Articles about Cloud

Today, Pew Internet released an 85-page report that is best described as a love letter to Facebook. The study smooches up to the social networking service in just about every conceivable way. Bottom line: Facebook has fundamentally changed where people spend time online and with whom they interact.

Pew surveyed 2,255 Americans 18 or older between Oct. 20 and Nov. 28, 2010. Among them: 1,787 were Internet users and 975 used social networking services.

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There has been a dramatic change in the Betanews poll asking readers if they would buy a Chrome OS laptop. The number for respondents answering "No" dropped significantly, while the yeses and maybes are way up. That's all just today. What does it mean?

The first Chromebooks went on sale today, from Acer and Samsung, ranging in price from $379.99 to $499.99. About seven hours ago, I posted the obligatory launch day story and included the buying-intention poll first posted six days ago. During the first days the poll was up, more than 85 percent of respondents said "No" to Chromebook. When I posted the earlier-day's story, the number was 69.4 percent, from 562 respondents. The number answering "Yes" was 11.57 percent, while 19.04 percent answered "Maybe."

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This week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it is migrating its 25,000 e-mail inboxes to a cloud-based solution which will integrate calendar, contact, and collaboration tools. The total cost of the migration will be $11.5 million for three-years, contracted to Earth Resource Technologies (ERT), a Maryland-based science and technology contractor who also works with NASA, USAID, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

"The cost to the taxpayer will be 50 percent less than an in-house solution," said NOAA Chief Information Officer Joseph Klimavicz. "As the new standard, cloud computing has great value allowing us to ramp up quickly, avoid redundancy and provide new services and capabilities to large groups of customers."

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Acer and Samsung Chromebooks are now available for preorder. Interest is so great it took a tweet from Google today for much of anyone to know about the sale. The Chrome OS-based laptops are available from Amazon and Best Buy. Hey, right now! Official launch is June 15 -- that's right, in six days.

My question for Betanews readers is easy: Will you buy Chromebook? Prices range from $379.99 to $499.99. Please answer in comments or email joe at betanews.com -- and, of course, everyone wants to know your reasons. Please give them.

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Dropbox is a versatile tool: it's used for backing up, syncing and file-sharing, but it's not without its drawbacks. Like any other folder on your Mac, you only know something has changed when you manually check it. That might not be a problem if your Dropbox folder is kept for personal use, but if you're using it as folder repository for the purposes of collaboration or work, you might wish you were more in the loop with any new or updated files that arrive from other sources.

What you need is some kind of notification, alerting you to any updates to your Dropbox folder. And guess what? We have just the solution -- if you're a Mac user at any rate -- in the form of the small, but perfectly formed DropIn. It offers an elegant and highly configurable means of keeping you fully informed. And at just $1.99, it won't break the bank either.

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Editor's Note: On June 6, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that iCloud, an online synchronization service, is coming in the Fall. iCloud will replace MobileMe, and Apple isn't waiting around for the new service to launch. MobileMe has stopped taking new subscribers and has extended existing customers' service for free. MobileMe will close on June 30, 2012. But iCloud is a much different service, which has upset many subscribers for what they're losing and for what they paid ($99 or more).

Apple is bringing us a laughably monikered upgrade to MobileMe called iCloud, and when you strip away the hype and Steve Jobs reality distortion field, iCloud is a proprietary, convoluted and highly restrictive sync-backup service.

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I can answer that question for you. Apple locks up your past purchases for 90 days, and you can forget that Monopoly game get-out-of-jail free card. But that's OK.

It was a big day for Apple yesterday, announcing iCloud and new push sync features from iTunes Store. It's a big day for Apple customers, now that iTunes 10.3 is available -- with purchase sync in beta. The utility is simply amazing for what Apple intends for it -- but also for how customers might choose to use it.

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The latest version of Apple's flagship software iTunes has been released. The big news in iTunes 10.3 is support for the new iCloud service that can be used to automatically download apps, music and other purchases -- this is being labeled as iTunes in the Cloud. There is also newly added support for iBookstore which enables users to purchase ebooks from within iTunes.

iCloud is the replacement for MobileMe and will be made available to users completely free of charge. Once content, such as an app, has been purchased it can then be re-downloaded on any other compatible device without the need for payment. The purchasing options available in iTunes have been extended with the introduction of iBookstore that can be used to browse and buy a selection of ebooks that can be downloaded and synchronized in the same way as apps and music.

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That's right. During Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference today, CEO Steve Jobs said that MobileMe's price would drop from $99 to free. But there's more to it. I just received email from Apple stating the service will retire in little more than year.

No surprise, iCloud, which Jobs announced today, will replace MobileMe. How many times is Apple going to change the name and function of its online service, I wonder. Anyone remember iTools, which Apple debuted in January 2000? That was a free service, too. Then in summer 2002, Apple unveiled .Mac, which would replace iTools and institute a yearly subscription fee.

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I'm having freaky sense of déjà vu, today. Apple may be late to cloud computing, but what's that saying about better late than never? Late has worked for Apple before, and I expect it to do so again.

Apple was late to music, when it launched iTunes in January 2001. The Napster revolution was well underway and Windows PC manufacturers shipped CD-RW drives. Now look at Apple and music. Apple was late to smartphones and tablets. Now it has shipped 200 million iOS devices, 25 million of them iPads -- in just 14 months. The list is longer, but you get the point.

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs today dispelled the rumors surrounding the company's new cloud service. For months, the rumor mill churned out thousands of webpages of guesses about iCloud. Would it be a cloud-based music locker, MobileMe revamp or something else?

Simply stated, iCloud is a synchronization service for pushing data out to all your connected devices. Jobs introduced the service during the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote this afternoon. For more than a half decade, I've said that synchronization is the killer application for the connected world.

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Apple may be generating loads of rumors this morning, but Microsoft has got some noise to make, too, even if done accidentally -- or accidentally on purpose. Hours before Apple Steve Jobs takes the Worldwide Developer Conference stage (1 p.m. EDT) or Microsoft's E3 keynote (12:30 p.m), several Xbox announcements leaked: Kinect Fun Labs and some new games, including Halo 4.

I say accidentally on purpose, because Microsoft's leaks cut into Apple noise before it drowns out most other tech news today. Jobs' keynote will unveil iCloud, which has generated more rumors than, well, storm clouds drenching rain. The Apple fan club of bloggers and journalists are sure to drown out pretty much everything else. So, Microsoft's leak, whether or not intentional, is timely -- and it may lead more people to tune into the E3 keynote. Microsoft is streaming its keynote; Apple is not. LOL, you have to enter your birthdate to watch the Kinect keynote and other content.

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Amazon apparently is getting into the Groupon coupon-like business by aggregating deals from LivingSocial. But don't rush out to the AmazonLocal website, unless you live in Boise, Idaho. That appears to be the only city where there are local deals.

Tip of the hat goes to TheNextWeb for uncovering AmazonLocal and its apparently one-city offering. I've got a call in asking for more details and will update this story should Amazon respond.

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Wouldn't it be funny if Google turned out to be the Internet's security cop? That's one way to interpret the search and information giant's continued push to clear away aging web browsers. First Internet Explorer 6, now Firefox 3.5, IE7 and Safari 3. Google will stop supporting these latter three browsers two months from today.

Google's reasons have nothing to do with security, but there could be a safety benefit. Let's face it, major developers invest more in their newest browser versions. More significantly, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla are now on fast development tracks, with new browser milestones coming every six to eight weeks. For example, Firefox 4 launched in late March with great fanfare -- 6 million downloads in 24 hours -- yet version 7 Nightly builds are already available for download. Firefox 5 is scheduled to release on June 21.

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Genie9 Corporation, the company behind the Genie Timeline backup tool, has introduced a new cloud-based backup for businesses and families. Timeline Cloud features the usual cloud-based backup tools, plus adds in some unique features that could prove invaluable for businesses and families.

The most notable feature offered is Cloud Disaster Recovery, which makes it possible to restore a computer to working order via the Internet or network. Timeline Cloud is also designed to be administered from the web, allowing one person to set up and manage backup policies for employees or other family members. Genie9 claims that configuring backup plans takes just five minutes.

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