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Microsoft blurs the line between OneDrive and local files
This fall, all of your Windows files will be viewable and accessible from File Explorer regardless of whether they're stored in OneDrive or locally. It's something Joe Belfiore talked about onstage from Microsoft's Build keynote today, saying that all the fancy tools we've seen so far this morning for collaboration will benefit from it.
Microsoft Graph bridges the gap between Windows and your phone
You've probably never heard of the Microsoft Graph before, but it's going to be essential to the company's push into being the connective glue between all of your devices. For the past few years, the Graph has a shared platform connecting office apps. But with the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators' Update, it'll also "connect dots between people, conversations, projects and content." Announced during the second day of Build 2017, the aim is to make all things Microsoft work seamlessly, whether you're on an iPhone, an Android device or a Windows PC. (And without mentioning Continuum.) The new features goes beyond that, tapping into Microsoft's cloud storage services in a bid to make you more efficient while switching across different hardware and keeping track of (almost) everything you do on your PC. Let's take a look.
Plex can pull media from Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive
Plex has added support for Google Drive, OneDrive and DropBox to its Plex Cloud service. The original idea with the service, which debuted in beta this September, was to void the need for a dedicated media server or network attached storage (NAS) drives. That way, assuming you have a decently fast internet connection, you can stream your movies or songs wherever you are via files that are parked securely in the cloud.
Scan photos into Office 365 with Office Lens on Windows 10
Microsoft's Office Lens app has let folks upload photos from their iOS and Android devices since April 2015. But now your Windows 10-running phone, tablet, PC can snap photos — or even the Hololens, if that's your thing.
OneDrive cribbed a lot from Google Photos for its new update
Competition is good for everyone. Case in point: Microsoft has added some features to the OneDrive platform that should be pretty familiar to anyone accustomed to Google Photos. First up are Automatic Albums, which, as the name implies, groups photos together based on metadata to give you a comprehensive view of a given time period's events. In a neat twist, the folks in Redmond say that every Monday morning the service will automatically create albums of the pictures you took over the weekend. The platform will do a TimeHop-style "On this day" photo-resurfacing as well.
Microsoft starts downgrading OneDrive's free storage to 5GB
Heads up: if you didn't sign up to keep the 15GB worth of OneDrive storage Microsoft gave out in 2014, you'll soon see a big change in your account... if you haven't yet. Redmond is not only killing your 15GB camera roll back-up bonus, it's also slashing 10GB off your account, bringing it down to 5GB. The company started sending out emails about the change earlier this year, with a warning that your unpaid storage capacity would become even smaller than its original 7GB offering by either July 13th or July 27th.
Microsoft Groove builds smart music playlists around your tastes
Smart music discovery playlists are all the rage right now (just ask Spotify), and Microsoft knows it. It recently introduced a Your Groove feature to Groove Music that automatically creates playlists suited to your taste. It'll generate track listings for your existing OneDrive music collection based on your listening habits, moods and artist activity, so you can revisit a favorite band when it's on tour. However, the real party starts when you have a Music Pass -- Groove will throw new songs into the playlists to expand your horizons.
'No Man's Sky' developer ends 'legal nonsense' battle over name
There's no sign that it contributed to the delay, but Hello Games founder Sean Murray said today that after "3 years of secret stupid legal nonsense," his company's game can be called No Man's Sky. They had to settle with trademark owner Sky TV to use the name that it's very protective of -- remember when Microsoft had to rename SkyDrive as OneDrive for the same reason? According to Murray's tweets, he's learned a lot about trademark law, and might have a good idea about why Skynet never happened. Seriously though, the highly anticipated game should be on track for its rescheduled release date of August 9th, and we can't wait to see it procedurally generated universe unfold.
Shortened URLs make it easy to spy on people
Security researchers have discovered that short URLs are able to be brute-forced, potentially exposing personal data to anyone motivated to look. The issue was found by Martin Georgiev and Vitaly Shmatikov after looking at the abbreviated web addresses used by companies like Google, Microsoft and bit.ly. The standard Google Maps URL, for instance, takes up around 150 characters, but for ease of use, the product offered a six-character alternative. But a combination of six-characters is small enough that it's possible to break simply with trial and error, exposing your cloud storage files and mapping requests to the world.
Microsoft is ending support for Skype on TVs
Microsoft announced the integration of Skype in Office Online late last year. So you could collaborate and co-edit documents using the video call and chat service. Starting today you can do the same in OneDrive. The conversations will stay linked to the document-in-progress so you can have all the context and history slapped on for future reference. While Skype is being integrated firmly into online tools to boost interaction, Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Skype for TV app.
Microsoft apps now come with Android devices from 74 companies
If finding Microsoft apps on the Galaxy S6 caught you off-guard, you're in for a real surprise this year. Microsoft has announced that its apps are now bundled with current and future Android devices from 74 companies, including newcomer Acer as well as ASUS, LG, Samsung and Sony. That's a healthy boost from 31 vendors last year. There are bound to be gaps in coverage, but the odds are now fairly high that you'll find the Office suite, OneDrive, Skype and other Redmond-made tools on your brand new smartphone or tablet.
Microsoft caves and gives 15GB back to legacy OneDrive users
Free cloud storage is great. That is until you've added it to your workflow and the amount of storage you have is being reduced by Microsoft. That's what happened to OneDrive users. In November, Microsoft announced that the 15GB of free storage it was offering was being reduced to 5GB. Naturally folks got pissed. One post about the reduction in space generated over 72,000 votes on a OneDrive forum. That got the company to backtrack (sort of) and is offering legacy customers with 15GB the chance to keep all that room in the cloud. But they have to opt-in by January 31.
Microsoft shrinks OneDrive storage for Office 365 and free users
If you're a OneDrive user, the changes Microsoft just announced for its cloud storage service are almost certainly cutting down the amount of space available to you. Last year it was flying high and announced unlimited OneDrive storage for Office 365 consumer users -- an option that is now disappearing. Now, if you're on Office 365 Home, Personal or University your space is capped at the (still sizable) old limit of 1TB that matches its professional offering, but is a far cry from the 75TB Microsoft claims some were using its service to hold. Next year, both current and new free users will see their available space shrink too -- from 15GB to 5GB -- and the 15GB camera roll bonus go away. There were paid plans for 100GB or 200GB of storage, but they're going away too, with only a $2 per month 50GB plan remaining.
DoubleTwist's CloudPlayer can stream to Android Wear and Auto
DoubleTwist's CloudPlayer can already pull and stream media from Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive accounts, but now it works on AllPlay speakers, Android smartwatches and Auto. Yep, you'll be able to stream your tunes in your car, on your wrist and in your home or office... depending on where you store your non-smartphone Android hardware. With AllPlay support it also means you can now use CloudPlayer on Chromecast Audio, Apple TV or an AllPlay speaker. These are all great reasons to give doubleTwist's media player a shot -- unless you're already busy with one of the (many) other options available.
OneDrive's Groups feature shutting down October 16th
Microsoft officially announced it's axing the Groups feature in OneDrive in the coming weeks, meaning stalwarts still using the online storage service for collaborating will need to start migrating their data to new locations. This shouldn't come as a surprise, though: The feature has been largely shuttered for months. As it is, users haven't been able to create new groups; they can only work within existing ones.
OneDrive will tell you when someone's editing your files
If you've ever worried that someone was editing your shared documents behind your back, Microsoft might just set your mind at ease. The folks in Redmond are rolling out an update to OneDrive that tells you when someone is editing a file you've shared, whether through a mobile notification or a daily summary email -- you'll know if someone is diving into that quarterly report a little too soon, or if that spreadsheet will be ready for tomorrow. Only some users will see these alerts at first, but they should be "widely available" in the weeks ahead.
Microsoft brings Outlook and Translator to your smartwatch
Microsoft has just released a bunch of productivity apps for wearable devices -- nope, not for the Band, but for Android Wear smartwatches and the Apple Watch. First for the Apple Watch is Outlook, which allows you to read full emails and respond with either canned replies or your own through voice dictation. Cupertino's wearable also gets to-do app Wunderlist and will soon be able to install private social network Yammer, which will be able to take advantage of iOS 8's Handoff feature with an iPhone.
Windows 10 preview turns Xbox Music into 'Groove'
Welcome to the new music experience in Windows 10. As hinted at earlier this morning by Paul Thurrott, the company just announced it's rebranding the Xbox Music experience to "Groove", while also renaming the Xbox Video app to just "Movies & TV." According to a blog post about the changes, the new naming is meant to be "more identifiable to our broad customer base" and will roll out to other devices in the coming months. The timing of the change is odd as Windows and Xbox begin to work more closely together than ever before, but it doesn't appear that the actual features will be much different. Of course, with the launch of Apple Music, rebranding could be just the way to get some attention for an existing service that already offers a lot of the same features.
Microsoft plugs OneDrive storage into your Chromecast
In case you needed another way to beam photos and videos to your Chromecast, the Android OneDrive app has you covered. The latest update for Microsoft's cloud-storage service will take all those gorgeously arranged images from your device running Google's mobile OS and put 'em on your TV via Mountain VIew's HDMI wunderstick. Pretty handy, right? Your Galaxy S6 (or any other Android device with the app installed) should see the update shortly if it already hasn't downloaded. As for iOS users, they'll likely have to wait a bit longer -- the last update only mentions bug fixes and stability improvements.
Microsoft unveils Cortana voice assistant for Android and iPhone
Yes, it's official: Microsoft is bringing Windows' Cortana voice assistant to Android and iPhone. Both platforms will get a dedicated app that, much like you see on Windows Phone today, will let you dictate reminders, track flights and otherwise keep your life organized. Cortana's Notebook, which remembers what you like, will also sync across all your platforms. This won't be a one-for-one recreation of what you get right now, though -- since Microsoft can't tap directly into the operating system like it can on Windows devices, you won't get hands-free activation through "hey Cortana" or options to launch apps or settings. Still, it'll be worth seeing what this Halo-inspired helper can do when it reaches Android in late June, and iPhones sometime later this year -- and we'd add that it's not the only treat Microsoft has in store for your smartphone, either.
