Skybox related news is coming thick and fast over the past few days. First it was the leak of the probable roadmap and now the website. Microsoft calls it My Phone but the website address still says Skybox which makes me wonder if My Phone is just one facet of the Skybox service. Speculations aside, the My Phone service is compatible with any Windows Mobile 6 device and helps to backup contacts, media files, messages, documents and will sync to your 200MB limit storage account.

Except the home page and more information page, all the links are broken which will be mostly fixed when Ballmer announces this at the MWC in the coming days.

Skybox

[Via Engadgetmobile]

UPDATE: The feature is now official and is included in the latest version (5.0) of Google Earth. Download Google Earth from here.

Google has allowed users to travel across the globe, Mars, Space and even Moon. Now it looks like they are going to expand their wings by mapping the vast oceans. The underwater imagery will allow users to have different views of the oceans, seabed, corals as well as give info on the climate change and so on.

To make things a bit more fun, Google will also offer a virtual dip at famous diving spots like the Bahamas, Red Sea, Great Barrier Reef etc. Google is expected to announce this service at a ‘high-profile’ event.

[Via Guardian]

GDrive might reach us anytime now. Brian Ussery found an interesting tidbit when he delved into a file used in the Google Pack. It had some reference to GDrive. According to the file, the service was described as an online file backup and storage, making it certain that Google is on its way to offer its first cloud service. The file was found in Google Pack which is now anyone’s guess of where we will find the GDrive in the future. Full description below.

“GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device – be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.”

[Via Google System]

Ray Ozzie from Microsoft did the honors today at the Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC2008) to unveil their cloud computing service dubbed as Windows Azure. Azure as Microsoft puts it, adopts a software plus service model which means that it will enable the developers to host their applications created on Visual Studio and .NET framework on Microsoft’s data centers and charge them accordingly to the various pricing structure that will be announced after the commercial launch of Azure.

Here are the key components of Azure:

- Windows Azure for service hosting and management, low-level scalable storage, computation and networking.
- Microsoft SQL Services for a wide range of database services and reporting.
- Microsoft .NET Services which are service-based implementations of familiar .NET Framework concepts such as workflow and access control.
- Live Services for a consistent way for users to store, share and synchronize documents, photos, files and information across their PCs, phones, PC applications and Web sites.
- Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services for business content, collaboration and rapid solution development in the cloud.

For more information, click here.

Press Release