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Microsoft SkyDrive Hits Android Phones

The SkyDrive 1.0 app is now available for Android smartphones at the Google Play Store, Microsoft announced on Tuesday.

SkyDrive, which left the beta stage earlier this month, is a file storage service that gives consumers 7 GB of space via Microsoft's datacenters at no charge. Besides the Linux-based Android platform, SkyDrive also supports Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Phone, Apple iOS and OS X Lion.

The SkyDrive for Android app works with Android 2.3 or earlier versions of that operating system, but it works best with Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich," according to Mike Torres, a group program manager on the SkyDrive apps team.

SkyDrive apps are designed for mobile devices, but those signed up to use SkyDrive can also use their device's browser to access their files stored in the Internet cloud. The apps are a bit more limited when they use the browser for file handling, compared with using the Windows desktop or Mac desktop.

"SkyDrive customers can upload files up to 300 MB in size in the browser and up to 2 GB using SkyDrive for the Windows Desktop (preview) and SkyDrive for Mac OS X Lion (preview)," a Microsoft spokesperson has explained.

The file limits also apply to sharing files, so 2 GB is the limit for file sharing with SkyDrive. According to Microsoft's comparison chart, the free Google Drive service offers greater file-sharing capacity at 5 GB.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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