Storage in the Cloud

These days when Internet connections are fast and everywhere, saving data on local hard drive is rapidly becoming obsolete. Many applications are already running on external servers rather than on the user's computer as well. It's a very fascinating scene - it gives the freedom to save data/apps in one place but use it anywhere, on multiple devices from desktop computers to phones.

"Cloud" services as such aren't entirely a new thing, however. I'd imagine e.g. Picasa Web Albums can be counted as one and I've been using it for years. But it's been a very specific service. Today, there are fully functional web-apps, vast amount of services but also plain and simple cloud storages, They've been around for some time too, but now their use among regular users are exploding, thanks to the extremely user-friendly interfaces (e.g. Dropbox) and system level integration in Mac OS X (iCloud) and upcoming Windows 8 OSes (SkyDrive).

I don't have experience from iCloud (even though I use a Mac), but I've been getting familiar with SkyDrive since I use it a lot on my phone. In fact, I am slowly moving away from physically connecting the phone to my Mac to transfer images and videos, I simply save them from my phone to my SkyDrive folders and they're safe there even if something happened to my phone. SkyDrive actually has automatic image back-up from the phone, but I don't use that (I want to trash bad pics immediately). Same functionality is in iCloud backing up your docs, apps, music, pics etc. automatically. So even if your back-up hard drive was destroyer along with your device, the stuff will still be safe on servers far away, and you can fetch the stuff back. Pretty cool!

Left: SkyDrive app on Windows Phone 7.5. Right: Dropbox icon in Mac OS X.

My version of OS X cannot run SkyDrive application so I can't tell about that, but browsing through the files and folders and uploading stuff is pretty convenient through web browser as well. Dropbox, on the other hand is fantastically integrated into OS X desktop itself, it appears as if it was a local folder. Just drag and drop files and they'll synch into cloud! Ready for you to use on different platforms whenever necessary.

So if you're thinking about getting a back-up hard drive or a new USB-memory stick, think again, they might not be necessary at all! Most of the big players in tech industry are now offering some sort of cloud storages/services, mostly for free! You should check them out.

Update: Google Drive went official today so it joins the competition of the largest Cloud storages. Engadget has put up a nice comparison table
 

Links:

SkyDrive from Microsoft
Dropbox
iCloud from Apple
Google Drive from Google

Titanic - A Night to Remember

April 14th-15th 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the tragedy of Titanic. The world's most luxurious ship sank after hitting an iceberg on it's maiden voyage taking over a thousand lives to a chilling grave. Still today, the story of the "unsinkable" ship remains perhaps the most notorius in naval history. I want to commemorate the occasion as I have always been keen on history and the Titanic disaster became familiar to me after seeing James Cameron's Titanic and reading the book "A Night to Remember"by Walter Lord.

First off I want to give big credit for Cameron and his grande movie. It is a true masterpiece of motion picture. Honestly, I didn't fancy the teen love story in it as I'm not much into romantic movies. To many, just mentioning the movie brings fanatic emotions either for or against Leonardo DiCaprio. To me, the movie was much more important as a whole than just pondering if Leo is an annoying brat or not. I think the setting is perfect for a love tragedy because there was so much tragedy altogether; the plain bad luck that the ship had, the lack of lifeboats, the class distinction and so forth. Just looking at the list of survivors tell you the sad story of how badly 3rd class passengers where treated and I think all that was well told in the movie.

I like it how the movie combines historical drama, action and even some humor. Some times the mix seems to be a little too "Hollywoodish", but mostly I think Cameron handled the story with a great respect to the real events. I must recommend reading the fantastic 1955 book "A Night to Remember" by Walter Lord. It tells the story of the Titanic based on the survivors' stories and strictly based on fact. No additional drama is needed, I might add. Titanic had real-life heroes and real-life villains (or cowards to say the least) and what I really like about the movie is how well they and their deeds are represented. I did a school study about the movie and researched the backgrounds of the people in the small side roles in the movie and they are very recognizable, they even look like their real-life models!

So if you are planning on going to see the Titanic 3D version or just play it from your old DVD, read the book first! It makes the movie much more interesting and (if possible) even more tragic as you know that some of the good people in the movie were real and did their best till the very end.

I recently read how James Cameron changed the starry sky in the movie to match the actual sky on that fateful night at the place of the sinking after having a note from astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson. I think that just shows what kind of a perfectionist Cameron was with this movie project. No regular viewer will even notice the stars have changed places, but as a gesture it's awesome.

May the story of Titanic live on, it truly is a night to remember. Safe journeys.

Image: Paramount Pictures/AP Photo

Lumia 800 software update rolling out

As I'm writing this post, the much awaited software update (version 1600.2487.8107.12070) for Nokia Lumia 800 is being installed on my phone. The update should significantly improve the battery performance and it also includes some usability improvements and fixed bass audio levels.

Update instructions can be found from Nokia's Lumia 800 Software Update page. The availability page there is also pretty neat, now I know for certainty that my Lumia 800 is a German Country Variant 059L7F7 (I bought it from Amazon Germany unlocked) =)

More background information about the update procedure itself at can be read at Nokia Conversations.

The battery has drained out quite quickly before now, which is why I previously posted some battery saving tips. Extra battery life is most welcome, but I'm still more anxiously waiting for the future updates that should be on their way, including camera software fixes + tethering support.

6609 games later - Halo: Reach

Wohooo! On Friday 23 March 2012 I finally reached the max rank of Inheritor in Halo: Reach, after a whopping 6609 games! =D Reward: the haunted helmet. Price: weeks and weeks of time sacrificed for the cause. Since the game has played a big role in my life for the last years I figured achieving the max rank was worth a little sparkling wine!

Becoming Inheritor doesn't actually mean I'd be among the top skilled players, not at all. If anything it only tells that I've spent ALOT of time playing the game =) I can honestly say I'm only about average+ player by my skills, perhaps party because of my playing style - I just want to rush into battle (foolishly) and have fun instead of hiding in distance and sniping the enemy players.

Reaching the end of the line is something I never believed I could achieve when I started playing the game over 1,5 years ago. But now I'm there, the journey is finished and new challenges await - not in Halo: Reach, but in Halo 4 that is coming out later this year. Looking forward to that!

Thank you Bungie and 343 Industries for the great moments I've had over the thousands and thousands of games played!

If you're interested, you can see my Halo: Reach stats page

Tracking ships, planes and satellites!

It's inspiring to live in a world where technology and the internet have revolutionized the easiness of sharing information - and made vast amount of knowledge available to everyone. There's actually so much information that quite a bunch of it is totally useless too. But even useless stuff can be cool and that's what this post is about.

Have you ever wondered where that big jet flying in the skies high above you is actually heading? It's possible to find out with Flightradar24.com! It's kind of amazing that an average Joe is able to track all the flights and see their real-time position on the map. For years, I've suspected that an intercontinental route is going just above my hometown of Rauma, and checking out Flightradar a couple of times has proven that - there's planes going from especially Japan, Dubai to USA. So, check out the site and watch the skies from a new perspective =)

  People suffering from lost sense of balance and vomiting, must be the Baltic Sea...
or Tallink Silja ferries!

But it doesn't end there! If your friends are on a ship, say, like the "Swedish ferries" going from Turku and Helsinki to Stockholm, you can stalk the exact locations of their party boat. Or, if you're about to head out to enjoy the archipelago, you just might as well check out if the big ships are going to pass you by for a nice photo shoot! Track the ships with Marinetraffic.com

And finally, you can even track the satellites orbiting the Earth! For a reasonable, satellite specific tracking you can check out www.n2yo.com. If you want to to see all of the satellites, you can check out Google Earth Blog page that utilizes the 3D map view familiar from Google Earh. It tracks 13 000 satellites! Makes you wonder how many big brothers are there, watching down upon us? =D

Creative Studio for Nokia Lumia phones

Nokia recently released Creative Studio, a simple yet very useful image capturing and editing tool for the Lumia Windows Phones. And it's free! Here is a quick look into it.

The app features a basic set of effects and editing capabilities, both for new pictures or pictures from your image albums. To me, however, the most precious feature is the panorama shooting mode that enables you easily to stitch four photos into a single panorama image. It's really fast and easy to use plus it's quite accurate (assuming the gyroscope sensor in your phone is ok).

Another cool feature of Creative Studio is the possibility to preview "face warp" and "live styles" effects on your phone's screen while pointing the camera on your desired target. Then, if you like what you see, just tap on the screen or the press the camera button to capture an image.

Taking photos is basically lag-free, even when taking the panorama shots. After you've taken a photo, in either regular mode, panorama mode or some of the live styles, you can choose to further edit the picture and repeat editing as many times as you see fit. You can also compare "before and after" before applying the effects. Only after you're done editing and hit Save, the effects are applied to full size images and it takes a few seconds.

Here's a few sample photos taken and edited with Creative Studio:

If you have a Nokia Lumia phone, you can (and should!) download Creative Studio from the Windows Phone Marketplace. It sort of combines different apps you might be using at the moment (image editing apps / panorama apps) and it definitely will be my #1 photo shooting app for the time being.

End note: One thing I've been dreaming about since I got my Lumia 800 is a panorama feature built-in with the actual camera app of the phone (like it was featured in HTC Radar). Now I've got a good panorama mode but in separate app. Luckily, the camera wizard at Nokia, Damian Dinning, has confirmed that a panorama feature is coming as a built-in feature in the near future so I really look forward to that too!

Windows Phone 7 lock screen wallpapers

I've noticed some cool WP7 wallpapers shared around on different tech blogs. Since I like taking photos and use them as my phone's lock screen background, I figured why not put the images here so everyone can use them if they will =) So, if interested, click on the image below to see a gallery of 480x800 pixel wallpapers for your Windows Phone!

Updated 1 April 2012: Added a bunch of new photos to the gallery of WP7 lockscreen wallpapers:

Windows Phone wallpapers (480x800 pixels)

PS. I might add new pictures some day to that same folder so keep visiting it every once in a while if you like my photos!