Microsoft rolls out better SkyDrive options for photos and sharing

Microsoft introduced its SkyDrive cloud storage service to the world back in 2007, almost six years ago to the day, in fact. The service may have started slow, but with Windows 8 and Office 2013 the momentum has increased, with better integration. Now the software maker rolls out even more options to the storage site.

The company wishes to support the new HD and Retina displays contained within today's devices, and has added such support directly into its latest iteration of the cloud service. Microsoft's Omar Shahine announces that SkyDrive supports these high DPI displays by "measuring the DPI scale of your device. When your screen supports it, we show higher resolution photos and thumbnails. So you see more of your real photo instead of a thumbnail that gets up-scaled (note: not all browsers support high DPI yet)". This illustrates the service's ability to process such photos as those captured in RAW format.

The company has also empowered users to share animated GIF images, a feature that previously blocked the important part -- the actual animation.

Sorting and managing files has also been enhanced. Microsoft already introduced an "all photos" view, but bolsters that feature in this upgrade. "Today, we’re happy to introduce a new capability on SkyDrive.com: the ability to share individual groups of files from anywhere in your SkyDrive. You can share two photos from your camera roll, or a hundred. You can share a file in one folder along with another file from a different folder. And you can share different things with different people", says Shahine.

Meanwhile, the new Shared view shows you all of the pics you have shared, and those that have been shared with you. Your own stuff is at the top of the list, sorted by what you have most recently sent out to friends and family. This is followed by a list of people who have shared something with you, sorted by who did so most recently.

SkyDrive brings 7 GB of storage to every user (25 GB if you were grandfathered in) and adds an additional 20 GB for customers of Office 365 Home Premium. Users can, of course, buy additional storage.