Microsoft has announced the rollout of Office for Android phone. The launch, “which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint designed for the Android smartphone experience, follows earlier efforts at bringing Office to Android tablets, as well as support for Office on iOS devices, Windows and OS X,” reports TechCrunch. The Office apps allow users to review and edit files, deliver presentations from their phones, and easily retrieve documents stored on services such as Box, Google Drive and Dropbox. The apps will be pre-installed on mobile devices from more than 30 manufacturers, including LG, Samsung and Sony. Word for Android, Excel for Android and PowerPoint for Android are available for download on Google Play.

Lenovo entered the PC stick market this week with the unveiling of its Ideacentre Stick 300, scheduled to launch in the U.S. this fall for $129. The Ideacentre, which can plug into displays to provide PC capabilities such as videoconferencing and Web browsing, features an Intel Baytrail processor, 2GB of memory and 32GB of storage, according to Digital Trends. The pocket-sized stick will run Windows and offer Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. It also includes an HDMI port, MicroUSB 2.0 port, an SD card reader and its own tiny built-in speaker. Lenovo’s offering will compete with existing products including Intel’s $150 Compute Stick.

In a first for HBO, the premium cable network is promoting its new original series “Ballers” and “The Brink” by offering free access to select full episodes on Facebook. The premiere episodes, to remain on the social platform for a limited time, became available yesterday, three days after their debuts. “According to HBO, the episodes will not be available on YouTube or any other third-party digital platform, nor will they be available on cable, satellite or telco TV services (except to HBO subs),” reports Variety. “In addition to Facebook, the episodes are also available on HBO Now — its recently introduced over-the-top service — and HBO Go, for pay-TV customers.”

FBR Capital Markets suggests that Netflix would attract a bigger 24-hour audience than each of the major broadcast television networks within a year, if the streaming service were part of the Nielsen ratings. “One major caveat: Nielsen TV ratings cover, at most, up to seven days of VOD and DVR viewing — and exclude online-video views, which networks say are an increasing part of the pie,” explains Variety. “Moreover, TV networks provide a different blend of content, such as live sports, that Netflix doesn’t.” While Netflix claims it is not concerned with ratings, since it does not sell traditional TV ads, FBR analysts note that the comparison is meant to illustrate the growing popularity of Netflix.

Having a Facebook account is no longer a requirement for sending Facebook messages. Users can now sign up for the Facebook Messenger mobile app by simply entering their cell phone number. “Messenger, which boasts 700 million users, is one of a suite of mobile apps that CEO Mark Zuckerberg is keen to grow to one billion users or more,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Others include a second messaging app, WhatsApp, and photo-sharing app Instagram. WhatsApp has 800 million users, making it and Messenger the world’s two most-used messaging apps, according to market-research firm GlobalWebIndex.”

Privacy violations are becoming a major concern with young social media users. Survey data released this week by USA Network indicates that 55 percent of young people would drop social media “if they could start fresh;” 75 percent would be “somewhat likely” to deactivate their accounts if privacy breaches continued; while 23 percent said they were “highly likely” to close their accounts in the face of more breaches. “Young Americans’ sense of privacy online has been so violated that most of them believe that it’s safer to store their personal data in a box than in the cloud,” notes TechCrunch. “Indeed, the survey said that physical filing systems were actually listed as the ‘most trusted’ personal data storage method for young people.”

Toshiba is developing a new Internet-based communication encryption system that analysts claim cannot be breached. The primary challenge in creating a foolproof system has been building a key to decode encrypted data that can be safely transferred from one place to another. “The key for Toshiba’s quantum-cryptography system will come in the form of photons that are delivered through a custom-made fiber optic cable not connected to the Internet,” The Wall Street Journal explains. “Due to the nature of the particles, any interception or wiretapping activities on the cable would change the form of data, making any spying attempts detectable.” Toshiba hopes to commercialize the service by 2020.

A three-minute, 360-degree online video features YouTube star Lilly Singh (Superwoman) and other YouTubers taking on a Terminator sent from the future going crazy in the YouTube Space LA studio. “Terminator Genisys: The YouTube Chronicles in 360″ can be watched with Google’s Cardboard VR viewer. The video is “part of a partnership between YouTube, some of its creators and Paramount Studios to promote the new Terminator Genisys franchise, which also includes a three-part webisode that expands on the plot of a Terminator visiting YouTube’s production facility,” reports Variety. “For the 360-degree video, YouTube teamed up with the Venice-based VR production company Specular Theory.”

In San Diego last week, the International Telecommunication Union agreed on a definition for the 5G network requirement in addition to a schedule to commercialize the technology by 2020. ITU “has decided to define 5G as a network which is capable of transmitting data at up to 20 gigabits-per-second,” reports The Korea Times. “This means that users can download one ultra high-definition movie in 10 seconds. The 5G network will also have a capacity to provide more than 100 megabits-per-second average data transmission to over one million Internet of Things devices within 1 square kilometer.” IMT-2020 (the official name of the network) will be demonstrated at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Musicians are coming up with new ways to leverage streaming music technology. Eternify, for example, is a website that enables users to play songs from Spotify’s catalog in 30-second loops, an approach that can slowly build up the pay-per-stream revenue for a given artist. “Last year, indie funk band Vulfpeck launched an album named Sleepify that consisted entirely of silent tracks,” notes The Verge. “They encouraged fans to stream the album on repeat while they slept, promising they’d use the streaming revenue to fund a free tour.” Ohm & Sport, the band that created Eternify, estimates that each 30-second stream will generate $0.005 for the artist.

LG’s new Minibeam Nano projector weighs just over half a pound (270 grams) and can wirelessly connect to a smartphone or tablet through Miracast and Wi-Fi Direct to screen pictures, videos and documents up to 100 inches on a flat surface. According to LG’s press release, the Minibeam Nano is the company’s “smallest, lightest, and most affordable projector to date.” While portability is the major selling point, the resolution is only 854 x 480. However, the projector’s LED lamp, designed to last 30,000 hours, offers 100 ANSI lumens of brightness. The device also includes USB and HDMI ports. Model PV150G will be available later this month in North America and other markets. Pricing has yet to be announced.

The 2015 Creative Storage Conference will take place June 30th at the DoubleTree Hotel in Culver City, California. The one-day conference — organized by the Entertainment Storage Alliance and Coughlin Associates — brings together digital storage providers, equipment and software manufacturers and M&E professionals to explore the latest developments in digital storage. ETC’s Erik Weaver will be one of the keynote speakers. In his presentation, “Exabyte & Beyond: Preparing Yourself for the Upcoming ‘Network-Based’ Revolution,” Erik will discuss the strategies and technologies surrounding the shift from file- to network-based life cycles. The full conference agenda and registration page are both available online.

The Federal Communications Commission has approved a proposal introduced by Chairman Tom Wheeler to explore ways to subsidize broadband Internet connectivity for poor Americans. The plan would help “pave the way for sweeping changes to a $1.7 billion phone subsidy program… known as Lifeline and initiated in 1985 under President Reagan,” reports The New York Times. Opposition to expanding the program is largely based on concern that the expansion would possibly generate more fraud. To address these concerns, the FCC is introducing new record-keeping requirements for service providers this summer, and has “adopted stricter measures to ensure eligible households claim only one subsidy of $9.25 a month,” explains NYT.

Hulu has officially changed the name of its paid tier as part of a branding update meant to help streamline its service. The $8 per month subscription tier is now simply called Hulu, rather than Hulu Plus. The company will still offer a free tier under the same name. Hulu hopes the change will help it compete with streaming leader Netflix. “While the change in name comes with no other changes to the platform, it comes at a time when things are looking up for the service,” Digital Trends points out. “Paid subscriptions are up 50 percent over last year, according to CEO Mike Hopkins, and video streams in the first three months of 2015 were already up 77 percent.”

Getty Images announced that its premium 360-degree imagery — from the Cannes Film Festival to the FIFA World Cup — would be made available for the Oculus VR platform. “The 360° View by Getty Images collection will offer a deeply engaging virtual reality experience of enchanting creative stills, alongside some of the world’s biggest moments in news, sports and entertainment,” notes the press release. The collection is currently available in the Oculus 360 Photos app on the Oculus Store, and will offer streaming content for the Oculus Rift when it launches Q1 2016. It can already be experienced with the Gear VR Innovator Edition for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S6.