Amid the buzz over rival Apple Inc.'s iCloud computing services, Microsoft Corp. upgraded its SkyDrive cloud-based storage to make it faster and easier to use. SkyDrive group program manager Omar Shahine said the upgrade optimizes the service to use new Web technologies like HTML5 to run on modern browsers. "We took advantage of modern browsers and HTML5 to make SkyDrive faster, easier to navigate, and more beautiful for viewing photos. The new SkyDrive will be rolling out soon, so check back if you don’t see it right away," SkyDrive group program manager Omar Shahine said in a blog post. He said users can expect improvements in the following areas:
Core tasks and scenarios. Clicking folders and navigating photo albums will go from 6-9 seconds down to 100-300 milliseconds. "We took advantage of hardware accelerated graphics to make it fast to click through photo slideshows," he said. HTML5-powered site to include advancements like HTML5 Video, CSS3, and client-rendered experiences, as well as making sure our slideshow experience was great in all browsers without any special software. Removing anything that slowed the experience down or got in the way of a fast, clean site. Shahine also noted that with Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7, a user can pin SkyDrive to the taskbar for faster access to files. "You can create Word, Excel, or PowerPoint docs stored in the cloud in just one click," he added. Shahine also said Microsoft has removed ads to create room for a pane of information about one's files, so one can do things like open a document in Word or Excel on the desktop, directly from SkyDrive. He also pointed out the new SkyDrive view will "seem familiar" for Windows users as the navigational elements and layout will now be consistent with Windows. "This has a couple of benefits: 1) Our 1 billion Windows customers will find the site to be familiar and easy to use, and 2) SkyDrive now fills the page, which really showcases your content using as much of the screen as you allow. This means that getting to your stuff will be more predictable and consistent with how you already work," he said. As for recent docs and social feed, they are under the Quick views entry or can be accessed by clicking SkyDrive in the header. "You can get to your social updates by going to http://live.com and using the photos and documents filter to get the specific items you’re looking for," he said. Shahine also said they have redesigned Skydrive such that the view of photos is clean and rich, and fills the browser. "When you select an album, the new mosaic layout displays your pictures in a way that lets you see all your photos in their original aspect ratio. We create thumbnails that reflect the way you took the picture, whether it be a portrait, a landscape, or a panorama shot," he said. Another redesign is infinite scrolling, which eliminates pages in the photo viewing experience. On the other hand, the album viewer is built using HTML5 and supports a variety of browsers. "If your browser supports accelerated graphics, like Internet Explorer 9, you’ll notice things are fast and fluid. We also take advantage of the HTML5 video tag to support playback of H.264 videos (up to 100 MB), which is also new for this release," Shahine said. Additionally, Shahine said these features all work in your SkyDrive groups as well. "So if you have created a group for your family, soccer league, or any other group, you have the same lightning fast, beautiful experience interacting with your shared photos and documents. And we’ve brought things like one click access to your group mailing list right in SkyDrive," he said. Tough competitors An article on CNET said Microsoft's move comes at the heels of tough competition in cloud-based services, including Apple's upcoming iCloud. Google also has its own cloud-based services. — TJD, GMA News 
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