Microsoft officially took the wraps off the latest productivity suite – Microsoft Office 2013, or better known as simply Office 15.

We won’t get into the nitty gritty of Office 15 for two main reasons: (1) there’s a lot to cover ‘cause this is a huge HUGE improvement from previous Office releases and (2) we’d rather just comment on it once we get our hands on the final and public.

Instead, we’ll just give you a quick rundown of what’s there to get excited about in Office 2013. So without further ado, let’s begin:

• Office is now online, all the time (think: Google Docs the Microsoft way)
• Touch and stylus optimized, making Office finally tablet-ready
• Skype integration with bonus world minutes every month for Office subscribers
• SkyDrive integration means all your files will be accessible whenever, wherever jus as long as you go online
• Office Home and Student 2013 RT (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote) will be bundled free on ARM-based Windows 8 devices, including on the Microsoft Surface

As for that bit about subscriptions, there are three to choose from:

• Office 365 Home Premium – for families and consumers, includes an additional 20 GB of SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype world minutes per month.
• Office 365 Small Business Premium – for small businesses, includes business-grade email, shared calendars, website tools and HD webconferencing.
• Office 365 ProPlus - for enterprise customers in need of advanced business capabilities and flexibility to deploy and manage in the cloud.

Pricing, however, is still yet to be known.

So yeah, we can basically sum up Office 15 in one word – online. And if need it be said, Office 15 looks very very promising. We’re just hoping Microsoft’s subscription rates don’t spoil the fun for most users.

Anyway, if you’ve got a Windows 7 or Windows 8-powere machine, feel free to give this a go. Download the free trial version of Office 15 here. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to hit us up in the comments section below as we’d surely love to hear your take on Microsoft’s newest Office offering.

But for those who really want to read an authoritative take on Office 2013 right here, right now, you can free check out Engadget’s Office 2013 impressions or Mashable’s Office 15 preview.

Full press release can be found here.

Allan David

Online, Allan’s got you covered as far as news (and some reviews every now and then) goes. Offline, you’ll see him either sweating it out in the badminton courts or dining out in one of the new restos around town. His favorite noodles: cold soba.

email: allan@technoodling.netwebsite: http://oasis1.wordpress.com