Access SkyDrive’s cloud storage from Android

Windows Live SkyDrive, one of the best services from Microsoft, offers 25GB of *free* cloud storage. You can use SkyDrive storage to back up your files online for free, or to share large files with others. Now you can view, download, and send your files to SkyDrive from your Android phone with Sorami.

Sorami Android app

• Install the app from the market. The app is available for free. It is still in beta and is tested only on few devices.
• The size of the app is just 254K and it can be installed on SD card as well. It is compatible with all devices running Android 1.6+.
• After installing the app, sign-in with your Windows Live ID. Note from the developer: “If authorization failed, create new Windows Live Account.”
• Sorami shows the files in each directory, and provides the options to view, upload, download, and share individual items or the entire folders.
• The app is very simple and it does not provide options to sync (a folder) periodically. Hopefully, the future versions of Sorami will have this implemented.

-- Varun

[Review] IP Webcam – Turn your phone into a network camera

Earlier, I have reviewed two applications “USB Webcam” and “DroidCam Wireless Webcam” for turning your phone into a web cam. “IP Webcam” is another application which does almost the same but in a better way. The best thing about this app is its support for multiple view options. You can view the video feeds of your phone from a browser or stream it on your favorite media player.

Steps to setup IP Webcam

• Install the app from Android market. If you use App Brain for managing your applications, install it from here.
• Open the app from your device.It will open the settings page.
• Specify an user name and password if you want to password protect your video feeds.
• Choose the desired image size and frame rate.
• Choose the TCP port (Default: 8080). Don’t change this field if you are not sure about what you are doing. (IP Webcam will start a server on your device and listen to this specified port)
• Click on ‘Start server’. This will start the server on the specified port and will start streaming your video feed.
• The server information will be shown at the bottom of the page after it is started. Visit the page from your browser to view the video feed and other viewing options.

Highlights

• Multiple view options.
  • Stream it on your favorite media player like VLC
  • Use Java browser plug-in and view it on browser
  • Use JavaScript to update frames in browser
  • Use browser’s built-in viewer
  • Connect to PC for use with Skype and other video chats
  • Take immediate photo.
• No need to setup server on your laptop.
• Easy to setup the Windows driver.
• Ability to change the image size and the frame rate.

Lowlights

• The app drains more battery if you allow it to stay awake. (But, its quite acceptable though)

In short, IP Webcam is an excellent piece of work by the developer Pas. Really appreciate it. If you like this app, please rate the app from the Android market.

-- Varun