Microsoft announced today that all of its Office Web apps have been updated to take advantage of new platforms like SkyDrive. The first Office Web apps were made available in 2010 and let users collaborate on documents in real time via any Web browser. It was similar to Google Docs, but now Microsoft is moving to be the Web platform of choice for those working in Word and other office documents.

First up, the Word Web app was updated to improve its visuals on high definition monitors. There’s also new support for viewing and adding comments to a Word document. Many of the same features present in the desktop version of Word are available in the Word Web app.

The Excel Web app features all of the essential features that you’ve come to expect. Users can now visualize data with high fidelity charts, even in 3D. The app now supports the ability to print from the browser as well.

The PowerPoint Web app has received more updates than most due to its highly visual nature. Slides are now presented in high definition, just like on the desktop version. Audio and video playback is now supported on mobile devices as well. Students or office workers who are still working on a presentation at the last minute can also add new slides via a Web browser.

On a final note, the OneNote Web app also received a few updates including the ability to search on a page or within a section. Like before, users can type anywhere on a page to add notes, pictures or tags. Those notes, however, can now be shared as URL that can be viewed on across PCs, phones and tablets.

All the new updated Office Web apps have been optimized for IE10, Windows 8 and iOS 6. You can access them via SkyDrive and Outlook.

Microsoft is the latest company to adopt this student-friendly approach by making its Office 365 service dirt cheap. Office 365 is Microsoft’s new cloud-platform where users can edit Word, Excel and other Office software via Web browsers. The service normally costs $3 per month for students, but Microsoft is offering it at $1.67 per month ($80 over four years) to college students.

Beyond the cheap price, the service has some specific perks for students. Subscribers will get access to all the applications in the Office software suite including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. A subscription lasts four years, but students can sign up for four more if their college journey takes that long.

The other perks include automatic saving to SkyDrive for all documents and an extra 20GB storage on said SkyDrive. Students will now be able to save up to 27GB worth of content across all of their projects. Skype is even getting in on the fun by offering 60 Skype world minutes a month to subscribers.

So, who’s eligible to take part in this deal? Unlike most student offers, full and part-time students can take advantage of the special pricing as long as they attend an “accredited institution.” Even better, faculty and staff at said institutions can also sign up for the service. It’s not known if faculty and staff are also held to the four year limit.

UPDATE: Microsoft just got back with us. A spokesperson said that all “eligible students, faculty or staff members can renew their 4-year subscription to Office 365 University once.” Guess that means professors can only get 8 years just like their students. Tenure doesn’t mean as much as it used to.

Microsoft says that Office 2013 (or Office 15) is going to work perfectly across multiple devices – “touch, stylus, mouse, or keyboard.”

“We are taking bold steps at Microsoft,” said Steve Ballmer at the press announcement. “The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8.”

Microsoft is putting the new Office firmly in the cloud:

• SkyDrive. Office saves documents to SkyDrive by default, so your content is always available across your tablet, PC and phone. Your documents are also available offline and sync when you reconnect.
• Roaming. Once signed in to Office, your personalized settings, including your most recently used files, templates and even your custom dictionary, roam with you across virtually all of your devices. Office even remembers where you last left off and brings you right back to that spot in a single click.
• Office on Demand. With a subscription, you can access Office even when you are away from your PC by streaming full-featured applications to an Internet-connected Windows-based PC.
• New subscription services. The new Office is available as a cloud-based subscription service. As subscribers, consumers automatically get future upgrades in addition to exciting cloud services including Skype world minutes and extra SkyDrive storage. Subscribers receive multiple installs for everyone in the family and across their devices.

Pricing has yet to be announced, but Microsoft says that subscriptions will come in three new formats – Home Premium, Small Business Premium, and ProPlus.

Those rumors – including the release date – have gotten a bit more support today. Citing “a source familiar with Microsoft’s Office sales team,” Business Insider is reporting that Microsoft is planning to announce Office for iPad at the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas. The conference is scheduled to start on November 12th, which matches the rough timeline of the most recent reports.

Of course, as I’ve said before, the surprise isn’t that Microsoft is launching Office for iPad. The surprise is that it’s taken them so long. The iPad has been gaining tremendous traction in the business world for quite some time, and Office alternatives – including Apple’s own iWork suite – have been on the iPad for ages while Microsoft calmly pretends the iPad doesn’t exist. The iPad release will likely follow the release of the first Windows 8 tablets, which should be coming this fall as well. There are also rumors of an Android version.

Of course, the world of mobile productivity just got a lot more interesting in another way, as well. In fact, had Microsoft not been planning to bring Office to the iPad, you can bet that Google’s acquisition of QuickOffice would have set them on the path to doing so. By buying QuickOffice, arguably the most popular Office alternative for the iPad, Google is making a big jump into the mobile productivity market and firing a shot directly across Microsoft’s bow. That’s not the sort of thing that Microsoft can allow to go unanswered, which means that we may be in for an interesting little arms race in the world of iPad productivity software over the next few months.

BGR, citing “a reliable source at Microsoft,” says that the company is planning to release the “full Office suite” for both iOS and Android. What’s more, the iOS version may not be iPad only. The source said that the app’s startup screen reads “Office for iOS,” instead of “Office for iPad.” That suggests that an iPhone/iPod Touch version could be coming as well.

An iPad version of Microsoft Office is one of those rumors that’s been around for ages and never actually come to pass. People have been expecting Microsoft to bring their ridiculously ubiquitous productivity suite to the iPad for almost as long as there has been an iPad. Every once in awhile, a fresh rumor pops up, keeping hope alive. The Daily has reported twice in recent memory that Office would be coming soon to the iPad – once in November, and again in February. The report in February included claims that The Daily’s source had actually gotten some hands-on experience with the app, though Microsoft denied everything. According to BGR’s source, though, the version that Microsoft is preparing to launch in November bears a strong resemblance to The Daily’s February version.

Given the consistent cycle of rumors that don’t amount to anything, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if Microsoft never releases a version of Office for iPad. On the other hand, you have to wonder why in the world they wouldn’t. Office is easily the most widely-used productivity suite in the world, and the fact that Microsoft has failed to bring it to the increasingly large tablet market is mind-boggling. You can bet that Windows 8 tablets will have their own version of Office. But unless Microsoft honestly expects Windows 8 tablets to knock the iPad off its lofty perch in short order (which isn’t likely, to put it mildly), they’d be crazy not to publish an iOS version at least.

Details about the next update to Microsoft’s venerable productivity platform are a little scarce, though screenshots obtained last month by The Verge show some interesting details. One thing that the each of the Office apps apparently includes is the option to sign in and save files to cloud services like SkyDrive.

Now it looks like a leaked video from Microsoft confirms Office 15′s cloud integration. According to the short video, which looks like the kind of video that Microsoft sometimes builds into their software, users will be able to sign into Office on their computers and “keep your documents safely online,” so that “they travel with you to all your devices.” Check out the video below:

Based on the video, it sounds like the sign-in process will allow users to edit Office files on their Windows 8 tablets. What will be interesting to see is whether “all your devices” means something more than “all your Windows devices.” That is, will we finally be seeing Microsoft Office for iPad? An Office app (or suite of apps, a la iWork) has been rumored for ages. In November there were rumors that an Office app would be coming sometime in 2012. A similar rumor popped up in February of this year, but was quickly shot down by Microsoft.

The new came courtesy of The Daily, who claimed that an image was in fact the new program running on an iPad. That image came with the news that Office for iPad was set to be submitted for approval to the app store within weeks. It reportedly looks a lot like OneNote and will start off with the three basic Microsoft applications Words, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Shortly after the initial report, Microsoft hit back – they denied that the image was a real Microsoft software product and said that The Daily’s story was “based on inaccurate rumors and speculation.”

Well, the fight spilled over to Twitter. An official Microsoft account @MSFTnews tweeted this late Tuesday evening:

The Daily’s Peter Ha retweeted that Microsoft tweet, and later this:

That link led to a writeup where they stick by their story:

Let’s get one thing straight: We did not fabricate this story, nor did we fake the images in any way. A Microsoft employee, not a contractor, demoed a prototype of the app for us. We were repeatedly told that it wasn’t the final build and we did not report it as such, which is probably why Microsoft has said that it isn’t their software. Truth is, there are probably several versions of the launch screen being reviewed internally.

However, another Microsoft employee who is much closer to the project has confirmed to us several times over the last few months that Office for iOS is real and that it would be launching soon. We originally reported on this very thing back in November and a few weeks later, Microsoft released OneNote for iOS. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Microsoft commented further to ZDNet, or rather declined to comment about whether or not there is a version of Office for iPad in development – just that the image in The Daily article wasn’t their software. It’s entirely possible that it’s just a case of Microsoft distancing themselves from a build of the software that’s not going to look anything like the finished project.

I guess we’ll know in a few weeks if The Daily’s Microsoft source was right about the Office Suite launching soon. Until then, you’ll have to stick to iWork and third-party apps for your productivity needs.

The preview is the first time the company shares its work with a select group of customers, under non-disclosure agreements.

“These customers play a key role in our development process by testing early builds and providing feedback, which we incorporate into the final release,” says PJ Hough, CVP of Development on Microsoft’s Office Division.

“At this early point in our development cycle, I’m not able to share too much about Office 15, but I can tell you Office 15 is the most ambitious undertaking yet for the Office Division,” says Hough. “With Office 15, for the first time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio. Quite simply, Office 15 will help people work, collaborate, and communicate smarter and faster than ever before.”

The public beta will come this summer, the company says. At that point, more details about the release will be made public, obviously.

The current preview program is full, and closed to any additional participants.

There have been no shortage of rumors in the past about Office coming to the iPad, and it is possible that the current crop of rumors will ultimately go nowhere. That being said, the timing makes sense. With new versions of Office and Windows in the works, an iOS version of Office would fit in nicely. Moreover, Apple’s own iWork productivity suite has been on the iPad for a long time, and sold well, while Office users have had to make do with third-party apps like Quickoffice [iTunes link], which are generally popular with users, but generate no revenue for Microsoft. Finally, Windows-based tablets have gained little ground in a tablet market so thoroughly dominated by the iPad that it can hardly be said to be a tablet market at all, but rather an iPad market.

That being the case, Office for iPad makes sense. However, there is no data at present on when we might expect to see Office come to the iPad, nor on pricing (though a price comparable to Apple’s iWork suite – $10 per application – seems likely). Reactions to the rumor on Twitter seem to be a mix of excitement and skepticism, with one user taking a humorously pessimistic view:

What do you think? Will Microsoft bring Office to the iPad? Will you be using it if they do? Let us know in the comments.

After watching the video, one thing’s for sure, if Microsoft’s vision comes to pass, there’s going to be an awful lot of touch technology coming down the pipe. In fact, if you fast forward to the three minute mark, you’ll see the user’s entire desk has been designed around touchscreen technology, only in this vision, it’s so much more robust. Even the keyboard the actor is using has a touchscreen function that allows him to move the incoming communication to his primary monitor.

The fact is, Microsoft’s vision for future computer use looks a lot like what Steven Spielberg showed us in Minority Report. Via touch, users would be able to control which content is displayed and how user’s interact with it. Take a look at Microsoft’s creation because regardless of your feelings on touch technology, the future envisioned by the company looks rather impressive:

All of the ideas in the video are based on real technology. Some of the capabilities, such as speech recognition, real time collaboration and data visualization already exist today. Others are not yet available in specific products, but represent active research and development happening at Microsoft and other companies.

As indicated, whether or not you are a fan of touch technology, you should check out Microsoft’s vision of the future. As a person who isn’t the biggest adopter of touch technology, I must say I’m happy the keyboard exists in Microsoft’s future, and the way it’s integrated with touch is pretty damn cool.

H/t to the WinRumors blog for pointing this out.