Posts Tagged ‘technology’

Microsoft Announces Unified OneDrive App

Posted: January 10, 2015 in Technology
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While at home I mostly embrace the “Mac life” at work my focus is around Microsoft technologies so I try to straddle the fence as best as possible.  One of my frustration points with Microsoft has been their disjointed technology in some cases.  You can definitely tell that their company mostly works in a silo and one group doesn’t know what the other group is doing.  I can say however that over the last year I have seen a marked improvement in the way Microsoft seems to be coming together.  Today’s topic, OneDrive.

Microsoft’s OneDrive is a cloud storage (online storage) technology similar to that of Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc.  One of my biggest complaints has been that if you are an Office 365 user, your storage is provided through “OneDrive for Business” which has a SharePoint backend and requires a totally separate app from the personal OneDrive (and to top it off, they still don’t have a OneDrive for business Mac app (supposedly releasing in preview the end of Jan. 2015.)  Good news was finally announced by Christ Jones, VP of OneDrive and SharePoint for Microsoft that they will now be consolidating down to a single sync engine for OneDrive that will allow connection to personal OneDrive as well as OneDrive for business.  The Android and Windows Phone versions have already been released and iOS is supposed to release later this month.  No word yet as to when the Windows and Mac versions will be released but I expect it to be by the end of 2015 or sometime near the release of Windows 10.

In other news announced late last year, Microsoft will also be providing “unlimited” OneDrive storage space to all Office 365 personal, education, and business customers.  If you haven’t tried out Office365, I highly recommend it.  Most Office 365 plans include the full version of Microsoft Office for up to 5 computers (as well as the version for your mobile devices and the online version which can be used from anywhere you have a compatible web browser) along with e-mail hosting and more.  One of the other features of having Office 365 is you’re always on the latest version of Office so no need to worry about costly upgrades.  All plans are available for a small monthly fee.

Sources – OneDrive Blog

Technology, a trade for privacy?

Posted: September 26, 2014 in Technology
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Everyone love’s technology these days, how could we live without it?  With the use of all the technology comes a price of a lack of privacy.  Have you ever noticed when you go in to a store that if you’re using an AT&T phone it might join “AT&T Wifi”?  To you the consumer it’s great because you don’t have to try to use your cellular data in the store and you think, “wow that’s nice of them to offer that service” but they have other motives.  Utilizing these free Wifi hotspots allows the store to track who is in their store (especially if you have that particular store’s app installed on your phone.)  For you, it’s a great convenience to have the Wifi service.  To the store it’s great because now they can track who comes in and out of their stores and when for marketing purposes.

Have you visited Disney World lately?  Disney now utilizes what they call “MagicBands” as the sole thing you need with you while visiting their parks.  These MagicBands act as your ticket, your “FastPass” for rides, and if you’re staying in a Disney resort it also acts as your room key and your charge card.  Now you may be saying, “That’s a great convenience!”  Well, you’re right it is (for you and for Disney.)  These MagicBands utilize RFID (radio frequency identification) similar to the proximity cards that most places use to access doors.  This technology, when scanned, allows Disney to also know exactly where you are at the point of use.  They can utilize this data to track your spending habits, ride preferences, you name it!  Again with more and more convenience comes the loss of more and more privacy.

So next time you get ready to use that “convenient” new technology, ask yourself, What privacy am I giving up to utilize this?

Food for thought!

Reference articles:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/26/ios-8-location-privacy-analysis/

http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/02/disney-nsa-style-magic-bands-theme-park/