Share Movies, Photos, And Documents From Windows Phone With Sky Drive

One of the improvements delivered with Windows Phone 8 is enhanced support for SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage system that enables users to upload and sync photos, music, video and more between different devices.

Windows Phone 7 had limited support for the service; the first app for cloud drive was only released in 2012. For Windows Phone 8 users, however, access to the storage is available through the Office Hub and through this official free app, available from the Windows Phone Store.

Up against competition from cloud storage services such as Box, Dropbox and Google Drive (although of these, only Box has an official app), how does SkyDrive for Windows Phone stand up?

Cloud Sync Features

One of the main uses for the SkyDrive app on a Windows Phone is to automatically sync images that you have snapped on your phone’s camera. This can be easily set up in the background and upload is remarkably fast (depending on your connection, of course).

The SkyDrive app also offers full browsing of your cloud storage account, offering a choice of views (list and thumbnail), the ability to create folders and move files and even share content with your email contacts.

Checking your remaining storage is also possible, as is the ability to manage photo upload and download sizes.

For users with an interest in Office documents, the SkyDrive app enables you to browse and open documents in the appropriate Microsoft Office application on your Windows Phone.

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Ease of Use

What is most striking about this app is how easy it is to use. From the moment of launchingSkyDrive, you will notice that it throws you straight into your collection of files and folders, offering instant access to photos, videos and whatever other documents you might have stored in your personal Microsoft cloud.

Recent files can also be viewed, as can those that have been shared with you, while the ability to search, switch views, create a new folder, select files and alter your settings is available by dragging the ellipses menu (which is contextual, changing depending on the screen you are currently viewing).

Auto-Syncing to SkyDrive

Syncing newly snapped photos to your SkyDrive is simple – and vital for making sure you don’t lose them should anything happen to your phone!

On Windows Phone you can select the native sync tool via Settings > Applications > Photo+Camera and enabling SkyDrive to upload photos and videos. (Note that Facebookcan also be selected for manual uploads on a photo-by-photo basis directly from the camera app.)

Meanwhile any documents and spreadsheets that you create on your phone can be saved to your SkyDrive storage using the Save as… option. Once saved to the cloud, SkyDrive will continue to be the default location for opening the file in question unless no Internet connection is possible.

Browsing and Opening Files from SkyDrive

To browse the files on SkyDrive, all you need to do is open the app and select the appropriate folder. The Files list shows the full contents of your SkyDrive, from videos to music and documents and images. Everything is sorted alphabetically – there is no changing this – and a single tap will launch the chosen file with the correct application.

For instance, Word documents will open in Word mobile; MP3s will open with the built-in media player, etc.

There are additional settings available for managing SkyDrive, but these can only be accessed through the browser. By opening Settings > Account > Manage Storage you can increase your SkyDrive storage size, although this requires a subscription to be paid to Microsoft. You can also manage Office File Formats, determining whether your Word, PowerPoint and Excel files will be saved as Microsoft Office Open XML Format documents (.DOCX, .PPTX and .XLSX) or OpenDocument Format (.ODT, .ODP, .ODS) – quite a good option for Microsoft to provide!

Conclusion

The lack of official DropBox and Google Drive apps for Windows Phone pretty much limits the competition to SkyDrive to Box. Although the latter offers more storage (I previously owned a HP TouchPad and therefore have 50 GB of Box storage) SkyDrive is to Windows Phone whatiCloud is to iOS. It is the perfect accompaniment, like gravy on chicken or Parmesan and black pepper on spaghetti Bolognese, and should therefore be the very first app you install on a Windows Phone.

Facebook, SkyDrive Or YouTube – The Best Way To Share Videos In Windows Phone 8

I own a Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone, running Windows Phone 8. It features a rear-facing 8.7-megapixel camera equipped with a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and is capable of 1080p HD video capture, with PureView technology. The front-facing camera, meanwhile, is 1.3 megapixel with video capture in 720p resolution. It’s all very nice, and the results are stunning when played back on a big screen TV, PC, tablet or on the phone itself.

However, there is a problem. Windows Phone itself doesn’t seem to be a particularly popular choice for video upload and broadcast streaming websites at this stage. The result is that it can be tough to upload your videos and share them.

As things stand at the time of writing there are rumours that Ustream are planning to release a Windows Phone app. There is no word, however, from Qik, which means that broadcast streaming options are non-existent. Fortunately over the past few months more and more apps have come along that will enable you to upload videos.

SkyDrive

One of the first options you should consider for sharing videos from Windows Phone is SkyDrive. In order to enable this, you can activate SkyDrive auto-upload via Settings > Applications > Photos+camera. This option will automatically upload all photos and videos when your phone is connected to Wi-Fi (uploading photos can be done via a 3G/4G connection, however).

You can either share your video clip manually later, or use the save to SkyDrive option when viewing the video to upload it as a publicly shared item. Of course, if you’re not using Windows Live as a social network, not many people will see this unless you share it with another social network.

Videos saved to SkyDrive can be shared, however, either by email or through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Facebook

One of the drawbacks of the above method is that Silverlight (Microsoft’s short-lived “answer” to Adobe Flash) is required to view the clips – so it is much better to share your videos from Windows Phone to Facebook.

This is done by choosing Share… > Facebook from the camera view or from the clip itself, adding in the necessary description and then tapping the Upload button. Note that uploading might take a while depending on the resolution of the video, and of course the length, both of which will impact on the file size.

Of all the upload methods available, sharing to Facebook is probably the best for Windows Phone users. While it is as simple as the SkyDrive method, an uploaded video is also easier to view as there is no requirement for Microsoft Silverlight.

YouTube

It would be really unfair to say that Google has actively attempted to disrupt Windows Phone apps using its service – if it were untrue. The fact that a team at Microsoft has been working very hard to bring a competent YouTube app to users (most of whom have been using third party apps in place of the Microsoft’s original, clunky app) is evidence enough. Windows Phone has been around for nearly three years. Thanks a bunch, Google.

As polished as the new Windows Phone YouTube app is it isn’t capable of uploading videos. Crazy, isn’t it? As such, you will need to rely on the manual “done-by-email” method of video uploading.

In order to set this up you will need a unique email address for uploading videos to your account. Do this by signing into YouTube and opening your account screen. Against theMobile Uploads section you will see a unique, generated email address that you should add to your phone’s contacts (perhaps as “YouTube”).

To upload, open the Pictures hub, select the video and from the menu tap Share…. Select an email account and then the YouTube contact. Remember to add a subject line as this will be assigned as your video title, while any body text will be added as the video description.

Once the email is uploaded, you will receive an email confirming this, and the clip will be available to view on your YouTube account.

Vimeo

One of the most popular alternatives to YouTube is Vimeo, and unlike Google they’ve released an app for Windows Phone that does offer video upload.

To upload videos to your Vimeo account, first sign in after launching the app and then tap theRecord button to launch the camera. Front and back cameras can be used where available, and you can also switch to standard definition – useful if you’re uploading over mobile Internet. There is no facility to upload videos already recorded and stored on your phone, only those made with the Vimeo app.

Available free from the Windows Phone Store, I was happy to discover that as a Windows Phone 8 user, I get three free months of Vimeo Plus.

DailyMotion

You can find the DailyMotion app in the Windows Phone Store, also free. Like Vimeo, this app offers upload capability, but it is the first Windows Phone app I’ve come across that restarted my Nokia Lumia 920 – not a good sign!

There seems to be various issues with the app, which was first released in April 2013, although you would expect them to be soon resolved with a couple of updates. DailyMotion allows you to sign in with your Facebook account, and like Vimeo uploading is only something that you can do with a new video created within the app.

Conclusion – The State of Windows Phone Video Sharing

As you can see, there are some good options for uploading videos with Windows Phone, and perhaps the Facebook sharing is best for most purposes.

However, the YouTube email method is surprisingly good given that Google doesn’t appear to want Windows Phone users (the numbers of which are growing in Europe thanks to Nokia’s aggressive marketing), while Vimeo offers a very good alternative with a great app experience.

What remains missing is the video broadcast apps. I can’t accept that this is down to the platform. I keep hearing people complain that Windows Phone doesn’t have as many apps as iPhone and Android, but given that it is a younger platform and has reached milestones in its app store faster than either of the big players, this simply doesn’t make sense.

For fast uploading of videos from your Windows Phone to a sharing service, I would recommend Facebook first, although the YouTube email and DailyMotion are both very good alternatives

Clear Video – Make YouTube Less Of a Time Sink

Strip down YouTube until only what you want is left – the videos. Cleanr Video is a simple extension for Chrome, Firefox and Safari that removes everything – and I mean everything – from YouTube beyond what you absolutely need. Comments, recommended videos, ads – all gone, and in their place white space. If minimalism sounds good, this is one to check out.

Google loves – and I mean loves – changing the YouTube layout. Over the last couple of years it’s gone from focusing on helping everyone discover the same videos, to helping everyone see the latest videos from their subscriptions, to the current incarnation – showing you videos it thinks you’ll appreciate for reasons mere mortals cannot discern. If you’re sick of the cycle – or just want to avoid the rabbit hole of recommended videos and comments – Cleanr Video can help clean up YouTube for you.

From Minimalist for Everything to services that de-clutter the web for readers, we’ve outlined more than a few ways to make the web a less busy place. Cleanr Video is just one more.

How Cleanr Video Works

So, just how much does Cleanr Video strip down? Rather than tell you, I’ll show you. Here’s how the page for a YouTube video looks normally.

…and here’s how it looks with Cleanr Videos installed:

As you can see, everything but the video itself is stripped away, leaving you with a video to watch and nothing more. When you’re done watching, you’ll simply get to whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing – no clicking related videos and no scrolling through comments. This could help you stay focused.

The home page for YouTube is similarly cleaned up. Instead of seeing this hot mess…

…you’ll see this…

Click the “See More” button to show the videos that usually show up on the YouTube home page – and nothing else. If you’re looking for simplicity, you found it.

One Problem…

If you’re like me, you love your YouTube subscriptions. You found the YouTube homepage useful, until recent changes stopped showing the latest videos from your subscriptions and started showing…something. I’m still not sure what this seemingly random assortment of videos is supposed to be, but I know I’m not a fan. It’s why I’ve been habitually clicking the “My Subscriptions” link every time I open YouTube.

Which brings me to my problem – Cleanr Videos hides the “My Subscriptions” link. At first I was panicking, but then I did what I should have done a long time ago – I added a link to the Subscriptions page on my browser toolbar. The link, in case you didn’t know, is:

http://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions

Why YouTube doesn’t offer a setting for making that page the default I’ll never know. Maybe Cleanr Videos should redirect users, though, because I don’t think anyone actually wants to use YouTube’s default homepage.

Download Cleanr Video

Sick of reading about Cleanr Video, and ready to download it? Head to Clea.nr. The process should be simple for Firefox and Safari users. Chrome users, however, have to do some extra work. This video explains how to install the extensionFor those who hate video tutorials – you need to download the .CRX file from Clea.nr. Then, head to the “Extensions” menu in Chrome (hit the settings icon to the right of your extension icons, then Tools > Extensions). Open the folder to which you downloaded the CRX file using your operating system’s file browser, then drag the CRX to the Chrome window where the Extensions menu is open. The extension is now installed.

This used to be a simpler process, but a (relatively) recent update to Chrome made it harder to install extensions not from the Chrome Web Store.

Conclusion

This app not only makes YouTube look great – it can also help you to be productive. YouTube can be a huge time sink. Watching videos online when you’re supposed to be working is bad enough, but a quick video viewing can quickly turn into a spree if you follow a long enough line of “Recommended Videos“. Removing this temptation just might be Cleanr Video’s best feature, but blocking comments isn’t a bad thing either.

Do you have any other cool minimalist browser extensions to share? Please, do so in the comments below. Those of us who haven’t blocked all online comments will be happy to read them.

5 Free YouTube Down loaders & Converters Compared: Which One Is Right For You?

• May 14, 2013
• By Yaara Lancet

Two years ago, I told you about 5 easy ways to download and convert online videos. Recently, we also told you about ways to download YouTube videos to your Mac, and some ways you can download all videos from a YouTube playlist. All the tools we recommend are good ones, and we usually give you more than one option, so how do you go about choosing one? Which one is really the best?

To answer this question, I decided to do more than just tell you about YouTube downloaders — I’m going to analyze them for you. By the time you finish reading this post, you’ll know all about the 5 options tested, and get a clear idea of which one you should be using.

ClipConverter [Web]

Interface & usability: ClipConverter is an easy-to-use Web service for downloading and converting YouTube videos by pasting a URL. ClipConverter’s interface is nice to look at, and offers only the options you need to use at any given moment, a fact which makes it pleasantly uncluttered. After pasting your YouTube URL, choose a download quality, name your file, and choose which format you want to have it in. ClipConverter makes it very clear what the final file size is going to be. After conversion is done, ClipConverter will provide a download link for the video or audio.

Features: For most formats, ClipConverter gives you full control over quality of both audio and video, as well as the volume of your output, its aspect ratio, and its length. It’s very easy to download and convert only a section of the video. If you don’t know much about bitrates, you can leave these at default, or let ClipConverter detect the best settings automatically.

Available formats: FLV, MP4, MP3, M4A, AAC, WMA, OGG, 3GP, AVI, MPG, WMV, MOV.

Speed: A high-definition (720p) MP4 video was ready to download after 1 minute 25 seconds. A 215 kbps AVI version of the same video was ready to download after an average of 4 minutes.

Annoyances: My AVI download kept downloading without sound, no matter what I did. This was not a problem with other formats. Clicking the “convert another video” after downloading one opens a pop-up ad in the background.

Extras: Also supports Dailymotion, Vimeo, Metacafe, Sevenload, SoundCloud, Veoh, MySpace, and MyVideo. Also available as an ad-free browser add-on for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. Can also convert video files uploaded from your computer.

Ease of use: A+

Overall rating: A

KeepVid [Web]

Interface & usability: KeepVid is a Web service that lets you easily download YouTube videos in a number of formats. There’s not much to KeepVid aside from pasting a URL and clicking on “Download”. KeepVid recognizes the video and presents a thumbnail, the video’s title, and the video’s length. You can’t change file name or adjust quality on KeepVid; all you can do is choose the format you want, right click the relevant link and choose “Save As..”. Note that KeepVid comes in two modes, Beta Off and Beta On. If Beta is off, you may need to enable Java in order to use the service. If you’d rather not, switch Beta to On, but be prepared for some slight bugs.

Features: Not many to speak of. The bookmarklet is an easy way to start a video download/conversion straight from YouTube, but other than that, there are no special features worth mentioning. This might be a plus if you’re looking for something really simple.

Available formats: FLV, MP4, 3GP, WEBM.

Speed: Download links for all formats are available immediately.

Annoyances: Default file name is a random number. Background pop-up ads open up on several occasion, and the ads in general are of the kind meant to confuse you into clicking them.

Extras: Supports a multitude of other services other than YouTube, including Dailymotion, CollegeHumor, eHow, Facebook, Metacafe, TED, TwitVid, and Vimeo, to name only a few. See a full list of formats here. Also available as a bookmarklet.

Ease of use: B-

Overall rating: B

Xenra [Web]

Interface & usability: Xenra sports a simple interface that nonetheless gives you much control over your final video or audio output. Simply paste your video URL in the box, and click Download to reveal more options. You will not get the option to choose your format, quality, and other settings, before you hit the “Start Conversion” button. The process is very easy, and pretty much anyone can follow it. The interface is clean, and surprisingly, doesn’t even include ads.

Features: Xenra is geared at creating audio files from YouTube videos, and as such, provides fine control over ID3 tags such as title, artist and album. You also get full control over volume and bitrate for both audio and video.

Available formats: MP3, AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4, 3GP, MPG, MPEG, WAV, WMA, WMV.

Speed: A high definition (720p) MP4 video was available after a little over 4 minutes. An AVI with the same settings took 3:30 minutes.

Annoyances:

• You can download one video per day without logging in. If you want more, you’ll have to create an account and log in.
• You need to beware of downloading your file using the Xenra Download Manager, which is the default setting. After you uncheck it once, the option disappears for future downloads.

• The first time you use Xenra you’re going to have to wait on a 20-seconds long nag screen, asking you to like Xenra on Facebook.
• While preparing your video, Xenra sometimes gets stuck on “Cleaning up”, and never really gets to the part where you download a video.
• My MP4 video never worked.
• My AVI video wasn’t of very good quality, despite the settings I chose.

Despite these annoyances, Xenra’s interface is one of the best available for such Web apps, and would be a good choice if you want to convert YouTube videos into audio files.

Extras: Xenra is also available as a browser add-on for Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

Ease of use: A

Overall: C+

Any Video Converter [Windows, Mac]

Interface & usability: Moving on from Web apps, Any Video Converter (AVC) is a desktop app for Windows or Mac that can handle all your YouTube downloading and converting needs. To download a YouTube video, copy the URL to your clipboard, and click the Download button in AVC. The program automatically pulls the URL from your clipboard, presenting a thumbnail, title and length for the video. You can then choose between several formats for download, and start downloading immediately. The interface is much richer than your average Web app, but it still easy enough to use without getting into too much trouble.

Features: AVC features a huge list of mobile devices for conversion purposes, so you can get the maximum possible video quality for your specific device. After downloading a video, you can also use the clip tool to create video segments, crop the video to your exact needs, and control colors and add effects. For every conversion, you can fine tune your video and audio quality, or simply use one the dozens of preset output options. AVC comes with a built-in video player to watch your videos, and you can watch videos while downloading and/or converting others.

Available formats: WEBM, MP4, 3GB for download, but can convert it to pretty much any video and audio format on Earth after download. For some reason, initial download for MP4 is only available in low quality, despite the video being available in 720p.

Speed: Can start downloading video immediately, but any format other than WEBM, MP4 and 3GP requires extra conversion.

Annoyances: When installing Any Video Converter, it will try to get you to install TuneUp Utilities. This will install by default, so make sure you uncheck this option if you’re not interested. The program will also nag you about the full version — Any Video Converter Ultimate — quite often.

Extras: As this is a desktop program, conversions of any kind will also work offline. AVC can also convert pretty much any video format you have on your computer.

Ease of use: A-

Overall: A

Freemake [Windows]

Interface & usability: For some reason, YouTube downloaders and video converters have a tendency to be ugly and/or cluttered. Not so with Freemake. This slick piece of software is such a joy to use and look at, looks alone are a great reason to give it a try. To get started, copy a video URL to your clipboard and click the shiny blue “Paste URL” button. This will automatically detect the video, and open the format dialog. Once you choose your format and quality, videos will start downloading to the path of your choosing.

Features: When downloading or converting with Freemake, you can pause the process in the middle and resume it at a later time. You can also restrict the download speed, if you’re trying to save bandwidth. By logging into your social accounts via Freemake, it’s possible to download private videos people shared with you and that are not available publicly online. It’s also possible to enable “one-click download mode”, which saves you from having to set up quality and format every time.

Available formats: WEBM, MP4, FLV, 3GP, AVI, MKV, MP3, WMV. Devices: iPod/iPhone, iPad, Android, PSP.

Speed: After pasting a URL and choosing your settings, videos start downloading immediately. A high definition MP4 video took around 3 minutes to be available on my computer. An AVI took around 7 minutes to be available on my computer. Of course, this depends on your connection speed.

Annoyances: On installation, Freemake tries to push two third-party programs on you. The first one is Instagrille, which is indeed one of my favorite Instagram clients, but not when it comes with unrelated programs, and the second one is TuneUp Utilities yet again. Make sure you uncheck these if you’re not interested.

Extras: Freemake supports almost every video website out there, including Facebook, Flickr, Dailymotion, MyVideo, Vimeo, and LiveLeak. It also supports a large number of adult websites, and has special settings for videos from such sites, if that’s your thing.

East of use: A+

Overall: A+

Bottom Line

To sum things up, I’ll order the reviewed services from best to worst, and give you my final thoughts:

1. Freemake (the best)
2. ClipConvertr
3. Any Video Converter
4. KeepVid
5. Xenra (the worst)

If you download online videos and convert them on a daily or even weekly basis, your choice is crystal clear: you can’t really do any better than Freemake. If you only need to download a video once in a blue moon, and you don’t feel like cluttering your computer with yet another program, go for ClipConverter, or if you need WEBM, for KeepVid.

What is your favorite YouTube downloader out there? Should it have been included on this list? Tell us about it in the comments!