Microsoft Releases SkyDrive Apps for Windows Phone and iOS
by Andrew Cunningham on December 13, 2011 6:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Microsoft
- windows phone
- iOS
Users of Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage service now have another way to access and share their files - Microsoft today released SkyDrive apps for both Windows Phone and iOS devices, which are intended to complement SkyDrive.com's existing mobile interface.
The apps allow you to view all of the files and folders in your SkyDrive and those that have been shared with you by others. In both apps, you can view documents and pictures, create and delete folders, delete files, email links to files and folders (giving recipients either read-only or read-and-write permissions to the file), and download and upload pictures. Moving and renaming files and folders does not appear to be possible on either platform, however.
On Windows Phone, you can use other apps (like Office or Pictures) to achieve better integration with SkyDrive than on iOS - for example, the iOS version gives you no option to download or edit Office documents even if you have apps installed that will work with them. Ideally, I'd like to see options for opening files in other apps - for example the Dropbox iOS app, which serves a similar purpose, will offer to open Word documents in Pages if it's installed. Still, this app should prove useful to heavy SkyDrive users on either platform, and along with OneNote and the Xbox Live app it suggests that Microsoft is slowly committing to making nice-looking, useful apps for a major competitor's smartphone.
Both apps are available for free in the Windows and iOS app stores, and 25GB of SkyDrive storage is available for free to anyone with a Windows Live ID.
Source: Inside Windows Live
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tipoo - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - link
5x the storage of iCloud for free, yet Xbox Live Gold members get 512mb? Wat...Well, I suppose we do know the reason, game saves don't take much space and they want you to use their streaming services rather than store movies you got yourself in the Cloud, but still, compared to 25gb what we get is paltry.
Sagath - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - link
I just checked in to this, and I only got access to 5gb, not the 25 mentioned in the article.Still, 5gb is bigger then DropBox to start with, and no hassle and referrals to deal with...
Solidstate89 - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - link
No, you get 25GB of free storage. The 5GB you're talking about is a separate amount for files/folders you have set-up using Windows Live Mesh to automatically update the same way Dropbox does.However the 5GB for Live Mesh DOES NOT use up for your 25GB of storage for Skydrive.
It really amazes me more people don't use Skydrive. Between the integration with my Windows Phone and the great support of Live Mesh and the free 25GB of storage it's easily the best free cloud service I've ever used.
Spivonious - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - link
Yes, the lack of integration between Mesh and Skydrive is a common complaint. I expect they'll address that in the next update.Aquila76 - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - link
OK, so MS is supporting Windows Phone (natch) and iOS, but not Android? Why? Android is no more competitive with WP7 than iOS.KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - link
Long history of developing for Apple platforms? They've been doing it since the 70s. As far as iOS apps go they've had things like Photosynth, Seadragon (one of the first iOS apps), and OneNote long before this, and Office is currently in development for the iPad.I suppose it's the long history of an Apple division in the company, as well as the usual developer excuse that it is a more mature and unified platform compared to Android.
Penti - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - link
It may come it may not, Microsoft has said they are interested in releasing virtually all their cloudapps and services to Android with accompanied applications. However there are still no reasons why you shouldn't use their live services, livemail with push/imap-idle, use Skydrive with third party apps and so on. It's not and has not been Windows Phone only stuff. Skydrivesupport wasn't even added until Mango for example. Symbian have got some Microsoft apps too. You will have stuff like onenote, sharepoint and lync on Symbian too. Of course you already have third party solutions for all those platforms and more. The uninformed notion that you will use Microsoft services with Windows Phones and nothing else is just that, they are usually better supported on other platforms already especially EAS/Exchange. Sharepoint, Lync, Exchange are no problem with support on iOS, Android, Symbian with a few quirks on any platform.How Microsoft's actually spends development resources on projects like this for Symbian, iOS or Android is anybodies guess, that has certainly applied to their Mac desktop applications too. It took 20 years to get a decent Office-edition for Mac after the first version in 89 practically. Fully depends on what kind of people they have employed and what their roles are. It's not like mobile apps/services would be something fully staffed. Microsoft do changes directions pretty often. Good thing protocols and everything is published for stuff like Office document formats, EAS, Sharepoint, etc though.
Exodite - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - link
I'd actually say WP7 competes a lot more with iOS than it does with Android.This because WP7 and iOS has vastly more in common when it comes to platform design choices than either of those have with Android.
On the other hand that's probably not the reason why the iOS application made it to market before the Android one.
Penti - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 - link
Pure C/C++ libraries are easy enough porting between Android and iOS and other none-Windows Phone systems. To add to that, Microsoft themselves can develop native apps. So it mostly depends on what kind of people they employ, this is mostly newly staffed positions that create those solutions. What direction they get and so on.Plus Microsoft certainly isn't out to kill or marginalize either iOS or Android, they have their place in their fantasy vision of the future. So I would guess it's mostly about limited development resources. WP itself is just in it's early stages itself, as well as most of the new services.
After all when it comes to this Skydrive client-app they do actually show both their Windows Phone version which will have help from the general Windows Phone team in some sense and their iPhone app at the same time, if they really liked they could develop it all in parallel. The iOS app is actually released the same day as the WP-app is here. With specs available to third parties it's easy to integrate with other software and platforms too. Would liked to have seen them releasing at least the Android app at the same time too though, the Symbian app I'm fine with having them releasing it with Nokias update. Of course all these new services also has mobile browser versions so it's not really a problem accessing them if you must on pretty much any device.