CloudServices
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Apple fuels TV service rumors with cable exec hire
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has hired Peter Stern (second from right), a former executive at Time Warner Cable. The paper believes that Stern will be working under Eddy Cue on the firm's "cloud services," whatever those may be. It's too early to jump to conclusions, but it's interesting to note that Stern was believed to be negotiating with Apple in the early days of its TV project. The paper also says that Stern feels that the business model of the set-top box is outdated and that the future of TV is apps. That's a sentiment shared by several of his new colleagues, including Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Microsoft donates $1b in cloud services to non-profits
Microsoft's philanthropic arm is making a big donation to university researchers and 70,000 non-profit organizations. Instead of money, though, Redmond is giving them $1 billion worth of cloud services over the next three years. The company doled out free devices in the past, but CEO Satya Nadella has decided on donating cloud services this time. He believes cloud computing has become "a vital resource for addressing the world's problems" that the schools and nonprofits are trying to solve.
Jolicloud 2 gets Feedly integration and a simpler interface for all your cloud services
It's been a long time coming, but Jolicloud has finally released version 2 of its cloud-services aggregator today. To the uninitiated, Jolicloud is essentially a one-stop shop for all your web activity, be it Instagram photos, Facebook likes or Dropbox files. Jolicloud 2 retains much of the same functionality as its predecessor, but has been upgraded to play nicer with Chrome with a new structure that separates out content from online storage. "Home" is for the former, and it's where you can keep track of the latest updates from your social networks along with a library of all the items you've faved or liked across the internet. The new version of Jolicloud also now has Feedly integration, which is good news for news junkies out there. As for online storage, that's now under "Drive" and it's where you can manage files from sites like Dropbox, Google Drive, SugarSync and more. You can even play media files, edit text and share folders right from the Jolicloud interface. So if you live your life in the cloud and want a single space to access them all, you might want to take a look at Jolicloud's latest.
Jolicloud's Jolidrive adds search to its cloud-based services hub
Jolicloud's missions have been many over the years, from its initial open-source Joli OS ambitions to its brief stint as netbook manufacturer and now an identity as a cloud-based services aggregator. But one thing's remained consistent for the Paris-based outfit: a willingness to listen to user feedback. This is what prompted Jolicloud to once again update Jolidrive, a dashboard for third-party cloud apps, with search. As you can see from the image above, users will now be able to index any of the cloud-based apps they've integrated into their "dashboard," making the service a truly convenient multimedia hub. This updated search functionality is just the latest in a string of tweaks (e.g., the ability to share and like) Jolicloud's been rolling out to improve its cloud drive in recent weeks -- all thanks to the clamoring of users like you.
Adobe announces Acrobat XI with tablet-friendly touchability, cloud services
Adobe has just updated its Acrobat lineup, including Pro, Standard and Reader to version 11 -- and thrown in two new programs, FormsCentral and EchoSign, to boot. The latter two are cloud-enabled services which permit "web contracting, forms creation, data collection and analysis" according to Adobe, which didn't yet specify exactly how that works. The company has also added improved tablet capability, and portable versions of Adobe Reader will now let you sign and save forms, as well as annotate and add comments. You'll also be able to modify paragraphs, images and objects by dragging them around; save PDFs as PowerPoint, Word or Excel files; and add extra security measures to documents. The upgrades will ship within 30 days and cost $449 and $299 for the Pro and Standard versions, respectively -- so if you've no time for frivolity on that new slate, check the PR for more info.
Amazon reportedly adding music rights to Cloud Player, could close gap with iCloud
Amazon's Cloud Player app just made its way to the iPhone and iPod touch, but the company's web-based music service still lacks the license deals that make Apple's iCloud a more seamless experience. While iCloud scans a user's hard drive to match songs and stream them from iTunes, Cloud Player requires listeners to manually upload copies of their music to the cloud. According to CNET's "industry sources," Amazon is looking to close that gap by inking agreements with major labels and has already made deals with EMI and Universal Music Group. This story is still very much in the rumor phase, but obtaining those licenses certainly sounds like a logical step for a service meant to make enjoying files across several devices easier.
Samsung's S-Cloud tipped to arrive alongside the Galaxy S III next month
Korean newspaper Maeil Business believes that Samsung's finally ironed out the kinks in its S-Cloud service and will unveil it alongside the Galaxy S III at next month's event. The Korean giant will reportedly offer an "unlimited service" with less of the content or storage restrictions imposed by iCloud. It'll also apparently come with a VOD-store, offering up audio and video content for a fee, presumably beside what's available in Google Play. It's also reporting that the company's Media Solution Center has asked Microsoft to join KT and Amazon in developing the infrastructure to ensure a smooth launch. Either way, it's not long now until we know for certain, so be sure to join us on May 3rd for the whole story.
Microsoft posts Cloud Services SDK preview for Windows Phone 7
Tying into its cloud computing initiatives from the past couple of years, Microsoft has released a preview version of its Cloud Services SDK for Windows Phone 7 with the goal of enabling devs to tap into online computation, storage, notification, and security capabilities exposed by some of the other cloud projects that Redmond's already working on. The main thrust of this seems to be Project Hawaii, which is being spearheaded by Microsoft Research to build cool and interesting mobile-focused stuff that rests atop the company's cloud services. The first two of those services are called Relay and Rendezvous; the former enabled phone-to-phone communication to the cloud without the need for static IP addresses, while the latter is some sort of aliasing system for assigning human-readable names to cloud service clients, which really sounds like a generalized form of Relay. Clearly, it's going to be a while before commercial products are built on this SDK, but it's an interesting space to keep an eye on in the meantime.
Switched On: Thunder in the cloud
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. With each passing day it becomes less of an insult to say someone's head is in the clouds, as more and more people begin to outright rely on web sites and applications like Facebook, Google Docs, Flickr, Farmville, YouTube and Hulu. Among these popular services are Slacker and Pandora, two internet radio services that have grown tremendously since becoming available as smartphone apps, and which have recently completed the three-screen trifecta by being offered on connected televisions. These services have always had plenty of online competition, including simulcast internet radio stations, streamed Sirius XM, and Rhapsody. But it appears as though the landscape of Internet music services in the US is preparing to accommodate two more game-changing newcomers from profoundly different backgrounds. The first is a startup from Europe called Spotify, which has been winning fans across the continent in the five countries in which it is offered. Spotify's Open service represents something of a holy grail for on-demand music from the cloud: you can play any song in its catalog as often as you like for up to 20 hours per month for free, and share songs with your friends. The service gets high marks for its responsiveness. Becoming a premium Spotify member essentially turns the service into something more akin to Rhapsody, with no ads, better audio quality, and offline listening. Spotify has begun offering a private preview of its U.S. service to a lucky few, and is expected to be rolling out more broadly this year.
