Winchester Computer Tutor
  • Home
  • How can I help?
    • The basics
    • Next steps
  • About me
  • Ann's thoughts
  • Useful things!
    • Software
    • Shortcuts
    • Links
  • Charges
  • Contact me

30/1/2019

The Cloud

0 Comments

Read Now
 
I’ve rebranded my column from Computer Corner to Tech Talk. Why? To reflect how computers have evolved from “the PC sitting on your desk” to “the tech you carry around all day”.

Think back to the days when the family would crowd round (or fight over) the only computer in the house. When you used dial-up internet and waited for 10 minutes for a song to download. How things have changed. Now, you catch up with your favourite shows on iPlayer while tweeting on your tablet and messaging on your phone. Then you jump onto your laptop to do some research or your console to play a game with friends. Switching from wifi to mobile data, you carry on regardless of whether you’re in the house, on the bus or even half-way up a mountain.

Interestingly, this was Apple’s dream back in the early eighties. “What we want to do at Apple, is we want to put an incredibly great computer in a book that you can carry around with you and learn how to use in 20 minutes ... And we really want to do it with a radio link in it so you don’t have to hook up to anything and you’re in communication with all of these larger databases and other computers.” One of the keys to the success of this dream is the communication with the “other computers” or what we now term the Cloud.

The Cloud still has an air of mystery but is just a short way of saying “software and services that run on the Internet, instead of locally on your computer” (Re/code). With the average broadband speed now 825 times faster than that old dial-up connection, it’s now not an issue to store huge amounts of data elsewhere and access it on the fly.

So, when you store pictures on Google photos, you’re using the Cloud. When you read email on your iPad, you’re using the Cloud. When you post to Facebook, ask Siri a question, update a shared document, stream a Netflix movie … well, you get the idea!

Using the Cloud means that, whichever device you have to hand, you can carry on exactly where you left off. Of course, it helps if the apps you use synchronise across all your devices. If you’re invested in the Apple world, you should find that everything works beautifully. And Windows and Android play nicely together, a cooperation that I imagine will only get stronger as Microsoft is moving to use Google’s software in its Edge browser.

“Cloud is about how you do computing, not where you do computing.” Enjoy the freedom that it brings.

Share

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

Details

    Archives

    March 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    March 2015
    November 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Bereavement
    Browers
    Charity
    Chrome
    Email
    Environment
    Fact Checking
    Fonts
    Gaming
    Genealogy
    Government
    How_to
    Images
    Learning
    Lifehacks
    Malware
    Outlook
    Phishing
    Security
    Support
    Thunderbird
    Windows

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • How can I help?
    • The basics
    • Next steps
  • About me
  • Ann's thoughts
  • Useful things!
    • Software
    • Shortcuts
    • Links
  • Charges
  • Contact me