Category: Technology

Amazon Takes Their Music to the Cloud

Amazon updated their MP3 download offerings this week with the introduction of their Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player service. The service provides 5GB of free online storage through their existing S3 cloud storage, but if you purchase an MP3 album from Amazon’s digital download store, you’ll get 20GB of space for 12 months free. Any music you purchase and have automatically saved to your Cloud Drive won’t count towards your space limit.

You aren’t limited to Amazon music, however, as you can upload your existing library with the downloadable import tool. Your complete collection can then be played through the Cloud Player website or the Android app that’s now available. No word on when or if there will be an Apple iOS app in the future.

It’s an interesting play in a world of digital downloads, and certainly one that will help draw users of iTunes and other online music stores to Amazon. On the other hand, it’s not quite the death of streaming services like Napster or Rdio.

If you find yourself buying more than one album per month, the pure streaming option these services provide may end up being cheaper, at least if you always have access to the Internet. Even in situations where your access may be limited or intermittent, such as with your smartphone, these services are now offering offline caches that allow you to store and play music while your device loses its signal.

Still, there will always be though who value owning their music outright versus streaming, even if that ownership consists of what is essentially a license to play a file downloaded from an online store.

iMovie and GarageBand on the iPad 2

When the current batch of tablet PCs came out last year, many in the tech community dismissed them as mere toys. They were labeled “consumption devices” because the conventional wisdom held that their lack of processing power and touch-based interface made content creation impossible.

With the release of the iPad 2, Apple has really made strides in proving this wrong with the iMovie and GarageBand apps available for $4.99 each. Using these two tools, I was able to both edit together some quick background music, as well as stitch together a series of photos into a video slideshow that could be edited and uploaded straight from the iPad to YouTube.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8mhgpBgHcs

Unfortunately, you cannot currently import music created in Garageband directly into iMovie. However, once you have transferred the music to iTunes on your PC, then back onto the iPad’s iTunes, you can use it in your iMovie projects. Hopefully, Apple will add this functionality in a future update, or a 3rd party app will find a way to help.

There’s no doubt that the more involved professional multimedia creation process will still require dedicated computers for years to come, but it’s amazing to me how quickly tablet PCs are opening up the world of mobile content creation for the rest of us.

Is Your Home Network Password Secure?

WTAM 1100 – Geek Squad Tech Tips for March 7th, 2011

I spoke to Bill Wills from the Wills & Snyder radio show on Cleveland’s WTAM 1100 this morning about how the proper use of passwords can help protect your home network from intruders.

With laptops, gaming systems, tablet PCs, smartphones and even HDTVs connecting to the Internet, a wireless network has become a must-have for most houses. Much like you make sure that your front door is locked, you need to keep your network protected from unwanted visitors as well.

Geek Speak: Understanding the Lingo in Electronics Stores

“Unless you are a student of the circulars – Best Buy, Electronics Expo, Sixth Avenue Electronics – good luck deciphering the hieroglyphics. It takes more than a GED to understand the definition of an LED.

What does it mean if a phone has 3Gs? Feel free to laugh at our ignorance, but do not start giggling. By our math, that would require 4Gs.

HDMI? HDM why?”

I had a chance to speak with NorthJersey.com about 3LAs – Three-Letter Acronyms – and other tech jargon you’ll find in electronics stores.