Official Skydrive App gets Multiple Select & Permission feature, Still lags behind SkyManager App
Official Skydrive App for Windows Phone got some decent updates this week which will be a boon to users who do not want to buy any alternative app like SkyManager, an advanced app for Windows Phone.
Multiple File / Folder Selection
The first thing to notice is the icon for Multiple File and Folder selection which enables the check boxes for every file and folder in the detailed mode. Now the detailed mode is helpful because you get to see size, who all are sharing it, last modified details but then it also brings in a lot of scrolling if you have tons of files and folders. In this mode, you can delete or move the files easily even when compared to the web version.
The multiple selection mode can be enabled either by tapping on the extreme left of the folder in detailed mode or using the multiple selection icon from the menu bar.
Bug : I see a small bug which appears sometimes. When in list mode and an already selected folder or file is deselected, it switches back to thumbnail mode.
Suggested Improvement : Even though multiple selection is available, it is not supported when it comes to uploading multiple document because it uses the default feature of Windows Phone Camera.
File Folder Permissions and Collaboration :
This is a nice change and something heavy users where looking from the time the app was released. This version allows you to manage your files and folder permissions from the app and allow you to share with other people. The best part is now you can pickup users for collaboration right from the People Hub or your contact book. When sharing you can choose to allow editing, require users to sign-in.
Suggested Improvement : However you can mix Editing and non editing in one place. I would have loved if the app has listed contacts and allowed me to set type of permission and sign-in option in the form of check-box. So as of now you need to invite users editing and non editing separately.
There are a couple of features still missing in SkyDrive and needs a lot of improvement like improved background upload, option to view which files are getting uploaded and status on that, notification when the files upload is complete, history etc.
I have big hopes from this app, specially after trying out SkyManager app which as of now is the ultimate client for Skydrive.
