Last month Microsoft confirmed that it is rebranding its cloud-based storage service SkyDrive to OneDrive, and now, the newly rebranded service has been made available to the public.
This change came after a legal dispute over the use of the moniker “Sky” with the British Sky Broadcasting firm. Microsoft was given a couple of months’ time to undergo the transition.
On Wednesday, the Redmond-based company formally rolled out the service and updated SkyDrive’s application across all platforms. While under the skin OneDrive is not much different from SkyDrive, the new rebranding does offer some enticing new features. One such feature will reduce the file size of your video files in accordance with the bandwidth you have. In addition, the real-time co-authoring feature has also been included with the service which will let you share your files, and work together with friends. Besides, you can increase your cloud storage space up to 5GB by inviting your friends to OneDrive, and can have 3GB of additional storage if you let SkyDrive backup your photos.
As part of the transition, SkyDrive Pro has been rebranded to OneDrive for Business, but the software giant hasn’t listed its features and pricing details. SkyDrive users can now opt for several monthly plans, which start at $4.49 for 50GB, $7.49, for 100GB and $11.49 for 200GB. If you would rather have yearly plans, 50GB storage space can be bought for $15, 100GB for $50 and 200GB for $100.
Free storage isn’t the only perk of the new OneDrive service. “As part of that goal, we’re doing more than just changing the name with today’s release: We’re rolling out several new capabilities, including automatic camera backup for Android and the ability to share and view videos just as easily as photos,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.
Microsoft has also put up a video on YouTube describing the new features of SkyDrive and touts its availability across various platforms. Celebrating its launch, Microsoft is planning to giveaway 100 GB of free space to the first 100,000 users sometime on Twitter today. If you already use SkyDrive, you don’t have to do anything, you can simply visit onedrive.com and log-in with your old credentials.
