Microsoft has announced that Windows Phone 8 users across the world would now be able to save full-resolution backup copies of their pictures and videos on SkyDrive, the cloud storage service from Microsoft.
To enable the feature, users can tap on 'Photos' followed by More, Settings and SkyDrive and choose the option to Upload photos automatically. They need to tap on Best quality when they see a menu on the right to enable full resolution backups. However, it's worth pointing out that the backup will happen only over a Wi-Fi connection and not over 3G.
While the setting has been there since day one, it was only enabled for users in select markets. Microsoft has explained why it took time to roll it out globally. In a blog post, the company mentions:
"As you can imagine, backing up high-res photos and videos involves a lot of data. To ensure we could provide a quality experience in each market, we deliberately took things slow and planned a staged roll out of the feature."
The last few months have seen Windows Phone taking some new strides in terms of apps. We recently witnessed the
release of a full-fledged YouTube app that even offered the ability to download videos in addition to allowing users to browse and subscribe to YouTube channels, and popular, top rated and featured videos across various categories. The app also allows users to share videos across their social networks, and via email, and text messages. It offers a YouTube profile page through which users can manage their YouTube profile and playlists, uploads, and video lists.
The platform also received an
updated version of Skype that turns on Message notifications for Messenger buddies, by default. With the new update (version 2.5), the popular video messaging app's Windows Phone version also dropped the 'Preview' (beta) tag. It also got
popular games such as Temple Run, earlier in the year.