Cloud Computing

We sat on the patio of an industry analyst friend's home watching the sun set beyond the Golden Gate, talking about the difficulty of launching a company/product, getting them understood/accepted, helping them prepare for the next great breakthrough.

He said that a marketer/publicist couldn't be strategic, couldn't handle anything unless he/she understood what was going on well out at sea and could deal with the immediate sea conditions he/she was in.

"The here-and-now issues/questions/problems are the ones that separate these people from pros," he commented. "If you can't handle them, don't leave shore."

His disdain was a "little" apparent. He listed their shortcomings:

• He calls them handlers, gatekeepers who attempt to block access, control/manage meetings, escorting managers and media
• The handler barely contributes to a discussion of the technology, the applications, the future direction, has no clue as to the market/competition
• He recalled once asking about a product's return rate. The individual looked him straight in the face and said "almost nonexistent."

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"If you let those people that own those joints have an inch, they'll steal the whole state... It looks like they already got a leg up on it." – Buford, "Walking Tall," Bing Crosby Productions, 1973

Without much fanfare, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) recently turned the lights off on their last remaining mainframe computer.

It's not like they're shutting down their whole operation; but it's a great example of the way the traditional IT model has changed.

They still have a lot of desktop computers – probably as powerful as the room full of hardware that went dark. In addition they (and we) are using more and more mobile devices – smartphones, tablets, notebooks (soon ultrabooks) -- and mobile services.

So many devices are out there, so many services, so many options, it's tough to know:

• what's right for you
• what does what it says it does
• what does what they don't want to mention, but does
• who's gonna' last

A fresh example of the switch is Apple's latest Mac OS (Mountain Lion). It didn't slip by many folks that it shares a whole lotta' iOS features, capabilities.Read more

January 9, 2012 –Onkyo has announced that it will include access to the MP3tunes.com's music Locker with its 2012-model network-capable AV receivers. Onkyo is believed to be the first AV receiver brand to incorporate MP3tunes access in its network operating system.

This will allow MP3tunes subscribers to use an Onkyo network capable receiver to play personal music collections stored their MP3tunes' Lockers, which is what the company calls their cloud servers. MP3tunes allows subscribers to maintain up to 2 GB, or about 400 songs, for free, with fee supported accounts starting at $39.95 per year for 50 GB, or the equivalent to about 10,000 songs.

Paul Wasek, National Marketing and Product Planning Manager, believes this a great new feature for any Onkyo customer. "MP3tunes Locker is an easy and secure means to maintain this data, while providing easy access through an Onkyo receiver, computer, smart phone, or any of the many network capable devices that support MP3tunes."

MP3Tunes capabilities will be included as standard on new Onkyo network capable receivers beginning in the first quarter of 2012.

SOURCE Onkyo

More than at any other point in the year, the holiday season is a time for creating and preserving memories, particularly photos and videos. A new study* from Carbonite, a provider of online backup solutions for consumers and small and medium sized businesses, found photos are considered the most valuable files consumers have on their computers.

Despite the importance of these digital photos, many people may not be backing them up to protect them. In order to keep these most precious memories safe this holiday season, Carbonite offers the following tips:

• Download memories off of all your devices: The Carbonite study shows digital cameras remain the top device for taking photos, with 78 percent of those surveyed using them. However, cell phones or smartphones are increasingly being used by consumers (used by 59 percent). Two-thirds of people who take pictures with a phone simply leave the photos on the device without backing them up. Among camcorder users, half leave their videos on their device and do nothing else with them. During this busy season, it is easy to lose a phone—or drop it in the egg nog—and lose all the photos stored on its internal memory. A camcorder may be harder to misplace, but it can be just as easy to damage.Read more

"I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You don't know what hand you're gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you... to make each day count." – Jack, Titanic, 20th Century-Fox (1997)

Last year, more than four billion devices connected to the Internet - shoved more data across the pipes than was sent from the Net's beginnings in the late '60s through 2009 … combined.

Industry experts estimate that it won't be long before 15 billion devices will be connected to the Net; and by 2020, something like 50 billion devices will be "communicating" across the Net.

That's more than six devices for every person on Earth.

Contrary to what a lot of folks mesmerized by the glare of the oncoming headlights, they won't all be iPads!

Most of us only use three or four connected devices – smartphone, tablet, TV, computer. The big chunk of the connected/communicating devices will be parts of sensor networks -- low-power sensors that collect, transmit, analyze and distribute data on a massive scale.Read more

Advancements in mobile computing and lower hardware costs have literally moved people out of their offices and into airports, remote offices, customer facilities, conference rooms, libraries and home offices. Because of the migration, people work differently than they did years ago and require increased data mobility. Today, users are more likely to have access to a variety of computers; and, like their mobile phones, they want to take their data with them wherever they go.

The Internet has been pivotal in the growth of solutions that enable mobile users to transfer and share any type of digital data. Many inexpensive file transfer solutions (some are even free) have given users the freedom of having access to their data without having to carry their laptop with them. Email, FTP sites, CDs/DVDs, USB drives and cloud-storage services can all be used to transfer and share files. However, as we hear almost daily, they all have security, privacy and other issues that need to be considered.

Their limitations have underscored the compelling need for a better, cost-effective solution that doesn't trade-off data security for simplicity of access, doesn't limit the capacity of file transfers and doesn't have hidden, long-term fees. Read more

Creative Production is in the Cloud

This year's NAB gave us two "Ah Ha" moments.

First, there are no real centralizing movie, TV show production enclaves anymore.

The industry may make its money on good ideas creatively executed, but the industry's spirits rest in huge – and we mean huge – storage libraries spread around the country, around the globe.

But before we discuss what was new, better, ready for use tomorrow, we need to do a little clean-up from the first two days.

The Other Tools

Previews – Like showing the previews of an upcoming movie, Apple showed off the very best features of the newest version of Final Cut Pro which will be available later this summer. Source - Apple

Apple, in their typical fashion, showed without showing the next generation of Final Cut Pro.

They called it a sneak peek because even though it has been rebuilt from the ground up, it shows that the fruit company is going to continue to be a big player in professional content production. Read more

Let's start by saying 2011 is going to be the year we wanted three years ago when the financial institutions "borrowed" our global wellbeing! It was the first time we entered unfamiliar territory because the financial meltdown didn't affect just one country but all of us.

Economic Outlook

Internationally governments are feeling their way along the precipice because the depth and duration of the recession was beyond what most could clearly recall. They are moving – hesitantly – but still slightly dazed by the headlights of the near miss.

At the same time the U.S. government ground to a near halt because of the partisan politics that could last for two years.

Fortunately as in past recessions companies have finally become sick and tired of being sick and tired and realized that government – any government – can't move things forward…it is up to business to get the job done!

Most of the 80+% of the employed U.S. population (10% tracked unemployed, 8% dropped off the grid) are certain that conditions are and will continue to improve. This was apparent over the holiday buying season where PC/CE/communications sales increased more than 7% with a greater percentage being cash sales…resisting mounting additional personal/family debt.Read more

Did you know that now you can easily backup your documents, pictures, and music across the internet automatically? It's all possible with a brand new technology that's just now becoming available. With this new technology, when you type a document on your desktop the same document automatically shows up on your laptop! Now with this new technology when you download your pictures to your laptop the same pictures automatically show up on your desktop! This new technology is awesome because it does all the hard work of backing up your files in the background automatically. I've been using it for the last month and have found that it really makes my life much easier.

The new technology I'm talking about is called cloud computing. Cloud computing makes it possible to sync up to 5GB of your files with a free program called Windows Live Mesh. Windows Live Mesh is file backup solution that's easy to setup, completely automatic, and totally free. Before we get into Windows Live Mesh I need to first introduce you to the concepts of cloud computing and file syncing.Read more