Microsoft continues focus on iOS by adding OneDrive support for Apple Watch

By Kris Wouk Published April 20, 2015

Apple Watch Hands On — Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends

While the companies have always been fierce competitors, there is also a long history of cooperation between Apple and Microsoft. It may seem that with its own wearable wrist accessory (you can’t quite call the Microsoft Band a smartwatch) on the market, Microsoft would be hesitant to support the Apple Watch, but as it turns out, that’s not so.

As part of the latest update to its OneDrive app for iOS, Microsoft has added support for the Apple Watch. For now, the app simply allows you to browse through photos on the watch, but it will be interesting to see what if any other Apple Watch-specific features are added to the app in the future.

Recommended Videos

The new update allows users to view their most recent photos, delete unwanted photos, and even find photos by tag. The Apple Watch’s small screen likely isn’t the most obvious choice for serious photo management, but it’s still a nice feature, especially if your phone is plugged in or located elsewhere at the moment.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

This is yet another in a long line of recent Microsoft moves that we probably wouldn’t have seen even a few years ago. With the departure of Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella’s move to CEO, the company has been ruthlessly streamlining its existing product lines while exploring new platforms and services.

We started to see this new Microsoft last year when the company made its Office suite freely available on iOS and Android devices, and this year has seen the arrival of the company’s Office Lens app, the newly updated Outlook app, and the announcement that its Cortana personal assistant would be coming to iOS and Android.

It could even be argued that, at least when it comes to mobile devices, Microsoft is making better software for its competitors’ platforms than it is for its own. This may or may not be good for the company, but it’s certainly good for users.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

Apple

Apple might drop support for the iPhone SE and iPhone 6S with arrival of iOS 16

iphone 6s launch

Apple may finally be dropping some of its oldest supported iPhones with the next iOS release. This report comes from the French publication iPhoneSoft, which accurately predicted the iOS 13 and iOS 14 road maps.

Apple has been praised for supporting its iPhones for an exceedingly long period of time with full updates, and that has led to impressive scenarios like the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 being updated to iOS 15 last year. Granted, they couldn't take advantage of several hardware-enabled features, but they weren't rapidly outdated either.

Mobile

Apple scrubs most mentions of controversial CSAM features after iOS 15.2 update

Photo editing on the iPhone 13 Pro.

Apple this week released iOS 15.2 with a host of new features, including a communication safety feature for the Messages app that's focused on child protection. However, the company did not include its controversial iCloud Photos child sexual abuse material scanning feature and has appeared to have scrubbed all mention of its existence.

By way of recap, iOS 15.2 was originally intended to come with a child sexual abuse material (CSAM) detection feature. The update would have implemented an on-device scanning feature aimed at sweeping through a user's iCloud photo library for CSAM material. The company noted that it would do this on-device, for maximum privacy. Privacy experts objected, noting that the very concept of scanning a user's photo library for prohibited material was a privacy violation in itself, one that could expand to include other material once the precedent had been set.

Mobile

6 weeks in, I see the value in committing to the Apple Watch Series 7

ECG on the Apple Watch Series 7.

The Apple Watch is the best smartwatch you can buy today (provided you own an iPhone), and six weeks into wearing the Series 7, my opinion about it as a smartwatch hasn’t changed — it’s effortlessly simple to use, metronomically reliable, and completely customizable.

Now that I've worn it for a decent length of time, it has gathered plenty of health and activity data, and Apple Health has started to show the value in committing to wearing the Apple Watch every day. Because I think the Series 7 is excellent and encourage people to buy one, I want to show what you get long-term when you really invest in it. So has it been worth it, and is there any real value in the health data it presents?
Everyday wear
For the Apple Watch to collect its data, you have to wear it, and that’s not going to happen if it’s annoying or uncomfortable. With the right band, the Series 7 practically disappears on your wrist, so even those who don’t enjoy wearing a watch will quickly get used to it. And the variety of bands available means that if one doesn’t feel right, there will almost certainly be another that will.