Articles about Cloud

I can see only one good reason to choose iPhone 5 over Nexus 4: The LG-manufactured mobile is sold out, and you can't wait. For the patient, Google's fourth-generation stock Android delivers rewarding experience. The new Nexus is the smartphone to buy this holiday season -- if you can find one.

Two reasons stand in iPhone 5's favor, neither is good, just necessary for some people: Your carrier -- for example, Sprint and Verizon in the United States -- isn't supported (Nexus 4 is GSM/HSPA+), or you bought heap loads of apps from Apple and don't want to lose your investment. I feel your pain, but offer no pity. Nexus 4 is exceptional.

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“It happens to the best of us” was Dropbox’s explanation for this, the swift appearance of Dropbox 1.6.2 for desktop, less than a week after Dropbox 1.6.0 made its first appearance. ” You test a build but when you finally put it out there for tons of people to use it they find more bugs. So here we are with a quick bug fix release”.

Version 1.6.2 fixes four major bugs reported since version 1.6.0 first appeared, including install failures in older versions of Windows and blank selective sync windows in OS X after updating.

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US Thanksgiving is a time for reflection on the year behind, with plenty of time to ponder resolutions for January 1st. Yesterday, I posted about the things Microsoft should be grateful for in 2012. Today, I followed up with another, for Google. For consistency's sake, the list numbers eight, in line with Microsoft's, for which I chose to hat-tip Windows 8.

The list is by no means comprehensive, just some things that stand ahead of others -- and it is organized from least to most important. Google had a great year, perhaps the best ever. Few companies released more innovative products, affecting so many people and building such positive brand awareness.

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Another Thanksgiving arrives here in the United States, and some people consider what they have to be grateful for. I celebrate by talking turkey, not just eating it, about the companies I cover. It's tradition, going back to 2006, that I present the things Microsoft should be grateful for.

Last year, 11 items made the list, keeping with the 2011 theme. For 2012, I reduce the list to eight; my hat tip of respect to Windows 8, which launched nearly a month ago. There are many more things Microsoft could be grateful for, but I chose some that might not readily come to mind. The list goes from least to most important.

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Cloud IT management platform Panorama9 on Tuesday introduced Mac patch management to its pay-as-you-go solution, unifying Windows and Mac OS patch deployment in its IT dashboard.

We first looked at Panorama9 in October when the company added Mac and Linux support to its contract-free asset and compliance management platform. The service itself is still very new, and is rapidly growing its functionality in the interest of providing small and medium sized businesses affordable cloud IT services.

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Networking leader Cisco announced on Sunday evening its intent to acquire San Francisco-based cloud networking company Meraki Inc. Cisco will pay approximately $1.2 billion in cash and incentives to acquire Meraki, and the deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.

Meraki's portfolio of technologies includes a broad range of networking solutions, including mesh Wi-Fi, switching, security, and cloud-based mobile device management which currently target midmarket companies. In other words, companies with annual revenues between $100 million and $1 billion. In the United States, this market segment is made up of approximately 200,000 companies, and it is looked at as a growth market for tech infrastructure providers.

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Acronis International has released a beta version of True Image Lite 2013, a stripped-down version of its True Image backup tool.

The new release ditches disk, partition, email and file backup types, for instance (there’s non-stop backup and online backup only). There are no full or differential backups (just incremental). No scheduling, no backups to CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray, no option to create a bootable recovery disc, and of course none of the extensive settings you’ll find in the full True Image package.

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This week was big for consumer cloud storage services, Dropbox passed 100 million users, Box rolled out an overhauled Android app, while Microsoft's SkyDrive got new selective sync and simpler sharing functionality.

In addition to all of the news, I had one of those personal moments where cloud storage kind of saved my ass this week. But where the cloud helped me immensely, it didn't save everything.

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This week, Google brought a little something from ill-fated Nexus Q to Google TV. Even my non-techie wife is amazed, and that's the point. This little something is really big, because anyone can use it and get dramatic benefits.

The new YouTube for Android app installed on smartphone or tablet now acts as a remote control to Google TV, taking interaction far removed and clumsy and making it intimate, fun and easy. If Amazon and Netflix operated similarly -- and the set-top box got Hulu Plus -- I'd cancel AT&T U-verse, baby.

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Microsoft has clearly begun to focus more heavily on the cloud for both businesses and consumers. The company has integrated Skydrive into both Windows 8 and Office 2013, and even some recently announced SharePoint features included SkyDrive integration into the social and collaboration app for business. Now, today, it has rolled out two more improvements to the cloud storage service.

Along with the brand new features that were rolled out today, Microsoft's Mike Torres, Group Program Manager for SkyDrive apps, couldn't help tooting the company's own horn a bit by trumpeting that SkyDrive has doubled in usage -- "in the last 6 months, you have doubled the amount of SkyDrive storage being used." This is too vague to indicate any real numbers of storage or users so that will remain open to interpretation for now.

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Enterprise content management application Seismic launched in the Windows 8 app store today, bringing Microsoft's new operating system its cloud-based method of managing branded marketing and sales materials in a single, touchable interface.

Seismic began its life under the name Nu:Pitch last year, and was originally a somewhat humble Powerpoint application that could pull data from Microsoft CRM Dynamics, Salesforce, and other libraries so presentations with live business intelligence could be completely portable.

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Cloud-storage provider SugarSync Inc has launched SugarSync 2.0 Beta, a brand new version of its cross-platform desktop application for backing up and syncing folders between multiple computers and devices.

Version 2.0, which comes with 5GB free storage as well as paid-for plans, has been redesigned from the ground up, ostensibly to make sharing and syncing quicker and easier. It also provides direct access to the cloud storage via Windows Explorer and Finder for the first time, plus introduces a new cloud-wide search tool.

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Following the foray into Windows 8/RT territory, cloud storage service Box announced an overhauled app for Android devices today. Box for Android 2.0 delivers a number of new features such as document preview and offline folders on top of under-the-hood changes. But even though the name might suggest otherwise it is not limited to Eclair green droid users.

One of the most noteworthy features added to Box for Android 2.0 is document preview. Similar to other green robot competitors like Google Drive, it can render more than 75 types of files within the app without having to resort to third-party solutions. For working outside the grid, the updated Box can now also save folders in encrypted form for offline use on top of individual files. Outdated content will be reported after changes are performed.

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Users are becoming accustomed to Adobe security flaws these days. After all the company did occupy five of the top-10 spots in the recent Kaspersky report. While the "occasional" Flash bug can be dealt with, having one's user information stolen is a whole different story, but that is exactly what sources are claiming and Adobe is confirming by shutting down the service in question.

"Adobe is currently investigating reports of a compromise of a Connectusers.com forum database. These reports first started circulating late during the day on Tuesday, November 13, 2012. At this point of our investigation, it appears that the Connectusers.com forum site was compromised by an unauthorized third party. It does not appear that any other Adobe services, including the Adobe Connect conferencing service itself, were impacted".

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We already know that Facebook is a pretty popular social network and Windows 8, if Steve Ballmer is to be believed, appears to be off to a good start, but what if you combined that cool new Start screen with the Facebook timeline? Then you would get the new Cover Creator just released by Microsoft.

The company posted the new app today accompanied by a very brief description -- "It’s a new Facebook app from the Windows team that connects to your social stream to create a new Cover Photo. It’s fast and easy and has a degree of customization so you can pick and choose which photos and apps appear in certain tiles."

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