PDair Blog

There are many services that offer the ability to store files and information online, but of these a lot only work on specific platforms. iCloud is the obvious example, but there are others that are unable to offer a full service on every desktop and mobile platform. There then comes the natural concern over security which is something we should all be concerned about. You need to find a big name service that is trusted, has a reputation for reliability and which offers a service that works over ‘all’ of your products.

That service would appear to be Dropbox. It has been developed to work on all web browsers, even older versions of Internet Explorer, and every mobile and desktop platform. When installed on a Mac for instance, it embeds itself in the system as a new Finder folder and this makes it as easy to use as a local folder. This philosophy is also evident on Android devices with the ability to create and automatically save documents and also on the iPhone and iPad to a lesser extent. The service is completely free and comes with a healthy amount of storage, but this can be supplemented by paying a monthly fee or asking friends to sign up which will give you an extra allowance as a bonus.

All of the above is great, but what sets Dropbox apart is the way it has been built. It almost does not exist in the eyes of the user. The simplicity and lack of features makes it incredibly efficient and is an example of a service built to do one thing and no more. It executes its task perfectly and that is all it needs to do. The ability to create an online service that links devices together and which feels like a local service is something people have wanted for a long time, and now it is here.

Sometimes you need one solution for one task and no more. Dropbox is ‘the’ solution for keeping your data synchronised across devices, no matter what software platform your devices are running.

That may sound like a strange question, but it is one that is asked often. Tablets are fantastic for so many tasks and offer advantages over full computers in terms of battery performance and ease of use, but there are still many tasks that tablets cannot perform. Specialist tasks that require extra computing power and the ability to interact with keyboards, mice and the like are still beyond the reach of tablets, but there are rumours that some companies are looking to bring desktop operating systems to the tablet form.

This was tried before when tablets were first developed by Microsoft and hardware manufacturers and it would be fair to say that the experience was somewhat underwhelming. However, much time has passed and the hardware and software are now much more powerful and yet more efficient. This offers the opportunity to bring full operating systems to tablets and it is not beyond the realm to believe that Mac OS could be squeezed into an iPad. When you look at the processor, memory and resolution of the iPad, it suits Mac OS well and is not far from what we see in lower-end Mac laptops. It would not require a leap of faith to believe that Mac OS could run on an Apple tablet. After iOS is derived from Mac OS anyway.

And then there is the work Microsoft has been doing with Metro, an operating system that looks more at home on a tablet than a PC. It all seems to be heading one way; tablets today may well suit their own operating systems best, but the future could be completely different. It could be a future where you flick a switch on your tablet and choose if you want to use the desktop OS or tablet OS at any given time.

Ask yourself a question. How many apps do you use on your smartphone that require mobile data?

Chances are that it is the vast majority; calendars are often synchronised with online services and so are contacts, social networking, weather information, many games and almost any other app you use. A smartphone without mobile data is merely a tool for making and receiving phone calls in 2012 and yet this is an area that many people do not consider carefully.

Much thought is put into choosing the right phone and everything from the style to the specifications to the battery life is thought about at length. A customer will then often go to the supplier that offers the phone they want at the best price, with a presumption that the new network will work just the same as the old one. This is rarely the case.

In every area within every country, mobile network performance varies between providers and it is extremely rare for each provider to offer exactly the same performance in one area, let alone where you live, work and visit regularly. It just does not happen and in the case of mobile data, coverage is only part of the answer. Capacity is just as important to ensure that you can view the web pages you want to and speed will make a difference as well. Without capacity, coverage and bandwidth a smartphone will not perform well no matter how well specified it is.

When choosing a new smartphone, always ensure the mobile provider you choose is able to match the phone for reliability.

Upgrading to the latest smartphone is a temptation many fall for time and time again and this is probably why Phones 4 U in the UK has launched the Jump tariff which lets you upgrade your phone every six months.

Why would you want to upgrade your phone every six months? If it does what you need it to and has no obvious faults, there would seem to be no good reason to sign up to such a deal. You have to pay £15/month for the network tariff and £22.99 for the phone agreement. Total £37.99. You would pay approx. £10 extra per month and the 2 year deal rolls on each time.

The deal above will be a great solution for those who simply have to own the latest smartphone, but it raises the question of whether owning a smartphone for many months makes it more useful as you get comfortable with it. The more you use a smartphone, the more you get used to its quirks and the way it works. It becomes easy and your daily tasks are also improved. When you upgrade, you have to start all over again and get used to the new ways your new phones works.

It is a difficult question and some will always want the latest phone whereas others are content to stick with what they have. There are people in the middle who like to upgrade every year, but the number who will want a 6 monthly upgrade must be few and far between. It may create many more second-hand smartphones and damage the entire market thanks to the sheer number of relatively new smartphones available at low prices. Time will tell.

Manufacturers, software developers, mobile networks and anyone else involved in the mobile industry are always trying to find the next big thing.

It was recently believed that NFC could be what customers want; the ability to make payments without touching anything or inputting a PIN number. The reality is, however, that the advantages of such a solution are relatively minimal for the average user.

LTE, and in particular LTEA, will of course change the entire mobile industry and open up mobile devices to almost every task that we currently undertake with a home PCs. It will change everything, but the next big thing has to happen before this big thing for it to become a reality.

Battery life has to be the next big thing. Most LTE phones struggle to get through a day thanks to the demands of the improved mobile networks and many non-LTE phones and tablets have difficulty offering more than a few hours of power. This negates all of the impressive features such as high-resolution screens, top quality software and media interaction. The battery simply has to become a factor of mobile that we no longer think about.

There is only one way to take away the discussions about poor battery performance and that is to make them last for 2-3 days on one charge. We need to be able to completely forget about charging for it to become a non-issue and that has always been difficult to achieve in the race for new features that trump the competition all of the time. Features are seen as more important than practicality, but there comes a time when the practical business of using a phone sticks in the mind of the user.

Poor battery, slow performance and poor build quality are perfect setups to lessen customer loyalty. Get these three right and the customers will keep coming back.

The post-PC era is a phrase that journalists, analysts and everyone else likes to use to describe the rise of tablets, and in particular the iPad. The question of what constitutes a ‘PC’ continues however.

A personal computer is not just a machine that sits on your desk. The words alone suggest that it is something more and this means that almost any device could be classed as a ‘PC’. A tablet does email, web browsing, file creation, gaming and almost everything else a desktop PC does. Yes, there are some specialist uses that are beyond a tablet, but to change the entire definition of a tablet for this reason does not make sense. Some say that the lack of a keyboard removes a tablet from the ‘PC’ category, but adding a keyboard to a tablet is extremely easy and so that idea goes out the window as well.

Taking this further, a smartphone does everything a tablet does and many smartphones also include keyboards so the waters muddy even further. The fact is that we are not in the post-PC era. We are in an era where a PC takes many different forms and are left with mere semantics. If you consider a PC to be a desktop computer, we have of course moved on. But you would be wrong to consider a PC as only one type of device.