Microsoft is offering users who backup their photos to OneDrive the opportunity to double their free online storage for a limited time. From now until the end of September, users can claim 30GB of space for saving twice as many photos in the cloud.

All you have to do is sign up for OneDrive and activate the auto upload feature for your camera roll sometime between now and the end of September, and you will get 30 GB of free OneDrive storage moving forward (15 GB base and 15 GB camera roll bonus).”

Microsoft is marketing the offer at iPhone users who are upgrading to iOS 8 or purchasing a new iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, but the extra space can be claimed by Android and Windows Phone users, too. Just remember that you must sign up before the end of September, otherwise you’re going to miss out on the 15GB bonus.

By backing up your photos and videos to an online storage service like OneDrive, you can enjoy them at any time and on almost any device without having to store them locally. That’s why a service like OneDrive is essential for users with entry-level and midrange devices that don’t offer a lot of internal storage — or 16GB iPhone users that don’t have the pleasure of a microSD card slot.
By storing your photos and videos in the cloud, you can save local storage space and have more room for apps, music, movies, and more. It also means that if your handset is lost or stolen and you never get it back, you haven’t lost your precious memories.

Today at the Google for Entrepreneurs Global Partner Summit, Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Technical Infrastructure & Google Fellow announced Google Cloud Platform for Startups. This new program will help eligible early-stage startups take advantage of the cloud and get resources to quickly launch and scale their idea by receiving $100,000 in Cloud Platform credit, 24/7 support, and access to our technical solutions team.

This offer is available to startups around the world through top incubators, accelerators and investors. We are currently working with over 50 global partners to provide this offer to startups who have less than $5 million dollars in funding and have less than $500,000 in annual revenue. In addition, we will continue to add more partners over time.

This offer supports our core Google Cloud Platform philosophy: we want developers to focus on code; not worry about managing infrastructure. Starting today, startups can take advantage of this offer and begin using the same infrastructure platform we use at Google. For example, Headspace is helping millions of people keep their minds healthier and happier using Google Cloud Platform for Startups.

Thousands of startups have built successful applications on Google Cloud Platform and those applications have grown to serve tens of millions of users. It has been amazing to watch Snapchat send over 700 million photos and videos a day and Khan Academy teach millions of students. We look forward to helping the next generation of startups launch great products.

For more information on Google Cloud Platform for Startups, visit http://cloud.google.com/startups.

Apple is working directly with celebrities and their publicists to investigate the alleged iCloud hack that may have played a large part in a large cache of nude photographs being released online. Part of that investigation involves obtaining Apple account login information of the people affected, Mashable has learned.

It's not known exactly why Apple needs its users' login information, but presumably it gives them a level of access into a user's account records that they otherwise wouldn't be able to obtain, at least not easily. The company does say that password information stored in iCloud is encrypted and can't be read by Apple. Apple's internal investigation may shine some light on how nude photos of dozens of celebrities were gathered and then released over the weekend. While some have pointed to a potential vulnerability in iCloud security (which has reportedly been patched), there are indications, including the age of some of the photos, that the cache was part of a larger, more complicated effort.

At the same time, the FBI is looking into the iCloud hack, although it stopped short of saying it was opening a full investigation. The incident also raises unsettling questions about the general state of security for cloud storage services, which are now a major part of both personal services and business workflow.