” < > | # { } % ~ &

Invalid file types

You cannot upload OneNote files, or files with a *.tmp or *.ds_store extension. Additionally, you cannot upload desktop.ini, thumbs.db, or ehthumbs.db.

Hope this will help

To know more, click here

Enjoy!!!

Offline access in Outlook Web App for Exchange 2013 lets users use Outlook Web App even when not connected to a network.

Offline access is newly available in Outlook Web App on the following web browsers.:

• Internet Explorer 10
• Safari 5 or greater (supported on Mac desktops only)
• Chrome

For more information about the offline user experience, see Using Outlook Web App offline.

Click here to read more

Internet Explorer 7 is not compatible with the updates to Office Web Apps. For the best user experience, Office 365 users should use a modern web browser.  Microsoft  urge you to upgrade these users to a current version of Internet Explorer immediately to preserve the user experience. Instruct these users to run Windows Update to upgrade their browser.

New features in Office Web Apps
Using web-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote you can view, edit, and work together on Office documents from nearly anywhere. And with the latest update, you’ll get more editing and formatting controls, co-authoring support across the web apps and expanded device support, including editing from tablets. Learn about the new features.

What to expect during the service update
There are three things you may encounter during the planned maintenance period between 07 November 2012 and 14 November 2012. We will send another email 24-48 hours before the period begins as a reminder.

1. There may be moments when administrative functions (such as granting permissions or creating new document libraries) will be temporarily disabled. These should be brief, but could last up to 30 minutes.
2. New documents that are added to SharePoint between 07 November 2012 and 14 November 2012 won’t be indexed for searching during the maintenance period. Indexing will resume on 14 November 2012, and documents that were added during the maintenance period will be indexed at that time.

SharePoint content will be read-only for up to 30 minutes. This will only happen once.

• To upgrade to the new version of your existing device, click here
• Click the Evoko Configurator 6.0.0.6
• Download the latest software version of Evoko Room Manager to your computer.
• Configur/re-configur your device and export the settings to the USB device.
• Connect your USB to the Evoko screen and choose either the “Upgrade” button from the Admin section and follow the instructions.
• Now the device is configured with new settings and new Software upgrade to Version 6.0

Enjoy!!!

In March 2012, Microsoft announced that Office 365 will no longer support Internet Explorer 7 after 1 October 2012. After October, Microsoft will be delivering service updates that include new features, which require Internet Explorer 8 or higher. One last thing: Microsoft won’t block connections from Internet Explorer 7 after 1 October 2012. In fact, Office 365 users probably won’t see any immediate differences. But as time goes on and microsoft deliver more service updates, Internet Explorer 7 users for O365 will begin to encounter more issues with the Office 365 service.

To download latest Internet Explorer, Click here