Microsoft's cloud storage service, SkyDrive, has been around for just over 5 years—since way before Apple came out with iCloud or Google with Gdrive. But only with Windows 8 does SkyDrive become an integral part of Microsoft's operating system strategy. Not only will the built-in modern-style Windows 8 apps like Mail and Photos be able to use your SkyDrive, but third-party apps, too, will be able to save items to your SkyDrive cloud storage folders. And since Microsoft has taken to using the term "device cloud" to describe SkyDrive, you can bet there's going to be an important mobile component to the service.
Windows 8's cloud services go beyond just SkyDrive storage. Signing into a Microsoft account on different machines lets you "roam," or sync, all your PC settings, such as the lock screen image, user photo, start screen "tattoos," browser favorites and history, spell check dictionaries, Explorer settings, mouse settings, and accessibility settings. Not only can you sync these settings, but you'll also be able to see in the Windows Store any apps you've installed on other PCs.
And in some cases you'll get the benefit of "single sign-in"—some other apps and sites will be able to use your Microsoft account credentials, saving you from repeatedly entering a username and password. Third-party apps can also use SkyDrive to roam their settings and state. This is all handled with privacy and security in mind though; you have to okay the services you want to access this identity check. The Windows 8 team has detailed the privacy/security precautions as follows:
First, we will require a strong password (and you can't leave password blank). Next, we'll collect a secondary proof of your identity. This will allow us to establish "trust" with specific PCs that you use frequently or own. This in turn will also enable more secure syncing of private data like passwords.
You're also asked to grant your consent for the program to access your SkyDrive data by the app or site wanting to use it. Note the two-factor authentication required—something that came up recently when an Apple-Gmail-Amazon-using journalist was hacked to the hilt.
Your SkyDrive Account
Everyone gets a SkyDrive account. Well, everyone who's created a Microsoft account, which includes everyone who's signed up for a Hotmail or Outlook.com account. What do you get with that account? All users get 7GB free, and, if you're a longtime SkyDrive account holder, you get 25GB free. This compares with 5GB free for iCloud and Google Drive, and 2GB for Dropbox. You can add 20GB for $10 a year, and 100GB for $50, this compares with $60 for 100GB on Google Drive, and $100 for just 50GB on iCloud.
You also get access to your online storage via more devices than any of those alternatives: SkyDrive includes apps for not only Windows 7 and 8, but for Mac OS X, iOS, Android, and Web access. The last is particularly important, and one thing that's long disappointed me about Apple's iCloud—why can't I access photos in my iCloud Photo Stream from a Web browser, if the stuff is actually in the "cloud."
Syncing
It's important to note that, like those other services, SkyDrive is not just online storage, but also file and folder syncing. In the past, Microsoft had separated its syncing service with names like Live Mesh and Live Sync, and (way back) FolderShare. The clients available for SkyDrive allow you to place a photo, document, or other item in your cloud storage and have it magically available to any of your other SkyDrive clients on any of your other devices or computers. I for one, find this joining of online storage and syncing a refreshing simplification of a previously somewhat confusing set of systems.
Some have complained that the new use of SkyDrive as the OS's syncing component doesn't offer the peer-to-peer syncing available in the previous service, but the end result of synced files and folders is identical. SkyDrive syncing on computers also differs from Mesh in that you can't designate any old folder you want to be synced, only those under the SkyDrive main folder. But Microsoft has made it possible for these synced folders to look less sequestered in the SkyDrive world, by using Windows' Libraries. A relevant blog post reads"If you'd like your SkyDrive folders to feel less like separate folders, you can add your SkyDrive Documents and Pictures folders to your Documents and Pictures Libraries in Windows 8 and Windows 7."
The Windows 8 SkyDrive App
Windows 8 ships with a SkyDrive app that you can recognize by the cloud on its blue Start page tile. Clicking on this takes you into another grid of tiles, each representing a folder or file you've stored on the service. Folders containing image files with sport an image on their tile above the folder name, and with a right-click (or swipe in from the top or bottom edge on a touch screen) you can choose to view Details, which adds the item's date and size, or stick with the thumbnail view.
No comments:
Post a Comment