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.

Bing is well-known for it's beautiful backgrounds and Microsoft has even released an official RSS powered auto-updating Windows 7 theme catering to the niche, now the Bing Team is all set to take this to a whole new level by utilizing HTML 5, CSS 3 and Internet Explorer 9 hardware acceleration capabilities to offer animated videos and slideshows as search-engine background. This new incarnation of Bing is scheduled to be released by mid-October to public and will also offer the ability to smoothly zoom into details of those hi-def backgrounds. A video demonstration of the new animations and videos can be seen below.

Online whistleblowing site Cryptome leaked an internal Microsoft document "Microsoft® Online Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook" having information regarding what user-activity records Microsoft keeps for their online services and for how long in compliance with legal authorities, the site labeled the document microsoft-spy.zip but was soon taken down by their hosting provider after receiving an DMCA copyright infringement take-down notice from Microsoft.

However, the site is now back online and still hosts the microsoft-spy.zip along with various other "spying guides" like yahoo, Paypal, MySpace and Facebook to name a few.

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.