I wanted to wish everyone across the Thoughts Media Network a happy new year - may 2011 be filled with prosperity, love, joy, and happiness for you and your loved ones. Be safe tonight!
Selasa, 25 Januari 2011
We Want You: Zune Thoughts Seeking Contributing Editors
I'm looking for one or two new Zune HD-owning, Zune-loving Contributing Editor to join the team at Zune Thoughts. Interested? Keep reading.
First, a little background. Over the years at Thoughts Media, I've usually recruited Contributing Editors using the same method: I look for people who are actively contributing in our forums, helping others and who generally have a good attitude and knowledge about technology. Activity level was measured by post count.
Since we merged all our forums together, it's become difficult to figure out who's posting where, and I also know there's a certain segment of people who are avid readers but don't post that often - but when they do, it's great stuff. So, in light of these changes, I'm altering my method of recruiting Contributing Editors: I'm calling for volunteers.
So here's the pitch: I'm looking for one or two people to join the team here at Zune Thoughts as Contributing Editors. All sorts of people are Thoughts Media Contributing Editors: accountants, software engineers, consultants, students - the point being, there isn't a professional writer among us (other than myself). I'm looking for passion and interest first and foremost. It's a voluntary position with perks: you'll get the opportunity to test, write about, and sometimes keep consumer electronics hardware and software. You'll get the opportunity to represent Zune Thoughts at trade shows in your area (if applicable), special events around the world, and the biggest perk of all is to have a platform from which to share your opinions and thoughts with the world.
Requirements for the position? You'll need to own a Zune HD - and having a Zune Pass would be a plus, though it's not mandatory. You should also enjoy writing about technology and enjoy sharing your opinions with others. Also, that you have a few minutes most week days/evenings to write up posts. News will be assigned to you, but you're also encouraged to post on whatever you want: interesting things you've discovered, things that you have opinions on, and the usual rants and raves. It's a volunteer position, so real life comes first, but there's a minimum level of commitment that I'm looking for.
If this sounds like something you're interested in, please use the contact form to get in touch with me. Make sure you provide me with your forum user name so I can check out your posting history (hopefully you've posted at least a couple of times, though that's not mandatory), and I'd also like a brief summary of who you are and what you do. If you have any questions, please post them in the discussion thread and I'll answer them. I look forward to hearing from you!
WP7 Connector Hack Opens Up Mac Syncing To Zune HD
Zune HD finally comes to the Mac! Well, sort of...
ZuneBoards' nate8nate sniffed out a hidden setting in the Mac version of Windows Phone Connector that allows the ZuneHD to sync just like a Windows Phone device. Surprisingly, the hack is pretty simple (setting the boolean value ZuneEnabled to true), which also likely means there's a reason this was turned off. At the moment it's ZuneHD-only and wireless syncing isn't quite there, but very cool nonetheless. nate8nate says that the latest version has much more Zune-related stuff than the first release, suggesting that Microsoft is inching towards full Zune/Mac compatibility. The real question is whether this changes the game or is just a nice-to-have in the larger Zune strategy.
FastMac U-Socket: Simple Yet Brilliant
The above picture pretty much says it all, doesn't it? It's so simple, so obvious, yet so brilliant. $19.95 per plate is a bit expensive if you deploy them all over your house, but I bet the average home could make make great use of a handful of these placed in smart areas for charging smartphones, tablets, MP3 players, etc. Each USB port kicks out a potent 2100 mAH, which should be plenty to charge any device that can accept USB power. I think I might order a couple - I'm not much of an electrician, but I suspect they'd be pretty easy to install. Just make sure you turn off the breaker for that zone of your house first!
And When The Cloud Breaks, Your Data Will Fall...
It's all about The Cloud these days - your data, you entertainment, your everything - stored on a service that you can access with any online connection. The benefits are many, but what you don't always hear about are the down-sides of everything being cloud-based. What if you get locked out of your account? I've heard of more than a few people that get locked out of their Gmail account or who can't access their Gmail calendar. It happens to Hotmail and Yahoo users as well. What if the company hosting your information deletes it, either accidentally or not, or goes out of business? That's not an uncommon problem. In terms of uptime most cloud services are fairly robust, when things go wrong, they can really ruin your day.
Case in point: my wife uses an HTC Snap Windows Mobile 6.1 phone, and it's connected to a 4smartphone hosted Exchange account. With our 17 month old running around the house, she uses per phone as the primary device for doing email and calendaring tasks rather than her desktop computer. 99.9% of the time, that works really great. But when you rely on The Cloud and something goes wrong, it can seriously mess things up - for some odd reason back in early November the phone stopped synching with 4smarpthone. That means no new email, no ability to add or edit new calendar items, etc. Texting and contacts still worked just fine, but without access to email, the phone was of little use to my wife. Now, unlike my Web site accounts which reside on the server I rent, when something goes wrong with 4smartphone, there's nothing I can do about it other than ask someone in tech support what's going on. And of course, I have to use a different email address than the primary address, because that's broken.
4smartphone tech support wasn't sure what was going on; I tried everything I could think of, even going to far as to hard reset the phone, which allowed me to re-establish the partnership from scratch. It still didn't work. Frustrated, I gave up at the end of the day. The next morning, amazingly, everything was working again. I didn't change anything, but the phone was once again synchronizing with the Exchange server. Undoubtedly, someone at 4smartphone did something - perhaps fixed something they broke - but the end result was the same without The Cloud, my wife couldn't do what she needed with her phone.
When it comes to email, virtually all of us rely on The Cloud in some fashion - because unless you're running your own mail server on a computer you have physical access to, your email for all intents and purposes is in The Cloud. Some people take it a step further though, storing all their documents, music, photos, videos, etc. purely in The Cloud - there's no local storage of those things. That's the part of The Cloud that I can't get behind; I value my files/data too much to ever trust someone else to take care of it. Sure, I use Mozy [Affiliate] to back up my data, but it's not my sole backup - and I'd never dream of having only one copy of something. Every single one of my nearly 200 videos uploaded to YouTube exist as a backup copy on my Windows Home Server and an external hard drive - and then also on Mozy. And when it comes to getting work done, even if I lose Internet access completely, I have all my offline email, contacts, documents, etc. so I can keep working. When you rely on The Cloud for all of that, you're almost useless when your data connection to The Cloud breaks. The Cloud is good at a lot of different tasks, but being the sole repository for your data isn't one of those things.
Don't get me started on cloud-based programs that require large data uploads before anything useful can be done - are you really any further ahead on editing your photos using a cloud-based service when you have to upload every 4 MB file before you can edit them? Cloud-based video editing solutions are even more ridiculous. Sure, this problem will be solved eventually, but with ISPs the world over putting the choke-hold on upstream bandwidth (either through low upload speeds, data caps, or both) it's not going away any time soon.
Where are you at on 'The Cloud Continuum'? Do you use it for anything, everything, or something in between?
Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his wonderful son Logan, and his sometimes obedient dog. He's going to scream if he has to write The Cloud one more time in this article.
Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.
And When The Cloud Breaks, Your Data Will Fall...
It's all about The Cloud these days - your data, you entertainment, your everything - stored on a service that you can access with any online connection. The benefits are many, but what you don't always hear about are the down-sides of everything being cloud-based. What if you get locked out of your account? I've heard of more than a few people that get locked out of their Gmail account or who can't access their Gmail calendar. It happens to Hotmail and Yahoo users as well. What if the company hosting your information deletes it, either accidentally or not, or goes out of business? That's not an uncommon problem. In terms of uptime most cloud services are fairly robust, when things go wrong, they can really ruin your day.
Case in point: my wife uses an HTC Snap Windows Mobile 6.1 phone, and it's connected to a 4smartphone hosted Exchange account. With our 17 month old running around the house, she uses per phone as the primary device for doing email and calendaring tasks rather than her desktop computer. 99.9% of the time, that works really great. But when you rely on The Cloud and something goes wrong, it can seriously mess things up - for some odd reason back in early November the phone stopped synching with 4smarpthone. That means no new email, no ability to add or edit new calendar items, etc. Texting and contacts still worked just fine, but without access to email, the phone was of little use to my wife. Now, unlike my Web site accounts which reside on the server I rent, when something goes wrong with 4smartphone, there's nothing I can do about it other than ask someone in tech support what's going on. And of course, I have to use a different email address than the primary address, because that's broken.
4smartphone tech support wasn't sure what was going on; I tried everything I could think of, even going to far as to hard reset the phone, which allowed me to re-establish the partnership from scratch. It still didn't work. Frustrated, I gave up at the end of the day. The next morning, amazingly, everything was working again. I didn't change anything, but the phone was once again synchronizing with the Exchange server. Undoubtedly, someone at 4smartphone did something - perhaps fixed something they broke - but the end result was the same without The Cloud, my wife couldn't do what she needed with her phone.
When it comes to email, virtually all of us rely on The Cloud in some fashion - because unless you're running your own mail server on a computer you have physical access to, your email for all intents and purposes is in The Cloud. Some people take it a step further though, storing all their documents, music, photos, videos, etc. purely in The Cloud - there's no local storage of those things. That's the part of The Cloud that I can't get behind; I value my files/data too much to ever trust someone else to take care of it. Sure, I use Mozy [Affiliate] to back up my data, but it's not my sole backup - and I'd never dream of having only one copy of something. Every single one of my nearly 200 videos uploaded to YouTube exist as a backup copy on my Windows Home Server and an external hard drive - and then also on Mozy. And when it comes to getting work done, even if I lose Internet access completely, I have all my offline email, contacts, documents, etc. so I can keep working. When you rely on The Cloud for all of that, you're almost useless when your data connection to The Cloud breaks. The Cloud is good at a lot of different tasks, but being the sole repository for your data isn't one of those things.
Don't get me started on cloud-based programs that require large data uploads before anything useful can be done - are you really any further ahead on editing your photos using a cloud-based service when you have to upload every 4 MB file before you can edit them? Cloud-based video editing solutions are even more ridiculous. Sure, this problem will be solved eventually, but with ISPs the world over putting the choke-hold on upstream bandwidth (either through low upload speeds, data caps, or both) it's not going away any time soon.
Where are you at on 'The Cloud Continuum'? Do you use it for anything, everything, or something in between?
Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his wonderful son Logan, and his sometimes obedient dog. He's going to scream if he has to write The Cloud one more time in this article.
Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.
CES 2011: Chris Pirillo Interviews Jason Dunn
This is an interview I did with Chris Pirillo from Lockergnome. I'm usually the one doing the interview, but this time around it was Chris asking me questions. Chris was at CES as part of the launch of Reese's Minis - which are, seriously, perhaps the most delicious chocolate candy I've ever eaten. I'm a complete sucker for peanut butter and chocolate together!
And this is also the first time I've published a video here where I'm in front of the camera. Be nice please. :-) It's not HD because the video was streaming live and they had to keep the data rate under 2mbps - CES might be technology heaven, but it's virtually impossible to get a fast, stable Internet connection of any kind from the CES show floor.
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)