Apps make your life perfect

 

There are so many apps today I think everything has been done. It looks like I have got an app for everything just a fingertip away. The apps are so easy to use, no wonder there are so popular.

 

Originally the app service was offered for general productivity tools and to get information quickly. Such as a calendar, stock market and weather broadcast apps. that where free and some useful pay for tools also.  I agree it’s great if you own a business focused on creative design of software. But If I’d had a Nail Saloon – for instance – and I wanted to be on the map, now I would need to create an app for that.

Now Microsoft has 160,000 apps, Google has 800,000 apps and Apple has 1,250,000 apps - according to Forbes. However app explosion still does not help get things done for you, these apps only provide only a short term reminders, and a short term time to play with something new. And the question is, How do you ever find a good app. in the app stores now that there are millions of them?   

Do we need them all of them? How did they change our behavior so far? Recently I’ve realized I can’t have a nice chat with my friends without being interrupted – ‘Hang on, while I check my phone!’ And how will it affect my life? I mean, do I become lazy? It is nice to check out what the current time is on the other side of the world. Ok, I need it. But why can’t I do the math in my head?

And what about the future? There is an app that tells me I have 37% chance to get pregnant today. Hmm…. Is there any apps which is tell me if my husband will be around tonight?

 

Let the pictures tell the story

Ignorance of Decades

 

I always wondered when science will reach the point when humans no longer understand what’s going on. I’m not talking about ‘how things work’ question. For instance, Edison gave us electricity and Bell gave us the telephone. We didn’t know how they worked but we knew how to use them.  So why doesn’t this idea work with cloud computing too? It’s always interesting to see how we adopted new things in our life with or without any knowledge of it.

 

SMBs in the cloud

More and more small and medium-sized companies are using cloud-based services, but usually only apply these ideas in fundamental processes. Companies often organize email or share documents, but only 5 percent of them actually say that SMBs are cloud base.  

 

The latest Microsoft’s survey results show what services are use in cloud.  The most common home electronic service - mail is the most common (57%), but also popular is sharing of documents (42%), instant messaging, VoIP (31-31%) and cloud storage at (23%) as well.  Only (9%) of Internet office suites - such as Office 365 or GoogleDocs - make use of the cloud services.

 

 

 

Not so long ago, a company became a pioneer of the industry when they took advantage of the cloud. Over the past 12 months – according to Microsoft’s report - Office 365 services have tripled annual revenue. But the fact is that almost all SMBs companies have internet access, yet they don’t know they have been using the cloud.

Funny if you think about it. In the old days – we didn’t turn on the lights and say "I’m not using electricity", So today why do we say – "I don’t use the  cloud"  although I'm on the internet. Can we use ignorance as an excuse?

Hungary must think ahead!

When a young boy discovers his surroundings all you can do as a parent, is think ahead and look out for his safety. I find that I’m already one step ahead before he takes his next step... no question that my job is to teach him what to do next. 

Based on my experience cloud computing issues are still quite immature in Hungary. And I’ve also noticed that there is very little content or information about cloud computing written for the Hungarian market. I’d expect that Big companies like Microsoft, and Google would pay attention a small markets like Hungary. So they can help us grow, and mature with them in mind. Most of the time they do not…. But sometimes there are surprises.

I was looking for information about secure cloud computing and I found that last Monday Microsoft published a cloud paper on ’trusting’ the cloud in Hungarian. So it’s really interesting to finally see how a big company like Microsoft is thinking ahead and trying to take advantage by working to provide more intelligent and comprehensive information to help educate the Hungarian market about cloud computing issues.

And what is this report? This information is extremely technical, so be ready for a hard read!.....But I tell you I think this is a big deal! To have a big company commit and to try and get companies around Hungary thinking about the Cloud in a more logical way, is about time..

The paper is called ‘The Microsoft Approach to Cloud Trasparancy’  and provides Microsoft’s perspective on using an open standard called the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) in framing what companies need to consider when adopting cloud services. The paper references a repository of papers that includes information from most major cloud providers, such as Amazon, Box, and yes Microsoft to help pick a good cloud provider!. The repository is called the known as the Security, Trust and Assurance Registry (STAR) for its cloud solutions. So this is how the cloud providers are working to try and help us grow up, and become a real player in the cloud market.

 

 

Locked up in the cloud!

 

How safe is the cloud? I think I can say yes (most of the time) but security in the cloud is not that simple. In the old days if you’ve locked something up in a safe place there was only one way in and out. Placing your files in the cloud gives you two points of protection, one on the server side and one on the user side.

 

 

 

See most cloud storage sites use the same level of security that most banks use and it’s a high quality protection from most hacker.

http://www.web2andmore.net/2013/04/19/considerations-when-choosing-a-cloud-storage-provider/

 

But what about the user side?…What can I do for my own protection? Well, as long as my password habits concern, I think a lot! Let’s see how can I be a smart user!

 First off you have to choose a good password. The more complicate password you use the safer data you’ll get. For that you need to combine password which contains letters, symbols and numbers in unusual way.  And what’s if you create a real good password? Change it frequently!

Free password generator:

 

http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/

http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx

 

 

Secondly, don’t share your password! Even if you trust to someone never tell them your password. Another important thing is use different password for different sites. Make sure you don’t use the same password for your e-mail account as you use at banking site.

 I know it’s annoying to create and change password for each site we use and we easily get confused how we will remember all of them?

 

 

 

Well LastPass can solve this problem easily. It’s a smart solution for those who only want to memorize one password and let LastPass remember the rest of them for you…. And it’s free to start using it!.

Finally, be careful when you logged into a site from a different devices. Make sure you log out and don’t save your passport in public computers.

Considering these easy steps you can create a real secure life on your cloud.

Security in Hungary

Today I noticed that Microsoft released a report on security issues. What’s interesting about this report is that they have information about what’s happening in Hungary. I would never look at a report like this before, but since they actually looked at Hungary I thought it would be interesting to look at what the report says about us.

 The report can be downloaded at the Microsoft site here www.microsoft.com/sir and the Hungarian report.

 Based on the report the overall good news, is that virus and malware in Hungary is lower than the rest of the world. The report talks about computers infected in Hungary at 4700 computers for every 1000 computers. Worldwide the number is 6000 computers infected. I guess that’s good news for us Hungarians!.

 Looks like the number one malware in Hungary is something called Keygen.

If you’re interested in the report, you should check it out.

 

Tablet race for Hungary

Is the grass always greener on the other side of the fence?

Spring is coming, and I have lots of things to do in the garden. Since I live outside of Hungary’s capital – Budapest- I frequently feel isolated from others, and the only way I stay connected is to use the internet. I walked around my property and try to assess what needs to be done, jealously I recognized the fact that my neighbor is already two steps ahead in planting his garden. Being curious about the word, and interested about new things, I surf the internet for hours to find out what’s happening in tech.

Recently I’ve decided to at buying a tablet…this type of decision is big for me… remember the internet is my main connection to the world, and a nice simple easy to use device would be a great use. This is a great starting point to look at my options.

The Great tablet race

The tablets market seems to be growing fast just like weeds in a garden, so trying to catch up on the latest products and check out what is available in Hungary is a real challenge.

Brands selection is very limited, we all want cool expensive tablets but we buy cheap ones they are more available. Most who haven’t got a tablet desires the expensive Apple or Samsung tablet.

There is also an availability issue.

At the moment the Hungarian market we only see a limited set of high quality products (I’m talking about 10 inch tablets now).

•  Acer Iconia A211
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note

 

Also what most don’t understand is that the manufacturers also create low cost, cheaper models.  We are flooded with offers to buy products such as;

• Overmax Steel Core, DPS Dream 7
• ASUS Eee Pad Transformer
• TAB-Tegra
•  MyAudio
• ConCorde

  

Interestingly enough for as much hype what happened to products such as the Microsoft Surface RT most probably don’t know that we still don’t see this device in our market? What happened? Since Surface RT, Microsoft also launched the Surface Pro, and we hear that American’s are the only purchasing power. Microsoft has left out market untouched, who knows if the product would have been successful.. You can’t buy it here unless you leave the country. Our news talks about a lack of interest in the Microsoft tablet’s, but that would take Microsoft actually making the device available in Hungary. I wonder what other worldwide markets where under estimated by the people at Microsoft?

 

I asked a very close friend of mine in Wien – to help me out and have a look at her local tablet market. She reported to me that a variety of product are considerably easier to get, unsurprisingly, however the price seems to be the same.

http://www.ditech.at/liste/53709545/Smartphones__Tablets_nach_Hersteller_Acer.html

http://www.hartlauer.at/Portal/jsp/hartlauer2/computer/index.jsp#moreBoxes

 

Next blog, I’ll continue my search… I’ll look at 7 inch tablets or ‘phablets’are well…

 

Stay tuned….