App updates of the week: Microsoft Office, Google Now, Skype and more!

This week, we saw Microsoft finally launch an Office app for iPad, which is known to have become a huge hit instantly. While Office has been hitting headlines, there were several other major updates to mobile and desktop apps this week that you should check out. Here’s a quick recap.

Microsoft Office MS Office needs no introduction, and its launch for iPad isn’t the only good news to come from Microsoft. It has now made Office for iPhone and Android smartphones free. Earlier while reading on the apps was free, users needed a subscription for editing features. However, the iPad version will still require an Office 365 subscription if you want to edit any document. As far as prices go the Office 365 Premium version costs around Rs 4,199 or around $69.9 per year and gives users access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SkyDrive cloud storage for 5 PCs or Macs, and mobile devices as well. You can also take a monthly subscription for around Rs 420.

Users can download Microsoft Office Mobile for Android from Google Play Store , and Office Mobile for iPad and iPhone from the App store .

Google Now for Chrome Earlier this week, Google’s Chrome team announced the availability of Google Now for desktop (i.e. not mobile) Chrome users, both PC and Mac. The Google Now feature is accessible only by  signing into Chrome  with the same account that one uses on their Now account on Android or iOS. The new update will display informative cards that appear on Android phones on your desktop browser. These cards provide information about weather, sports and other updates, depending on what you search. It will also display information related to your travel time to home or office, if you have saved the addresses.

Interestingly, if you are searching for something on the desktop, it reportedly also pops up a card on the phone too. Those who use multiple devices will need to manage the location settings for each of their devices separately.

Microsoft OneNote Microsoft has released a version of its OneNote note-taking software for Macs and added new features and a free tier for all of the software’s users in moves clearly targeted at up-and-coming productivity software rival Evernote. New Microsoft users also get 7 gigabytes of free online storage through its OneDrive cloud storage service. Some new features play catch-up to what Evernote offered already, including a OneNote Clipper button for Web browsers that saves Web pages as notes, and a universal email address me@onenote.com that gives users a single destination to email documents to themselves for saving as notes.

It is available for download at Mac App store .

Pocket TV for Android Yesterday, Airtel Digital TV, the DTH service arm of Bharti Airtel has launched ‘ Pocket TV ’, a mobile app that enables customers to watch their favorite TV programs while on the move. The app promises to offer more than 150 Live TV channels, over 10,000 hours of video content and over 13 channels on anytime TV for an introductory pricing of just Rs 60 per month. Once the app is installed, customers need to activate the service by sending the SMS to 54325 from their registered mobile number. It is now available for Android, and will be launched for iOS within a month.

The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store .

Skype for Outlook.com Earlier available for select countries, Microsoft now brings Skype for  Outlook.com across the world. With the new update, the company has included some bug fixes and other improvements. The latest version adds Safari for Mac support. It also brings HD video calling for PC users, with a fine print that reads, “both users must have compatible HD displays, web cams, messaging clients, and broadband internet.”