About Cloud Storage and Windows SkyDrive Updates

While at Mom 2.0 in April, I had the opportunity to learn about Microsoft’s free SkyDrive, a cloud based file-sharing service similar to Dropbox or Apple’s iCloud (coming this fall), that allows users to store up to 25GB of data. Earlier this week Microsoft announced significant updates to SkyDrive to make it faster, easier to navigate, and usable across different operating systems and browsers, including Google Chrome. 

 

• Your PC makes it faster– Common tasks like clicking on folders and navigating photo albums will go from 6-9 seconds down to 100-300 milliseconds.  Microsoft took advantage of hardware accelerated graphics to make it fast to skip thru slideshows.

• Video playback is faster – SkyDrive supports new video formats that give you the same great experience in less space so you don’t have to wait for a big download

• Pin SkyDrive to your taskbar – With IE9 on Windows7, you can pin SkyDrive to your taskbar for even faster access to the files you want. Create Word, Excel or PowerPoint doc stored in the cloud in just 1 click.

• All your content in one place, including SkyDrive groups – Microsoft brought together all your photos, docs, files shared with you and files in SkyDrive groups into one view.  They took elements of the common file system you’re used to on Windows and Mac OS so navigating SkyDrive is more intuitive.

• Quick views – Microsoft updated the look and feel so that it’s just like Hotmail so that you can easily navigate the two

• Information pane – Microsoft removed ads to create room for a pane of information about your files – so you can take actions such as opening a doc in Word or Excel on the desktop directly from SkyDrive.

• Mosaic layout – Microsoft created a layout that will let your photos fill the browser. This includes thumbnails that reflect the original aspect ratio of your picture. Portraits, landscapes and panoramas can retain their personality even in thumbnail mode.

• Clean arrangement – Regardless of what size screen you have, how big your browser window is, or how many photos you have, SkyDrive always arranges your photos into a perfect, clean square.

• Living, breathing presentation – When viewing your albums, SkyDrive pulses through your thumbnails, letting you experience the contents of an album even before diving in.

• Infinite scrolling – Microsoft no longer has pages in the photo viewing experience; you just scroll the page and quickly see your photos fill in. It looks and feels like a native application.