cloud - page 2

Manage Life And Work With Producteev’s Free Cloud-Synced Mac And iPhone ToDo Apps [Review]

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Helpless and lost in a whirlwind of tasks I can never remember to complete—that’s me without a good todo app on my side. And so, since my last favorite app started having issues the developers seem intent on never fixing, I decided to give the Producteev iPhone and desktop todo apps (free) a try.

Now, with my tasks nicely cloud-synced across my Macbook and iPhone, I’m finally getting stuff done again, and I think it’s safe to check “find a new favorite productivity app” off the ol’ list.

Beware This Fake iCloud Email That Will Attempt To Sell You Flowers

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Look at how ridiculous this email is.
Look at how ridiculous this email is.

Phishing emails are some of the most frustrating emails I have delivered to my inbox. While I’ve never fallen for one, the sheer audacity of the sender, who makes a lame and shameless attempt to steal my login and/or bank details (often using the name of a bank I’ve never dealt with in my life) really infuriates me.

There seems to be one going around at the moment that claims to be from Apple targeting iCloud customers. Unlike traditional spam emails, however, this one won’t attempt to steal your login details when you click on its link. Instead, it wants to sell you flowers.

Amazon Brings Native Cloud Drive Uploading To The Mac With New OS X App

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You can now upload your files to Cloud Drive from your desktop.
You can now upload your files to Cloud Drive from your desktop.

Amazon has today released a new Cloud Drive desktop app for Mac OS X, and it offers a number of nifty features that the web app isn’t capable of. For example, with Cloud Drive installed, you can upload files to your cloud-based locker simply by dragging them to your menu bar, and you can quickly import all of your images from iPhoto with just a few clicks.

So-Called “Dropbox For Enterprise” Service kitedrive Adds Mac Support

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Secure enterprise file sharing and sync service kitedrive comes to the Mac.
Secure enterprise file sharing and sync service kitedrive comes to the Mac.

Secure enterprise file sharing and file management vendor Accellion has added Mac support to its file sync system for mobile workers known as kitedrive. As we noted earlier this year in covering the launch of kitedrive for iOS, Accellion describes kitedrive as “Dropbox for the enterprise.” That’s a pretty good description. kitedrive syncs content for offline access to business documents, which are securely encrypted during transmission and while stored on the a mobile device, PC, or Mac.

Brother Challenges HP’s Vaunted Envy Series With Sleek, New, Google Cloud Print-Enabled Printers

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Small, wifi-enabled with the ability to print from tablets and smartphones, low-cost printing, equipped with a touchscreen, relatively inexpensive, fast…looks like a shopping list for the perfect printer, right? And that’s what Brother might have in their just-launched MFC-J4510DW, a sleek printer with Google Cloud Print connectivity and a price tag of $200 (though I’d love an explanation as to why Brother has stuck with alphabet-soup product names while its competitors have moved on to printers with names like “Artisan” and “Envy”).

Mosaic Makes Your Lightroom Catalogs Available In Any Browser, Instantly

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Automatic mirroring of your latest Lightroom edits. Who wouldn't want that?

 

What if I told you there was a plugin for Lightroom which would mirror the latest edit of every photo in library in the cloud, and make it available in a neat, iPad optimized browser view right away?

You’d probably just call me a liar, skip to the next post and maybe take a sip of your coffee, muttering “That idiot Sorrel is doing it again. I’m writing to hi damn editor this time.”

Well, you’d be a fool. Instead, let that coffee cool a little and come take a look at Mosaic.

 

Schools Need To Tread Carefully When Hooking iPads And MacBooks Up To Cloud Services

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Cloud computing has great potential for schools, but isn't without some pitfalls.
Cloud computing has great potential for schools, but isn't without some pitfalls.

 

The summer break is winding up and many teachers are getting ready to head back to work for another school year (and many IT staffers in those schools are trying to make sure everything’s ready when those teachers return). Over the past several months, many schools and their IT departments have been struggling to keep spending down while also delivering a 21st century learning environment. That discussion has largely focused on how to most cost effectively deploy iPads, new MacBooks, and other technology systems.

One approach to that dilemma is moving away from traditional software purchasing and towards enterprise cloud solutions. That approach may give schools more control over expenditures and offer other advantages, but it also has downsides including the potential to raise costs and degrade the education experience.

Zoho Extends Enterprise Cloud Services With New Server Monitoring App For iPhone

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Server monitoring tool Site24x7 offers easy remote monitoring for iPhone-toting IT Pros
Server monitoring tool Site24x7 offers easy remote monitoring for iPhone-toting IT Pros

Site24x7 announced its new iPhone app this week. Site24x7 is a robust enterprise server monitoring solution by the Zoho group, which is best known among iOS users for its Zoho Docs productivity suite.

Site24x7 offers a range of enterprise features for web servers that are hosting critical interactive web apps and cloud services as well as other mission critical services like internal and external DNS service and mail services. In addition to simple reports and alerts about a server issue the Site24x7 can be used to tune servers for optimal performance and uptime.

Will Dropbox’s New Security Measures Kill Or Limit Functionality In iOS Apps?

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Responding to a security breach, Dropbox plans new security tools, but they might be too burdensome for iPhone and iPad users.
Responding to a security breach, Dropbox plans new security tools, but they might be too burdensome for iPhone and iPad users.

In the aftermath of a data breach that it announced this week, Dropbox says that it will begin implementing new security measures. Those measures include new automated techniques for spotting suspicious behavior, a page where you can examine all active logins to your account, password update requirements, and two-factor authentication.

All of those are reasonable steps to take. That Dropbox hasn’t implemented most of those items before is a bit surprising. Only one of those items – two factor authentication – really puts a burden onto Dropbox users, but it could put a very big burden on iOS users and app developers.

ownCloud Lets Companies Roll Their Own Google Drive or Dropbox

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With new iOS and Android apps, ownCloud becomes a serious business cloud option.
With new iOS and Android apps, ownCloud becomes a serious business cloud option.

We’ve taken a couple of looks at ownCloud over the past few months. The company launched its signature cloud server software in April and issued a major update about a month ago. Today, ownCloud announced its iOS and Android apps, making the product a serious option for many businesses that need to develop a secure internal cloud strategy.

Apple’s iCloud and Gatekeeper Make Businesses Choose One Security Risk Over Another

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Mountain Lion's consumer security and cloud features conflict in schools and workplaces.
Mountain Lion's consumer security and cloud features conflict in schools and workplaces.

In putting together the various features of Mountain Lion, Apple may end up encouraging business and enterprise customers to actually make their Macs less secure instead of ratcheting up security as some key Mountain Lion capabilities are intended to do.

There are a handful of technologies involved, but they center around iCloud and Apple’s requirement that apps sold in the Mac App Store support Apple’s application sandboxing technique.

Apple Brings iTunes Match To Hungary And Poland

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iTunes Match expands its reach across Europe.
iTunes Match expands its reach across Europe.

iTunes Match has expanded its reach in Europe today as Apple brings the music matching service to Hungary and Poland more than 18 months after it made its debut in the United States. The Cupertino company is yet to add these countries to its iTunes Match availability page, but users report that the service is now appearing in iTunes.

Small Businesses Aren’t Getting The iOS/Mobile Solutions They Need

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Small businesses are jumping on the iOS/mobile bandwagon but aren't getting the apps/services that they need to succeed.
Small businesses are jumping on the iOS/mobile bandwagon but aren't getting the apps/services that they need to succeed.

According to a new study, mobile technologies like the iPhone and iPad aren’t delivering all the applications and features that most small businesses feel they need to succeed. The issue is less with Apple (or Google or RIM) and more with the developers and technology partners that create and market solutions tailored to the somewhat unique needs of the small business market.

The study was performed by Techaisle, a research firm that specializes in the small to mid-size business (SMB) market. It looked at whether small businesses felt that they were getting adequate options and support from cloud and mobile technology vendors. It found that across several areas, mobile technology solutions are failing to provide needed capabilities.

TigerText With Dropbox Offers Secure Multiplatform Messaging And File Sharing

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TigerText now offers secure file sharing as well as secure messaging thanks to Dropbox.
TigerText now offers secure file sharing as well as secure messaging thanks to Dropbox.

Email and messaging continue to be core business requirements for mobile professionals. Business messaging can also present a mobile security challenges. Ensuring communications sent over a carrier network or Wi-Fi are secure and only read by intended recipients is sensible for any company. In certain industries, secure messaging is required by law or regulation.

There are a range of ways to ensure secure messaging. One of which is TigerText, a multi-platform solution for secure messaging that meets industry-specific security and privacy require like HIPAA in the healthcare industry or SOX compliance in business/finance. TigerText offers more than just secure texting, however. The platform also includes group messaging and the ability to recall messages after they’ve been sent.

As of today, it also include Dropbox integration. That allows users to not only exchange messages securely, but also to share files securely with some attractive business and security features.

Why The iPad And Social Networks Succeed In Business

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Beyond user choice, the iPad and social networking  are business hits because they enable more direct communication.
Beyond user choice, the iPad and social networking are business hits because they enable more direct communication.

Increased productivity is one of the most common rallying cries when people, myself included, talk about the consumerization trend in business technology and the related growth of personally owned mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad in the workplace. Increased productivity and the comfort of choosing and using the best apps or devices for the job is one big advantage that these trends have to offer, but it isn’t the only one.

The ability to collaborate is being unleashed by these trends in businesses around the world. That, perhaps, points a finger to why the iPad, cloud services like Box and Dropbox, and social networks have gained so much popularity in so many offices. They allow people to interact and collaborate in ways that traditional business collaboration tools do not.

Why Apple Should Start Streaming Games

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iOS gaming could be greatly improved if Apple invested some of its billions into a game streaming service.

On Monday, Sony Computer Entertainment acquired cloud-based game streaming company Gaikai for around $380 million in a move that is sure to excite fans of the company’s PlayStation devices. If the Japanese company uses its purchase to create a compelling alternative to OnLive, it has the potential to gain a huge advantage over rivals like Microsoft and Nintendo.

The same service could provide an even bigger advantage to Apple. In fact, there are a number of reasons why the Cupertino company should use its ever-increasing cash pile to make Mac and iOS gaming even greater.

ownCloud Expands Easy To Configure Private Cloud Options, Includes Mac Support

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ownCloud adds business features in its latest release
ownCloud adds business features in its latest release

We last looked at ownCloud nearly three months ago. The company offers a unique private cloud solution that can scale from the needs of a small businesses with a handful of users all the way to the requirements of larger enterprise. What makes ownCloud unique is that it’s designed to easily integrate with existing infrastructure and IT processes.

Because ownCloud is based on open web standards, it can be easily implemented on virtually any web server. That means it can function as an on-premise solution that is configured and managed completely by company’s IT team, a hosted implementation where it can be installed onto server space provided by a commercial web hosting company, or it can offered in a more turn-key fashion through one of the ownCloud’s partners.

iCloud’s OS Integration Illustrates The Future Of Personal Cloud Services

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Widespread personal cloud adoption rests on iCloud-like mobile and desktop OS integration
Widespread personal cloud adoption rests on iCloud-like mobile and desktop OS integration

Cloud storage accounts for just 7% of our digital content according to Gartner the industry research firm. Given the ubiquity of cloud services and their ability to sync personal data, photos, documents, and just about everything else with our iPhone, iPads, Mac, PCs, and other devices, that number may sound a bit small. After all, the range of content that iCloud is capable of syncing in Lion and iOS 5 isn’t exactly minor.

Gartner also predicts that the percentage of the average user’s digital property will grow to more than five times that by 2016. At that point, the firm sees most users store more that a third (36%) of their digital content in various clouds. That news isn’t exactly surprising for Apple customers. Apple is making a major push for seamless iCloud integration in Mountain Lion and iOS 6. That said, the firm’s report digital storage does have a few surprises in it. In some ways the report shows that Apple is leading rather than following the personal cloud industry.

CloudOn Teases New Group Editing And Collaboration Tools For Office-On-iPad App

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CloudOn wants to beyond just offering Office on the iPad with new collaborative functionality
CloudOn wants to beyond just offering Office on the iPad with new collaborative functionality

CloudOn is one of the more interesting options for working with Office documents on the iPad. The company offers a cloud-based version of the core Microsoft Office apps plus Adobe Reader. Unlike a virtual desktop solution, CloudOn provides just the applications and not a full Windows desktop. When it comes to creating and editing documents, CloudOn’s app relies on popular cloud storage options: Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

As a startup, CloudOn has seen strong growth since it launched its service earlier this year. The company announced a new round of funding this week ($16 million) and used the opportunity to tease users with details of its upcoming plans, most notably support for group editing and collaboration as well as expansion beyond the iPad and Android tablets. 

Protect Yourself When Using Cloud Services & Personal Tech In The Office

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Personal clouds can cause professional headaches in the workplace

One of the challenges that the BYOD and consumerization trends are creating for IT departments is employee use of public and/or personal cloud services. We’ve covered some of the big challenges this presents in terms of data security and ownership as well as the potential business continuity problems stemming from multiple versions of documents stored across different cloud services by multiple employees.

IT concerns may be more common and well-known, but there are cloud-related issues that employees need to consider as well – particularly if they use a work email address to register for a service, access a service from work, or use a service to store or transfer work-related files.

RocketDocs Makes Google Docs Editing More Mac-like

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RocketDocs brings Google Docs to your desktop and makes editing more Mac-like
RocketDocs brings Google Docs to your desktop and makes editing more Mac-like

One of the hallmarks of Google Docs (and now Google Drive) is that you can use it anywhere. Within reason, any device with a modern web browser can deliver some level of viewing, editing, and collaboration. On iOS devices, however, native Office-style apps like Quickoffice tend to deliver a somewhat better user experience and are capable of opening, editing, and syncing documents with your Google.

There’s a clear value for such capability on an iOS device in that most apps deliver a better experience than Google Docs running in mobile Safari. Is there a similar need on the desktop? Would a native app a better solution than using Chrome or Safari on your Mac? According to Mac/iOS developer Tricky Duck, the answer is yes.

9 Reasons To Manage iPhones & iPads From The Cloud

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Cloud management can be a great option
Cloud management can be a great option

Over the course of May, we’ve highlighted a number of different mobile management companies in our Mobile Management Month series. Profiling these companies made me realize how much the mobile management market has expanded to include cloud or SaaS options in addition to on-premise servers installed inside a company’s network.

That’s hardly surprising really – after all cloud models are being applied to almost every type of business computing need.

There are several significant and  attractive advantages to using a cloud service as your approach to mobile management, particularly for small businesses.

Box Ups The Ante For Business And iOS Cloud Storage

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Box continues to lead the way in mobile and cloud options for business
Box continues to lead the way in mobile and cloud options for business

Over the past several months, Box has reinvented itself. The company went from being a pretty basic cloud storage solution to true enterprise solution and a hub for storing, viewing, and editing all manner of documents on an iPad or other mobile device. Box’s journey continued this week as the company launched a series of new features for business and enterprise customers.