Cloud Computing

When Seattle-based start-up, Zipwhip, wanted to show off its new cloud texting platform, it needed a way to demonstrate just how useful it could be. Most companies might talk data points, like how fast its platform broadcasts or how its product offers a service no one else does. Instead, Zipwhip got a little creative and built the "Textspresso" coffee maker, a machine that accepts and brews specialty coffee orders via text message so the beverage is ready once a person arrives to pick it up.  Read More

As numerous companies continue their push to get us to entrust our data to the cloud, there are many still justifiably concerned about the security of cloud computing-based services. Now an international team of scientists have demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. They carried out what they claim is the first demonstration of “blind quantum computing,” in which a quantum computation was carried out with the input, computation, and output all remaining unknown to the computer, and therefore, also any eavesdroppers.  Read More

Ahead of a showing at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Acer has unveiled what is claimed to be the current holder of the world's thinnest Ultrabook title, the next generation of its Timeline Series of notebooks, and its own cloud storage solution. Details are in short supply, but jump over to the main article for what we can tell you.  Read More

At the recent Adobe MAX 2011 conference, Adobe announced a lineup of Touch Apps tailored for Android and iOS-based devices, including a touch-operated tablet version of Photoshop. Touch Apps will be available either as standalone products, or as components of a larger web-based service called Adobe Creative Cloud, which was also unveiled.  Read More

San Francisco's Cloud Engines has announced its first mobile-focused device at IFA 2011. Pogoplug Mobile will allow users to securely stream entire libraries of digital content from connected storage in their homes to their Android or iOS mobile phone and tablet, without having to worry about bothersome monthly fees or storage limits. It will also cater for private sharing of media with family and friends and could well be the perfect companion for Amazon's Cloud Drive and Player or Apple's upcoming iCloud service. Gizmag caught up with Pogoplug's Daniel Putterman in Berlin for a quick look at what's on offer...  Read More

Facial recognition software, social networking and cloud computing ... they're all technological advances that alone have thrown up questions regarding privacy. According to a recent Carnegie Mellon University study, however, the three technologies can be combined to learn peoples' identities and other personal information about them, starting with just a photograph of their face.  Read More

The U.S. EPA estimated that servers and data centers were responsible for up to 1.5 percent of the total U.S. electricity consumption, or roughly 0.5 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, in 2007. With companies such as Apple and Google strongly pushing the move to cloud computing, that figure is likely to increase significantly in the coming decade. Since a lot of energy is consumed keeping the computer systems cool, colder climates are seen as more favorable sites for data centers. But a new paper from Microsoft Research proposes a different approach that would see servers, dubbed Data Furnaces, distributed to office buildings and homes where they would act as a primary heat source.  Read More

With automobiles, we’re currently at a point in history where some of the advantages of electric vehicles are becoming apparent, yet the internal combustion engine still has its merits – as a result, a lot of people are buying gas/electric hybrids. Well, the LaCie CloudBox sort of represents the same thing, except for data storage. It’s a hard drive, which people trust and are used to, yet it automatically backs everything up to the cloud, which seems to be the direction in which things are heading. Just think of it as a Prius for your computer.  Read More

As expected following Apple’s purchase of the iCloud domain from Sweden-based Xcerion earlier this year and the construction of a US$500 million iDataCenter in Maiden, North Carolina, the company has revealed details at WWDC of exactly what its iCloud service will offer. By storing user’s content in the cloud so it can be automatically pushed to various devices, iCloud will let users sync apps, media, documents, calendars and more between their various mobile iOS devices and a Mac or PC wirelessly.  Read More