Articles about Cloud

Fifteen days using Surface Pro as my primary PC, I must say that I really, really like the tablet. Windows 8, the same. Ditto for Bing and Internet Explorer. I'm no stranger to using Microsoft products or services. But I am new to them being presented and consumed the way the company intends. The experience is refreshing and exhilarating, yet depressing. Who will know, with so much attention going to Android and iOS devices, or nimbler competitors offering more compelling products or services at faster pace?

Microsoft's problems aren't new, and that is the problem. This morning I reread my December 2009 post: "Microsoft isn't losing its consumer edge, it was game over long ago". I'm disturbed how little has changed, so much that, except for the lead paragraph, I could repost with new headline and the content would still be relevant. I will lift some parts here, as I offer, for the umpteenth time, remedies to Microsoft's woes.

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In a stunning win for Microsoft, Texas will deploy Office 365 to more than 100,000 state employees.

Today's news comes on the heels of a recent win by the company when it nabbed the government of the city of Chicago. Now, in a joint statement, the two entities wanted to proclaim love for one another.

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Cloud backup provider SugarSync, Inc has announced the release of SugarSync 2.0.1 FINAL for Windows and Mac users. The desktop tool, which provides backup, sync and sharing services through SugarSync’s cloud servers, has been radically revamped for this new release, which first debuted in beta back in November.

The latest release includes a number of major new features and improvements, including SugarSync Drive, more flexible sharing of files and cloud search tools. The new build is joined by SugarSync 4.0.0 for Android, with an iOS update promised soon.

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The vast majority of us use multiple cloud services for email, social media, and file storage, which means having to regularly switch between different websites or apps to access our data. KiteDesk aims to solve that problem by aggregating information from all of the popular cloud services into a single application.

Aimed at busy consumers and professionals, the service presents email messages, social media posts, contacts, calendar events, and files from the likes of Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook and Dropbox, in a single stream and lets you search for, share, and comment on content.

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There are days that cloud computing really sucks. The problem is trust. You trust Sites X, Y and Z to protect your data and log-in credentials, then they don't. Last week, Twitter rudely informed me that my password had to be reset, which is passive way of admitting that mine was one of the 250,000 pilfered accounts. This morning Jawbone greeted with email about an "isolated attack" that snagged my MyTalk information.

Funny thing, I don't even use MyTalk. I opened an account years ago while testing a Jawbone Bluetooth earpiece. Supposedly there was a firmware update and MyTalk registration the only way to get it. Fooled! No update. Now the dormant account is hacked. Interestingly, I see no official statement on Jawbone's website, but the email absolutely looks authentic.

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Microsoft has made no real secret that it prefers you to buy an annual license for software, as opposed to purchasing a non-expiring version. Office 2013/365 is the first real example of that, but will surely not be the last. Since the products' release, the company has pushed out PDF guides to help guide you along.

Now the push continues with a video version of those "Quick Start" guides. Earlier today the Office team announced the release of five videos in a new series that will give users a head-start on the new app suite.

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I love my Dropbox account. Or, I should say that I love the idea of my Dropbox account. I will be the first to admit that I honestly do not use it very much. I work from home and rarely have reason to share files. My wife, however, uses that account on an almost daily basis. She shares school files with her students via Dropbox. In other words, it is a business tool -- even for someone who simply teaches Spanish to grade school kids one day per week. Now, the company has made it an even more useful business tool with a host of new features announced today.

In prefacing the announcement, Dropbox representative Emil Ibrishimov takes a second to brag about the fact that "people at over two million businesses and 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies are using Dropbox -- from law firms working with their clients to international businesses staying in sync across the world".

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Amazon works hard to position Prime streaming against Netflix and the new Redbox Instant. Uh-oh, the retail giant muscles Hulu, too. Amazon has struck a deal with TV network CBS for exclusive rights to the upcoming Stephen King TV show, based on his novel "Under the Dome".

The show, produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, will debut this summer -- June 24th to be precise. Amazon Prime will be "establishing an in-season, online subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) window for the show on Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service. Prime Instant Video will be the exclusive online subscription home for "Under the Dome", according to the company.

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With cloud services like MediaFire and Mega offering generous free storage straight off the bat, the spotlight slowly fades away from other players and their abysmal free space offers. Box, however, has decided if you can't beat them, join them and is currently providing the same mind-boggling 50GB of free cloud storage, courtesy of Dell.

The offer has been available for a couple of days and comes with no expiration date on the storage limit. Even though it's associated with Dell there is no limitation requiring you to sign up using a Dell device, such as computer or tablet. Any user can take advantage of the 50GB of free cloud storage just by providing the first name, last name, email address, password and phone number.

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The competition in the Google Apps backup market is steadily ramping up, with more than a few contenders jumping in lately to have a piece of this newfound need. Just two months ago, I wrote about my (mostly) positive thoughts regarding Apps backup provider Backupify. But in order to do the competition justice, I decided to give the other popular alternative Spanning a run for the money.

Your choices don't stop at Spanning and Backupify, in case you're wondering. Google stepped into the backup arena with its first party Vault solution earlier last year, which takes the crown for being the  most integrated option (for apparent reasons.) Some of the junior vendors in this space also include CloudAlly and SysCloudSoft. These two latter providers try to edge out Spanning and Backupify with better pricing, but they are not yet as established so it is tough to judge them on cost comparison alone.

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Fifteenth in a series. Several important applications received updates in the past seven days. Adobe updated its Reader application for Windows 8 and even changed the name of the application to Adobe Reader Touch. Microosft, too, released updates for several of its applications, including the Bing, which now includes video search results.

In another interesting turn of events, WinZip decided to remove the price tag from the company's Windows 8 app of the same name. The application, previously available for $7.99 is now available free.

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When you need to use a dictionary then the quickest solution is usually to head off online. There are plenty of excellent free services available, and if you’re just looking for a quick definition then they’ll probably do a very good job.

If you need more, though – more frequent lookups, better searching features, more options and control -- then there’s still a case for installing a dictionary application. And TheSage is the perfect example.

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That's not on the social network but away from it. Bad for Facebook: The youngest, and presumably most active users, are the most likely to step away this year for prolonged breaks, according to Pew Internet.

"Sixty-one percent of current Facebook users say that at one time or another in the past they have voluntarily taken a break from using Facebook for a period of several weeks or more", according to report "Coming and Going on Facebook", which published this week.

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Perhaps it is just me, but Microsoft's decision to take Live Mesh off of life-support has hit especially hard. We knew this was coming of course, but still, I like having my files synced between multiple computers and, while I love SkyDrive, I do not need the cloud as an intermediary within my own home -- that is ridiculous overkill and would cost me money as well.

Today the company dispatched email reminders that began "Dear Mesh customer, Recently we released the latest version of SkyDrive, which you can use to..." Yes, thanks a lot. I know what I can use it for, but syncing between computers in my home is not something I should be compelled to use it for.

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Thanks to the internet, the cloud, smartphones and services like Skype, a business no longer needs employees in-house or even in similar locations. BetaNews itself employs writers located in various places around the world who can easily communicate and share with one another.

Now team collaboration company BusyFlow, already a web app, has launched its services for both Android and iOS, further pushing the boundaries for cloud sharing and communications.

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