News: Join Microsoft's Office Beta Program for Early Android, iOS, Mac, & Windows Apps

Microsoft finally unveiled dedicated iPad apps for their Office suite earlier this year, but it seems that that was just a preview of things to come.

Once a must-have for students and businesses alike, Office has lost a good bit of its dominance to Google and its Docs apps. It's hard to compete with free alternatives that offer incredible collaboration functions, especially when that alternative is ubiquitous across multiple platforms.

But as The Verge reported this morning, Microsoft is ready to grab some of that share back, and it hopes to entice users by opening up a beta program for both individuals and businesses, providing early builds of apps for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows.

"The Office team at Microsoft is looking for participants to join us in pre-release beta programs! Your feedback in these programs will be instrumental in building the best productivity software and services available." You can sign up through Microsoft's dedicated Pre-Release Programs site (although the actual signup is not live yet).

With new Android and Mac apps slated for later this year, and new touch-ready Windows apps set for release in early 2015, this is a great chance to be a part of the preview process.