Say goodbye to SkyDrive and hello to OneDrive. After losing its trademark dispute with BSkyB last July, Microsoft is finally set to reboot its online storage service under a new name in the coming weeks.
The company hasn't given an official launch date yet, saying only that OneDrive is "coming soon." Microsoft will automatically switch over current SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro users (and their data) to the new service as it rolls out.
Microsoft appears to be taking this opportunity to do more than just give its online storage service a new name. "Get ready for an even better place to store and share your favorite things across all your favorite devices," Microsoft's OneDrive splash page reads, suggesting new features are on their way.
But don't get too excited about the possibilities just yet. Microsoft is famous for relaunching products with "new" features that actually aren't new at all (I'm looking at you, Live Search turned Bing ). So we'll have to wait and see what OneDrive offers before we know if Microsoft has anything planned that is actually different from SkyDrive.
If new and improved features are coming, it could have something to do with photo and video sharing--two file types that Microsoft mentioned first in its OneDrive promotional video and blog post.
The concept behind the name OneDrive is spelled out pretty clearly by the refreshed service's tagline: one place for everything in your life. "One place for all of your photos and videos. One place for all of your documents," Microsoft said in its first OneDrive blog post. "One place that is seamlessly connected across all the devices you use."
Renaming OneDrive to SkyDrive is the second major name swap Microsoft has had to undertake in the Windows 8 era. The first happened early in the lifecycle of Windows 8 when the German company Metro AG complained to Microsoft about the name of the software maker's design language, Metro; a design schema used as the primary visual look for Windows Phone and the Windows 8 modern UI.
Anyone interested in getting email updates about OneDrive can sign up at preview.onedrive.com.
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