Microsoft Is Offering OneDrive Cloud Storage For Microsoft, iOS and Android Devices
Microsoft on Wednesday officially announced the global availability of its rebranded cloud storage service OneDrive.
Microsoft originally called the service SkyDrive but was forced to rebrand after British Sky Broadcasting sued and won a trademark lawsuit over use of the name.
OneDrive features some changes, including automatic camera backup for Android and the ability to share and view videos just as easily as photos. However, the biggest improvement is that now people can simultaneously access and edit files stored in OneDrive. The feature brings it into line with Google Drive and Apple's iCloud. It will also automatically encode your uploaded videos and automatically stream in the optimum resolution for the bandwidth and device accessing it.
The company has also added new ways for you to earn more storage - on top of the 7 GB it is already give you for free. Microsoft is offering users who refer friends up to 5 GB (in 500 MB increments) for each friend who accepts an invitation to OneDrive, and will even give you 3 GB just for using the camera backup feature. There's even a new monthly payment plan.
Existing SkyDrive users access the OneDrive they will find that many things are exactly as they left them. They can still log in to access web app versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for on-the-fly document editing.
OneDrive is built into the latest versions of Windows, Windows Phone, Office and Xbox. For everyone else, accessing SkyDrive will automatically reroute a smartphone or tablet to OneDrive landing page instead.
To celebrate the official launch of OneDrive, Microsoft will give 100,000 people 100 GB of free storage for one year.
OneDrive features some changes, including automatic camera backup for Android and the ability to share and view videos just as easily as photos. However, the biggest improvement is that now people can simultaneously access and edit files stored in OneDrive. The feature brings it into line with Google Drive and Apple's iCloud. It will also automatically encode your uploaded videos and automatically stream in the optimum resolution for the bandwidth and device accessing it.
The company has also added new ways for you to earn more storage - on top of the 7 GB it is already give you for free. Microsoft is offering users who refer friends up to 5 GB (in 500 MB increments) for each friend who accepts an invitation to OneDrive, and will even give you 3 GB just for using the camera backup feature. There's even a new monthly payment plan.
Existing SkyDrive users access the OneDrive they will find that many things are exactly as they left them. They can still log in to access web app versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for on-the-fly document editing.
OneDrive is built into the latest versions of Windows, Windows Phone, Office and Xbox. For everyone else, accessing SkyDrive will automatically reroute a smartphone or tablet to OneDrive landing page instead.
To celebrate the official launch of OneDrive, Microsoft will give 100,000 people 100 GB of free storage for one year.
