Spider Oak: pay as you go online storage solution

SpiderOak is a multi-platform solution that offers: automatic online backup, online storage, sync many computers, share files and access them from any device. According to their website:

Whether you need to access a document you have stored on a remote computer, synchronize two photo galleries between a home Mac and work PC, share important business documents with different sets of clients, or just rest easy knowing all of your data is safely, securely, and automatically backed up - SpiderOak does it all.

SpiderOak offers a different approach to online backup, synchronization, and sharing. This difference is not just measured in our zero-knowledge privacy policy - the first one ever employed in this setting - but also in our flexible design in handling data from all platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux) and locations (external drives, network volumes, USB keys) in one centralized account.

SpiderOak offers 2 Gb of free. If you chose the Pro account, you pay USD $10 per month (or $100 per year) per $100 Gb increment, which makes it a very compeling and affordable service.

Try SpiderOak here.

Samsung Omnia HD: first Smartphone with HD video recording

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I am usually not a fan of all-in-one devices. In general, I prefer having multiple gadgets performing good quality tasks, instead of having poor performance on a single device. I must say, however, that the specs on the Omnia HD made me re-think this concept:

  • The World's First HD Video Recording on Mobile
  • 3.7" QHD Super Vivid AMOLED Display
  • HSUPA 5.76Mbps/HSDPA 7.2Mbps
  • 8 Megapixel Autofocus Camera
  • Multi Codec (DivX, MPEG4)
  • Web Browsing (S60 OSS-Safari core)
  • Full Touch Screen

That's not all. See what else phoneArena.com mentioned about it:

The OMNIA HD runs on a Symbian OS modified with manufacturer’s TouchWiz 3D interface, so it’s also smart indeed. On top of that it features Wi-Fi with DLNA, 7.2 Mb. capable HSDPA, GPS, HDMI, accelerometer and comes with either 8 or 16GB built-in memory and expansion slot to allow use of an up to 32GB card. Last, but not least the manufacturer have managed to pack all these features in a 12.9 mm. thin body.

Looks like the smartphone market is getting more and more traction with touch screen high-end devices that are raising the bar for the iPhone 3.0.

See the official page from Samsung here.

Samsung N310: the netbook with a makeup

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Designed by the Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, the Samsung N310 netbook has specs that are very similar to the Eee PC 1000 HE. 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) LED backlit display, chiclet keyboard, 16o GB HD, Bluetooth.

What makes it different is its unique design, rounded shape, vibrant colors and embossed logo.

The N310 is currently available only in Europe and costs €499.

PhotoFunia: add special effects to your photos in seconds

PhotoFunia is an online image editor that, as the name suggest, provides a very fun experience.

The process couldn't be simpler: you pick one of the many interesting effects they offer, upload a photo and... done! In a couple of seconds you have the photo ready for download.

They also have interesting partnerships: if you click on "Publish", PhotoFunia offers an integration with TinyPic, where they automaticaly host your photo and give you link to publish wherever you want. Another interesting option is "Send as Postcard", where you can send a "real" postcard to any country trough Touchnote, for USD $3.00.

PhotoFunia is free. Try it here and have fun.

Panda Cloud Antivirus: the first web-based consumer antivirus

Panda Security announced today the first consumer antivirus to run in "the cloud". The product is still in closed beta (I just signed up to be notified when a slot is avaiable for new testers), but this is what I could get from their online help page:

Reinventing the antivirus

Panda Cloud Antivirus is intelligent and has been designed to act only when necessary. It's so light, you won't notice it's there, even if you are playing or using the Internet...

The fastest in detecting new viruses

Our network of Collective Intelligence servers identifies and processes viruses automatically in a fraction of the time required by laboratory technicians.

Designed with you in mind

Now you can forget about tiresome antivirus products with incessant notifications and difficult questions. Panda Cloud Antivirus works for you without annoying you.

Updates are history

The real key to Panda Cloud Antivirus is in the Collective Intelligence servers. That's why you'll always have maximum detection capacity without relying on traditional updates.

Detects more than anyone else

The Panda servers have a database of millions of viruses allowing Panda Cloud Antivirus to detect the multitude of threats that appear every day.

The community is key

Benefit from a network of users who automatically share information about viruses detected on their computers, ensuring that solutions travel around the world in just a few seconds.

I specially found intriguing the concept behind what they called "Collective Intelligence" that "allows mega-detection capacity while reducing resource consumption" through the user's community.

Panda will be offered for free, and I'm curious to follow how the market will react to this new launch and also how competition will counter-attack. It definetly looks like a paradigm shift on the lucrative antivirus industry.

Sign-up for the beta test here.

Run Android on a Nokia N810 Tablet [eLinux.org]

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Before you get too excited, this might not be as easy as it sounds. According to the article from eLinux.org:

This article assumes that you are familiar with some basics of embedded ARM Linux. E.g. you should know how to use diff & patch, how to boot your embedded ARM SoC with a recent non-Android Linux, how to use a cross compiler etc.

Well, I'd never be able to do that. However, the idea of having Android running on this great device from Nokia is indeed very promising.

If you have the skills and own a Nokia N810, read the instructions from eLinux.org here. The device can be bought at Amazon for USD $220.74 here.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Zoho Mobile gets significant improvements

The multi-web-applications company Zoho announced today important improvements on its mobile offering. It is making available 6 of their apps (Mail, Calendar, Writer, Sheet, Show and Creator) to be accessed through the most important mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile & Symbian - S60).

I have tried using some of the products on my iPod Touch and my BlackBerry. As expected, the iPod provided a good experience for viewing a spreadsheet, but doing the same thing on the BlackBerry retuns a bunch of non-formated texts (which is a similar result provided by Google Spreadsheets, by the way).

Access Zoho Mobile here.

Are ISP bandwidth caps a threat to cloud computing? [Ars Technica]

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This article from Ars Technica talks about the new move from Time Warner to establish bandwidth caps to its users. Compared to Comcast, that already offers a generous 250 Gb per month, caps from Time Warner are really small, ranging from 5 Gb to 40 Gb per month.

Apparently, this a trend that will keep spreading in different markets. I live in Brazil, and found out this month that my cap is 60 Gb per month. Last month I subscribed to Carbonite (an unlimited online backup service), and uploaded 100 Gb to the Cloud. As I reached my cap, I was put on the lowest speed plan until the month ends, which is a really frustrating experrience.

With all these caps beeing set, I hope ISPs are reasonable and communicate these policies well. I really don't want to believe I should have spent the USD $54,95 that I paid on my Carbonite subscription on an external drive.

Read the article from Ars Technica here.

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GlideOS: Online OS that can be accessed from any device

Glide is another service that is attempting to create the concept of an Online Operating System. I played with it for a while and liked what I saw.

If you have already tried eyeOS, you probably noticed that it looks realy good, but the apps are too simple, they are not integrated with other services, and you can only access it through a computer. Glide is attempting to bridge these gaps.

It accepts the most popular e-mail services, can be accessed from virtually any device (they claim to be compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile Users) and there is also a client app for Windows, Mac and Linux that can sync your files to Glide so they can be accessed anywhere.

The free service offers 10Gb for up to 5 users. If you choose the Premium plan, you get 20Gb for up to 25 users, and it costs USD $ 4.95 a month or USD $49.50 per year.

Try Glide here.

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