Processors are slower, yet that's not so noticeable for basic tasks such as email,Facebook and weather checks. Video and audio are also enjoyable.

Because you spend so much time with your phone, there's a case for having the best. But those come with a price tag starting at about $650.

So consider how you use your phone and what features will remain most important to you over the next year or two. Before you drain your wallet, here are three solid phones that cover the basics:

ZTE Nubia 5S Mini (Android, Rs.15399)
The Nubia is a slim, light device with a 4.7-inch screen - the same as the iPhone 6. It looks sleek and is comfortable to hold. What's the catch?

The Nubia's display measures 1,280 pixels by 720 pixels, well short of what you get on the latest iPhones and top-end Samsung Galaxy devices. That resolution is adequate for 720p high-definition video, not the sharper 1020p. The camera is OK for taking everyday shots; pricier models deliver better focus and colors and take nicer low-light photos with the flash off.

However, the front camera for selfies is 5 megapixels, better than the typical phone. (The rear camera takes 13 megapixel shots, which is common.) And it comes with 4G connectivity and 16 gigabytes of memory.

Motorola Moto G (Android,Rs. 11162)
Motorola has a $129 Moto E phone, and you get a good device at that price. But I've found photos to be subpar, especially because the camera has a fixed-focus lens, meaning it doesn't compensate for how far away your subject is. Given how much people use the camera on their phones, I recommend spending another $50 for the

The latest Moto G model has a large 5-inch screen that is covered with Corning's Gorilla Glass for durability, something more common in pricier phones. The Moto G's back is curved, which could contribute to a better grip. Like the Nubia, its display is 1,280 pixels by 720 pixels.

The rear camera is 8 megapixels, the same as the iPhone, though shots weren't as good. The front camera is 2 megapixels.

The Moto G's main shortcoming is the lack of 4G LTE cellular connectivity. You're stuck with the slower 3G network. LTE is available for last year's Moto G model, but that screen is only 4.5 inches and the camera's resolution isn't as good. The Moto G also starts with just 8 gigabytes of memory, when many smartphones are starting to offer 32 gigabytes.

Microsoft Lumia 635 (Windows, roughly Rs. 9,500))

This 4.5-inch device doesn't feel as sleek as top-end Lumia phones such as the Icon and the 1520. But it's better than the $79 Lumia 530, which feels like a bar of soap, given its bulk and smaller screen. It's worth getting the 635 instead, especially as some carriers and retailers are offering substantial discounts to bring its price close to the 530's.

The Lumia 635 has a 5 megapixel rear camera, no flash and no front camera. It performed better than the Nubia and the Moto G in low light. Just don't expect shots to match what the 20-megapixel Icon produces. The display resolution is lower than on the Nubia and the Moto G, and the built-in storage is again just 8 gigabytes.But the 635 does have 4G connectivity.

So for those with a tight budget, think again before you get your hands into the costlier smartphones.

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Windows 8 brings significant advantages to those who are upgrading existing PCs or purchasing new ones, thanks to features that better take advantage of the new OS's capabilities. The operating system offers improvements in performance, existing capabilities, and is cheaper.

I should mention, however, that there are some cases in which you probably shouldn't make the move. The OS has a new look and requires some adjustment in the way you interact with your PC. If you don't like change or learning new ways of doing things—even if in the long run they turn out to be more efficient—you should probably stick with what you're using. Also, if your PC's specs are extremely outdated—less than 1GHz processor or less than 1GB RAM in particular—you won't be able to upgrade. And obviously, if your PC is for work use, your employer may not allow the upgrade. If these issue don't apply, read on.

                                 Windows 8 : New Start Background

"Tattoos" let you customize your Windows 8 Start screen with artistic backgrounds.

                                                    Windows 8 - SkyDrive

SkyDrive is your Windows cloud storage. Apps can be programmed to access the online storage with your permission.

 
1. Faster startup. On my testscomparing Windows 8 performancewith that of Windows 7 on the same computer, Windows 8 started up more than twice as fast as Windows 7. In a comparison with Mac OS X Mountain Lion, running in Boot Camp on a MacBook, Windows 8 even started up faster than Apple's latest desktop operating system. And it's not just startup time: Windows 8 ran several benchmark performance tests quicker than either Windows 7 or Mountain Lion. Microsoft has clearly put work into improving performance in Windows 8.

                                                            Windows 8 - Store

The Windows Store now features apps for purchase, with prices ranging from $1.49 to $999. Like the Mac App Store, it lets you reinstall apps you've bought on any of your PCs and oversees app updating.

2. A whole new world of apps. Windows 8 gives PC users a whole new world of full-screen, touch-friendly, Web-connected apps to explore. And these new apps can even display relevant information on their Windows Start screen tiles, something impossible in Windows 7 or just about any other operating system around, save Windows Phone. The new Windows Store—analogous to Apple's iTunes App Store—makes discovering and installing these new-style apps a breeze. The update process is simple, and you can install purchased apps on multiple Windows 8 devices without paying again, provided you're signed in. Finally, uninstalling the apps is streamlined by the Store, with no Registry complications as in past Windows versions' apps.

                                                  Windows 8 - SkyDrive

SkyDrive is your Windows cloud storage. Apps can be programmed to access the online storage with your permission.

3. SkyDrive integration. Microsoft's cloud service has become way, way more than just online storage. Sure, it still lets you save and access files to an online space that's accessible from a Web browser or apps that run on not only Windows, but also Mac OS X, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. But with Windows 8, SkyDrive is accessible to any app that wants to use it, just as though it were a local drive. It also backs up your PC's settings, letting you replicate your environment should you get a new PC.

4. Better Security, Less-intrusive updates.  PC Magazine networking and security analyst Fahmida Rashid considers Windows 8 "the most secureversion of Windows yet." This stems from a couple of things, starting with Secure Boot. ExtremeTech's Sebastian Anthony explains secure bootsuccinctly as follows: "Windows 8 stops a computer from loading an operating system that hasn’t been signed by the publisher (in this case, Microsoft or an OEM)." Another security gain is that all apps in the Windows Store are scrutinized for security issues.  Finally, Windows 8's default Web browser, Internet Explorer 10, was rated best in a recent test by NSS Labs, detecting and blocking over 99 percent of malicious downloads without any help from a third-party antivirus program. This compared with 70.4 percent for Google Chrome, which uses the same Safe Browsing API as Firefox. Opera and Safari only managed to block about 4 percent of the malicious downloads.

5. First-class touch input, but still fine with keyboard and mouse. In some ways, touch-screen input on Windows 8 is superior that of the Apple iPad. For example, you can do everything you need to by swiping with your thumbs, making a tablet easier to use by holding it by the sides. Also topping the iPad interface is Windows 8's ability to snap a sidebar to the side of the screen with a touch gesture, so that you can keep tabs on two apps at the same time.

But mouse and keyboard are hardly forgotten. The full complement of keyboard shortcuts still works, and navigating through the new interface with the mouse and mouse wheel is almost as intuitive as touch gesture input—though there are certainly some actions where touch is a better fit. Using the Windows Key becomes particularly important, as it summons the Start screen and offers key combinations that let you search, share, change settings, access devices, and more.

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HTC's reveal of its "signature" Windows Phones today had plenty of Ballmer bada-boom, but missed one major factor: Windows Phone 8 itself.

As the iPhone parachutes into the hands of new owners everywhere, we're still not allowed to touch Windows Phone 8. Just like at the Nokia Lumia launch, at HTC's Windows Phone 8X launch no one other than official demonstrators were allowed to go beyond three screens: the home screen, the music player, and the camera app.

There's something off-kilter about the Windows Phone 8 rollout so far. HTC, Nokia and Samsung have all shown off Windows Phones, but nobody's been allowed to build enthusiasm over the great features of the new OS. Even developers have been left out of the party so far, with only makers of the "most downloaded" apps allowed to program for all the features of the new OS. That's no way to build enthusiasm.

It's certainly Microsoft's prerogative to hold back features until it's ready to release the news, but the problem here is the sense that there are many moving parts, all out of sync. Nokia, HTC, and Samsung clearly want to stop all of their potential purchasers from buying iPhones (now on sale!), so they've put down IOUs in the form of these partial reveals. But Microsoft isn't playing along, making it look more like Microsoft just isn't ready than like a coordinated, gradual unveiling.

Let me repeat: the problem isn't that Microsoft's OS may not be ready. The problem is that we're seeing hardware announcements without an OS that's even functioning well enough to demonstrate, and that makes the whole ecosystem look confused and unreliable.

To Microsoft's credit, it's chosen the hardest possible path here. Apple controls its entire ecosystem from top to bottom. Google has relinquished control, as long as partners live up to some minimum requirements. (It tosses out a Nexus every year or so, but the Nexus models don't have a material impact on Android's success as a whole.) Only Microsoft is left trying to make a bunch of competing OEMs act like a team.

Microsoft proclaiming that Nokia and HTC are both its premier partners adds to the confusion. For a year now, Nokia has been saying that as a Windows-Phone-centric company (run by an ex-Microsoftie, no less), it's Microsoft's special friend. Now Steve Ballmer is up on stage with HTC, proclaiming that the 8X is "truly a Windows Phone hero product." Is HTC Microsoft's best friend, or is Nokia?

Microsoft is playing coy. "Our partnership with Nokia is very important for Windows Phone and we are thrilled by the response to the Lumia 820 and 920 two weeks ago," Windows Phone senior product manager Greg Sullivan wrote to me in an email. "In addition to Nokia, we work with a variety of other OEMs who provide their own features and characteristics … Together with HTC we named these new phones Windows Phone 8X and 8S by HTC to more prominently feature our brand and to provide customers a simple choice when they go buy one."

I understand that Microsoft is trying to keep its partners in balance, but maybe it needs to step back a little to do so.

Strategy vs. SoftwareMicrosoft can do a very easy thing to change the focus of this discussion: release the darn OS. The clock started ticking when we heard about the Lumia 820 and 920.

We know we're going to see the software before November, because that's when the HTC 8X is hitting AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. But every phone announced with no public SDK and no hands-ons permitted makes Microsoft look less prepared.

Hopefully, none of this changes the quality of Windows Phone 8. I'm hoping it's everything that was promised: a great-looking, people-centric OS with awesome Xbox-style gaming and terrific built-in social networking. I'm even considering switching from Android to Windows Phone 8 myself. I like its themes; they fit with my life.

But Windows Phone 7 was a really neat OS too, and it didn't get any traction. To win over carriers, press and public opinion, Microsoft needs more than great software: it needs great showmanship, and momentum. To get there, it really needs to let people touch the phones.

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It's official: Microsoft's mobile operating system Windows Phone 8 has officially gone gold.

So what does that mean to you?

If you're a developer, the on-time "release to manufacturing" date is just one more piece of the puzzle between you and a general launch of Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 Software Development Kit, or SDK.

If you're a smartphone enthusiast and already planning to pick up a Windows Phone 8 device at some point in the future, then the gold status gives even more credibility to the rumors that an official Windows Phone 8 announcement will take place on October 29. It's also rumored that actual Windows Phone 8 smartphones will go on sale right after Microsoft's official reveal — according to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, some manufacturers might even put up some smartphones for preorder before then.

Now that Windows Phone 8 is gold, the Windows NT-based OS heads on out to manufacturers so they can customize and tweak their devices to ensure final compatibility.

Although a number of Windows Phone 8 features have already been revealed — including support for multi-core CPUs and 64-bit processors, additional screen resolutions (1280-by-720 and 1280-by-768), near-field communications, and more customizable live tiles (previously known as the Metro UI) — part of the reason why developers still don't have access to a general Windows Phone 8 SDK is that Microsoft doesn't want to tip the rest of what's inside Windows Phone 8 too early.

"The reason is that not all Windows Phone 8 features have been announced and our SDK includes comprehensive emulators that allow developers to test apps against a wide range of Windows Phone features," wrote Microsoft's Todd Brix in a post on the Windows Developer Blog Thursday.

"We recognize that this is a different approach to delivering tools than we've taken in the past. Our goal is to generate as much Windows Phone 8 excitement as possible to attract new customers when phones go on sale. This is one of many steps we're taking to help give you what you (and we) want most."

Microsoft is currently allowing developers of "most-downloaded apps" apply for access to the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 Developer Preview — sign-ups run until Monday at 5 p.m. PDT.

Judging by some of the comments to Brix's post, however, not all developers are thrilled by Microsoft's decision to play Windows Phone 8 so close to the vest.

"I understand that there are unannounced features that you want to keep hidden from people until you are ready to detail them. But it is a shame that this is holding devs back from testing the more basic features," wrote one commenter, Martin Anderson. "In the past you have had locked down emulator images, could this not be done at least before the full announcements are made?"

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Nokia Lumia 920 brings raft of killer features to Windows Phone 8

By Jared Newman, PCWorld

Nokia today announced its new flagship Windows Phone 8, the Lumia 920, with a powerful PureView camera as the centerpiece.
The Nokia Lumia 920 has a 4.5-inch curved glass display with 1280-pixel-by-768-pixel resolution, a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Nokia also announceda mid-range Lumia 820 model that has a 4.3-inch display and supports exchangeable shell designs with a shorter battery life and 8 GB storage.
Lumia 920 and 820 compared: Source NokiaBut specs are only part of the story for Nokia's new flagship. At a press conference in New York, Nokia focused on features, design, and technology that goes beyond raw performance.
Foremost is that PureView camera which, despite the name, doesn't have the same whopping 41-megapixel sensor found on Nokia's 808 PureView Symbian phone. The sensor in the Lumia 920 is a more typical 8.7 megapixels, but Nokia claims that the 920's camera captures five-to-ten times more light than other phone cameras, which makes it better at shooting photos indoors or in low lighting. (This was a major issue with Nokia's Lumia 800 and 900 phones, which struggled in those situations.) A 1.2-megapixel HD camera is up front.
The Lumia 920's camera also has so-called “floating-lens” technology for image stabilization. The floating lens is particularly beneficial for video, Nokia said, because it minimizes the erratic shaking found in some other smartphone cameras.
To take advantage of new screen-resolution possibilities in Windows Phone 8, the Lumia 920 has a “Pure Motion HD+” display. Nokia says the screen offers blur-free scrolling and enhancements to sunlight readability, so the phone can react to minimize sunlight glare. The screen also works through gloved fingers, so there's no need to buy special smartphone gloves.
Additionally, the Lumia 920 supports built-in wireless charging and near-field communications. Nokia will offer its own charging plate, but design company Fatboywill sell a wireless charging pillow as well. Virgin Atlantic plans to install wireless charging pads in its Heathrow Airport lounge, and Coffee Bean will install wireless charging pads in its shops. JBL will sell a speaker dock called PowerUp, which charges the phone wirelessly and pairs through NFC.
The design of the Lumia 920 is similar to that of Nokia's previous high-end Windows Phones, with a scratch-resistant polycarbonate shell around the curved display. Nokia is expanding the available color schemes on the casing to include yellow, red, and gray, in addition to the existing cyan, white, black. and pink found in Nokia's Lumia 900 line.
Of course, Nokia's Lumia 920 will run Windows Phone 8, but Nokia will add some of its own software features to stand out from competitors Samsung, HTC. and Huawei.
Nokia Maps will be integratedon this phone, as it will be on all Windows Phone 8 devices, but the Lumia 920's Maps app will also included an augmented reality feature called City Lens. Similar to Yelp's AR mode, CityLens lets users hold up the phone's camera to their surroundings and see information on nearby businesses. And on the Lumia 920, Nokia's Drive app will provide turn-by-turn directions with fully-offline maps.
Smart Shoot before and afterThe camera also has some software features to improve photos. Smart Shoot scans for unwanted people passing through photos, and can remove them from the image. Cinemagraph can add a touch of motion to parts of an image, such as a flag waving in the background.
In addition to the Lumia 920, Nokia also announced the Lumia 820, which seemed like a bit of an afterthought at the company's press conference. The Lumia 820 has a 4.3-inch, 800-pixel-by-480-pixel resolution display (without curved glass), a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics (not PureView), a VGA front-facing camera, 8GB of storage. and a microSD card slot.
Nokia hasn't announced pricing or availability for its new Lumia phones, but says both will be available in pentaband LTE and HSPA+ variants in select markets later this year.

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Leaked photos of two new Windows Phone 8 devices from Nokia, the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, hit the Web on Friday ahead of the handset maker'sNokia World event next week in New York.

Two high-resolution photos popped up on the@evleaks Twitter account around 7:30 a.m. ET, showcasing bright, slick phones which Nokia is expected to debut next Wednesday.

As The Verge first reported, the leaked photos likely display the "Phi" (Lumia 920) and "Arrow" (Lumia 820) devices (pictured below), both available in a number of colours.

The Lumia 920 phone will supposedly sport a 4.5-inch display, as well as a PureView camera, which has a 41-megapixel sensor and is meant to eliminate the visual noise found on most smartphone cameras. According to VentureBeat, Lumia 920 plans will be sold exclusively by AT&T.

The Lumia 820, comes in at least seven colors, has a 4.3-inch display, and will run on AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks, VentureBeat said.

The mysterious @evleaks has posted only 10 messages in four days, including eight photos of an unknown HTC Android tablet, and already has almost 700 followers in less than a week.

Nokia has a lot riding on its Windows Phone 8 offerings and its tight relationship with Microsoft. The beleaguered Finnish handset maker, once a market leader, has struggled to keep up with competitors like Apple and makers of various Android phones in recent years.

"Nokia bet everything on Windows, and if this doesn't succeed the next step might be having to do what's best for shareholders, and that might include selling off key assets or selling the whole company," Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley said in an interview with Reuters.

Windows Phone 8 isn't expected to drop until Oct. 29, VentureBeat pointed out, so if they are revealed next week, the Lumia handsets will still have to sit on the shelf for almost two months before Nokia starts selling them.

Lumia 920 with PureView

Lumia 820

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Microsoft's cloud storage service, SkyDrive, has been around for just over 5 years—since way before Apple came out with iCloud or Google with Gdrive. But only with Windows 8 does SkyDrive become an integral part of Microsoft's operating system strategy. Not only will the built-in modern-style Windows 8 apps like Mail and Photos be able to use your SkyDrive, but third-party apps, too, will be able to save items to your SkyDrive cloud storage folders. And since Microsoft has taken to using the term "device cloud" to describe SkyDrive, you can bet there's going to be an important mobile component to the service.

Windows 8's cloud services go beyond just SkyDrive storage. Signing into a Microsoft account on different machines lets you "roam," or sync, all your PC settings, such as the lock screen image, user photo, start screen "tattoos," browser favorites and history, spell check dictionaries, Explorer settings, mouse settings, and accessibility settings. Not only can you sync these settings, but you'll also be able to see in the Windows Store any apps you've installed on other PCs.

And in some cases you'll get the benefit of "single sign-in"—some other apps and sites will be able to use your Microsoft account credentials, saving you from repeatedly entering a username and password. Third-party apps can also use SkyDrive to roam their settings and state. This is all handled with privacy and security in mind though; you have to okay the services you want to access this identity check. The Windows 8 team has detailed the privacy/security precautions as follows:

First, we will require a strong password (and you can't leave password blank). Next, we'll collect a secondary proof of your identity. This will allow us to establish "trust" with specific PCs that you use frequently or own. This in turn will also enable more secure syncing of private data like passwords.

You're also asked to grant your consent for the program to access your SkyDrive data by the app or site wanting to use it. Note the two-factor authentication required—something that came up recently when an Apple-Gmail-Amazon-using journalist was hacked to the hilt.

Your SkyDrive Account
Everyone gets a SkyDrive account. Well, everyone who's created a Microsoft account, which includes everyone who's signed up for a Hotmail or Outlook.com account. What do you get with that account? All users get 7GB free, and, if you're a longtime SkyDrive account holder, you get 25GB free. This compares with 5GB free for iCloud and Google Drive, and 2GB for Dropbox. You can add 20GB for $10 a year, and 100GB for $50, this compares with $60 for 100GB on Google Drive, and $100 for just 50GB on iCloud.

You also get access to your online storage via more devices than any of those alternatives: SkyDrive includes apps for not only Windows 7 and 8, but for Mac OS X, iOS, Android, and Web access. The last is particularly important, and one thing that's long disappointed me about Apple's iCloud—why can't I access photos in my iCloud Photo Stream from a Web browser, if the stuff is actually in the "cloud."

Syncing 
It's important to note that, like those other services, SkyDrive is not just online storage, but also file and folder syncing. In the past, Microsoft had separated its syncing service with names like Live Mesh and Live Sync, and (way back) FolderShare. The clients available for SkyDrive allow you to place a photo, document, or other item in your cloud storage and have it magically available to any of your other SkyDrive clients on any of your other devices or computers. I for one, find this joining of online storage and syncing a refreshing simplification of a previously somewhat confusing set of systems.

Some have complained that the new use of SkyDrive as the OS's syncing component doesn't offer the peer-to-peer syncing available in the previous service, but the end result of synced files and folders is identical. SkyDrive syncing on computers also differs from Mesh in that you can't designate any old folder you want to be synced, only those under the SkyDrive main folder. But Microsoft has made it possible for these synced folders to look less sequestered in the SkyDrive world, by using Windows' Libraries. A relevant blog post reads"If you'd like your SkyDrive folders to feel less like separate folders, you can add your SkyDrive Documents and Pictures folders to your Documents and Pictures Libraries in Windows 8 and Windows 7."

The Windows 8 SkyDrive App
Windows 8 ships with a SkyDrive app that you can recognize by the cloud on its blue Start page tile. Clicking on this takes you into another grid of tiles, each representing a folder or file you've stored on the service. Folders containing image files with sport an image on their tile above the folder name, and with a right-click (or swipe in from the top or bottom edge on a touch screen) you can choose to view Details, which adds the item's date and size, or stick with the thumbnail view.

The same applies if you're inside a folder. For example, if you're in an image folder, you'll by default just see large thumbnails of the images. Hovering the cursor over a tile/thumbnail displays the filename, date last modified, file size, and who it's shared with. When you invoke the app bar from the main screen (by right-clicking or swiping up from the bottom of a touchscreen), you'll see just five buttons—Refresh, New Folder, Upload, Details, and Select all. This changes when you right click on a file tile, adding four new buttons on the left—Clear selection, Download, Delete, and Open with.

Even more cloudy is the ability to view Office documents stored on your SkyDrive storage in Office Web apps. In fact, there's a strong tie-in between Office Web apps and SkyDrive, since the latter is the default place your Web Office documents reside. I had not problem viewing not only Microsoft file formats like Word Documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations using the online Office apps, but I could also view PDFs and Windows 8 knew to open a ZIP file on the desktop, showing the archive's contents in a folder.

One SkyDrive disappointment for me was that I didn't see any evidence of it in the Windows 8 desktop. I expected to see a SkyDrive choice in Windows Explorer, just as I did after installing the SkyDrive utility in Windows 7. I did see a HomeGroup section in Explorer that sported my user picture, but that's a different story from my SkyDrive cloud storage. It turns out that you have to install the same desktop client in Windows 8 desktop that you would in Windows 7, which we'll cover next. Since it's identical whether you run it in Windows Vista, 7, or 8 desktop, one section will suffice. Me, I think it's a little odd that you'd have to install this in Windows 8, since the functionality is already on the machine in the Metro (sorry) mode and you've already signed into your account.

SkyDrive on Windows 7
Yes, this article is supposed to be about Windows 8, but the Windows 7 SkyDrive software you run in that incumbent Windows OS is the same as what you need to run in Windows 8's desktop mode, if you want to see SkyDrive integration there. This app is what makes the folder and file syncing possible, taking the place of Windows Live Mesh, but of course it also serves as simple online storage. Note that it only works on Windows Vista and later—no XP users need apply.

To get started, you download and run the tiny 5MB SkyDrive client from Microsoft[http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/skydrive/download-skydrive]. After an introductory message box on which you click Get Started, you simply sign into your Microsoft account. The setup wizard for this lets you create an account, too, if you don't already have one, and then shows how your SkyDrive folder will appear in Windows Explorer, with its little blue cloud icon instead of the traditional yellow folder icon. You can change its location from the default top level under your user folder.

After you've accepted a SkyDrive folder location, the wizard informs you about the incredibly important, cool, and potentially tail-saving Fetch feature. This lets you access files from the PC even if you didn't put them in the SkyDrive folder. A checkbox here lets you turn off this feature if you're afraid of unauthorized access to all files on your PC.

And that's it! You'll next see a tooltip at the system tray showing you the newly installed cloud icon, and your actual SkyDrive Explorer folder will open. For a quick test, I went over to my Windows 8 PC, and created a new folder it the SkyDrive app, which appeared seconds later in the Windows 7 machine's SkyDrive folder. Including SkyDrive in Windows Explorer is incredibly helpful—it means you can save work from any application to your cloud storage directly, without having to go to a website.

Next I shared some of the screenshots used for this article to my SkyDrive account. (One disappointment for me in this process was that I couldn't create a new folder through the Picture app's Share feature. I could only do so in the SkyDrive app itself.) I chose a target folder, and clicked Upload. I was impressed with how quickly all the images appeared on the Windows 7 PC—no more emailing screenshots to myself!

As a visual cue, when files and folders are up-to-date, their Explorer entries show a green check mark, but while updating, this is replaced by circular refresh arrows. Finally, I was amazed how easy it is to uninstall the SkyDrive client, in case you don't want its cloud folders and syncing. Just head to the Control Panel's Programs and Features page to remove it.

SkyDrive on the Web
Web access to all your cloud data is one thing you don't get in Apple's iCloud. Microsoft has been putting a lot of efforts into updating the Web client for SkyDrive. Just in mid-August, the company released a new online version of SkyDrive. The interface bears a striking resemblance to that of the SkyDrive Windows 8 new-style app, except the folder tiles are all the same size. The Web app is linked with other Microsoft online services through a top switcher menu that includes Mail (either Outlook.com or Hotmail), People (the social network-aggregator app), and Calendar. It's a very fast and clean interface, with a left panel of menu choices including Files, Recent docs, Shared, Groups, and PCs.

This last may be the most interesting: For PCs you've authorized, you can pull any files using Fetch, even if the files aren't in the SkyDrive folder. When I chose the PCs option from the Web interface's left rail, I was greeted by a message saying "Security check! To connect to this PC we need you to enter a security code. This extra step only takes a minute and will help protect your computer from unauthorized access." When I clicked the "Sign in with security code" link, I was told to sign in on a computer that's connected to my account. Of course, for this to work, the PC your fetching files from has to be on and running the SkyDrive client.

Once I jumped all the security hurdles, I could browse the entire disk of the target PC. I could download any files found there, or upload them to SkyDrive (which feels a little odd, since it seemed like I was browsing SkyDrive). I could also view all the files pertinent properties in a right-side panel—type, size, and dates created and modified.

The Fetch feature is a great idea, though it seems to be only available in a very limited set of circumstances. You're probably better off just saving files you think you may need remote access to your SkyDrive cloud folders.

Using SkyDrive From Other Windows 8 Modern Apps
What really makes SkyDrive an integral part of the Windows 8 ecosystem is the fact that any Windows 8 modern-style app can take advantage of its cloud storage. Microsoft has made it really simple for developers to do this, as a Building Windows 8 blog post described. It's early on in the Windows 8 app store, but I managed to find a few that already use SkyDrive. The FotoEditor app, a sort of Instagram without the social networking let me save my distorted image to SkyDrive. It also let me open photos for editing from my cloud folders. We'll definitely see more extensive use of SkyDrive in third-party apps as the Window Store fills out, particularly those that will use app state and settings syncing.

Not Just for Windows 8 PCs
Just this week, a SkyDrive for Android app appeared, joining already existing apps for Windows 8, Mac OS X, iPhones, iPads, and Windows Phone. The mobile apps let you not only view anything stored up in your SkyDrive, but upload photos and share anything stored via the cloud.

I tried out mobile access to SkyDrive on my iPhone, using the iOS app. The SkyDrive iPhone app is nicely designed, clearly showing my cloud folders, and even letting me view photos and documents (even spreadsheets and PDFs) within the app. It also let me share anything in the folders via an email link (with view only or edit permissions), or to copy items to the phone's cut-and-paste clipboard.

A couple of things I couldn't do in the iPhone app: I could not use the fetch feature to find any files on the PC signed into the same SkyDrive account, as I could through the Web client. Also, I couldn't stream video. One cool thing that I could do was upload photos from the iPhone's camera roll or other galleries, but I couldn't designate any of the galleries for inclusion as a whole on SkyDrive. I could mark multiple folders for upload, but new photos in the gallery couldn't automatically be uploaded. In Windows Phone, you can do exactly that, using the "Automatically upload to SkyDrive" option.

Remote Access
One thing that has been removed from SkyDrive is remote access. This is something offered by iCloud but not by Google Drive or DropBox. Of course, third-party options like the excellent TeamViewer also offer remote PC control, so it's not like the OS vendor's solution is your only option.

Your Drive in the Sky
Microsoft's cloud solution is coming together, and its design goals make tremendous sense. I particularly like that syncing has now been combined with the online storage. Letting third-party windows app developers build cloud storage right into their apps will also be a boon, though this is something iCloud, too offers. Cross platform support for Macs, iOS devices, and even Android devices is a smart move on Microsoft's part, as well. And while the Fetch feature that lets you pull any file off a connected Windows PC is a great idea, its implementation is too limited at this point, and remote PC control was a no show in my testing. Microsoft is anything but a latecomer to the cloud, and SkyDrive in Windows 8 shows this, and shows movement in the right direction.

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