Technology & Business
SugarSync kills off its free storage option
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“800”] Creative Commons image- Flickr dell [/caption] Most of us have gotten use to free storage tiers from the various cloud storage providers (Google Drive, Microsoft Skydrive, Dropbox, box.net, etc). Often times this free tier is enough to storage basic files and share things once in a while. Now SugarSync has said No More Free Storage. (link) The company claims this is being done to allow Sugarsync to concentrate on updates and service improvements. The lowest cost paid tier will be $7.
Bluetooth LE is the future of customer service
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“750”] Creative Commons Image - Flickr User Sean MacEntee [/caption] When most of us think of the upcoming Bluetooth Low Energy retail revolution, we immediately think of Apple's iBeacon technology. why? Apple was the first to launch this tech at its annual WWDC conference. It will be deploying about 20 per store in its 250 stores. 170-200 million iDevices with IOS 7 currently are potential iBeacons. Companies, like Estimote (link) have already launched commercial Bluetooth LE devices compatible with iBeacons.
Google drops Hong Kong datacenter plans
There is no denying Hong Kong is a densely populated business hub and Google wanted to build a datacenter to improve service to its 8 million population. Now we learn that those plans have been axed due to real estate issues. In The Next Web (link), Google said : "While we see tremendous opportunity and potential in Hong Kong – we’re actively hiring, just opened a larger office and recently launched a partnership with the Chinese University of Hong Kong to invest in tomorrow’s innovators – we will not be moving ahead with this project.
Contest: Win a 1 year sub for Norton Mobile Security for Android
a Rafflecopter giveaway I am giving away a 1 year subscription to Symantec's Norton Mobile Security app for Android. It works on smartphones and tablets.
China Bans Bitcoins
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] CC Image- Flickr User Antanacoins [/caption] Bitcoin is a decentralized digital crypto-currency that seems to have captivated the hearts and minds of millions around the world. Even with millions of fans, many of us still wonder about what this new crypto-currencty is. Is it a passing fad or the next evolution of value exchange? How risky is buying, trading and using Bitcoin? China's central bankers have now put a stake in the ground and have made handling transactions with the digital currency, for financial institutions illegal, therefore not recognizing it as legal currency.
Make your Mac look professional for customer meetings
Anyone who is customer facing knows the difficulty in preparing your laptop to look professional before a customer meeting. What does preparing mean? It means cleaning up your desktop files, force closing applications so you are not interrupted with non customer notifications and making all customer folder quickly accessible so you don't spend precious minutes navigating a maze of folders & sub-folders. This is where Pinstriped (link) comes in. It is an app that creates an overlay on your Apple Mac desktop separating your personal content from your professional customer focused ones, making you look professional.
Comparing the displays: iPad mini, Nexus 7 & Kindle HDX
DisplayMate, a display testing company, has released a much awaited report (link) comparing the screens of: Apple iPad Mini Google Nexus 7 (2013) Amazon Kindle HDX The bottom line is that Apple's iPad mini has the worse display using "out of date" technology. "Amazon and Google, have significantly leapfrogged Apple by introducing Tablet displays using LTPS (in the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 and the new Nexus 7), and they are significantly outperforming the IGZO and a-Si displays in the current iPads.
Roam Mobility offers unlimited talk/text/1GB data for $39.95
I have written about half a dozen articles about Roam Mobility. They offer the most competitive US cell phone service for Canadians traveling to the US. They have always been the cheapest option but they cut their prices in October. There is a group of Canadian retirees that heads to various US sun destinations in winter that the media calls Snowbirds. Now Roam Mobility has a plan for these Canadians traveling to the US for longer than 30 days. You get all of the standard Roam Mobility goodness of unlimited calling to Canada and the US, unlimited text messaging, US number, voicemail, Caller ID and 1 GB of 4G data for only $39.
BBM to be pre-installed on Android devices from 12 OEMs
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“450”] Creative Commons Image- Flickr user m lobo [/caption] Blackberry has announced a deal with 12 small OEMs building Android devices to bundle BMM with their base device. These are international manufacturers you have probably never heard of in Canada, the US or Europe but they are still recognized brands in india, Indonesia, Africa and the Middle East. Blackberry still has to figure out a way to monetize BBM but their primary concern seems to be finding ways to aggressively increase their user numbers (even if these are BBM users on non Blackberry devices).
Motorola Moto G now available in the US
Canada was one of the first countries to launch Motorola's new low-cost Android smartphone, the Moto G. The Canadian version, sold by Telus, costs $200, is locked to the carrier and comes with 8GB of storage. Now we learn that our friends to the south (aka the United States of America) can order a factory unlocked 8GB version for $179 and the 16GB version for $199. For each of the capacity tiers, americans can choose either a global GSM version of a US centric GSM version (with AWS band support).