Starting
in May, Microsoft will offer a preview of Skype for Business PSTN Calling services in
the UK.
With the preview, customers in the UK will be able to trial number
acquisition and assignment, inbound and outbound calling, voicemail and other
features—all provided by Microsoft and seamlessly integrated as part of Office
365. Office 365 customers in the UK can register for the preview today at theSkype Preview sign-up page.
Today, I’m excited to announce that we are activating Yammer for every eligible Office 365 tenant—new and existing—without requiring additional action on the part of admins. This allows all Office 365 customers to gain the full benefits of Yammer. It also marks the culmination of our foundational efforts—including moving Yammer into Microsoft managed datacenters and undertaking identity work with Azure Active Directory—to bring Yammer fully into Office 365.
Seamless availability in Office 365
With this groundwork laid, we’re poised to provide a new set of high-value user and admin scenarios. Every Office 365 user with a Yammer license will be able to easily access Yammer from the Office 365 app launcher or start a Yammer conversation from SharePoint, Office 365 Video Portal and, coming soon, Delve and Skype Broadcast. This enables you and your coworkers to share ideas and work together in the open using Yammer’s flexible workspaces.
Making Yammer available in Office 365 is key to unlocking new experiences for users that span their productivity apps. As a case in point, Yammer will hook into the Office 365 Groups service in the first half of 2016 to deliver powerful cross-suite scenarios that let you escalate your Yammer conversation into a Skype call, schedule a meeting using Outlook calendar, access your files in OneDrive, create tasks in Planner and more, all from your Yammer group.
Covered by the Office 365 Trust Center
Organizations benefit from the industry-leading control, security and privacy commitments of Office 365 when using Yammer—enabling collaboration to take place against a backdrop of trust. Yammer is now covered by the Office 365 Trust Center, which offers the protection of international and regional standards such as the Office 365 Data Processing Agreement with European Union Model Clauses (DPA with EUMC), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Office 365 Business Associate Agreement (HIPAA BAA), ISO 27001, ISO 27018, compliance with Section 508 for web accessibility and SSAE 16 SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports.
We’re also delivering a simpler, more powerful admin experience with the ability to manage key aspects of Yammer from Office 365, including identity, user and license management. Moving forward, we’ll continue to work closely with regulatory bodies to track evolving standards and requirements and offer you controls that help you meet these requirements when you use Yammer and Office 365.
More innovation ahead
Even as we celebrate activating Yammer for millions of new users, we remain focused on finding new ways to drive collaboration forward. Bringing Yammer together with the Office 365 platform puts us in a unique position to help people harness the power of their network through the productivity apps they rely on every day. We invite you to join us on this journey by working in Yammer today.
Microsoft have announced that they are recalling many Microsoft surface power cords and affected customers can apply for a free replacement. This recall applies to:
AC power cords for Microsoft Surface Pro, Microsoft Surface Pro 2, and Microsoft Surface Pro 3 devices sold before 15 July 2015
This recall DOES NOT apply to:
AC power cords for Microsoft Surface RT, Microsoft Surface 2, Microsoft Surface 3, Microsoft Surface Pro 3 devices sold after 15 July 2015, Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Microsoft Surface Book
Power supplies with DC power cord for all devices
AC power cords and power supplies for the docking stations for Microsoft Surface Pro, Microsoft Surface Pro 2, Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and Microsoft
Surface 3Microsoft will provide one AC power cord replacement free of charge for each eligible Surface Pro device that you own. No proof of damage is required to receive a replacement AC power cord.
Microsoft will provide one AC power cord replacement free of charge for each eligible Surface Pro device that you own. No proof of damage is required to receive a replacement AC power cord. If you have more than one Surface Pro device, you’ll need to submit a replacement order for each one
Major updates for the OneDrive for Business Platform
Storage plans
Office 365 customers on our premium Enterprise, Government and Education plans will receive OneDrive for Business unlimited storage. Specifically, this includes unlimited storage for individuals in organizations with more than five people subscribing to one of the following plans:
Office 365 Enterprise E3, E4 and E5
Office 365 Government E3, E4 and E5
Office 365 Education
OneDrive for Business Plan 2 and SharePoint Online Plan 2
We will begin rolling out increased storage to these customers by the end of this month, starting with an automatic increase from 1 TB to 5 TB per user. We expect this rollout to complete by the end of March 2016. After this point, customers who want additional storage can request it as needed by contacting Microsoft support.
Customers on all other Office 365 Enterprise, Business and standalone plans that include OneDrive for Business will continue to receive 1 TB of storage per user. While customers on these plans will not receive the full unlimited benefit, we expect it will serve the vast majority of users. Today, most OneDrive for Business users consume significantly less than 1 TB.
Overall, we have taken too long to provide an update on our storage plans around OneDrive for Business. We also recognize we are disappointing customers who expected unlimited storage across every Office 365 plan, and I want to apologize for not meeting your expectations. We are committed to earning your business every day by delivering a great productivity and collaboration service and improving our communication approach.
Next Generation Sync Client for Windows and Mac
After a successful preview program, we are happy to report that the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client is now available for deployment. Our top priorities for this release were improved reliability and performance, as well as delivering core capabilities such as selective sync, support for large files up to 10 GB in size and removing the 20,000 file sync limit. For IT Professionals, we’ve provided the ability to silently deploy and configure the client on behalf of your end users. The OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client is available for Windows 7, 8 and 10 (8.1 support will be added in the first quarter of 2016) and Mac OS X 10.9 and above. The Windows client is available today with the Mac client being available before the end of December 2015.
With this first release, the Next Generation Sync Client supports OneDrive for Business only, but we will add support for SharePoint document libraries in future releases. In the interim, if customers require sync for both OneDrive for Business and SharePoint document libraries, the Next Generation Sync Client is designed to work side-by-side with the existing sync client.
Additionally, we are actively working on other important features including Office integration to support the co-authoring of documents and sharing scenarios (planned for the second quarter of 2016), as well as a more seamless experience for users who are migrating from the existing sync client (planned for the first quarter of 2016). Go here to learn more and get started.
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Microsoft have just announced that they have started rolling out Office 365 Planner
preview to Office 365 First Release customers today.
Office 365 Planner, a new experience in Office 365 offers a simple and visual
way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for teams to create plans,
organize and assign work, share files, chat about what everyone is working on
and get updates on progress.
Starting today, Planner preview will start rolling out to all commercial First
Release customers in the United States. We expect to complete rollout of
Planner Preview to commercial First Release customers worldwide and to EDU
First Release customers worldwide over the next several weeks. Office 365
tenant admins will get detailed directions on how to enable Planner within
their tenancy. Planner preview is EU compliant but will not be available for
customers in GCC (Government Community Cloud) at this time.
Archiving third-party data in Office 365 now available in Preview: When it comes to compliance, organizations can no longer afford to think about email alone. Rather, they must now account for new mediums including social media, instant messaging and collaboration platforms.
The evolution of PowerPoint—introducing Designer and Morph: Introducing PowerPoint Designer and Morph, new intelligent tools that automate the creation of slides and presentations—helping everyone get more out of Microsoft Office. With a cloud-powered recommendation engine and smart animation technology, these new PowerPoint capabilities help anyone create polished slides and captivating motion effects with just a few quick steps.
Microsoft Office apps are ready for the iPad Pro: Microsoft Office apps are ready for the iPad Pro. As we announced in September, we have optimized Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote apps for the iPad Pro. Starting today, these Office apps are now available and take full advantage of new multitasking features, so you can be productive on your iPad Pro right away.
OneDrive storage plans change in pursuit of productivity and collaboration
By The OneDrive Team - November 2, 2015
We’re making changes to OneDrive storage plans for consumers and are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible.
Since we started to roll out unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 consumer subscribers, a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings. In some instances, this exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average. Instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios, we want to remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users.
Here are the changes:
We’re no longer planning to offer unlimited storage to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers. Starting now, those subscriptions will include 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016.
Free OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, current and new. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued. These changes will start rolling out in early 2016.
We’re taking the following steps to make this transition as easy as possible for customers:
If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and have stored in excess of 1 TB, you will be notified of this change and will be able to keep your increased storage for at least 12 months.
If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and find that Office 365 no longer meets your needs, a pro-rated refund will be given. Click here to learn more.
If you are using more than 5 GB of free storage, you will continue to have access to all files for at least 12 months after these changes go into effect in early 2016. In addition, you can redeem a free one-year Office 365 Personal subscription (credit card required), which includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
Current customers of standalone OneDrive storage plans (such as a 100 or 200 GB plans) are not affected by these changes.
OneDrive has always been designed to be more than basic file storage and backup. These changes are needed to ensure that we can continue to deliver a collaborative, connected, and intelligent service. They will allow us to continue to innovate and make OneDrive the best option for people who want to be productive and do more.
Additional information can be found at the FAQ, and we will continue to update it throughout the transition.
Tired of digging around for the file you want to attach when you were just working on it earlier? Tired of later trying to sift through emails to find links shared with you? With the Windows release of Outlook 2016, attachments just got a whole lot better. You can now skip the hassles associated with finding and sharing files, regardless of whether you were working on them on your computer, phone or tablet.
The next time you go to attach a file to your email, the first thing you’ll notice is a list of recently accessed documents under the Recent Items. The Recent Items list is comprised of documents on your local hard drive as well as OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint—making it simple to pick files you have accessed across any of your devices.
If you can’t find what you were looking for in the Recent Items list, we make it easy to navigate to your OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint locations by selecting Browse Web Locations. To find other files saved on your PC, choose the Browse this PC option to open File Explorer.
If you select a OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint file to share, Outlook’s new attachment feature shows you what permissions you’re granting to your recipients at a glance. Of course, you also have the ability to change these permissions or even attach a copy instead—all without having to go to where it’s stored.
When you send your email, Outlook does the work of granting everyone the right set of permissions behind the scenes. Additionally, because the OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint links now appear side-by-side with your other attachments, you’ll notice a paperclip associated with them and have the ability to search for them just as you do with attachments today.
This new attachment experience is available today for users of Outlook 2016 on Windows devices, while continuous improvements and new features will be delivered to Office 365 subscribers. The best way to get the latest features with Office is to subscribe to Office 365. If you aren’t already taking advantage of the new experience, give it a try with your next attachment!
If you have OneDrive on your PC, and you capture a screenshot, you might be asked if you want to automatically save your screenshots to OneDrive. Here are answers to some common questions about this:
What will happen when I save screenshots?
They'll still be saved to your Clipboard as before, so you can immediately paste them. They'll also be saved to the "OneDrive/Pictures/Screenshots" folder on your PC and automatically uploaded to your online storage. You can get to the folder in File Explorer by opening OneDrive in the left folder pane.
How much does it cost to store files in OneDrive?
You get free storage with OneDrive and can buy more storage if you need it. Most people are surprised by how much they can fit in their free OneDrive storage. If you use a metered Internet connection, data rates will apply. See the next section for more info about minimizing your connection charges.
Will my screenshots upload right away?
Yes, if you're connected to the Internet. If you want to take screenshots that you don't want to upload immediately, you can temporarily turn off your network connection before you take screenshots and while you make any changes to them.
When I add screenshots to OneDrive, how can I get to them?
You can get to them by going to the OneDrive website from any device with a web browser that's connected to the Internet. You can also get to them by using the OneDrive app on a device with an Internet connection. Get OneDrive apps.
Are there any screenshots I can't save to OneDrive?
Screenshots can't be more than 10 GB in size. Some kinds of content are also prohibited. For more info, check thecode of conduct. For work-related screenshots, we recommend using OneDrive for Business.
If I no longer want to automatically save screenshots to OneDrive, how can I turn off this setting?
To change this setting, follow these steps:
Press and hold or right-click the OneDrive icon in the notification area, at the far right of the taskbar, and then tap or click Settings. (You might need to tap or click the Show hidden icons arrow next to the notification area to see the OneDrive icon.)
Tap or click the Auto save tab, and then clear the Automatically save screenshots I capture to OneDrive box.
Word real-time co-authoring—a closer look: Now that Office 2016 is officially here, we are giving a special nod to one of our coolest features within the suite—real-time co-authoring. The Word team is honored to debut this new capability in Office 2016 for Windows.
Gartner recognizes Microsoft as a Leader in the 2015 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace for seven years running!: Yammer has long recognized that social networking has the ability to revolutionize information-sharing in the workplace, which is why we first launched an enterprise social network in 2008. Now, for the seventh year in a row, Gartner recognizes Microsoft as a Leader in the 2015 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace, reflecting Yammer's vision for workplace collaboration. —Read more about Yammer from Bryan Goode.
Skype for Business iOS app now available: We’ve been working hard to ensure Skype for Business can make you productive on any device. Since we announced the Skype for Business for iOS preview, we’ve received great response, and today we are excited to announce that the new Skype for Business app for iOS devices is now publicly available.
