SkyDrive music streaming app now available...for Android

This is embarrassing. We got all hot and bothered when we saw a semi-hacked way of using SkyDrive to stream content to our Mango devices, but in this case Microsoft has sabotaged itself. We mentioned a little while back that Microsoft finally opened up its Live services (which includes SkyDrive) to mobile apps developed on Android, iOS and of course Windows Phone. Well it looks like Android has beaten Microsoft's own smartphone platform to the punch and has also made our "native" support looks like a joke.

The new SkyDrive music streaming app, SkyAMP, was recently released for Android devices and it offers just about everything you'd expect. The features list include 25 GB of potential storage for your music, streaming music over the internet, caching music files for offline listening, album art support, playlists and more. The app is up for $2.99 for a full version and as a limited lite version as well.

Alright Google, you win this round, but we're fine giving you this one after the punishment Microsoft handed you yesterday.

P.S. Android music app developers using Microsoft's services and impressions really like Beyonce, don't they?

Via: XDA-Developers
Source: SkyAMP (Android Market)

Stream video from SkyDrive directly within the Pictures Hub with a click

As much as we try to offer the absolutely best coverage of all things Windows Phone, we have to admit MobileTechWorld has been on a roll with the latest Mango 7712 update and have unearthed quite a few very cool secrets. Previously the site discovered how to stream music and video content on your SkyDrive to your phone by using the Office Hub's new SkyDrive implementation. While that feature was quite cool, we still felt it sorely needed some spit shine to make the whole experience more seamless and, you know, to avoid using the Office Hub just to get your music and videos. Luckily at least part of that has been answered with a new method discovered to stream your videos directly within the Pictures Hub and as a bonus it's all done on the SkyDrive-side of the equation.

All you have to do is upload your videos to a folder in SkyDrive then change that folder's type from the default 'Documents' to 'Photos'. Then make sure you have SkyDrive syncing setup on your phone, navigate to the Pictures Hub, tap on the folder and you should be able to stream your videos directly from there. Now don't go crazy uploading your entire video library to SkyDrive just to stream it all as there are a few caveats to this. First of all, SkyDrive has a 100 MB limit per file so unless you're going to be chopping up your 1080p copy of Gone with the Wind into 30 or more clips we recommend you avoid longer videos. Second is that Windows Phone can only natively stream .mp4 videos so those ripped YouTube videos of dogs talking and fails aren't going to work.

That being said, this is definitely a big improvement over using the Office Hub and IE9 to view your media and this gives us just a little bit of hope that Microsoft is working on adding SkyDrive streaming to the Music+Videos Hub as well.

Via: 1800PocketPC
Source: MobileTechWorld