Apple and HTC bury the hatchet

Apple and HTC bury the hatchet I hope things start to quieting down now i don't need to hear the battles i just want to have nice Tech!!
The Mad Hatter

Millions worldwide use insecure browsers, says Kaspersky

Millions worldwide use insecure browsers, says Kaspersky

Hi All it's the Mad Hatter here i mentioned this in a we blogs ago but here's some more

The Mad Hatter

Cloud storage services which is best?

The top 7 top cloud storage services compared

Choosing the ideal cloud storage service for you to back up and share your documents, music, and photos hears some help?

Ok so hears the tech. Gone are the days of face-palming because you forgot a document on your home computer. No longer do you have to clog up your own email with photos you sent yourself for easy retrieval later. Nowadays, you can simply send it to the cloud and forget it.

 Choosing a cloud storage service

Dozens of cloud storage services now compete for customers, luring in new clients with free accounts, extra space, and social-networking rewards. So which option is the best? While there’s plenty of debate over which service to choose, no single choice stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. Each has certain advantages, and you’ll simply have to tinker around until you find the one that works for you.

That being said, if you regularly purchase MP3s from Amazon or iTunes, you’ll probably want to choose the corresponding cloud storage service: Amazon Cloud Drive or iCloud, respectively. Why? These entertainment powerhouses don’t count music purchases you’ve made from them against your storage size limit. Essentially, you can nab free cloud storage for your tunes, which enables music streaming to all your devices

Dropbox

The reasons for Dropbox’s success are simple: the service is full-featured, yet easy to use, and the marketing is top-notch. Promotions styled like gaming quests encourage users to invite friends to the service to earn more storage space. Even though a number of services offer more initial free space – Google Drive’s 5GB, iCloud’s 5GB, or SkyDrive’s 7GB, versus Dropbox’s 2 GB – many customers seem to find Dropbox’s referral-rewards system irresistible (up to 18GB free space total). Mobile support includes Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, and Kindle Fire

To get started, just make an account and download the desktop client. This installs a folder where you can drag-and-drop files in order to transfer them to the cloud. You’ll see a pop-up notification anytime anything new is added to your account; if this annoys you, you can disable it in preferences.

One of Dropbox’s main strengths is its constant backup of word files. If you sync your Dropbox folder to your main documents folder, Dropbox will automatically backup any changes you make to each document. To access previous versions of a document, simply right-click on a file within your Dropbox folder, select “Dropbox,” and then choose “View previous versions.” This feature can be invaluable if you accidentally overwrite a file, or if you’re working collaboratively on a project.

Speaking of collaborative projects, Dropbox boasts excellent sharing abilities. Invite someone to share a particular Dropbox folder with you and that folder will appear right on their desktop. You can also send a link to an individual document or image. Additionally, Dropbox offers the best Facebook integration of any service at the moment. Finally, folders full of images can be viewed as a gallery, making Dropbox a viable photo-sharing alternative to Picasa, Imgur, and Flickr.

The lowdown: Least amount of starting free space; greatest possible free space through referrals; best version-control backup; best Facebook integration; great sharing capabilities; good for multiple computers and devices.

Google Drive

We covered Google Drive when it first came out back in April, and the service has only improved since then. As you might have guessed, its greatest strengths all relate to integration with other Google services. With a free account, in addition to 5GB of Google Drive space, you’ll get 10GB of Gmail storage and 1GB on Picasa.  Mobile support includes iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Signing up is as simple as logging in with a Gmail address and password. From there, Google Drive appears right in your Google toolbar, just a click away from your email inbox. You can drag-and-drop files straight into your browser, or download the desktop client to have access to Google Drive as a folder, just like with Dropbox.

Google Drive borrows from Google’s powerful search algorithm to allow searches of not only file names, but also text in scanned documents and objects in images (a neat trick for those with years of vacation photos). You can upload photos straight to Google+ or view more than 30 types of files directly in-browser, including some like Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator – for which you may not have the actual software.

But Google Drive’s standout features are its sharing and collaboration tools. Thanks to integration with Gmail, you can share files with a click, with or without requiring a password. And when you work with partners on the same word file, spreadsheet, or presentation, either separately or right at the same time, Google Drive marks the contributions of each person with differently coloured labels to make clear what’s changed.

The lowdown: Only service to integrate with Gmail and Google Docs; best sharing and collaboration capabilities; access files directly in-browser; edit documents directly in-browser; affordable upgrade plans.

Microsoft SkyDrive

It’s not so much that Microsoft SkyDrive does any one thing better than other cloud storage systems (other than being the only service to support Windows phones). It’s simply that SkyDrive packs the most punch out of them all, combining many of the nicest features from each program for a well-rounded overall package. If you don’t have a pressing reason to choose another service, it’s hard to go wrong with SkyDrive. Mobile support includes Windows phones, Android, iPhone, and iPad.

To get SkyDrive, you’ll need to sign in using a Microsoft account (previously called a Windows Live account). Next, install the desktop client, which functions as a normal folder. As with Dropbox, you can share folders or individual files with a link, as well as access previous versions of files. You can also post photos directly from SkyDrive to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social-networking sites, which is a nice time-saving touch.

However, one of SkyDrive’s most innovative features is its built-in remote access capabilities. From the SkyDrive.com website, you can get access to any PC associated with your account that has the SkyDrive client installed, even files not already uploaded to SkyDrive. In other words, say you forget to move a presentation to your SkyDrive folder before leaving for work, but your home computer is still on. Simply sign into SkyDrive and retrieve it from afar, whether it’s on your hard drive or a connected external hard drive. We can see this remote-access feature saving users a lot of frustration and heartache.

SkyDrive is also the only service to integrate with free Office Web Apps, allowing you to work collaboratively on projects much like in Google Docs. However, the Office Web Apps have the advantage of opening Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents seamlessly, avoiding any formatting kerfuffles. SkyDrive maintains the 25 most recent versions of every file, so if a partner makes a change you don’t like, you can easily revert to an easier version. SkyDrive also hooks up with OneNote, a sleek note-taking program that works well on touch pads and monitors alike.

The lowdown: Only service (besides Box) to sync with Windows phones; only service to integrate with Microsoft Office Web apps; most initial free space (7GB); inexpensive upgrades; great collaboration tools and version-control backup; built-in remote access capability.

Amazon Cloud Drive

Although Amazon Cloud Drive has beefed up since it first appeared on the scene, via Cloud Player, it still doesn’t offer the editing, sharing, or collaboration abilities of other services.

It does support mobile integration with the Kindle Fire, but then again, so does Dropbox.

However, the ease of storing music, e-books, and videos purchased from Amazon.com itself may sweeten the deal for high-volume users, especially since Amazon Cloud Drive doesn’t count Amazon music purchases against your storage limit. To use it, sign into an Amazon.com account and download the desktop client.

The lowdown: Inexpensive upgrades; integration with Kindle Fire; free storage and streaming for Amazon MP3s; sparse features for word documents and spreadsheets.

iCloud

Your bound to see similarities between Amazon Cloud Drive and Apple’s iCloud. Like Amazon, iCloud starts with 5GB of free storage. Also like Amazon, iCloud’s strengths lie in music storage and streaming.

You’ll want this option if you purchase, organise, and access most of your music and other media through iTunes, especially since music purchased from iTunes doesn’t count against your storage limit. As you might imagine, iCloud plays along very nicely with the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV.

The lowdown: Inexpensive upgrades; integration with all Apple devices; free storage and streaming for iTunes MP3s; sparse features for word documents and spreadsheets.

Box
These guys are new on the block. https://www.box.com/

Box is an all-around solid service, and may offer a compelling alternative to users who are wary to place ever-increasing amounts of information in the control of Google, Amazon, Apple, or Microsoft. Mobile support for all accounts includes Android, iPhone, and iPad.

Free accounts start at 5GB, although in a bit of a bizarre twist, many of Box’s rather common-place features only come bundled with a business account,

Shelling out for the latter will land you a whopping 1,000GB of storage space (which is just 24GB shy of 1TB), as well as version-history backups, password-protected sharing, and search abilities.

Indeed, in many ways Box seems best geared toward corporate use, and it shows. Clients include Proctor & Gamble, Six Flags, and Pandora. If you’re a small-business owner or a startup, Box may be right up your alley. All accounts, even free ones, allow you to share files or folders with a link. Box also integrates the ability to add comments and assign tasks for easy collaboration and workflow management.

The lowdown: Best for businesses; integrated workflow management tools; great sharing and collaboration potential; free accounts lacking some features.

Sorry it's a lot to take in but I hope it is of help.
The Mad Hatter (Follow That Man) DNS-DIRECT

What's your thoughts on Apples new products.

New Apple iPad Mini announced: What's your thoughts on it get back to me the Mad Hatter.
By the way i am bias i have both products so let here what Cnet has to say i found it a interesting.

And if you missed the CNET live blog -- no worries -- it's all right here in the recap. To break it down for you (including my 2 cents), here is what's new:

Follow the link for all the info.

   -- A new iMac(Lee: Cool, I like the sleek, thin design)
   -- 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display (Lee: Nice and light, but pricey)
   -- Mac Mini desktops (Lee: It's faster, but nothing exciting.)
   -- iPad fourth-generation (Lee: What? Wasn't the third generation just released
      six months ago? Glad I waited!)
   -- iPad Mini (It's actually true! Price point a bit disappointing.)

Of all the things announced, I think the biggest anticipated product is the Apple iPad Mini. While rumors of it floated around for months, with speculations that the iPad Mini would be coming soon, it indeed came true and people are talking about it! Here is CNET's take on it.

Now that you've got a glimpse of what the Mini has to offer, what do you think? Are you excited to see it? Disappointed? How does it match up against Apple competitors in the arena of the same-size tablets: better or worse? What about that starting price point of $329? Is that the price you were expecting or is it too high or low? Your fellow members are speaking up to tell you how they feel about this new Apple product
The Mad Hatter.

Hi All i found this article on Cnet it's a good read The Mad Hatter.

We had no shortage of exciting tech product announcements this past month, from the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, Nokia Lumia 920 running Windows 8, to the Nintendo Wii U -- what's not to love? But the one product that takes the cake as the most anticipated was the iPhone 5; the media frenzy around it was absolutely crazy, to say the least. Call it hype, but with a record 2 million preordered iPhone 5s (that's double the preorders from the last version) just within the first 24 hours, that has to say something about how many people are waiting to get their hands on one. If you didn't make the preorder list and want this phone really bad -- well, you'd better grab a sleeping bag and chair, join the folks camping out in front of the Apple stores, and wait another couple of days until it is for sale to the public. But be aware that some folks have been camping out since the beginning of the week, so you might be at the end of some really long lines. And for the record, I will not be near any Apple Store for a while.

Now that some of us have gotten a glimpse of the iPhone 5 (if you haven't yet, click here for the CNET editor, Scott Stein full and thorough iPhone 5 review) -- what do you think of the new iPhone 5? Were you happy or disappointed? Do you think the new iPhone is overrated, or is it everything you thought it would be and then some? What do you think about the new features? The new iPhone is thinner, lighter, faster, and sports a larger screen size than the previous version, but there other phones that are already on the market that have comparable specs. Are you going to buy an iPhone 5 or are you going to pass on it for another brand and model?
Follow the link. http://reviews.cnet.com/ipad-mini/?tag=nl.e497&s_cid=e497