Microsoft rolls out worldwide full-resolution photo and video SkyDrive backup
Windows Phone 8 users around the world are now able to save full-resolution photos and videos on SkyDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage platform.
It was previously only possible to upload full-resolution photos and videos to SkyDrive if you were using a Windows 8 phone in: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The announcement, made in a blogpost on Thursday by Aaron Sauvé, a senior program manager on the Windows Phone camera and photos team, explained that it could take a few days before the feature was available in the new markets.
"As you can imagine, backing up high-res photos and videos involves a lot of data," Sauvé wrote in the post. "To ensure we could provide a quality experience in each market, we deliberately took things slow and planned a staged rollout of the feature."
To activate the feature, Windows Phone 8 users must first tap Photos > More > Settings > SkyDrive and select the "Best quality" option.
Sauvé warned that users must also have a wi-fi connection if they want to upload full-resolution photos to SkyDrive because of the sheer amount of data transferred.
The Windows 8 mobile operating system is available on Nokia, HTC, Samsung, and Huawei handsets, among others. However, Windows Phone and Windows Mobile Devices still only accounted for six percent of the 227 million phones shipped worldwide in the last quarter of 2012, while Android and iOS accounted for 91.1 percent.