Articles about Cloud

Say, you know that new pop-up compose message box Google introduced last autumn. You don't? Well, get ready. Gmail is giving the ditty to everyone, whether or not wanted. That's what it looks like, in photo right.

"The new compose will be rolling out to everyone over the next few days", Phil Sharp, Gmail product manager, says. I've used the thing since October, in a sort of love-hate thing. On a laptop working in Chrome -- even better, on Chromebook Pixel -- the new compose box is great. On Surface Pro, using Internet Explorer 10 from Modern UI, the thing is unusable. The box flicks up and down from the bottom of the screen.

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Whenever I want to jot down a couple of ideas for a new story, write some of my thoughts for posterity, or create a shopping list, Evernote is my favorite cloud-based note-taking app. It looks great and is available across all my devices, so I don't have to worry about forgetting important personal things when I'm on the go. Everything that I have is there, everywhere.

What I value the most is the cross-platform spread, as Evernote is available on Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Mac OS X, Windows 8/RT and Windows Phone. And, to get me hooked some more, Evernote 3.0 just arrived on Windows Phone with a revamped home screen, improved tag lists and the ability to use shortcuts, among the most noteworthy new features.

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If you're a Flipboard user then you need to read this. On Wednesday, Flipboard 2.0 for iOS made its way onto the App Store bringing along important new features, changes and improvements, among which is the the ability to create magazines.

Users can "collect and save content" into their own magazines by tapping on the "+" button from any item in Flipboard. To fully personalize the experience, Flipboard 2.0 allows you to name the magazine, add a description and choose whether to let other users view it or keep the new creation private. As the company says, "now everyone can be a reader and an editor".

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Google news, at least for some of us, recently is grim (Reader goes bye-bye). In fact, I no longer trust the search company will keep anything, while my colleague Wayne Williams dumps Google for Microsoft. Trust is essential and Google has lost it for me. Microsoft, on the other hand, is on a roll, of sorts, with its Windows Blue "leak" and now another cloud win for its Office platform.

Microsoft announces eight more government offices have adopted its Office 365 platform, further rubbing salt into the Google Docs wound. At today's CIO Summit, the company welcomes aboard: metros Kansas City and Seattle; counties Dupage and King; colleges California State University Sacramento, University of Colorado Springs and University of Miami; and San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

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Over weekend Microsoft's next version of Windows, known by code name "Blue" leaked out to the world via BiTorrent. Over the past two days we dissected the operating system in every way possible from first look to screenshot images to ways to install the still buggy operating system.

Now that the initial euphoria has passed, we can settle down and get a good look at what exactly will change in the operating system later this year when Windows Blue is rumored to be released.

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Zombieland, the 2009 cult classic movie, about four unlikely people who come together to fight their way across an undead-filled America, is making a comeback of sorts -- rising from the dead, as it were. Amazon Studios has picked up on the surprisingly popular movie and the not so surprising Zombie fetish we have and announced its latest offering.

Zombieland the series will be produced as a pilot and make its way into your living room via Amazon Prime. It is the seventh comedy pilot announced by the online TV studio and it joins six children's show pilots also under production.

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Last week, Digg revealed plans to build a replacement app for Google's soon-to-be-defunct Reader and compete with other services that have suddenly become popular, like Feedly and The Old Reader. While I wait to someday have my OPML file uploaded to The Old Reader (currently number 3,590 in the queue), I am trying out some other alternatives -- I really liked Feedspot, but updating seems spotty.

In a blog post, Digg says "Google did a lot of things right with its Reader, but based on what we’re hearing from users, there is room for meaningful improvement. We want to build a product that’s clean and flexible, that bends easily and intuitively to the needs of different users. We want to experiment with and add value to the sources of information that are increasingly important, but difficult to surface and organize in most reader applications — like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Hacker News. We likely won’t get everything we want into v1, but we believe it’s worth exploring".

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This morning, in a Google+ post, Eli Fennell expressed something I felt for days: That the furor over Google Reader's execution is way, way, way too much. I've written little about the service's demise and actually have argued with colleagues in group chat about their trying to hold onto Reader or mimic the sorely, last-century user interface.

My one quip, from a Thursday story: "You'll never guess what you gave up Google Reader for? The tried-and-true makes way for a few, ah, experiments. Newest: Chrome World Wide Maze". Gasp! Some people took that seriously. I meant it as indictment against all the stupid fuss about the RSS service's July 1 retirement.

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The tech news these days seems filled with stories of piracy, security flaws and every company trying to push its latest software and hardware releases. Then, every once in a while, something truly fun and enjoyable comes along to save us from our otherwise overwhelming tech world.

Today is the birthday of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, who also goes by the alias of William Shatner. To celebrate the Captain's birthday, online TV streaming service Hulu wants to open up the Star Trek world to even more viewers.

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Back in February Adobe announced plans to kill the storage portion of its seemingly popular Photoshop.com web service and migrating users' content to Adobe Revel. The move seems painless on the surface -- all of your images will be exported to Revel automatically. Except, that is not entirely the case.

In fact, all of the JPEG images will be moved. Only. Other formats, including video, PSD, RAW, ACR, PNG, TIFF, must be archived by the customer or they will be lost. Those file formats are not yet supported.

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Twenty-first in a series. Several things happened in the past seven days with regards to Windows 8 and its apps. Microsoft launched a temporary program that rewards developers with money for apps they produce for the operating system. If you have followed this weekly series you know that the app growths is relatively stable. A monetary incentive may convince some developers to spend some of their resources on the production of apps for Windows 8 or Windows Phone.

Several apps received updates this week, including the OneNote app for Windows 8. It ships with pen and ink improvements, and support for Office 365 notebooks.

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In early January, Microsoft announced that starting from March 15, users would no longer be able to sign into the aging, but still popular Messenger service, because Skype would be replacing it. And, to give users an incentive to embrace its replacement, Microsoft is giving away a "free welcome gift".

This gift can be redeemed by Messenger users who sign into Skype with their Microsoft account details and promises "calls to landlines and mobiles around the world, group video calling, group screen sharing (and more) absolutely free for a month". Or at least that's what the text says.

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You’re at the PC, with lots of important work to do. And you’re going to get started on it -- once you’ve checked Facebook. And Twitter. Then watched a YouTube clip someone mentioned earlier, checked what’s happening on eBay, and worked your way through a host of other online distractions.

Sounds familiar? Then you might like Cold Turkey, a simple free tool which can temporarily block access to your favourite web destinations.

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You'll never guess what you gave up Google Reader for? The tried-and-true makes way for a few, ah, experiments. Newest: Chrome World Wide Maze. Geekdom is abuzz about the oddity this evening. I'm simply baffled, although I see the benefits as a technology preview, which surely must be the point.

Essentially your mobile device running Chrome becomes a remote control for a 3D-maze makeover of any website. I couldn't help myself. I chose bing.com. The setup is a bit convoluted, using -- and therefore showcasing -- tab sync. The process involves opening the site from tabs already available on the other device and completing a handshake using a six-digit number. Then the fun begins, or would have if Chrome Beta for Android hadn't crashed and disconnected while my wife took photos. (Hey, every story needs art.)

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I've been on Twitter so long, I forgot just how short a time that really is -- or how much has changed since March 21, 2006. The service claims 200 million active users tweeting 400 million times a day. But the real measure is much larger -- how Twitter, and other innovations arriving around the same time, fundamentally changed billions of lives five to seven years later.

The service's editorial director, Karen Wickre, calls Twitter a "global town square", which is appropriate description. People gather to look, listen, gossip, grab news or listen to the town crier. I've often grumbled about the 140-character limitation, but brevity has benefits. Statements are succinct. No one talks on and on and on without interruption. If anything, butting in defines Twitter interaction. You will be heard whether or not anyone wants you to be.

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