ARM Showcases Innovation in Mobile Technology at 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress

From Unix Admistratosphere

source : http://administratosphere.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/raid-is-not-a-backup/

This post describes the authors experience, almost losing his data on a RAID disk set. He also gives good details on why RAID is not a backup and how he rectified the situation. Remember: RAID is not a backup!

When working with corporate systems, a complete, reliable, and tested backup system is important. RAID does not protect you against many (or even most) disasters that could happen.

RAID is designed to protect against one thing: disk failure. It does not protect against user error, operator error, site destruction, and many more possibilities.

So how do I back things up? I must admit, I’ve improved my backup strategies of late. I currently have several tools that I use and would recommend to you:

• SpiderOak. This is an online backup service which offers the first 2Gb backup free. They also maintain multiple version backup, so if you want a file from two versions back, it’ll still be there. This service is worth paying for, I’d say.
• For my Mac, I’ve used PsyncX periodically (albeit not automated). It has come in handy more than once as my laptop died several times - I’ve one of those iBooks that was notorious for video hardware that failed annually (and Apple would fix for free, but never admitted fault). If you’ve a Mac, get an external drive and use PsyncX to save your home directory off. Also recommended: put your applications in your home directory, not the system directory: restoring your home directory will then be enough to get your applications back.
• For UNIX, the similar alternative to PsyncX is rsync: again, get an external drive and save your home directory off to it regularly.
• Also, come at it from the other direction: save your configuration by putting it into a cfengine or puppet setup and saving that as well. If the machine fails, running cfengine or puppet on startup will restore the system to its original state.
• One other item - that may seem a bit unusual - is using Thinkfree Office. Thinkfree Office gives you a way to save documents locally and have them mirrored in the Internet cloud - and you can also manipulate your documents on the web as well. Of course, this is only entirely true for documents that Thinkfree Office can edit.
  
  
  ThinkFree Office live is the unique solution which provide the Online and On-Premise !
  
  

ThinkFree Office Suite on Qualcomm Snapdragon Netbook

by Kevin Tofel, Editor in Chief with GigaOM network site jkOnTheRun
Source : http://jkontherun.com/2009/01/08/thinkfree-office-suite-on-qualcomm-snapdragon-netbook/

 

This morning I met with Edward Coloma from ThinkFree, developers of the ThinkFree Office suite. Back in October, the company introduced a demo of the productivity suite specifically for netbooks and today the company showed me the software running on Qualcomm-based hardware. They’re looking to have their product available for Android during the first half of 2009, but of course it all depends on hardware vendors since there aren’t any Android netbooks on the market… yet.

The test hardware I saw ThinkFree software running on was the same Qualcomm concept notebook we saw last month. The specs were meager by today’s netbook standards: the CPU was clocked under 600 MHz and had limited memory: 256MB. Yet the productivity demonstration ran reasonably well and is already optimized for touch controls. The concept hardware had a touchscreen and it was easy to tap and navigate through the simple menus. Overall, the software was pretty impressive considering it was ported over to support an ARM environment; it surely doesn’t hurt that it’s heavily based in Java.

ThinkFree is working with various OEMs to get the suite bundled on netbooks, but is considering a netbook version for sale. Too early for pricing, but their full version or Windows, Mac or Linux notebooks runs around $50 right now. My gut says the right price point for a netbook optimized version is around $30 to $35. The key selling point is the software’s ability to work both on- and off-line. We simply don’t have connectivity available all the time on our netbooks. Why sacrifice productivity when disconnected if you don’t have to?

I’ll be looking deeper at ThinkFree’s solution as they provided me with an Asus Eee PC 1000H review unit for 30 days, complete with their netbook software. Meanwhile, check out the gallery.










We thank you Kevin Tofel

Review ThinkFree.com
by Zipgeorge.com (http://zipgeorge.com/2009/01/08/review-thinkfreecom/)

Remotely hosted web applications have been around for some time, but as the software gets refined and broadband access improves, web apps like ThinkFree.com may give your desktop office suite a run for the money.

One web offering that stands out is ThinkFree Online, and the price is the best yet – free! The service allows you to create, collaborate on and store your documents and files with a generous 30 GB of storage space.

The company is a subsidiary of Haansoft Corporation, a Korean computer software company based in Seoul. ThinkFree was founded in 1999 as a java-based office developing company. The ThinkFree Office, a desktop alternative to Microsoft Office was first released in 2000. It has had a couple of updates since then and the current 3.0 version is designed to be almost indistinguishable from Microsoft Office.

ThinkFree Office 3.0 is one of the few alternative programs to fully support Microsoft’s latest format from Office 2007 so that you can open files without risk of corrupting the layout or content. Business users will like the fact that there is no need to spend money or time training employees as the interface operates just like Microsoft Office. ThinkFree products use the same file formats across operating systems so they can be opened whether the user is on Windows, Linux or Mac machines. Best of all, ThinkFree Office 3.0 costs only $49.95 for an individual license while the cheapest form of Microsoft Office (the Home and Student Edition) costs three times as much.

In 2005, ThinkFree released its first online service and has continued to improve and add to the service ever since. You can now store up to 30 gb of documents on ThinkFree’s servers so you or your collaborators can access your documents any time and from any where. If you already have the desktop version of the software, the online application is ideal for being able to access the documents that you worked on from your home computer.

ThinkFree isn’t quite up to taking over Microsoft’s market share, though. Microsoft Office does have some advanced features that aren’t available with ThinkFree products. For the average user, though, it will be the perfect office suite as it has the three mainly used programs – word processor, spreadsheet application and presentation application. The online ThinkFree also offers a handy beta tool called Note which is a blog editor and should prove popular.

Being java based, ThinkFree does tend to be a bit slower in response than other programs of this nature. It also only will only open one document at a time so it’s more difficult to work back and forth when needed. There is one feature that I didn’t expect in this type of software and that is the ability to export as PDF. There is also a very handy file conversion tool within the online office suite which also can be very useful.

All in all, ThinkFree Office online is one of the best applications of its kind. The interface is easy to grasp and navigate so there isn’t a sharp learning curve for new users. Since it works in most operating environments, you are not limited to collaborating only with users of the same operating system. Used in conjunction with the low-cost desktop version, anyone can work away from home and not worry about backups because of the large storage capacity.


Thanks for your deep reviewing and perception about the value of ThinkFree.com  
from Benedict (ThinkFree Marketing Manager)

Technology trends expected in 2009

source : http://nationmultimedia.com/2008/12/30/technology/technology_30092174.php
By Asina Pornwasin
The Nation

Even though the state of the global and local economies will probably be the main focus of attention in 2009, technology is nevertheless moving steadily forward.

Moreover, 2009 promises to be a particularly exciting year, with a mix of both new and improved technologies. The following are expected to represent the main technology trends in the coming year.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is expected to play an important role in the IT industry in 2009.

The concept of cloud computing is for large pools of computer systems to share an IT infrastructure. Cloud computing accesses virtual resources and is not limited by the power and capabilities of local or remote computers.

Cloud computing will support the next generation of enterprise data centres, operating like the Internet to provide extreme scale and fast access to networked users.

It offers a simplified, centralised platform for use when needed, lowering costs and energy use. Unlike grid computing, which distributes IT for a specific task, cloud computing is used across an entire range of activities. The platforms can be externally hosted services, but the principle can also be used inside companies, especially those that operate globally.

The market for cloud computing swelled to an estimated $36 billion (Bt1.24 trillion) in 2008, representing roughly 13 per cent of global software sales.

Uses for cloud computing will increase over the next three to five years.

Unified communications and collaboration (UCC)

The need for connectivity, anytime and anywhere, will remain essential despite economic conditions. UCC gives enterprises the impetus to enhance both internal and external communications by consolidating voice and other services on to standard data networks, thereby providing IT with an intuitive way to reduce operating costs. 

The demand for UCC will continue as economic conditions improve, not only because businesses will be convinced of its benefits after trying it out, but because demand for it will be backed by sustainable developments.

With the emergence of virtualisation, embedded software on open platforms and the software-as-a-service model, there will be an increased focus on services and applications, like UCC, delivered over a robust network infrastructure.

The rules are also changing: people are no longer interested in operating systems and hardware platforms for computing and networking, but rather in how they can get simple, reliable and secure access to services that drive a business, anytime and anywhere.

NetBooks

The small 'cutesy form' factor will remain the primary selling point for netbooks, but it will also change the way these devices are being used.

With limited processing power and storage, users will be heavily dependent on being connected to the Internet, eventually running applications through the cloud.

This demand for connectivity will further change the way mini notebooks are sold. Instead of being sold by retail stores, partnerships with mobile phone operators are expected to proliferate, with devices sold in service bundles like mobile phones, using operators' cellular 3G infrastructures.

With vendors already looking at ways to overcome the challenges associated with this product category, ICT market-intelligence firm IDC believes that mini notebooks will change the way traditional notebooks are used and sold.

Windows 7

Windows 7 is expected to be available later this year. Microsoft has been attempting to improve most of the things that annoy people about Windows Vista, including user-account control, sluggishness and an interface that slows people down.

The most significant feature of Windows 7 is likely to be virtualisation, a technology that allows one computer to run operating systems or applications that used to require several different systems to handle.

With virtualisation, users will be able to run Linux, Windows 95 and DOS all on the same machine, at the same time. It will provide a lot of benefits, including energy savings, cost savings on software upgrades and accessibility to a wider range of applications.

Online applications

The Internet is becoming the platform on which all business documents can be created and, more importantly, shared.

In the year 2009, there will be more online applications. For example, Google Docs, ThinkFree Office, and Zoho are offering free online word processors, spreadsheets and presentation programs. Even Microsoft is planning to move its Office suite of productivity tools to an online format.

USB 3.0

USB has been the most successful plug-and-play connectivity standard for computing.

In 2009, USB 3.0 will be one of the highlight consumer technologies. It will boast maximum data-transfer speeds up to ten times faster than USB 2.0. With this speed, people will be able to transfer 27 gigabytes of data to an external device in about 70 seconds, when the same amount of data would have taken 15 minutes to transfer over a USB 2.0 connection. Importantly, USB 3.0 will also provide two-way communication with devices and ports. Therefore, data will be written and read simultaneously over the same connection.

Faster, More Secure Wireless

With mobile devices becoming more pervasive and finding more applications, mobile technologies that enable high user volumes, high-bandwidth voice services, seamless roaming and adaptive mesh creation, as well as industry-specific services like RFID asset tracking, will become important for businesses and consumers.

The 802.11n Wi-Fi protocol, which is expected to be finalised in 2009, will be a key to enabling all of these capabilities. Technologies based on the protocol that are already available are expected to be deployed liberally throughout the Asia-Pacific region in the coming year.

RFID-enabled mobile phones

According to research reports, it is expected that within five years, 50 per cent of mobile phones will include radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips to use near field communication (NFC), a two-way technology.

Some major cellphone manufacturers are preparing to release communication devices incorporating RFID technology with the hope that consumers will change the way they buy products and services and use their credit cards.

Information Collection and Use
ThinkFree informs the users of our site if we are collecting information directly from their electronic systems by means such as IP addresses and Cookies.

ThinkFree lets them know why you are collecting information from them. In most cases this is to customize the advertising and content seen.

Information Sharing and Disclosure
ThinkFree informs the users whether or not we sell or rent their personally identifiable information to anyone.

Security
ThinkFree.com ensure the sensitive and account information on our site password-protected for the privacy and security of our users.
 

From Marketing manager Benedict at ThinkFree.com