Microsoft SkyDrive got updated with a new logo and an improved client for Windows desktop. The new update offers better performance, reliability, and compatibility with a brand new status window which displays the last Sync time and other relevant Sync statistics.

With recently released Google Drive and existing free online storage and synching solutions like Dropbox and SugarSync, there is more to cheer about. Microsoft's own cloud file-syncing solution "SkyDrive" now have a native Windows client, with release of this the service now have native clients on Windows, Mac, Windows Phone and iOS platforms.

Sadly, Microsoft SkyDrive is now offering only 7GB free storage space but if you act in-time and use the trick detailed after the jump you can upgrade to 25 GB online-storage for free.

SkyDrive - the Microsoft's cloud storage solution has now an native Apple iOS and Windows Phone application to allow access to user cloud-backuped files from virtually any device. With SkyDrive for the iPhone and Windows Phone user's can easily upload, access, manage and share files on the go to-and-from their SkyDrive account. Offering a generous free 25 GB online-storage this would be the best option if you re looking for a free, reliable and accessible cloud backup and access solution.

Detailed features, images, video demonstration and download links after the jump.

Dropbox has been my utility of choice when it comes to remote data synchronization, but that has changed since I had tried "Windows Live Mesh 2011" which is a part of "Windows Live Essentials 2011" suite of applications. One of the biggest shortcoming of Dropbox is that it does not let users select folders to sync, and all data needs to be in a pre-defined dropbox folder to get synced. Windows Live Mesh 2011 solves this by empowering users to sync multiple folders across devices (currently PC and Mac are supported) and even allows you to backup 5 GB of data to Microsoft SkyDrive web-storage for free.

Apart from offering better folder synching capabilities, Windows Live Mesh also offers Remote Desktop features enabling users to access their computer and data from anywhere.

Microsoft SkyDrive offers a generous 25 GB of free online-storage but lacks the simplicity of having the online-storage mounted as an local disk-drive for easier access like the one offered by ZumoDrive and LiveDrive, however, the same can now be achieved by using free Windows utility - SkyDrive Explorer.

SkyDrive Explorer enables users to use SkyDrive online-storage like a local disk-drive attached to the computer, user's can perform all the actions as they are working on a local disk-drive including full drag-n-drop support and multi-operations like renaming objects or deleting a group of files/folders.

If SkyDrive's 5 GB of free online storage is not enough for your needs, here is another free online storage service from MediaMax, providing you a very generous 25 GB (catch being only 1 GB/Month download with 10 MB file-size limitation) of secure online storage facility absolutely free.

MediaMax provides you free secure online storage to upload, store, access, and share your personal videos, photos, movies, music, and files, uploaded content can be accessed anytime, anyplace using just a web-browser, using the optional free software utility "MediaMax XL Beta Software" you can also perform batch upload, download and automated backup operations right from your desktop.

Microsoft's free online storage service Windows Live SkyDrive is now out of beta and now made available for users in 38 countries - USA, Great Britain, India, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.

SkyDrive lets you store upto 5 GB 25 GB of data using an easy to use online interface, you can choose to mark your files and folders as private, shared with fiends of public, users can embed and link files/folders in web pages to allow downloading directly from your website. By means of RSS feeds subscribers can automatically be notified about new file uploads.