Microsoft's rebranded OneDrive drops out of the sky

Goodbye, Microsoft SkyDrive. Hello, Microsoft OneDrive. 

On Wednesday, Microsoft took the wraps off of OneDrive, its rebranded cloud storage platform. 

OneDrive replaces SkyDrive, a moniker Microsoft was forced to retire in the wake of a trademark case involving the Sky Broadcasting Group. In many ways, the new service is the same as the old service, from the free tier to the desktop and mobile access.

But in a blog post, Microsoft exec Chris Jones says there were some new features, too, including automatic camera backup for Android. 

Meanwhile, users can add on to the free 7GB of storage by successfully persuading friends to sign up for OneDrive; for every referral, you'll receive 500MB of storage, with a cap of 5GB. (Competitors such as Dropbox already offer a similar incentive plan.) 

"Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to get all of your favorite stuff in one place – one place that is accessible via all of the devices you use every day, at home and at work," Mr. Jones writes. "Because let’s face it, until now, cloud storage services have been pretty hard to use, and the vast majority of us still have our stuff spread out everywhere." 

Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices will all support OneDrive, Jones adds. You can sign up at this landing page; if you're already a SkyDrive user, your information and log-in information should be transferred automatically. 

In related news, another Microsoft "One" product, the Microsoft Xbox One, is apparently losing ground to its arch-competitor, the Sony PlayStation 4. According to the NPD Group, in the US, the PS4 is the most popular of the new breed of consoles, and Sony exec John Koller has bragged that sales of the PlayStation 4 are "nearly doubling" sales of the Microsoft Xbox One.