Cloud computing - is it safe?

Many people say that the next big thing is cloud computing and that we will all be using it sooner or later, if not already. The term 'cloud computing' means the internet and in some ways it is a return to the old days where large computers in a company held data and software and everyone accessed it through cheap dumb terminals.

It's slightly different now because the internet has made large computing centres open to the general public and not just selected employees in a company. There are many online storage services that offer to store your files, webmail for email, photo sharing and video sharing, online applications like word processors and spreadsheets, and so on.

We are increasingly being tempted by offers to look after our files and cool online applications, but these are early days in cloud computing and not all services that are around now will be around next year or the year after. The problem is that running these online cloud computing services is expensive and it's hard to make a profit. You can only carry on making a loss for so long.

Xdrive, an online storage company that you can use to store files, has recently announced that it is to close. It is not the first to close and it won't be the last. When you use one of these services to store files, for email, photos, or whatever, and they close, it can be very frustrating. How are you going to get all your files/photos/email off the service? Can you transfer them to another service? What if you didn't see the closure notice and everything was deleted? It's enough to put you off cloud computing.

At the moment it is not recommended to store your files/email/photos or whatever online without an offline backup just in case the service closes or has a serious fault and loses your data. If you don't want to do this, at least use two different companies so that if one shuts down you will still have your files/photos/email at the another.

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How much RAM does your Mac need?

If you are thinking of buying a new Mac, how much RAM should you get? A 20in iMac comes with 1Gb of memory, but when you select it in the store you can choose to upgrade it to 2Gb or 4Gb. Is the 1Gb in a basic iMac adequate or do you need more, and if so, how much?

The amount of memory you need depends on the applicatations you want to run. OS X runs OK in 1Gb and about half that will be free after booting up. However, when you start running applications they can use up quite a lot of memory. Among the most memory hungry applications you can run are the virtual machines that let you run Windows on your Mac, such as VirtualBox, Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. They run very poorly on a 1Gb Mac and you need at least 2Gb, with 4Gb being the best.

These aren't the only applications that need a lot of memory and there are others. To prevent OS X from slowing to a crawl due to insufficient memory you should have at least 2Gb. If you can afford it you will find that a 4Gb Mac runs the fastest.

Going back to the question of how much RAM should you buy in your new Mac, I recommend the absolute minimum. Get the basic 1Gb in an iMac. Why? Well the problem is that Apple charges four times the price of other companies for memory modules. Apple charges £50 per gigabyte of memory. Go to the store and click the button to buy an iMac - increasing the RAM from 1Gb to 2Gb costs £50 and upping it from 1 to 4Gb is £150.

If you go to a memory supplier like Crucial you'll be charged just £12 per gigabyte. So 4Gb of memory for your iMac will cost just £47, which is less than just 1Gb extra from Apple (and you'll have a spare 1Gb when you replace it with the 2x2Gb modules). Did someone mention 'Apple Tax' recently?

I like Macs, but I dislike the prices that Apple charges, particularly over here in the UK.

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Apple's new laptops are expensive

After much rumour and speculation Apple has at last launched its new range of laptops - 13in MacBooks and 15in MacBook Pros. They look fantastic and the new styling is superb. The Nvidia graphics chipset is most welcome too. However, I can't help feeling depressed and the problem is the prices.

There was talk of cheap laptops, but instead of the prices coming down, they have actually gone up! Doesn't Apple realise that we are in the middle of a credit crisis and that people are severely cutting down on the amount they spend, especially on luxuries. I fear that Apple's market share will fall instead of increasing - at least here in the the UK and Europe.

To see what I mean, go to the Apple UK store and check out the prices. The new 2.0GHz 13in MacBook, which has a slower processor than the old model, costs £949. Now that is $1,654 (depending on the exchange rate). Wasn't there talk of an $800 laptop only a week or two ago? What happened? We're paying double that here in the UK. Looking at the other end of the range, the new 2.53GHz 15in MacBook costs £1,749, which is over $3,000!

MacBook
13in/2.0GHz = £949
13in/2.4GHz = £1,149
15in/2.4GHz = £1,399
15in/2.53GHz = £1,749

The US prices are much lower, which is why I'm so disappointed with these new laptops. For example, you'll pay just £829 for the 13in/2.0GHz in the US, which is £120 cheaper than we're paying here in the UK.

If you have any FireWire devices like a camcorder or external hard disk drive, you'll find that you won't be able to use them with the new MacBook because the FireWire port has been dropped. Some people have commented that that is enough to put them off upgrading to the new MacBooks. And you'll need to buy an adapter to use a monitor because there's a new type of display port on the new MacBook.

Of course, there is still the old-style white plastic MacBook and there's a single 2.1GHz model with DVD-writer and 1Gb of RAM for £719 ($1,260). However, this means that the cheapest Mac laptop has risen in price and it's now £20 ($35) more expensive than it was previously.
It is interesting to speculate which MacBook is the best to buy right now. Go to the store at the Apple website and you can buy a new MacBook with 2.0GHz processor, 2Gb RAM, SuperDrive, 160Gb hard disk, no FireWire for £949 ($1,654), or you can pop into your local high street store where they are still selling the old MacBooks and the new stock hasn't arrived and get a 2.4GHz processor 2Gb RAM, SuperDrive, 160Gb hard disk, with FireWire for £829 ($1,453). This old MacBook looks good value for money and I'd snap one up immediately before the old stock is replaced with the new kit.

A 13in/2.4GHz MacBook has risen from £829 ($1,453) to £1,149 ($2,001), which is a 39% price increase.

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Windows 7 is looking good

Windows Vista was released two years ago in November 2006, at least to business users, although it wasn't available to the general public until January 2007. Vista is two years old, so why am I still running XP? I'm not the only one and there are huge numbers of XP users who are sticking with the old operating system. Does this make Vista failure?

One of the reasons why many people have not made the switch to Vista is that XP is actually much better than anyone realised. It's a great operating system that runs on any hardware and there's a wide range of software and hardware devices for it. It's not 100% secure, but there are many security products to choose from and some of them are free. It's not 100% stable, but crashes are rarer than some people make out.

Another reason why XP continues to be used is that there doesn't appear to be any software that is Vista-only. If there were even just a few must-have applications or features that only worked on Vista, then a lot more people would upgrade.

Will Windows 7 be better? Yes. In fact, it looks fantastic. Everything I have seen and read about this new operating system is superb and once it hits the stores you will want to upgrade. Underneath it is still Vista, but Vista is actually a good operating system. In 2009 when Windows 7 is likely to be released PC hardware will be much faster than when Vista was launed three years previously, so it will be quick and responsive.

The main differences between Vista and Windows 7 is in the user interface. I don't mean the Aero look, but the tools and utilities that are bundled with it. For example, Paint and WordPad have been given an Office 2007-style make-over and sport new ribbon bars. New taskbar features and Star menu make it easier to access files and applications, gadgets are no longer in a sidebar and are on the desktop, libraries enable you to group documents into virtual folders (a bit like photo organisers let you create albums from images located anywhere on the disk), icons that show stacks of photos, simpler networking and sharing features, easier sharing of devices and media files, and more. There are a zillion new features and they are all to do with making Windows simpler, easier and more fun.

I won't go into detail about the changes because others have done it better, and besides, I don't have a copy of the beta anyway. However, you should check out some of the excellent sites on the web that are covering Windows 7, such as Paul Thurrott's. See part 2, part 3 and part 4 in particular.

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