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Warid Introduces Shared LTE Plans and MiFi Devices with 105GBs of Free Data

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Warid Telecom has announced the launch of the industry’s first shared plans with its LTE MiFi today.</div>
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<b><i>MiFi Devices</i></b><br />
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The MiFi device functions as a portable wireless router that can connect up to 10 smartphones, tablets or laptops, whereby users will have access to LTE speed internet on the go in all major cities around Pakistan.</div>
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Warid has said that MiFi devices are secure as no other device can access the network without authentication by the MiFi owner.</div>
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Not just that, the battery life of MiFi devices goes up to six hours adding to the customer’s convenience.<br />
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<b><i>Mifi Plans</i></b></div>
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An initial cost of Rs. 9,999 acquires the MiFi device with an LTE enabled SIM as well as an entitlement to 35GB worth of free internet every month for three months consecutively.</div>
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A further option of three plans is given in the range of 15-35GB priced between Rs. 1,500 and 3,000.</div>
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Mifi Smart: Rs. 1,500 — 15GB Monthly Limit</div>
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Mifi Extra: Rs. 2,000 — 20GB Monthly Limit</div>
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Mifi Smart: Rs. 3,000 — 35GB Monthly Limit</div>
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This offer available is for all Warid customers and can be opted for by using Warid’s online portal and logging in with your mobile number.</div>
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<b><i>Shared LTE Plans</i></b></div>
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Warid has become the first operator in Pakistan to introduce shared LTE plans, with which customers — both prepaid and postpaid — can choose up to two additional Warid numbers to share an internet plan and a common bill whenever and wherever they are.</div>
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Shared plans are applicable to both LTE device as well as MiFi device users.</div>
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As an example, if there’s is a customer and he has 35GB of monthly data limit then he can go to Warid’s online portal to add up to two additional numbers to share this quota of 35GBs and those two shared numbers won’t be charged anything for the internet.</div>
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Mr. Asim Ali, Director Pricing, Segments & VAS at Warid Telecom, while commenting on this industry-first said,</div>
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“We are committed to delivering the state-of-the-art technology that empowers our customers and makes their lives easier.Warid MiFi is designed to connect users to the mobile Internet with their own portable hotspot, so they can stay connected to the people and information important to them.”</div>
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Here are some images at the TVC shoot of Fowad Khan, the new brand ambassador of Warid LTE, following Shahid Afradi in their first TV commercial.</div>
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<b><i>Mifi Terms And Conditions:</i></b></div>
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As per Fair Usage Policy, only 35GB/month can be used.</div>
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MiFi operates on Warid’s LTE network only.</div>
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Internet usage can be monitored through the web self-service portal</div>
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Mifi device broadcasts WiFi connectivity for a distance of up to 30 ft.</div>
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You will continue to access GPRS/EDGE services in areas where LTE coverage is not available.</div>
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For Prepaid Customers: Package change option is available on web self-service portal</div>
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For Postpaid Customers: Please call 321 or nearest Franchise/Business Center for further assistance.</div>
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Shared internet plans will be available on MiFi by default. Secondary connections can be managed through the web self-service portal</div>
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There can be a maximum of two secondary connections with a MiFi shared internet plan.</div>
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Shared devices can be added/modified/deleted from the web self-service portal</div>
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If you do not have a LTE compatible handset you can still share the data on a 2G secondary device as well as long as primary device is MiFi or a mobile with an activated LTE shared internet plan.</div>
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If your Primary internet data allowance is consumed, overage charging will apply to the MiFi device. A Secondary device will be switched to individual plan selected or default charging.</div>
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MiFi comes with built-in security features that ensure optimum security for your device. There is a unique Wifi key affixed to each device; used as the network connectivity key, compulsory for network authentication. No devices/users can access the device without proper network authentication.</div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;">SSID and Network/Wifi key can be found at the back of the device and can be read by removing the back cover of the Mifi device</li>
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Warid Introduces Shared LTE Plans and MiFi Devices with 105GBs of Free Data

Warid Telecom has announced the launch of the industry’s first shared plans with its LTE MiFi today. MiFi Devices The MiFi device functions as a portable wireless router that can connect up to 10 smartphones, tablets or laptops, whereby users will have access to LTE speed internet on the go in all …

12Feb2015

The high-tech secret hiding in New York City pay phones

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NEW YORK — Few New Yorkers, if any, would admit to liking pay phones. They're largely invisible, a ubiquitous background image on a street filled with distractions. Like any public resource in a city of 8.4 million, the phones carry connotations of filth, unreliability and inconvenience.
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"Most people don’t even notice these phones," Pete Izzo, Jr., one of the city's last pay-phone technicians tellsMashable as he repairs a phone at 13th Street and 4th Avenue late one Thursday evening.

But what most New Yorkers don't know is that these low-tech phones have something useful hidden inside: free Wi-Fi.

The city fitted 10 phones with free Wi-Fi in 2012 as part of a pilot program. Since then, the number of Wi-Fi-enabled phones has grown modestly. New Yorkers can now find free hotspots in 35 phones operated by Izzo's employer, CBS Outdoor. However, the company says it's poised to deploy as many as 5,000 hotspots.

CBS Outdoor is one of only a handful of private entities still operating pay phones in the city, and the industry is in dire straits with plummeting revenues. There were 25,000 phones a decade ago. Today, there are less than 12,000.

Operators have plastered the remaining phones with advertising, which produced the hoped-for financial results. But it left the larger question of what to do with the phones unanswered.

Enter the Internet, or at least some part of it.

"We see this primarily as a Wi-Fi franchise," says Peter Izzo Sr., a service operations executive at CBS Outdoor. "Every new structure will have Wi-Fi capability," he added, side-stepping the term "phone."

Through sponsorship, advertising and co-location with other Wi-Fi providers, Izzo hopes to monetize wireless Internet and rescue his industry. It's a fresh take on the antiquated pay phone, filled with obvious possibilities — and less-apparent perils.

Last month, BuzzFeed revealed that phones operated by Titan were potentially tracking users through the use of Bluetooth devices called "beacons."

Following the report, Titan agreed to pull its beacons at the request of City Hall, even though some feel that the threat to privacy may have been overblown.

But even if these companies operate under better security practices, they may be unlikely to solve one major issue of free public Wi-Fi. It’s notoriously attractive to identity thieves, which could become more of a threat as the number of free Wi-Fi networks increases.

Despite the obstacles, both Izzo and his son Pete Izzo, Jr. say they are optimistic about the future of their field, whether it includes phones or not. Izzo Jr.'s repair duties now include installing and maintaing Wi-Fi modems and routers hidden in the housing of old pay phone units.

"I don't see any other infrastructure in the world that could accommodate such a connective atmosphere," Izzo says, looking at a pile of discarded phones in his company's shop.

"To bring free Wi-Fi to millions of people is gonna really change the city."<br />
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Source: <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/11/06/new-york-city-pay-phones-wifi/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>

The high-tech secret hiding in New York City pay phones

Powered by Dailymotion NEW YORK — Few New Yorkers, if any, would admit to liking pay phones. They're largely invisible, a ubiquitous background image on a street filled with distractions. Like any public resource in a city of 8.4 million, the phones carry connotations of filth, unreliability and i…

29Jan2015

TAITRA Throws the Spotlight on Taiwan's ICT Products at CES 2015

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The prestigious Computex d&i awards, executed by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in cooperation with the International Forum Design (iF), revisited Las Vegas, the United States for International CES. Las Vegas is the third stop on the d&i awards world tour following their unveiling at Computex Taipei. The award-winning products on display include designs from Qualcomm, Philips, HTC, and others.</div>
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Another TAITRA event at CES is the “Taiwan in Focus” press conference, promoting Taiwan’s ICT industry and the upcoming 2015 Computex. Held on the first day of the show, the press conference featured addresses from Director Moses Yen of the Taiwan Trade Center in Los Angeles and Director Jaime Chen from the Economic Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.</div>
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Also present were 11 Computex exhibitors and d&i award winners. The press conference drew scores of members of the media from Russia, Germany, Italy, Thailand, the United States, Japan, India, China, and Taiwan.</div>
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International CES opened this year on January 6<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> and ran until the 9<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span>. With wearables, smart homes and cars, the Internet of Things, and display technology as the focus, the show is expected to draw over 160,000 visitors. Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, has called this year’s CES a “record-breaking event”.</div>
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The Consumer Electronics Association is the organizer of CES. Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Board, Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, and Boo-Keun Yoon, president of Samsung both gave preshow keynote speeches on Sunday. Dr. Zetsche discussed the development of autonomous driving. Yoon explored using the Internet of Things to create a fully connected world.</div>
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Taiwanese ICT companies generated a lot of buzz with the market release of new products. HTC released the HTC Desire 826, the newest in its HTC Desire flagship line. The HTC Desire 826 features its exclusive UltraPixel technology with both the front- and rear-facing camera, allowing users to up their selfie game even in dim lighting.</div>
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ASUS also launched three new products in one swoop, the ASUS Transformer Book Chi, the ZenFone 2, and the ZenFone Zoom. The ZenFone 2 is the first smartphone equipped with a 4GB RAM and will be available in March for $199. An ultrathin tablet with a detachable keyboard, the ASUS Transformer Book Chi challenges the established Macbook Air as the ultrabook of choice among consumers.</div>
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Following CES, the Computex d&i awards will advance to its next destination at Barcelona, Spain for Mobile World Congress. The world tour of major ICT trade shows is part of TAITRA’s efforts to offer maximum international exposure of the winners of the award, in turn generating greater global business opportunities.</div>

TAITRA Throws the Spotlight on Taiwan's ICT Products at CES 2015

The prestigious Computex d&i awards, executed by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in cooperation with the International Forum Design (iF), revisited Las Vegas, the United States for International CES. Las Vegas is the third stop on the d&i awards world tour following their unv…

11Jan2015

Facebook Is Taking Steps To Becoming a Video Empire

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<a href="http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/images_blogs/underwire/2011/01/zuck3_660x.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Mark Zuckerberg" class="size-full wp-image-544492" height="440" src="http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/images_blogs/underwire/2011/01/zuck3_660x.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.35s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1); border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 50px 0px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.35s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1); vertical-align: baseline;" width="660" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-family: proxima-nova, proxima-nova-1, proxima-nova-2, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 50px; padding: 10px 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg</div>
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As online video heats up, Facebook is doubling down on its effort to capture a bigger share of viewers’ attention.</div>
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On Thursday, the company announced it had acquired <a href="http://www.quickfire.tv/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">QuickFire Networks</a>, a video startup that uses proprietary technology to support high-quality videos without eating up users’ bandwidth. Some of the team from the San Diego-based company will join Facebook as part of the terms of the acquisition, and QuickFire will eventually shutter its operations.</div>
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The news comes just a day after Facebook <a href="http://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">published</a> new data on its explosive growth in video. According to its <a href="http://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">press release</a>, the number of video posts per person are up 75 percent globally. In the U.S. more than half of daily Facebook users are watching at least one video per day. Since June 2014, the company says, Facebook has delivered more than 1 billion video views to users every day.</div>
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So why bother with QuickFire? It’s just another piece of the puzzle that fits in with Facebook’s grander video strategy. As the social network’s video ambitions continue to swell, it is getting serious about building out the necessary infrastructure that will allow video to scale.</div>
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<u><i>Battling for Your Hours</i></u></h3>
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                                 According to a cached version of QuickFire’s website, the company is a video transcoding service—in other words, a way to quickly encode videos for posting on the Web without compromising quality. For Facebook, this sort of technology appeals because it allows content creators to throw more things up on the site by shrinking upload times. When creators are happy, they tend to create a lot more for the platform, which is precisely what Facebook wants.</div>
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People are already sharing tons of videos on Facebook. But that may not be enough for the social network. According to a recent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/business/media/facebook-offers-life-raft-but-publishers-are-wary.html?_r=0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Exchange SSm 4i', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Times</span> report</a>, the company is constantly looking for ways to coax publishers into having their content live inside Facebook, instead of linking to it. The company likely wants to do the same thing for video, where the competition for people’s attention in that space is fierce.</div>
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YouTube delivers more than 6 billion hours’ worth of content every month to viewers worldwide and is <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/10/keep-stars-happy-youtube-may-let-pay-skip-ads/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">working to promote its talent pool even more</a>. A host of other players—from IAC’s Vimeo to former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar’s Vessel—are gearing up to launch subscription video services. Add in all the hours users are spending on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video, and that’s a lot of online time not spent on Facebook. The more Facebook can make itself a native video platform, the more of those hours it can get for itself.</div>

Facebook Is Taking Steps To Becoming a Video Empire

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg As online video heats up, Facebook is doubling down on its effort to capture a bigger share of viewers’ attention. On Thursday, the company announced it had acquired QuickFire Networks, a video startup that uses proprietary technology to support high-quality videos with…

10Jan2015

What Does The Future Hold For Cloud Computing?

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Cloud computing has been called the future of not only hosting, but also the way we compute. It has transformed the way many businesses operate since it makes applications and technology more accessible. Most importantly, cloud computing helped many businesses with all the great tools and technology that were only available to enterprises that had a ton of money. Even if you don't know <a href="http://www.futurist.com/2011/10/28/information-technology-spending-make-way-for-the-cloud/" style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">what cloud computing is</a>, chances are that you could be using it without your knowledge on a day-to-day basis. Do you use Gmail, or Dropbox, or Google Drive, or <a href="http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/" style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">iCloud</a>, or any of the millions of websites that run on a cloud server? You are just enjoying all the benefits of cloud computing without your conscience. There had been a lot of advances in cloud computing in the past several years that, one needs to think about the capabilities of this technology. Here we speculate how cloud computing is going to evolve and how it is going to affect the future.</div>
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Businesses and individuals are moving their websites and online applications and services to the cloud for a number of reasons. Cloud hosting is extremely cost effective, reduces capital cost for startups, is easily scalable, improves accessibility, quickly deployed, etc. Traditional shared hosting is still the reigning champion of websites for individuals and small businesses. However, things are changing really fast. 81% of the 60% of the enterprises that are already utilizing cloud have reportedly saved money by migrating to the cloud. It is estimated that end-users will spend more than 180 billion U.S. dollars on cloud services before the end of 2015. Cloud hosting is not only attracting large businesses, casual bloggers and small business owners are turning to cloud. Traditional shared hosting providers are also providing cloud hosting services nowadays. Quite recently, the popular Australian web hosting,<a href="http://www.ezihosting.com/" style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">EZI hosting</a> started providing cloud hosting service. Some of the top players in the U.S. like, HostGator and JustHost also jumped on the bandwagon only recently. There is a stiff competition among, U.S., European and Australian website hosting companies and we can expect the prices to go down. If the trend continues, cloud hosting will soon completely replace traditional shared hosting.</div>
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Private cloud is preferred for enterprise applications and to run apps like, CRMs, and ERPs. HCRM, etc., but public cloud is going to grow really fast compared to private cloud. Private cloud although has a lot of advantages and perks of cloud technology, they are still more like using traditional services. With public cloud, people and companies don't have to sign contracts, use shared hardware to reduce cost (utility model), yet don't have to trade-off reliability. Large corporates and enterprises will use private cloud for compliance requirements and security, but as more and more individuals and small businesses migrate to the cloud, we speculate public cloud to grow leaps and bounds compared to private.</div>
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If you are using some of the top e-mail providers, or social networking services, you could already have a lot of your data on the cloud. You probably have more data on the cloud compared to the hard drive on your computer. This raises an interesting question. Can the cloud actually replace the hard drive? The answer is yes and no. To start with, you can't run a computer with a storage device – one needs an hard disk to store the operating system and other supporting files to run a computer. However, since most of the tasks one performs on the computer is accomplished using a web browser, most of the data could be easily moved to cloud and accessed with the Internet since our mobile devices and computers are tethered to the world wide web 24x7. Furthermore, keeping all you data on the cloud makes it easy for you to access it from different devices, and keep it safe. Or at least one needs to have a copy of all the most important files on the cloud since data loss is just a hard disk crash away. The closest thing we can get to using a computer without relying a lot on a hard drive for storage is the <a href="http://blog.laptopmag.com/best-chromebooks" style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">Chromebook</a>. It is a personal computer by Google In., that runs on the Chrome OS. Most of the applications run on the browser with the power of the Internet and all the data is stored safely in the cloud. Most of the models not only come with a physical hard drive, but also a cloud storage of 100 GB to 1 TB of Google Drive.</div>
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With the advancement in cloud computing, the cost of hardware will fall. Low power and low cost processors are expected to be used in data centers to cut cost without affecting the quality of service. Low power ARM chips can be quite economical and also be eco-friendly. Some experts also predict that these low cost hardware for servers might look like sleds that could be swapped out and swapped in with ease.</div>
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What Does The Future Hold For Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing has been called the future of not only hosting, but also the way we compute. It has transformed the way many businesses operate since it makes applications and technology more accessible. Most importantly, cloud computing helped many businesses with all the great tools and technolog…

08Jan2015

Air umbrella produces a "force field" of air to keep you dry

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cTDi9iU33ZmOnThx90QIwE6-gP94iTSVJn9zl64U7gWV7U8w4EH0WF3fJ_pczlNmNxjE8GE9XOgKS463bvght9oP2_VGSLwVp4sDKFiIX5ZH4vi1zqkJbLbXW1IdmOVZ8LqqcuN4yLw/s1600/air_umbrella.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cTDi9iU33ZmOnThx90QIwE6-gP94iTSVJn9zl64U7gWV7U8w4EH0WF3fJ_pczlNmNxjE8GE9XOgKS463bvght9oP2_VGSLwVp4sDKFiIX5ZH4vi1zqkJbLbXW1IdmOVZ8LqqcuN4yLw/s1600/air_umbrella.jpg" /></a><i style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 32px;">A team of Chinese designers has developed the Air umbrella with the aim of making tangles of metal poles and fabric a thing of the past</i></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">People certainly haven't been afraid to try and reinvent the umbrella over the years. There was the solar-powered </span><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/vodafone-solar-powered-signal-boosting-umbrella/22957/" style="background-color: white; color: #1e8dd7; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Booster Brolly</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">, the windproof</span><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/rainshader-umbrella/27442/" style="background-color: white; color: #1e8dd7; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Rainshader</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> and the lopsided </span><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/rain-shield-umbrella/25038/" style="background-color: white; color: #1e8dd7; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Rain Shield</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">, just to name a few. But now a team of Chinese designers is looking to do away with the awkward metal poles and canopy entirely, relying instead on a "force field" of air to keep you nice and dry.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: x-small;"><b><i> <span style="line-height: 32px; text-align: center;">The Air umbrella uses a lithium battery to power a motor and fan, which creates a cycle of air flowing through its tip</span></i></b></span></div>
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 The idea of using air flow to shield users from pelting rain has been explored before. A pair of designers developed a <a href="http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/01/12/try-air-to-stay-dry/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">similar concept</a> back in 2010, though this version seemingly never made it to market.<br />
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The latest take on the Air umbrella uses a lithium battery to power a motor and fan, which creates a cycle of air flowing through its tip to deflect the drops and form the protective layer. So how much protection are we talking about exactly? Well, the designers say at the current stage of development the umbrella will provide enough shelter for two people, though if the rain isn't too heavy more people can be squeezed underneath.</div>
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<i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: x-small;">The Air umbrella uses a lithium battery to power a motor and fan, which creates a cycle of air flowing through its tip</span></i></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 22px;">The team is working on three models, all resembling something of a detached shower head. The first claims to be designed for females and is 30 cm (1 ft) in length and 500 g (1.1 lb) with a battery life of 15 minutes. The second is 50 cm (1.64 ft) long, weighs 800 g (1.76 lb) and has a 30 minute battery life. The third is extendable, ranging from 50 cm (1.64 ft) to 80 cm (2.62 ft), weighing 850 g (1.87 lb), also with a 30 minute battery life.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_oZKqWWpMsJGOpsktWqhKrKtzzuYTs7dOnuiqRjxZj88lmi-4hpb4U5C52VrZ0hv7evm5KFgFjgSgnQWHwmFK-yeSrK6PlIoC7ItuH04LZZjY4ntk9rZDr7KUVsewjeWjN8WGuMXKn00/s1600/air_umbrella-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_oZKqWWpMsJGOpsktWqhKrKtzzuYTs7dOnuiqRjxZj88lmi-4hpb4U5C52VrZ0hv7evm5KFgFjgSgnQWHwmFK-yeSrK6PlIoC7ItuH04LZZjY4ntk9rZDr7KUVsewjeWjN8WGuMXKn00/s1600/air_umbrella-4.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: xx-small;"><i>A team of Chinese designers has developed the Air umbrella with the aim of making tangles of metal poles and fabric a thing of the past</i></span></h2>
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With these battery times you wouldn't want to be stranded in a rainstorm, but they might just be enough to get you home from the bus stop without becoming a cold, shivering mess.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNFuXiesI0PYGleg9612YeVVUeu2KUv72O9FQuxxPChp2BGvRfjsKIa0gyViDRoHlRbBZWl2m0MQUHux_nximlDIalCVhL9EL5_mSPbLntbezXX9z6h-QCqRuPqLBnzLqii34u7aYHcUU/s1600/air_umbrella-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNFuXiesI0PYGleg9612YeVVUeu2KUv72O9FQuxxPChp2BGvRfjsKIa0gyViDRoHlRbBZWl2m0MQUHux_nximlDIalCVhL9EL5_mSPbLntbezXX9z6h-QCqRuPqLBnzLqii34u7aYHcUU/s1600/air_umbrella-2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: x-small;"><i>The team is developing three models, all resembling a detached shower head</i></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">The team is looking to raise US$10,000 on Kickstarter for the production of its Air umbrella and looks to be having reasonable success to date. At the time of writing it has attracted almost $12,000 in pledges with 10 days to run on the campaign. Most of the early bird pledges are already gone, with $108 the minimum pledge to reserve the shorter "female" version of the umbrella. Deliveries are slated to commence from December 2015 if all goes to plan.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">You can see a demonstration of the Air umbrella in the following pitch video.</span></div>
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Air umbrella produces a "force field" of air to keep you dry

A team of Chinese designers has developed the Air umbrella with the aim of making tangles of metal poles and fabric a thing of the past People certainly haven't been afraid to try and reinvent the umbrella over the years. There was the solar-powered Booster Brolly, the windproofRainshader and the l…

08Jan2015

Outsource your empathy with life prediction tool

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<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/69424855" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe><br />
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 An Israeli designer wants to squash your digital fingerprint into one algorithm that can predict when your friends are about to be sad or the best time to propose to your girlfriend.<br />
Predictables is a design concept by Dor Tal, crafted to provoke debate over the potential consequences -- good and bad -- of our reliance on big data.<br />
He imagines the front end will be a kind of pico projector, which maps your life onto any surface. It's a predicative calendar that makes handy suggestions to make your life run smoother. In a video depicting the technology, for example, your life is portrayed as a series of coloured blobs in a kind of floating calendar of potential future happenings. A green blob activates and catches your attention, so you point to it and flick your wrist (the future is entirely gesture-enabled as well, of course). A warning appears that says it's three days till an important meeting, before asking if you'd like to reschedule because your team is probably ill-prepared.<br />
How does it know this? It's using data gathered by an app you've downloaded onto your phone that scrapes your social media, email, Google searches, GPS data, photos, credit card transactions -- anything with a digital trail. Maybe it spotted a few ropey looking photos of your friends on a night out earlier that week, or recognised that their Facebook posts were actually coming from a beachside bar, not an office.<br />
So far, so intrusive. But the system wouldn't make any decisions for you. In the video, the subject's response is to text his team to see if its ready for the meeting. Later the same man's watch projects the same calendar onto the palm of his hand, warning him his girlfriend's probably about to be sad, so he buys her some flowers.<br />
"It is clear that today we are leaving our digitals fingerprints everywhere," Tal tells Wired.co.uk. "We can also see how these fingerprints are being used in order to create a precise profile of us for commercial uses. I suggest to return that data to the user."<br />
The technology does not exist yet, but we're not a million miles away. Summly scrapes the news so you don't have to, and Google Now scrapes your life in much the same way Predictables is now proposing -- though for the more mundane things in life that feature in your calendar.<br />
"The biggest challenge in this project is to create the forecasting algorithms," says Tal. "However, the further I advance in my research and the more I meet with specialists, the more I believe it will happen sooner than expected. For just one example, I have been in contact recently with Kira Radinsky who has made a lot of advancement in this field and recently even founded a start-up company that uses this kind of forecasting-algorithm application."<br />
Radinsky, last year named one of MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35, has been working on predicting real world events using algorithms that take in data from millions of news items and web searches, billions of tweets and much more. With it, she predicted riots in Sudan, Turkey, Syria and Egypt, a cholera outbreak in Cuba and the outcome of a drug dealer's trial. Although these kinds of systems take in billions of data points, it's argued many of these predictions could easily be done by humans. In an interview, Radinsky explains, "You can see a recurrent pattern in the riots: The price of a staple begins to climb -- in Egypt it was bread, in Sudan it was cooking gas -- and this sparks riots."<br />
But the point is not always to come up with novel predictions a human could not have otherwise. But to have a machine always working in the background as a backup, as a reminder of where your attention should be focused and as an early warning system.<br />
The individual in Tal's video could surely have put two and two together and realised his girlfriend was probably having a bad day -- she texts him about how much she hates her boss and starts job hunting. He could have decided to do something about it, but of course the majority of people might not take immediate action. The proposed service is simply cutting corners and prompting you to do something you should probably do anyway.<br />
Suggesting you propose to your other half soon -- as the system does in the video -- is quite another matter, though. And allowing the app access to every corner of your digital world just to encourage you to take the time in your busy life to do the things you should be doing anyway (be nice to your girlfriend, not necessarily propose to her) sounds like quite a stretch for even the least privacy conscious among us.<br />
"I think that the world that we live in today, and even more so the world of tomorrow, doesn't leave any room for privacy," Tal says. "And I am saying it with a lot of sorrow. I believe that if we won't stop and ask ourselves some serious questions about the role of technology in our personal lives, we will find ourselves in a world in which Facebook or Netflix suggest us when and who to marry."<br />
So he has not necessarily developed what is a rather Silicon Valley-like promo for his concept to say this is what we should be doing. He tells us he's more interested in the user interface and user experience side of technology, and "presenting the cultural consequences deriving from an up-coming technology". He calls Predictables his "answer to the new emerging issues of big data".<br />
Tal wants us to question where this kind of all-encompassing data sharing could lead us. And it sounds like it will lead us to become some pretty lame, lazy humans that need prompting to be nice.

Outsource your empathy with life prediction tool

An Israeli designer wants to squash your digital fingerprint into one algorithm that can predict when your friends are about to be sad or the best time to propose to your girlfriend. Predictables is a design concept by Dor Tal, crafted to provoke debate over the potential consequences -- good and …

10Mar2014

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