The cloud

I'm sure you've all heard the term "the cloud". But you may he wondering what it means exactly. The cloud refers to something that is always with you, when you have internet or data access of some kind. You can have pictures, songs, movies, documents, and other types of files all in the cloud. As long as you're connected through WiFi or data, and have a device that can view those files, you can access those files wherever you are. However, keep in mind that the cloud doesn't refer to one place, app, or website.

  An example of cloud based computing, is email. The difference here is that you can only access messages, instead of other types of files. Which service you use, is going to depend on your primary OS, and your primary mobile device. For me, there's Google play. Basically I can buy almost any movie, TV show, or song in high quality or hi definition, and stream it to my device. Streaming means that I don't have to download it to view it. Therefore, I can view it almost instantly.

Cloud Services

In my last post, I talked about the cloud. And I also talked about iTunes and Google play as a way to access the cloud. For the most part, android users will be on Google play, and apple users will be on iTunes. But there are some differences in the two. Here's why.

  For those who don't know, Google play is a streaming music service that allows you to access your music in the cloud. The difference between it, and other's like spotify or rhapsody, is that play let's you store 20,000 of your own songs on their servers for free. Just load them in your iTunes library or other media player on windows or Mac, and the Google play music manager will automatically match them with a high quality song on their server. If the can't find a match, it'll upload your version. This becomes very nice for people who have stacks of CD's lying around from another time. You can now have all those songs in the cloud.

  ITunes is different in two ways:
1. They do charge for music streaming where you add your own music. However, at $20 a year, it won't set you back too much. The actual service is called iTunes match, and operates through iCloud.

2. They have a little wider of a selection of movies that you can purchase

Besides those two differences, iTunes and Google Play have no differences in content available, or ability. The biggest factor you'll face in deciding which one to use, is your primary devices.

  Another service that's gaining major popularity, especially among writers who use Microsoft products, is Skydrive. When you set up an outlook.com account (formerly hotmail) or if you've already got one, you get 7 GB of free storage on Skydrive. Of course, that space can be expanded at a monthly rate, but for free that's the default storage size. What makes this service different from others, is that you can access your things streaming through the website. I usually write on Microsoft Office 2013. One of the new features that I love, is the ability to save documents to the cloud automatically. I can then pull that same document up on my tablet (through a third party app) and edit the document without having to download it first, as long as I have a WiFi connection. Currently, skydrive is the only automatic service I know of that has this feature.

  Amongst skydrive, there are even several other services that let you store and access your files in the cloud, with a little bit of setup. Dropbox, and Box.com to name a few. Here are 15 websites that offer some of the best in cloud storage, for either free, or for competitive prices.

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/2969-15-Cloud-Storage-Sites

Whatever site you choose, just remember this. The cloud is not a file storage website. The cloud is there to allow you to access the files that you store, either through their website, or through an app on your tablet, smartphone, or computer.

Checking out the nexus 7

I just bought a nexus 7, and I have to say that I love it. It's the perfect size, and comes loaded with so many features. I've talked to a lot of people who want to buy a nexus, but just aren't sure what's so great. Whether you use an iPad or an android tablet all depends on your preference. At a first glance, if you're on a windows computer primarily, you're more likely to have a better experience with android. Whereas, primary apple computer users will usually see a better experience with the ipad.

  I've been able to use both the 2nd generation and 3rd generation iPad's. I enjoy iOS especially on tablet's. It's secure, and doesn't require any setup out of the box. You connect to your WiFi and your apple account and you're ready to start having some fun. It offers a great battery life , and the app store has over 500,000 apps. "There's an app for that" is really accurate in describing the iOS app store. Something I've noticed however, is overtime, the home button on most older apple touch screen devices, may become in responsive at times. It doesn't happen with all devices, and is not a major issue. If you want custom elements on your homepage, such as widgets, you'll have to jailbreak your iPad. As far as speed goes the new iPad is fast. It has dual core processor with a 1.5 GHz clock. This will make your tasks a lot faster and more fluent. Unfortunately the price tag is hefty. A new iPad will run you $500+ depending on what size and where you get it. But at a minimum, new models are $500. That being said, with some hunting and dedication, you could probably find a used newer model for $400-450.

  I haven't had too much exposure to the old android OS's such as froyo and honeycomb. But the nexus 7 runs jellybean 4.2.2. The nexus 7 is a little less open to other email accounts out of the box. On a clean nexus 7, you'll pretty much need a Google account to do anything. Google accounts are free, and compared to other emails, I've had the best experience with google. But, if you have a problem with Google or with making a Google account, android won't work well for you. While the key to apple is security and ease of use, the key to android is customization. Basically, whatever you want in your device, you can have it in android. Widgets are always helpful, and you can install apps from sources other than the Google play store. However, installing from sources that are not checked for viruses can be dangerous, I wouldn't recommend it unless you know who made the app. Because that option is there, however, is why customization is android's strong point. A new nexus 7 will run you roughly 210 for the 16 GB WiFi version. However, I was able to get an 8 GB WiFi version used for 150. Space isn't an issue thanks to a USB otg SD card reader (look it up on amazon) and an app called nexus media importer. You can delete and copy files over to your device from a mini SD card or regular SD card. This is something apple has always lacked in their mobile devices. The nexus 7 has a quad core processor. It's an nvidia tegra 3 that clocks at roughly 1.3 GHz. The home button is actually a reserved space on the screen. This means that unless the screen gets damaged, you'll never have to worry about the button not working. In my opinion, I don't notice a speed difference between the nexus 7 and the new iPad.

  When it comes down to the choice, you have two things to consider:
1. Do you want security and plug and play like use, or do you want customization
2. What is your primary OS.

  Also, there are other android tablets, and I'll do a more in depth comparison on them in a later article. If you're an avid android user, I recommend you check out the nexus 7. Not only for the price, but for the innovation packed in this little tablet.

Command prompt?

If any of you readers are old enough to know what DOS is, than you'll remember a screen that looks like this

For those of you who don't know. Before GUI or Graphics User Interface which allows you to have a "desktop" and to interact with the computer through a display, there was DOS, Disk Operating System. While DOS is pretty much useless now (and has been for a few years) Microsoft decided to carry parts of it over into their GUI system, through command prompt. Command prompt, as the name suggests, allows you to run commands from a terminal window. What a lot of people don't know, is that you don't need to be a programmer to use command prompt. In fact, you can use command prompt to automate a lot of the tasks you might already do on your computer.

  Command Prompt is also called a "command line interpreter". In English, that means that it will take what you type (as long as you type the correct commands) and translate it so your computer can use it. Also it means that your input will be in real time. Besides making your computer talk to you, you can use this to run commands or batches of commands. These commands can be anything from scheduling your computer to backup a certain folder at a certain time, to locking a folder for private viewing only, to just opening up several programs at once. You can run commands one at a time through the window, or if you want to run batches of commands, or make it an actual program with a shortcut, you can write a .bat file or batch file.

  A batch file is basically a collection of command's that are built together to make a program. For this example, I want to make a program that opens Oseeris.com and Photoshop at the same time. Oseeris.com is a stock photography site, that offers a lot of free, legal, high resolution images that can be used in Photoshop. The program is very simple. Here's how it will look, then I'll break apart each line and talk about it. Open up notepad on your computer to write the program. Then when you're finished, save it as website.bat
make sure to put .bat on the end, as this will tell the computer that it's an actual batch file and not just a text file.

@echo off
start iexplore.exe "http://oseeris.com/"
start photoshop.exe

  The first line "@echo off" basically tells the command prompt not to display a message on what your doing. While it doesn't really matter here, when you're repeating several hundred tasks or more at once, message's in the command window can slow the program to a halt.

  The second line "start iexplore.exe "http://oseeris.com/" " does two things. First it will start Internet explorer. The next part runs what's called an argument. An argument is something that you tell the program to do, once it's opened. In this case, I want internet explorer to load the webpage oseeris.com once it's opened. Arguments in command prompt usually come as quoted text after a certain command.

  Then the third line "start photoshop.exe" just simply starts up photoshop. In order to get a program like this to work on your computer, you'll have to look up the name of that program. In my case I had to go to the folder C:\Program File\Adobe\Photoshop CS6 to find the photoshop program. For this program, it was just called photoshop.exe, but sometimes it will be called something different, like iexplore.exe. Telling the program to run internet explorer, or internetexplorer.exe wouldn't have worked. All in all this is what your program should like in notepad

  Command Prompt is called a high level language, in that it's closer to the English language than some other code's, like java or C++. Command Prompt is a great and easy way for regular computer users to get tasks done faster, or for beginning programmers to learn the inter-workings of a terminal, and how code really works. If you're interested, here is a list to all the commands accepted by Command Prompt in Windows 7, and what the commands do
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772390(v=ws.10).aspx

Thanks for reading this post, and please keep checking the blog, as we'll be posting more stuff like this all the time.

Introduction

This blog is going to be about everything tech. I'm going to post about reviews, tutorials, and tips and tricks you can do with your computer. If you have any suggestions for this blog, or you would like to see me post about something, please email me at emufossum13@gmail.com