Microsoft

On Thursday, Microsoft announced that its Office apps for the iPad have been updated with iPhone and Dropbox support. The software company also launched a sign-up page for its Office for Android tablet preview and noted that it is working on new, touch-optimized Office apps for Windows 10.

Microsoft's Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps are available separately for free on the Apple App Store. Users can create and edit documents with a free Microsoft account, but a "qualifying Office 365 subscription is required to unlock the full Office experience". A yearly Office 365 Personal subscription is available for $69.99 through Microsoft's online store. A Personal subscription can be used with one mobile device and one additional computer.

Last November, Microsoft released its XBox One companion app, SmartGlass, in the App Store, allowing XBox One owners to navigate their consoles via their iPhones or iPads to track achievements, message friends, watch game clips and more. Now, according to The Verge, Microsoft is planning a big, cross-platform push to bring XBox Live functionality to both iOS and Android games.

A description within a recent Microsoft job listing (that has since been removed) serves as evidence of the software giant's plan: "We will create a modern framework that is open-source, lightweight, extensible and scalable across various platforms including Windows Store, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android." The listing

Xbox has released its Xbox One companion app for iOS and Android devices. The app doesn't feature much right now, but it will allow you to interact with your Xbox after the new console is released on Friday. Xbox One SmartGlass features include the ability to navigate your Xbox One console using your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, track achievements, get game help, message friends, and watch game clips.

You can download the Xbox One app now for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play. It requires iOS 6 or later or Android 4.0 or later.

The official Microsoft Remote Desktop app is available for free on the iOS App Store. Now those with a Windows computer can access their desktop from anywhere with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 6.0 or later. Microsoft even offers an online help page to assist iOS users with connecting to their Windows PC.

Remote Desktop makes it possible to connect to a wide range of Windows machines, log on and manipulate the computer over a wireless data connection. Thanks to remote desktop protocol (RDP) and RemoteFX supporting Windows gestures, iOS users can enjoy multi-touch functionality while connected. Improved compression and bandwidth usage means even high quality video and sound can be streamed using the Remote Desktop app.

Microsoft has finally launched the first official Office companion app for iOS. The software is set to compete with Apple's productivity apps Pages, Numbers and Keynote. One catch, although the Office Mobile iOS app is free, you must be an Office 365 subscriber to use the software.

Of course Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents can be edited in the app, and changes can be synced to other devices thanks to built-in SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro and SharePoint support. Since this is Microsoft's official Office app, documents look like the originals with support for SmartArt, animations, charts, comments and more. Documents attached to email messages can be opened and edited as well.