There have been a number of changes announced in recent weeks as to what’s included in various Office 365 subscriptions, so here’s the summary:

Office for the iPad

• Back in March, Office for the iPad was announced and the free apps allowed viewing and presenting of documents whereas an Office 365 subscription was required for document creation and editing. In early November, the rules changed and the free apps now allow users to create and edit Office content while an Office 365 Subscription gives advanced editing and collaboration capabilities, and unlimited OneDrive storage. Check out the announcement here: http://bit.ly/1xxmi9Y

Office for the iPhone

• Office for the iPhone was also announced in November with the same rules as for the iPad apps – so no Office 365 subscription required for creating and editing documents. Check this link for details (and pretty pictures of the new apps!): http://bit.ly/1vIcWwv

Outlook for the Mac

• A brand new Outlook for the Mac was announced at the end of October with all of the enhancements you’d expect. What was perhaps less expected is that this new version is only available to Office 365 subscribers including commercial customers and those with Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal and Office 365 University subscriptions. The announcement is here: http://bit.ly/1tqUVMv

OneDrive for Business

• At the end of October it was announced that all Office 365 subscribers across consumer, commercial and education plans would receive unlimited storage: http://bit.ly/1FmJFqZ
• Office 365 ProPlus customers now also have access to OneDrive for Business with an initial allocation of 1 TB of storage per user which will be updated to unlimited storage in the near future. This announcement (http://bit.ly/1r8572b) explains how the rollout will work with existing Office 365 ProPlus customers getting access to OneDrive for Business before the end of January 2015, and new customers who subscribe after 1 December 2014 being automatically provisioned for OneDrive

Microsoft announce that Office on Demand will no longer be a part of Office 365 ProPlus subscriptions from November 2014.

Read the full post (http://bit.ly/1yvU59H) and get an overview of the alternatives: Office Online, Shared Computer Activation, and Azure RemoteApp.

Native RDS support for Office 365 ProPlus has arrived and that means a slight change to the licensing.

Previously, Office 365 ProPlus couldn’t be deployed to users’ devices using RDS and there was a note in the Product List which allowed customers to use Office Professional Plus 2013 software to enable this scenario, which counted as 1 of the 5 allowed installations.

From 1 September 2014 there’s something called Shared Computer Activation – now, Office 365 ProPlus CAN be installed in an RDS environment, and this no longer counts against the 5 installations.

See page 51 of the September 2014 Product List, this Microsoft blog: http://bit.ly/ZfxoXr and TechNet article: http://bit.ly/1s9EOX4

When don’t you need to assign Office 365 licences to mailboxes? When they’re non-user mailboxes of course. But when DO you need to assign licences to these non-user mailboxes?

If a resource, room, or shared mailbox goes over its quota of 10GB then it needs a licence, and if one isn’t assigned after one month, the mailbox will be locked.

The recommendation is to use archiving to avoid going over the quota: http://bit.ly/1qBZPrh.

Office 365 Personal has arrived. The key facts:

• One PC or Mac and one tablet may be connected to the service;
• It includes 60 minutes of Skype calling per month as well as 20 GB of OneDrive storage;
• Estimated Retail Price is $69.99/year or $6.99/month.

Office 365 Home Premium is still available but is renamed to Office 365 Home and offers installation on up to 5 PCs or Macs and 5 tablets as well as 20 GB of OneDrive storage for each of up to 5 users, with a price tag of $99.99/year or $9.99/month.

Here’s the Office Blog post: http://bit.ly/QVUxKm.

Office for iPad – the licensing facts:

• Free apps allow viewing and presenting of documents and an Office 365 subscription allows creation and editing;
• Office 365 subscriptions that include Office for iPad – Home, Small Business Premium, Midsize Business, E/G/A3, E/G/A4, Office 365 ProPlus, and Office 365 University;
• One subscription covers Office for iPad on up to 5 tablets and Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs;
• Office Mobile for iPhone and Android phones is now free as it is on Windows Phone.

Read the full Office Blog post here: http://bit.ly/1h23WFi.

OneDrive for Business is one of those products still wriggling to feel comfortable in its own skin. Until recently known as SkyDrive Pro, it can trace its roots back through SharePoint Workspace and, of course, Groove. These days it’s part of every Office 365 Plan and is included with the SharePoint Online plans too. From 1 April 2014 it will also be available as a standalone service and will include access to Office Online and 25GB of storage. There will be some promotional pricing with discounts of up to 50% available until the end of September 2014. Get the full story on the OneDrive Blog: http://bit.ly/1doMJem