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Google Android Software

Google Attacks Microsoft Again: Android 4.4 Ships With Quickoffice 178

An anonymous reader writes "With Android 4.4 KitKat, Google's biggest blow to Microsoft isn't against Windows Phone. It's against Microsoft Office. You see, KitKat ships with Quickoffice, letting you edit Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the go, without paying a dime, straight out of the box. This tidbit was largely lost in the news yesterday, given the large number of improvements and new features that KitKat offers. Yet it's a very big deal: every Android user that upgrades to KitKat will get Google's Quickoffice, and every new Android device (starting with the Nexus 5) that ships with KitKat or higher will also get Quickoffice."
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Google Attacks Microsoft Again: Android 4.4 Ships With Quickoffice

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  • OK with me... (Score:4, Informative)

    by unique_parrot ( 1964434 ) on Saturday November 02, 2013 @10:45AM (#45310955)
    ...these medialess new microsoft office versions, where you have to make an account just to download the installer is a pita.

    And only being able to upgrade to win 8.1 with the market, not by windows update??? can't download the service pack to a stick??

    And the switch to monthly subscription for office is a very bad thing, i hope people realize this aswell!

    i hope ms get's a salted bill for all this.
  • by feranick ( 858651 ) on Saturday November 02, 2013 @11:05AM (#45311055)
    The version that allows for editing MS docs has been recently released in the play store for any android user. Kitkat only has it installed by default, but otherwise it's one install away.
  • quickoffice (Score:5, Informative)

    by l3v1 ( 787564 ) on Saturday November 02, 2013 @11:11AM (#45311101)
    Quickoffice? How is ths news? Not long back they made it free, and we even got free extra Google Drive space for downloading and installing it. And it doesn't need to be KitKat, it works with earlier versions as well.

    Again, how is this news?

    Right.
  • Quickoffice was a document-editing program way back in the PalmOS days, and it was the only major player to make a WebOS version.

    Quickoffice does not require Google Docs to work. Although it does have some features which are counter-intuitive and don't work depending on the view you're in.

  • by mbone ( 558574 ) on Saturday November 02, 2013 @11:27AM (#45311211)

    If you are not paying for it, you are not the customer.

  • by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Saturday November 02, 2013 @02:49PM (#45312743)
    Um. No it was not. MS did not get in trouble merely by bundling IE with Windows. They got in trouble for threatening partners and OEMs not to do business with competitors like Netscape and Java. For example, OEMs could lose licensing rights to Windows if they installed Netscape. MS hinted to Intel that they would give preferences to AMD in the next version of Windows if Intel released an optimized JVM for Java.
  • by Voyager529 ( 1363959 ) <.voyager529. .at. .yahoo.com.> on Saturday November 02, 2013 @03:30PM (#45313009)

    I needed to view a Word document in a hurry. I got a copy of QuickOffice from Amazon when it was a free app-of-the-day last year, but opted to try Google's more recent flavor. Google insisted I logged in, and refused to do anything if I just wanted to use a Word document on my SD card. There was NO reason for this. I, for one, disapprove of this change, regardless of any of the others.

  • by Sun ( 104778 ) on Saturday November 02, 2013 @03:54PM (#45313169) Homepage

    Your OEM probably changed the signature on the APK they pre-installed.

    You can upgrade a pre-installed APK from Google Play. This is not a problem. Unless, that is, the package name for the new and old APKs is the same, but the signing certificate is not. This is not a bad thing, except when %!@#(*# OEMs re-sign APKs they pre-install.

    I made a living off localizing android systems for the local market, and I always had a bit of a hard time explaining to the clients why I couldn't localize none-core apps (which include the Google Play itself, for which the Hebrew translation seems to have been done by someone quite illiterate).

    Shachar

  • by Nick ( 109 ) on Saturday November 02, 2013 @06:07PM (#45314061) Journal

    Yes it's an android fuckup, for letting OEM's being able to do it in the first place.. the motorolla xoom was the honeycomb developer device, so it was the 'nexus' device in that time, and that's the one that I have and is having the problem..

    By your logic it would be a Google fuckup for letting OEMs have full control of what they do with Android which has no technical bearing on merits of Android in itself. BTW, big props to Google for going in the other direction of Apple by letting OEMs do this - I seem to remember this worked out pretty well for MSFT.

  • by JayRott ( 1524587 ) on Sunday November 03, 2013 @01:36AM (#45315985) Journal

    fosspatents is run by a Microsoft shill. I forgot his name but he admitted to being a shill after he was caught with his pants down

    Florian Müller would be the name of the particular douche-nozzle in question.

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