Are You Missing Out on the Trend of Cloud Computing?

The digital revolution and trends of globalization has led us to see the importance of becoming an Information Knowledge society. The perception of having information on the go (mobile information) seems to give people the competitive edge and the need to be more mobile is so important that work no longer remains at our office desk! Do you feel it has become a norm in society to have information at our finger tips where we use our mobile phones to go online to find information (what time is the next movie at so and so, where is the best place to dine, whether the item is the best price or not) or check emails, etc.

Then steps in cloud computing as teh solution. According to InfoWorld, it’s “a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software.” In listening to a talk presented by ”John Larkin” last week on “Cloud Computing: Making the Internet work for you”. He mentioned how the applications of the cloud could help us with our daily activities of “syncing” ourselves from our home to our office and to where we were at all times. We could also use bookmarks to keep track of sites that we need and share it to the world so that if people were searching for the same thing they will find your bookmarks as well.

With cloud computing one doesn’t have to worry anymore if they forgot their thumbdrive at work because they already put it in their “Dropbox” which can be accessed at home.  No more worries in having to feel that the computer in the office may not have the same version as at home when you worked on it last night because cloud computing ensures that your home and office computer synchronizes and that you have the latest one at all times.

The trend of cloud computing is creating documents, storing it online and sharing it (if so desired) so that one can manage things on the go. If one does not learn how to manage all the information and work in their lives, it is expected they will feel overwhelmed with information which directly causes stress. However, cloud computing does come with disadvantages and one core problem is security. But is cloud computing just a trend that will die off in the future? What do you think?

Six Sense Technology

With all the social networking that so many people is signing up for, how safe is it? With all that information being pumped into the Internet everyday from everywhere around the world, talk of how to harvest all this information is starting to become a reality. At MIT students have been inventing a device whereby they can gather all the related seamless information about what a person is looking at at that point of time from the Internet and project this onto any surface to allow them to see it. At the TED conference in February 2009, Pattie Maes gives a presentation on this. See for yourself:

HTC Sense and Hero

The social butterfly? HTC has taken a step up and introduced the social superphones HTC Hero running on HTC Sense!

Everything coming together making it a “one stop for all”. It can personalise the phone to different views depending if it’s for work, personal life, holiday, etc. Good job HTC, the UI is amazing.

Definately I would research further about in the future about UIs.

Check it out!

Innovative Marketing

Have you seen the recent marketing of Dell Singapore with Swarm?

Apparently if you buy in a “swarm” (max 15 people), you get to save!
http://www.dellswarm.com/sg/index.php

Click here to see how it works:
http://www.dellswarm.com/sg/howitworks.php

Have to say it’s a great idea since Dell does make money by bulk manufacturing and bulk selling. And to tie technology of facebook and twitter. Competitors of Dell better be careful!!

Lost At The Supermarket?

There is a new GPS system for finding where things that are placed at the supermarket. The idea and concept sounds great but wouldn’t it be funny though if you put in the search function to find “can of peaches” and the device replied, “500 metres ahead turn left”….. “200 metres ahead turn left”…. “You have missed your turning please turn left in 100 metres”. WHAT THE?!!?!

The target market for the device are senior citizens. How does one go about making the GPS easy to handle and use for this target group? Another thing is that the user will have to buy the device limiting them a choice in going to another supermarket for getting their groceries. Perhaps if you shopped at one place for groceries, it’s human behaviour not to go elsewhere because one gets comfortable shopping at the usual place.

What do you think about a GPS device in finding what you actually want at a supermarket?

Now This is What I Call Sexy… and Expensive

Sexy, powerful and expensive….

 If  I had money lying around… sadly no…

Recession

Happy new year! 2009 is already here and for those that want to upgrade all their laptops are now maybe more reluctant than ever. I do recommend that you hold on to your money for a few more months if you are looking to make changes. Why you may ask?

Have you heard of the quad core processor? Well it’s like super powerhouse for half the price as the processors out there! As apcmag quotes(http://apcmag.com/apple_prepping_a_quadcore_macbook_pro.htm), it’s a “budget priced four core engine Apple could still deliver its most muscle bound laptop and avoid the risk of sticker shock of breaking the US$3000 barrier…”

Ultimately it means the Macbook will be even better for a lower price if they decide to change the processor? Oh wait, Acer already uses this for their “extreme gaming” machines. So with this kind of power house availability, people I hope you have your belts available to keep your pants on when Macbook decides to utilise Quad Core Intel Processors. So hang in there people and wait and see.

Sitex 2008

It’s almost the end of the year for 2008 and we have the closing IT show for the year in Singapore!! SITEX 2008 has arrived again!

Thank you to Hardwarezone for always giving the public a peek preview. For more details click the link at: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=18&id=2750

Small basic laptops seem to be popping up everywhere. It’s got me wondering though basic vs full featured wide screen laptops. The basic laptop will be great as a secondary computer for those that go to the cafe to do some blogging or work whereby they just require a simple, light, compact, small electronic equipment to do what they want for that 3 hours while they sit there enjoying their coffee. The new macbook is also revealed. The new slick design has scored itself an 8.5 out of 10 according to Cnet Asia (http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050488,44202810p,00.htm).

Maybe this time round I can buy myself a new mp3 player….

Phones: G1 or iphone or HTC Touch Pro

Have you read the Telegraph online enews this week? Google’s G1’s phone is out! (Click on link to read and see clip for yourself – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2008/09/24/dlgooglerev224.xml

Have to say it looks pretty good. Although many features are not expressed in this website but I wonder, will we get it in Singapore?

Currently they have the HTC Touch Pro out and the review at cnet asia was only a 7.9 out of 10. I guess the turnout of it was quite bulky and not something that looks very appealing to those that like slim phones. You can check it out here: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/handhelds/0,39001703,43545247p,00.htm

DIY Installing RAM for the Acer One

My friend just got herself the Acer Aspire One that runs an Atom Intel Chip and knowing me loving new gadgets I started to surf youtube looking at people’s reviews. Like always I like to explore the opportunity of upgrading RAM DIY style since it costs probably $50 (approximate figure) in service fees in Singapore to get it installed for me while I could probably do it on my own and save the $50.

The Acer Aspire One like all mini laptops is rather small. It looks pretty good for a lightweight highly portable work laptop when you are on the go. I won’t go on to list the disadvantages of big versus small laptops but of course if you have big fingers and don’t like small screens you shouldn’t complain. 

Any person who deals or who dealt with electronic goods can tell you that the smaller the equipment is, the more fragile the parts can be. The Acer Aspire One runs on Linux and the interface that comes along with it is open source and it boots up fairly quickly compared to the competitors. Of course the interface can be altered and changed but those that are not computer literate be warned that this could void the warranty of the equipment if you decide to make changes to it. Just check it out first before you go modifying anything.

I will be comparing installing of RAM to the EEE PC. Usually with any bigger type of laptop and EEE PC, you can upgrade the RAM by opening a back slot at the back of the laptop and just inputting the new RAM from there. Usually takes about 4 screws out at most just to get it done (Macbook is different and requires to go through removing the battery first). As for the Acer Aspire One, it’s a mission to actually get it upgraded and requires delicate fingers not to short circuit or ruin any of the hardware parts. There’s alot of removing including the keyboard as such. Below zaperbaby from youtube was kind enough to post his mission in installing of the RAM. Truthfully just watching the clip made me think whether it was worth getting this laptop even though the specs of it is good enough as a mini laptop. However, I guess if you do consider buying this gadget, please do consider for a requested upgrade of RAM rather than you decide to do a DIY. Again I totally agree with zaperbaby, how come they never thought of cutting a slot at the back of the laptop for easy access? What happens if the RAM is fried and I need to replace it? I guess it would just a necessary procedure if that is the case.