Gadgets Category Archive

Citizens connect!

1 Reply Jonny Hankins

This week I would like to take a look at a couple of technological and social systems that use Apps and are designed to improve urban living in cities. If you have ever asked yourself how technology can improve our lives then the following might be of interest to you.

The first thing I would like to look at is called Citizens Connect, a system that operates in Boston in the USA (where I currently live). According to the website “Citizens Connect enables real-time collaboration with citizens, “deputizing” mobile users to become the city’s eyes and ears. Citizens report potholes, graffiti, and other issues from anywhere in the city using their mobile phone”

And this is how it works, and it is a simple system if you have a reasonably good mobile phone. While walking or driving through the city you see something that you feel should be reported to the City Council, an abandoned car, vomit on the pavement, water gushing from a hole in the road, cat stuck up a tree, that kind of thing. You take a photo of it, upload it on the City of Boston website, they show it on a public map and (hopefully) send somebody out to fix the problem.

A map showing reported problems on Citizens Connect

I personally believe that a person is much more likely to report something if they can take a photo and send it off in real time than if they have to go home, look up a phone number and make a call. Could this be a fist step in making the citizen and the state more communicative and more responsible?

The City of Boston also offers another App called Street Bump. This is even simpler to use, you download it into your phone and it monitors your movement as you drive round the city. When you near a hole in the road you slow down, as does everyone else passing that spot, and this information is used to determine the quality of the road surface.

If you think your local council should try such a scheme, you can direct them towards Click Fix, a commercial system that is currently on sale and operated by several cities and other organizations. This is not a recommendation however, but their work does look very interesting.

Next week I will continue this theme with a look at an interesting university course all about “Urban Cybernetics” that is run at Harvard University. Some of the projects may offer great things for the future.

Google and Microsoft take on the cloud

1 Reply Sharon Shapiro

Over the past few years cloud computing has become an increasingly popular trend. Two of the biggest tech names are also big names in the cloud computing industry: Google and Microsoft. But while both Google and Microsoft may have well-known cloud platforms, they are each extremely different and have met varied levels of success.

Google first launched its cloud computing platform, Google Apps, in 2006. Currently, Google Apps is available in four different platforms – Business, Education, Government, and Non-Profit – as well as a free version for personal use that can be obtained by creating a Google account. Google Apps is a completely cloud-based solution that does not require any additional hardware or software. The suite lives entirely within the web browser making it accessible from anywhere on any web-enabled device.

Microsoft introduced Office 365, its cloud solution, in summer 2011. When it first hit the market, Office 365 was available only for businesses. However, in spring 2012, Microsoft added a new platform for educational institutions. Office 365 is a hybrid cloud solution that requires some additional servers and software. This means that Microsoft users will have some patching and licensing and it also limits the mobility that Microsoft users can enjoy, especially in comparison to Google users.

Office 365 LogoAside from the difference in user experience and number of platforms, there is also a major price difference between the Google and Microsoft cloud services. Google Apps is a less expensive cloud service than Office 365. The highest-priced platform of Google Apps is the business suite, which runs standard for $50 per user per year. This price includes the entire apps suite and is standard for businesses of all sizes. The least expensive platform of Office 365 costs $48/user/year, but it is only available for businesses with fewer than 50 employees and does not include the entire apps suite. This means that businesses running on this platform must purchase add-ons, which will significantly increase the cost of the service. All other Office 365 platforms are priced higher, except for Office 365 for Education which, like Google Apps for Education, is free.

While the differences between Google and Microsoft might seem quite large now, they were even more distinct a few months ago. Recently, in an effort to better compete with Google, Microsoft added the new Office 365 for Education platform and cut its prices by as much as 20%. While these changes did narrow the gap somewhat, they still leave Office 365 trailing behind Google Apps in terms of platform diversity and pricing.

In May, Gartner Inc., a research firm, reported that businesses looking to move to the cloud for the first time were choosing a Google Apps migration one-third to one-half of the time. Perhaps this high percentage is a result of the differences between Google Apps and Office 365. This report came after a 2009 study by the same firm that predicted that Microsoft would be outselling Google by 4-to-1 in 2012.

In addition to making changes to bring in new users, Microsoft’s efforts are also targeted at keeping existing customers with Microsoft. To better achieve this goal Microsoft also created a “Google Compete” team, dedicated entirely to retaining current Microsoft users. The Wall Street Journal reported on this team’s failed attempt to keep Dominion Enterprises, a Virginia company, a Microsoft customer. Dominion Enterprises CIO Joe Fuller chose to have Google Apps setup even after the “Google Compete” team tried to convince him otherwise. The team invited Fuller to the Microsoft headquarters where he received a tour and saw the research lab, roadmaps to current technologies, and inside looks into new technologies. Nevertheless, Fuller still made the decision to switch to Google Apps. According to the Wall Street Journal, Fuller said he made the decision because he felt Google Apps was the “cooler” product and because he would pay $200,000/year for Google instead of $2 million for Microsoft, resulting in a savings of about 50%.

Although both Google Apps and Office 365 are well-known cloud services, there are very big distinctions that separate the two. Everything from user experience, platform variety, and price are different. Because of these differences, Microsoft has found itself trying to play catch-up in order to truly compete with Google Apps in the cloud.

How to get great gadgets on a budget

2 Replies MattRawlings

It’s a very easy – and all too common – mistake to see your student loan arrive in your bank account and rush out and spend it all on the latest must-have gadgets. Smartphones, laptops, tablets, printers, they’re all “essential” to student life, (well, in a social capacity in most senses, but to some they’re essential).

Obviously going off to University is an exciting time and you want to go fully prepared for the academic year, and to make an impression on your new friends and flat mates. But you can do all of this without breaking the bank.

For instance there are some great laptop deals for students specifically which enable them to get the computer they want as well as all of the software they’ll need to help with the course, and even discounts on devices like printers and wireless routers.

When you think about it, you can get what you consider to be brilliant deals on your computer, printer and tablet – to name just three you might buy together – getting discounts on all three, but it can still add up to upwards of £1,000. But one of the advantages of being a student is being eligible for a package tailor made for getting you through the late night group projects and the 10,000-word essays that you finish at 4am.

National Union of Students card

An NUS student card

You might not think that some of the devices in the offers are what you would call “top drawer” or even as cool as what your friend has bought, but if you’ve spent £500 and they’ve spent £1,500, you’ve got an extra thousand left in your bank account to enjoy yourself with while taking the necessary “study breaks”, or to keep in hand for emergencies and all-important food shops. There are only so many times you can buy own-brand beans after all!

Budgeting is a key part of Uni life, something you don’t tend to realise until the end of the year (or the end of your third year in a lot of cases) but anything you can save before you start your first term is going to benefit you later on, allowing you to upgrade your gadgets in the future when you’ve got a little bit extra that you can spend without getting into financial difficulties.

The deals on laptops and other tech for students really are worth looking into. A lot of the top brands produce models and packages designed purely for students at prices made for students. If I had one tip, check them out, don’t just splash the cash on the biggest and best because you want to be cool.