As Published In
Oracle Magazine
November/December 2012

UPFRONT: Mash Up

  

Mash Up

News • Views • Trends • Tools

  

Navigation Apps

Cloud Confusion


About half of Americans surveyed are hazy on what cloud computing really is. In a survey of more than 1,000 adults, 51 percent of respondents said that stormy weather can interfere with cloud computing.
Source: Wakefield Research for Citrix
You’re not limited to the navigation apps that come with your phone. Hit the road with these alternatives.

CoPilot
This app’s main feature is its ability to chart a course without a data connection. Plus, tap anywhere on the map to navigate there.
US$3.99 to US$43.99. copilotlive.com

MapQuest

book cover “The impact and almost magic ripple effect of a well-crafted and beautifully delivered three-minute elevator speech in today’s changing and challenging market cannot be denied.”

— Terri L. Sjodin, author of Small Message, Big Impact: The Elevator Speech Effect (Portfolio/Penguin, 2012)
This app puts points of interest on the main screen, provides turn-by-turn spoken directions, and updates traffic info every five minutes.
Free. mapquest.com

MotionX-GPS Drive
This soup-to-nuts navigation app shows your speed limit, advises you which lane to take at complicated intersections, and connects to social media sites and your address book.
US$1. drive.motionx.com

Waze
A “social mobile” app, Waze collects traffic, accident, speed trap, and other info in real time from its users and builds it into dynamic maps. The more users in your area, the better.
Free. waze.com

Looxcie-helmet

Live Stream Minicam

What’s better than recording video of your latest adventures on the trail, river, mountain—or in the conference room? Streaming it live via 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi with the Looxcie HD wearable camera. Simply attach the small camera to a headband, hat, or helmet, wirelessly sync the camera with the Looxcie iOS or Android phone app, and you are ready to broadcast. Looxcie HD also lets you connect directly to Facebook through

VelociRaptor
its companion apps. Applications include live blogging, teaching a workshop, collaborating with a team, and sharing your outdoor exploits. Looxcie HD can also do video capture and sharing with full 1,080p recording.
US$299.. looxcie.com

Data Transfer Dynamic Duo

If you work with large media files on a Mac, you probably know that external drives can create a bottleneck due to low rpm and low data transfer speeds. Western Digital My Book VelociRaptor Duo solves this problem with an elegantly designed external enclosure packed with two WD VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM drives and dual Thunderbolt ports that move data at transfer rates of up to 10 Gb/sec in both directions. This allows data to travel both ways without compromising bandwidth. VelociRaptor can be set up as RAID 1 (mirroring for data protection), or JBOD (“just a bunch of disks”) to use as two individual drives.
US$899.99. bit.ly/PX1ILM

Clouds in the Forecast

Of the more than 400 IT professionals responding to a recent survey, 51 percent have or are planning private clouds. Other key findings:

clouds

99% of those with private clouds describe their initiatives as successful
45% of nonadopters believe private clouds could deliver a compelling technical advantage
38% of those starting private cloud projects expect to spend 21% or more of their IT budgets on the initiative
38% of respondents will cobble together individual projects despite 31% citing a lack of standards as a roadblock
16% of respondents starting private cloud projects will buy a preconfigured bundle

Source: Information Week Reports, Private Cloud Vision vs. Reality

  

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