cloud Archive

  • Steve Ballmer at D8: the video highlights (updated)

    Steve Ballmer at D8: the video highlights (updated)

    Posted on June 3, 2010 | No Comments
    Steve Ballmer didn't say too much at D8 that we haven't heard him or others at Microsoft say in the past, but he's always an entertaining and interesting interview, and All Things Digital is upping the videos of Walt's session with Steve and Ray Ozzie now. Up first is a clip of Steve talking about how Microsoft is getting back into the mobile game and how RIM and Nokia are still formidable competitors, followed by Ray and Steve riffing on the potential of the cloud and how things can get even better for Microsoft. We'll add more as D's video people get them up -- check back!

    Continue reading Steve Ballmer at D8: the video highlights (updated)

    Steve Ballmer at D8: the video highlights (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • mSpot stores your music* in the cloud, makes it available anywhere**

    mSpot stores your music* in the cloud, makes it available anywhere**

    Posted on May 19, 2010 | No Comments
    Whoa there, vaquero -- don't get too excited just yet. As with just about every other gratis backup service on the web, there's a catch you should know about with mSpot's latest endeavor. The free limit is right around 2GB (exact size is TBD), so if you've got more than a second generation iPod's worth of audio, this here service will only serve as a tease. For those who fall under that threshold, there's plenty to love, and if you're down for ponying up, you'll be able to secure 10GB for $2.99 per month or 20GB for $4.99 per month. Launched today at Google I/O, this "freemium" music cloud service essentially syncs your entire music library (either in iTunes or a user-designated arrangement of folders) with mSpot's servers -- provided your library is less than 20GB, of course -- and then makes it available anywhere. Phones and other computers should have no issue tapping in (though only Android will be supported out of the gate), and the app itself runs quietly in the background in order to check for new additions / subtractions and mirror said changes in your online library. For now, the service is available by invitation only through mspot.com, with public availability slated for next month. Size limits aside, the service worked well for us in our limited testing, though that first 20GB upload is a real pain over Time Warner Cable's obviously capped Road Runner internet. Oh, and if you're bummed about not being guaranteed an invite today, you shouldn't be. Hit that source link and enter "engadget" as the password -- the first 500 get immediate access, but once they're gone, they're gone.

    *20GB tops, buster!
    **Only on Android, Macs and PCs at first, chief!

    Continue reading mSpot stores your music* in the cloud, makes it available anywhere**

    mSpot stores your music* in the cloud, makes it available anywhere** originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Microsoft and Verizon say Kin’s monthly pricing isn’t crazy, when you think about it

    Microsoft and Verizon say Kin’s monthly pricing isn’t crazy, when you think about it

    Posted on May 12, 2010 | No Comments
    Whatever you think about the Kin devices themselves, the one thing most folks can agree on is that their monthly pricing is more than a little out of step with their target audience -- except for Microsoft and Verizon, that is. Speaking to Computerworld, Microsoft senior product manager Greg Sullivan and Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney both raised the issue of the Kin's ability to backup to the cloud when defending the high monthly price ($30 for data on top of a standard phone plan), with Sullivan saying that once customers "realize the value of this, they'll realize it's a great deal." On another note, Sullivan also used some interesting language when discussing the possibility of app downloads for the Kin, saying that "over the longer term" Microsoft will be "merging" the Kin and Windows Phone 7 platforms and adding downloadable apps. Now, that's not a radical departure from what we've heard from Microsoft before, but "merge" is a curious choice of words, isn't it?

    Microsoft and Verizon say Kin's monthly pricing isn't crazy, when you think about it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Will ActiveVideo Networks successfully bring TV-viewing to the cloud?

    Will ActiveVideo Networks successfully bring TV-viewing to the cloud?

    Posted on May 10, 2010 | No Comments
    I, myself, would move to the cloud if it were at all possible. And by that I don't mean move all of my vital digital services to someone else's servers, but float up into the stratosphere and just hang out there for the rest of my days. When ActiveVideo Networks talks about moving the TV-viewing experience to the cloud, they are, in fact, talking about moving servers outside of your house for your own good, enabling what they call interactive video on demand. The overall idea is to make TV-viewing just interactive enough to make it more compelling without sacrificing the "idiot box"-ness of the medium. When you're watching TV, you don't necessarily want to break out GCC simply to change the channel.

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  • Be careful where you upload your data, you might not get it back

    Be careful where you upload your data, you might not get it back

    Posted on February 10, 2010 | No Comments
    Wired has a neat little article that talks about something I really don't see mentioned on all those "social media" Web sites: what happens when you want to move your data from Site A to Site B? It's a by-product of moving more and more of our data to cloud-based services:do we retain ownership of our data, and if so, what's the best way to take that data back?

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  • How many times do you have to be burned by BlackBerry to consider your options?

    How many times do you have to be burned by BlackBerry to consider your options?

    Posted on December 23, 2009 | No Comments
    What's the phrase? Oh, yeah: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. BlackBerry went down yesterday across North and South America. Users couldn't send or receive e-mail, and some complained that they couldn't connect to the Internet. It's the second time in a week that BlackBerry has failed. Considering how important the service is to some people—I dare you to go to Wall Street and not see everyone using the device—you really do wonder: how long will people tolerate this shoddy service? It also raises the related question of, How wise is it to rely on "the cloud" to host all of your important data? Surely you wouldn't leave "mission critical" information in the hands of someone else, someone who's unsettling opaque when it comes to explaining outages?

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  • Palm and Sprint issue statement acknowledging Profile backup issue

    Palm and Sprint issue statement acknowledging Profile backup issue

    Posted on November 25, 2009 | No Comments
    Even in a world full of racket, it seems that the squeaky wheel still gets the grease. In yet another blow to this whole "cloud" agenda, a vocal segment of Palm users began to notice that information transferred from their online Palm Profile was only a fraction of what it should have been. Today, both Palm and Sprint have issued a joint statement acknowledging the issue and promising to work much, much harder in order to avoid having something like this ruin your life once again. To quote:
    "We are seeing a small number of customers who have experienced issues transferring their Palm Profile information to another Palm webOS device. Palm and Sprint are working closely together to support these customers to successfully transfer their information to the new device."
    Between this mess and the T-Mobile fiasco, we're pretty certain we're being forced to stay on the manual backup bandwagon for the foreseeable future.

    [Thanks, Mike]

    Palm and Sprint issue statement acknowledging Profile backup issue originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • LTE Connected Car redefines the ‘mobile’ in mobile broadband (video)

    LTE Connected Car redefines the ‘mobile’ in mobile broadband (video)

    Posted on November 6, 2009 | No Comments

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    If you think cellphones have become overbearingly complex, look away now. A partnership of tech companies and content providers, known as the ng Connect Program, has revealed a prototype "LTE Connected Car," which, as you might surmise, combines 4G mobile broadband connectivity with a bunch of cloud-sourced facilities, such as video on demand, audio libraries, and multiplayer gaming. It can also serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot, connect directly to home automation or monitoring systems, and probably cook you scrambled eggs if you ask nicely. A Toyota Prius serves as the guinea pig for this new concept, and we've got video of the whole shebang after the break.

    Read - ng Connect Program Puts Connectivity in the Fast Lane with the LTE Connected Car Concept Vehicle
    Read - ng Connect Program Reveals the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Connected Car

    Continue reading LTE Connected Car redefines the 'mobile' in mobile broadband (video)

    LTE Connected Car redefines the 'mobile' in mobile broadband (video) originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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