This “review” of the new SkyDrive app for Xbox 360 at Geekwire must be a prank. Perhaps the author meant to submit it to The Onion and got his wires crossed.
The good news: SkyDrive users have full access to all the files, photos, music and videos stored in their free cloud-based account.
The bad news? You can only open the photo and video files. Your Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDFs won’t open. All you see is an indication that the files are there. There appear to be no Office apps available, not even the rudimentary ones found on the Internet version of SkyDrive.
Because really, the idea that SkyDrive for Xbox is a disaster because you can’t edit Excel spreadsheets on your TV is kind of, well, comical.
Xbox is a gaming and media device. The SkyDrive for Xbox announcement explicitly makes that point:
When we thought about all of the possibilities of introducing SkyDrive to the Xbox 360 environment, there were lots of features we could have tied together but we wanted to focus on the scenarios that people have told us they would find most valuable.
And in classic Microsoft fashion they go on to list three key scenarios: sharing photos and videos, “snap and see” for Windows Phone pictures, and party slide shows. See how Photos and Videos is spotlighted?
The real missing piece, the one that an intelligent reviewer would focus on, is music. That capability is certainly on the way. I can’t wait till I can move my extensive music collection (and photos and videos) to SkyDrive, so I can access them from any device. Including the Xbox 360.
But the idea that I’m going to throw a party and share PDFs with my guests? Or that I’m going to fire up Word and write a blog post using Word from the couch?
Um, no.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
I for one, am getting sick and tired of these so-called “Geeks” that truely don’t get it. It’s never been a Geek trait to be concerned about what technology doesn’t do, but rather what it DOES do! Thanks Ed, for taking these guys to task on their words.
Sigh…
I actually could see you doing this, Ed, but only because I can imagine a real-world scenario where you are on your Xbox and suddenly have to make a change in a document you have on SkyDrive, maybe because of a deadline and an editor calling with a correction at the last second. But that’s about it.
And how many people want to lay bets that you will be able to handle documents via Xbox in the foreseeable future? I can see it happening as Xbox continues to expand as a multi-function computing center for the average household.
But, yes, this is SUCH a gap in functionality compared to Sony and Nintendo’s offerings! [/sarcasm]
Serious question (since I don’t own an Xbox yet). If IE is on the Xbox and SkyDrive has Office Web Apps (yes, yes, I know that’s not the right branding label), couldn’t I, in fact, open Excel in a web browser on my Xbox?