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Microsoft SkyDrive and Dropbox Prepare for Cloud Feature Battle

23.04.2012
Google Drive is expected to launch any day now, and competing services such as Dropbox and Microsoft's SkyDrive are preparing for battle with their own feature enhancements.

On Monday, Microsoft announced an overhaul to its service. Here's a rundown of the new features:

- In a nod to Dropbox, new apps for and allow users to sync their files on the desktop, using a dedicated Skydrive folder in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. Using the Windows app for SkyDrive, users can now drag and drop files to the cloud.

- Microsoft updated its SkyDrive iOS app to include iPad support, file management, sharing via Web links, and multiple photo and video uploads.

- Users running SkyDrive on a Windows PC can now access their entire hard drive--not just the files stored on SkyDrive--from SkyDrive.com after a two-step authentication process.

- Microsoft decreased the amount of free storage it will offer to new users, from 25 GB to 7 GB, but removed the previous 5 GB limit on desktop syncing. Existing users can hang onto their free 25 GB of storage--without limits on syncing--by logging into the page at SkyDrive.com.