Cloud/Sync/Anywhere

Back about four years ago I really started to get serious about "cloud" storage and syncing of information.  It started with my very first smart phone device, the old Motorola Q9c.  Rather than having to manually enter ALL my contact information or having to rely on PC only syncing I looked around for various methods of being able to do a "restore" when out and about, just in case I ever had to do a master reset of my device without my PC being handy.  Back then it took some moderately advanced geek skills to get stuff to sync in the cloud with Windows Mobile but I used a service from Dash that was adequate.  

Around that time Google got serious about making their various services (Gmail, Docs, etc) the "go to" service for the masses and I used that as well.  Through two Windows Mobile devices, a BlackBerry, the Palm Pre, and two Android devices before getting an iPhone last year it was always a bit of a chore to get this stuff done.  Along the way it got a little easier but still required more effort on my part than I thought should be necessary.  And the fact that no two platforms made it easy to keep everything all together was yet another headache!

The past year has been one of no headaches when it comes to keeping everything synced and backed up and that is thanks to the Apple ecosystem of iOS devices, iCloud, and the latest updates to Mac OS X.

When Steve Jobs (in his last keynote) rolled out the updates to iOS and the new iCloud platform I was one happy camper and set up a iOS developer account for my iOS devices so I could get in on the action early and I've not looked back since.  Even while still in the beta period it was not as buggy as one would have expected and it hasn't lost one bit of my information since I jumped on board.

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Orphaned Androids And You

This morning I came across this blog post describing the state of affairs for owners of Android devices and the updates to their operating system.  Or lack of updates.

The post is an informative read and one that I will be recommending to anyone who asks me about whether they should buy an Android phone or not.  As someone who has owned two seperate Android devices, along with a whole slew of other smart phone devices, I can say that it's a real eye opener.

Now before someone starts getting on my case for being an Apple fan boy let me say up front that while I love my iPhone I'm not married to the thing.  There are a lot of things about Android that I liked, and miss.  There are some things about my iPhone I don't like.  In fact, except for my one brief two month stint as a BlackBerry user there are things I like and miss about all the smart phones I've used.  As for BlackBerry the only thing I miss is nothing.

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What Size Do You Need?

Lately I have had more than a few people come up and ask me what device and sized device they should purchase.  The release of the iPhone 4S and the newish 8GB iPhone 4 along with the holiday shopping season probably has a lot to do with the questions.  Who wouldn't like to find a shiny new iPad under their Christmas tree?  Or maybe a new iPhone?  Heck, there is nothing wrong with buying yourself a new toy every so often and I should know that!

I decided to write up some ideas and suggestions on the matter.  Keep on reading.

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Serious iPad Competitor?

Yesterday MG Siegler of Tech Crunch posted a hands on account of the upcoming 7 inch tablet computer coming from Amazon later this year and it provides an interesting insight into how any company can compete with the iPad from Apple.  It's becoming obvious that Android still has a ways to go before it can seriously hope to eat into the iPad dominance that Apple has established.  Whether it is fragmentation from the various manufacturers customizing their offerings or shortfalls in the end user experience no one has yet come up with a formula that shouts out "iPad Killer".  HP formally threw in the towel a few weeks ago and now there are indications that the RIM Playbook may be heading down a similar path.  What will it take to dethrone the iPad and does Amazon have the secret sauce to pull it off?

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E-Publishing And Consumption

This past week Amazon.com announced that sales of ebooks for their Kindle platform have eclipsed sales of all printed books, hardcover and paperback combined and that it only took four years for this to happen.  I've been a fan of the ebook format for years since I first heard about it them in the mid-1990s on some news show that was covering an announcement of an ebook reader from RCA.  Fast forward a few years to the rise of the hand held PDA platform and the reality was matching the promise.  

However it wasn't until a company like Amazon came along with the right combination of content, platform, and delivery method that it really took off much like portable MP3 music players did after the first Apple iPod (remember the first crappy generation of MP3 players in 1998?).  Just as what happened in the music space with competitors trying to copy the iPod others are trying to copy the success of the Kindle platform.  Amazon, however, has taken things a few steps further than Apple ever did.  First there was the Kindle itself, a stand alone ebook reader.  Next there came the iPhone/iPod Touch app followed quickly by one for the Blackberry and then Android.  When Windows Phone 7 finally came along last year there was an app for that as well.  When HP finally launches their first WebOS tablet a Kindle app has been promised for that platform as well.  Oh, and let's not forget the PC and Mac Kindle apps as well!  Essentially Amazon covered all its bases by making Kindle services platform agnostic which has undoubtably helped it reach the point of market saturation.

But there is more to E-Publishing than just the Amazon Kindle platform

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