Howard Wen

The next version of Microsoft Office is expected to arrive later this year. We don't know for sure what new major features will be added to its individual applications (i.e. Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, Word), but several tidbits about the overall suite have been subtly revealed or officially announced by Microsoft. Plus, there's been plenty of speculation by the tech news media.

1. "2012" (or maybe "2013") not "15"

Although the next version of Office has been referred to as "Office 15" (even the official Microsoft Office blog calls it that), "Office 2012" will probably be its final release name -- provided that things stay on schedule and the next Office is released this year. (The "15" refers to the version number of the overall Office suite.)

You can take your work with you, thanks to several office suites which let you view and edit your documents on an Android device. Most were originally designed for use on a smartphone, but here are seven that are compatible with most Android tablets that run Android 2.3 (codenamed "Gingerbread").

We're listing these apps in reverse order, from the least to the most useful.

Although computers running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 have become more common, there aren't many Windows-compatible browsers compiled to run on 64-bit processors. (The exception for now has been Internet Explorer 9.)

This includes Firefox. However, "official" is the key word since Mozilla has developed alpha versions of Firefox that support Windows 64-bit, and there are two other browsers built by independent developers based on Firefox's open-source code.

The biggest problem with the Android platform has been how slowly many phone makers release the latest version of the OS for their older models. It's also not unusual for them to never do so. (A company may not want to spend resources on phones they no longer sell; or, they and the carrier for a particular model may not agree on when to provide an update.)

15 free apps for personalizing your Android phone

You don't need to spend money to keep a Windows computer running in top form. Here's how to fix, clean and maintain Windows using programs you can download now for free.

The following software and tips generally apply to Windows 7, Vista and XP, and are listed in the order you should use them for the first time on a computer you suspect may be infected with malware or running slower than it should.