• Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based software suite with programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Microsoft 365 was formerly called Microsoft Office, and used to be a one-time purchase.
• Microsoft 365 has a variety of subscriptions with different costs, but there are also free versions.

If you have, at any time in the past few years, worked in an office, gone to school, or generally been alive, you have probably used myriad Microsoft 365 products. And the same is true, relatively speaking, even going back several decades.

That's because Microsoft 365 is a 2010 rebranding of Microsoft Office, the suite of software that included venerable programs like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint, among others.

Whereas you used to access that software via the Windows operating system, today Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based service accessed remotely via a paid subscription.

What programs does Microsoft 365 feature?

Microsoft 365 goes well beyond the basic word processing, spreadsheet-making, and presentation designer software that has been around since the 20th century.

Along with the aforementioned programs, 365 also features OneDrive, a cloud storage service for keeping files secure, Teams, which is a collaboration software that allows for video meetings, live chat, file sharing, and more, Skype, the video call platform, and Outlook, which is Microsoft's email service.

How much does Microsoft 365 cost?

There are different plans at different rates. You can pay $9.99 per month for a Microsoft 365 family plan which allows up to six users to share one account, with that price adding up to $119.88. Or, you can pay $99.99 one time to save on a year-long subscription.

A one-person Microsoft 365 Personal plan costs $6.99 per month, which is $83.88, or you can pay once and get a year for $69.99.

Can you get Microsoft 365 for free?

Microsoft 365 is available for free in a few ways, though most have some limitations. There is a free version of Microsoft 365 that can be used in a web browser. Users must sign up for a Microsoft account with an existing or new email address to access Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so forth.

You can also get a free download of the Microsoft 365 Access Runtime files, but this is available only in downgraded 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Students and teachers can get Microsoft Office 365 Education for free with a valid school email address, and all users can sign up for a one-month free trial of a Microsoft 365 subscription. Just make sure to cancel ahead of the next billing cycle.

How to cancel Microsoft 365?

Canceling Microsoft 365 takes just a few steps:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft account you used to purchase Microsoft 365, select Services & subscriptions from the dashboard, and click Manage to cancel or modify the Microsoft 365 subscription.

2. Select Cancel subscription (it might say Upgrade or Cancel).
3. Review the additional information on the page, and at the bottom select I don't want my subscription, then confirm the cancellation.

What's the difference between Microsoft 365 and Office Suite?

The real differences are the pay model and the way you access the software. The classic Office Suite was a one-time purchase that gave you programs (Word and Excel, e.g.) that you could use offline any time you wanted.

Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based service that you primarily use online (you can use 365 programs offline, but the saving may not be reliable) and that you will pay for each month or once a year.

At CES 2025 earlier this week, Lenovo announced a handful of new Android tablets coming out this year, and there’s something here for everyone.

Lucy Hale has a strong record of fabulous denim.

Hale, 35, showed off her effortlessly chic street style while strolling through Los Angeles on Thursday, January 9. For her laid-back outing, Hale rocked a gray crewneck and rolled her sleeves up while carrying her phone, a coffee and a green juice.

The piece de resistance was her baggy blue jeans featuring a high-waist and strategic rips. Hale further dressed up her look with a silver ring, layered gold bracelets, a number of hoop earrings and a dainty necklace. Hale tied her low-key look together with a woven leather purse and a blue baseball cap. In true Lucy Hale fashion, she wore her go-to Adidas Sambas.

Matching her chill outfit aesthetic with her glam, Hale donned a fresh face and tied her hair into a bun.

Recreate Lucy Hale's Flattering Wide Leg Jeans Look for $40!

This is hardly the first time Hale has commanded attention for her low-key denim while roaming through Los Angeles. In July 2024, she gave Us major French girl vibes while rocking blue straight jeans that hugged her in all the right places. Hale’s hair, which was cut into a chic bob at the time, was blown out and bounced off her shoulders as she accessorized with gold hoop earrings.

Hale again looked timeless in a denim jacket while out and about in March 2024. She styled the cropped piece with a burnt orange hoodie underneath and a white tank. Hale kept her look cozy to walk in with black leggings, white socks and running shoes.

The Pretty Little Liars alum perfectly elevated her look with round brown sunglasses and a leather crossbody bag. Hale completed her look by twisting her hair into a messy bun with her curtain bangs framing her face.

See Lucy Hale’s Fabulous Fashion Evolution: Photos

When she’s not showing off her street style, Hale can be seen looking gorgeous on the red carpet. Most recently, she stunned in a little red Markarian dress at the Friendly House Humanitarian Awards in September 2024. The trendy number featured a flowy silhouette and a scarf that she tossed over her shoulders. Hale matched the piece to her pointed-toe leather heels.

Jennifer Aydin is weighing in on Andy Cohen calling her Jersey Mike’s drama a “self-inflicted wound.”

“I did not see it. Somebody told me about it. I did not hear that,” the Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 8. “But you know what? I would say that’s accurate.”

Aydin made headlines earlier this month for her unexpected feud with multiple Jersey Mike’s employees. The Bravo personality posted a video on her social media page claiming she waited for “what felt like forever” for service from the sandwich shop. An employee who was there subsequently fired back at Aydin via TikTok.

Cohen, 56, later took to his radio show to call the moment an “a self-inflicted wound.”

RHONJ's Jennifer Aydin Clarifies Jersey Mike's Drama: 'Hindsight Is 20/20'

“She melted down. And you know what, before you hit send on the post, take a beat and say, ‘How is this gonna land?’” Cohen said during the Monday, January 6, episode of his SiriusXM show Radio Andy. “How are you going to cause so much trouble for yourself? … You’re at the airport, you’re getting a sandwich. … It’s just, how is this gonna land?”

Upon further reflection, Aydin acknowledged she should not have posted the video of her interaction with several fast food workers.

“I have to realize that me posting it is, in fact, a self-inflicted wound. I did not think it was going to go down that way,” she explained on Wednesday. “I thought that people would see the video and be like, ‘How rude was this guy to you?’ And he doesn’t even know you, so it’s fine. It’s all good. Lesson learned.”

While sitting down with Us, Aydin gave us her recollection of what happened. According to the reality star, the incident happened while traveling with husband Bill Aydin, their five kids and additional family members over the holidays.

“[Bill] took all the kids, went to another stand that had a table, ordered food. It was about 5:30 in the morning,” Jennifer said. “Jersey Mike’s did not open until 5:30, and my cousin and I got on the line pretty much around 5:45 a.m. and there were not that many people on the line. Again, it was a little slow-moving, but we weren’t going to complain.”

When Jennifer did place her order, Bill was not with her. When he later joined her, Bill shared that one of their kids ended up wanting a sandwich and Jennifer tried to add the item after already placing her order. The employee allegedly told Jennifer if she wanted another sandwich she would have to get in line again or ask the man who was next in line if it was OK if she went to the counter to order another item.

‘RHONJ' Star Danielle Cabral Reacts to Jen Aydin’s Jersey Mike’s Drama

“In the video, they were still working on my sandwich. It’s not like I had paid. I didn’t check out,” she claimed. “So for them to tell me to wait to the end of the line or that I had to ask this guy’s permission — that just really started an altercation. They shouldn’t have done that and that’s just customer service. I’m realizing now that I can’t say, ‘I’m a celebrity.’ People are very angry. … I will no longer say I’m a celebrity since people are so angry about it. But, obviously, this wouldn’t have gone so viral as it did if I wasn’t a public figure.”

After Jennifer’s social media blow-up went viral, the fallout included her being dropped from an upcoming reality stars cruise. In addition to the firing, the RHONJ cast’s future remains up in the air after the show was put on pause following season 14. While the show’s direction is in limbo, Jennifer has faith that everything will work out and says she has “respect” no matter what Bravo decides.

“I feel like by the time they’ve regrouped to even consider who they’re going to recast or if they’re going to recast, this will be such water under the bridge. So I don’t really think that’s a thing,” she told Us. “Plus, by the time they reconfigure who’s going to be on the staff, I don’t know where I’m going to be at that point in my life. I am a big believer in that God protects me and my blessings are in the proof of my lifestyle in the good that I do. I always constantly pay it forward.”

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi

Changes at Meta come after company elevated prominent Republican to key position and donated to Trump

• The Los Angeles fires share a key feature with wildfires that burned down Lahaina, Hawaii and Paradise, California
• Powerful winds met flash-dried landscapes full of vegetation to fuel the flames.
• The climate crisis is increasing the odds of events like these.

The Los Angeles firestorms of the past week share a crucial feature with two of the most horrific wildfires in recent American memory.

The Palisades and Eaton fires may be unprecedented in some ways, but they share a common root cause with the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people in Paradise, California, and the 2023 fire that destroyed Lahaina in Hawaii.

In Paradise, Lahaina, and now Los Angeles, the blazes grew to monster fires because powerful winds met a parched, overgrown landscape.

Scientists expect to see more of that in the future.

"There's definitely a trend that increases this kind of situation," Louis Gritzo, the chief science officer at the commercial property insurance company FM, told Business Insider.

In all three cases, sudden drought had sucked the moisture out of local vegetation, creating abundant kindling for fire to feed on. Then strong winds picked up the embers and carried them into residential areas.

"When we look at the recent really bad fires — the Camp Fire, the fires in Hawaii — they all have that thing in common," Gritzo said. "They have a wet period, dry period, heavy winds, very rapid fire spread, a lot of ember transport."

The winds were bad luck, but flash-dried vegetation is happening more often as global temperatures rise.

How the climate crisis creates more fire fuel

In Paradise and Los Angeles, the dry months followed unusually wet seasons that fed an explosion of plant growth.

Last winter, heavy rains in Southern California led to about double the average amount of grasses and shrubs, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA.

This winter has not been so generous. The past few months have seen almost no rainfall, shriveling up all those grasses and shrubs.

Swain has coined the term "hydroclimate whiplash" — or simply "weather whiplash" — for these drastic swings between extreme wet and extreme dry conditions. He has observed it across the planet in recent years, from various regions in the US and Europe to the Middle East and China.

Globally, whiplash has already increased by 33% to 66% since the mid-twentieth century, Swain and his colleagues found in a new paper, published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment on Thursday.

That's because warmer air holds more moisture. As global temperatures rise, the ceiling on how much water our atmosphere can hold is also rising.

That thirsty atmosphere sucks more moisture out of the ground sometimes and, at other times, dumps more rain. Hence, greater extremes of flood and drought — and more wildfire fuel.

The effect of the climate crisis on wildfires "has been slow to emerge, but it is very clearly emerging, unfortunately," Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in a Friday press briefing announcing that 2024 was the hottest year on record.

The scientific organization World Weather Attribution has discovered a clear link between the climate crisis and specific instances of extreme fire weather in Brazil, Chile, Australia, and Canada.

The climate signal is "so large" now that it's clear in the global and continental data, but also "you're seeing it at the local scale, you're seeing it in local weather," Schmidt said.

The transition from wildfire to urban fire

So climate change is seeding fire fuel in forests and grasslands.

However, once wild blazes enter dense residential areas like Lahaina or the Pacific Palisades, they burn wood fences, ornamental yard plants, mulch landscapes, and leaves built up in roof gutters — then grow to consume homes.

"The natural fuels may be showering us with embers, but what's burning our homes down and forcing us to run and evacuate is human fuels," Pat Durland, a wildfire-mitigation specialist and instructor for the National Fire Protection Association with 30 years of federal wildfire management experience, told Business Insider.

As the climate crisis loads the dice toward extreme wildfires, he says it's important for city governments and residents to manage those urban fuels by reducing them and spacing them apart.

"I think just about anybody could be next under the right circumstances," Durland said. "It depends on the fuel and the climate."

At CES 2025, Intel let journalists into its private “Innovation Showcase,” where we saw things like prototype next-gen laptops and giant stereo 3D handheld gaming PCs.

While I was there, I also spotted a heavy metal handheld on a table that didn’t seem... fully attached... to its screen. When I lifted the screen, it came away easily.

It felt suspiciously light to be a real tablet, so I flipped it over and saw three connectors underneath:

Above it, on a shelf, was a laptop with a suspiciously sized chunk of plastic on the bottom that looked like a perfect match. A minute later, Intel gaming evangelist Colin Helms confirmed: I was looking at a concept modular PC.

That module contains a complete Intel Lunar Lake computer, the entire guts you'd need to make one work outside of peripherals and screen. It’s basically a reboot of Intel’s abandoned Compute Card idea, except it's not all Intel’s doing and you probably shouldn't ever expect it to ship.

It’s a concept from Quanta, a company whose name you don’t typically see on the laptops and tablets they create, because Quanta is an ODM (like Compal, Pegatron, Wistron, and Apple’s better known iPhone supplier Foxconn) that designs and manufactures hardware on behalf of brand names.

Quanta’s calling the whole modular system the “AI8A,” and the aforementioned module at its heart is the “Detachable AI Core.” Helms told me it plugs into other concept computers as well, including an all-in-one desktop that Intel didn’t have to show off. And presumably, like the Compute Card idea, you could upgrade your computer just by putting a new new module into it.

The modular laptop has lots of concept-y bells and whistles too, so many that Intel’s CES staff hadn’t even worked them all out yet.

For starts, the laptop has a motorized hinge, so you can tell it to open and close its own lid; it also claims to offer eye-tracking that lets you sling around multitasking windows just by looking at where you’d like them to be. It apparently comes with a mouse integrated into a ring that you could wear.

The most mundane: a built-in Qi wireless charging pad in the palmrest, with indicator lights to show your battery’s remaining capacity.

I couldn’t try any of it working, unfortunately, nor did I manage to ask what “AI8A” means, because I mistakenly thought it said Aiba until I checked my photos closely just now. Nor could we hotswap the module between the handheld and laptop, since the module apparently doesn't have a battery inside.

Again, this is a cool computing concept car: it’s not likely that this computer will ever ship, even in a more practical / less gadgety form. Thankfully, we have begun to see some real, practical modularity in the laptop space since the death of Intel's Compute Card. Framework just celebrated its fifth anniversary this week, and Dell took a smaller step forward at CES with its first modular repairable USB-C port.

Photos by Sean Hollister / The Verge