Cloud services are the future

17 Replies Christopher Roberts

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Rackspace – a leading cloud hosting provider, has recently commissioned a study in association with the centre for Creative and Social Technology (CAST) at Goldsmiths University of London to look into how cloud services have really changed the way we work and play in every aspect of our existence.

The study has revealed that 66% of British people are using cloud based services every day!

The research that has come from this study reveals that (without being fully aware of it) a significant 66% of British users are relying on cloud computing services every day! Check out the image below to see some cool facts and figures relating to how us British use cloud services.

Facts about how British people use cloud based servicesSome of those facts are truly amazing. Almost 20% of people store more that 500gb on ‘cloud’ servers – that’s half a terabyte! My hard disk is a terabyte, and I have currently only used around 250gb of it, (one quarter) therefore that is double what I have on my hard disk, online!

The thing is, crazy figures like this are to be expected as internet speeds rise, disruption decreases and convenience increases. According to Ookla, today, the UK’s average download speed is 11mb/s (megabits – which are 8 times smaller than megabytes) and the USA has an average speed of 12 mb/s. Pretty fast. Upload speeds are a bit lower, with an average of 2mb/s in the UK and almost 3mb/s in the USA.

Other slightly less developed countries like India however have download speeds of just under 2mb/s and upload speeds of around 1mb/s. This is obviously not as good, however still pretty respectable in comparison to the dial-up speeds we used to get, where we couldn’t use the phone at the same time, and were restricted to 56kb/s!

These faster global speeds are making cloud services much more accessible and useful. Cloud technologies are the future, and the introduction of things like iCloud and the Chromebook just seem to reaffirm that.

What’s your view on the above image, is it shocking or to be expected?

RingSkin Android App Review

18 Replies RonF

For the past few days I had been busy looking for an app that could help me do away with that old, boring Android robot from my HTC, yes I own a android too along with my iPhone. I found a new app, running in its first version and I got my hands on it. So lets have a look at it here.

RingSkin can customize the Android call screen and put an end to those annoying spam calls. It lets users make full use of the image galleries and the camera, so that they can receive calls in the way they want. With some impressive images and animation skins, this app allows users to spice things up by adding decorations to them.

Ringskin Android App opening screen
Apart from these default animations and decorations, users can set their favorite clips – movie or music videos as their call screens for video ringtones. This app assigns screens in two methods – for groups and for individuals. Therefore, users can assign different individual images for each caller or they can go with assigning a common image to a group, like say a one for mates from school, one for colleagues, family and so on. You get the idea, right?

In my opinion, the customization RingSkin offers for call screens should be default in Android, so as to speak as it also helps users deal with spam callers as it has block-call capability. The UI is well designed and easy-to-use. This app really adds a vibrant touch to the screen while making and receiving calls. However, the ‘Skins’ area would have been a great one if the developers had included some interesting video clips.

The best part is that RingSkin is available for free and requires Android 2.1 or up. There is a pro version for the app, which you can get without coughing up anything additional, by just clicking on the ads and earning 400 points! You can see the ads in the ‘Settings’ option and if you want to check out the pro version of RingSkin click the ads!

You can download RingSkin from the Android Market for free.

EDITOR NOTE: This app no longer exists, so links to it have been removed – note by Christopher

Pay As You Go Vs Contract

9 Replies Christopher Roberts

With a mobile phone (or as my American friends call it, cell phone) you have two main options when choosing how to pay for your minutes, internet and texts. Either pay as you go, or contract.

Pay As You Go

There are various different people offering pay as you go tariffs and deals. Some pay as you go providers are targeted towards those who use their phone more for calling, whilst others focus on those who text a lot. Shop around and you can find a deal that suits you.

Pay As You Go is probably best for those people who use their phone less often. If you spend less than £10 a month on your phone, Pay As You Go is probably the cheaper option for you.

Contract

If you love to use your phone, and it rarely leaves your side then you probably have it on a contract. This means that you get a certain amount of minutes, texts and MB per month. If you are lucky you may even get unlimited on some of them. For this, you pay a fixed monthly fee.

Different mobile phone network providers - Virgin Mobile, Orange, Tesco Mobile, T-Mobile, Vodafone, 3, Talk MobileSometimes you can get a really good deal and get your phone chucked into free! A recent example of this is iPhone 4S contracts, if you take out a contract with some iPhones, you get the phone at a reduced price, or even for free.

Like with pay as you go SIMs, it can often pay to research all the deals on offer, as there are different contracts for different people. If you don’t mind an older model, but can’t stop talking, then there are contracts with unlimited minutes, but no freebies when it comes to the phone itself. Likewise if you really love having the latest model, there are contracts where you can get new phones as they come out, for free!

The only problem with contracts is that the more you want, unfortunately, often the more you have to pay. Yes you can have unlimited monthly calls, texts and internet usage, along with the latest phone, however it can cost you the earth!

It depends who you are as to which you think is best. Both pay as you go and contract deals have their merits, shop around and you are sure to get yourself a good deal that is right for you 🙂