One man's solution to data storage

Who needs access to an online service when you can buy a cloud drive and keep it on the shelf?

Killian Fox

When you try to visualise the cloud, what comes to mind? Despite knowing that the information we upload to file-hosting services such as Dropbox and iCloud is held in vast server farms in deepest Oregon or the chilliest reaches of Scandinavia, I still find myself picturing a big grey-white cumulus puff of data swirling around overhead. I suspect I'm not alone.

Now a different picture is beginning to form. Earlier this month, I tried a new "personal cloud" storage device from Western Digital. Imagine, reducing one of those server farms to an object the size of a thick paperback, which plugs into your router at home, and you've got My Cloud. It differs from a standard external hard drive in that it's networked – you can access your files remotely over mobile data or wi-fi on a variety of devices, including phones and tablets – and it differs from file-hosting services in that you are the host and your cloud is occupied only by those with whom you choose to share.

For the slightly befuddled cloud user with information strewn across a number of services – I use Dropboxand Google Drive for important documents, iCloud for music and a hard drive to back everything up – My Cloud appears attractive for several reasons. It promises tidiness, security – using 128-bit encryption to protect files in transit and password protection on the box – and accessibility at a reasonable price.

The 2TB model costs £129.99, whereas 200GB of storage on Dropbox costs £125 a year (though cheaper file-hosting options exist). It is by no means the first of its kind: network-attached storage (NAS) devices have been around for years and there are other storage products on the market offering remote access and media streaming. What sets My Cloud apart, says the manufacturer, is its accessibility, and how "cloud-centric" it is: the mobile app integrates with Dropbox and Google Drive, among others. WD are also keen to emphasise how easy it is to set up.

Back at home, I plug in the glossy white box and download set-up software from the WD website. Within minutes, it's up and running on my laptop. I upload some content: a few Talking Heads tracks, a photograph of London in the mist, an old Word document. Then I download the My Cloud app on to my phone and step outside. The interface is simple and Psycho Killer plays after a second's delay. I'm impressed. A day later I'm still impressed, though a tad beleaguered. It's my own fault for being a hoarder, but my iTunes library took 12 hours to upload, and I haven't even started on photos, videos and documents. My broadband and mobile providers are to blame for patchy service, but accessing my content, whether at home or across town, is not always so seamless. When I urge my wife to commit her entire digital existence to My Cloud, she asks what happens if the box breaks or someone steals it. Unlike some other NAS devices, My Cloud has only a single drive, which means you need an external backup in case it dies. The answer is to buy a second backup hard drive and store it in a separate location safe from theft. By the time I work this out, my wife has gone to bed.

"The big selling point with devices like these is security," says Daniel Bangs of London-based tech consultancy LeftBrain. "If you're the kind of person who isn't comfortable having your data in the cloud, then I guess it's a good idea." However, instead of making life easier, he says that the device could complicate matters, especially if you're pairing it with other cloud services and hard drives. "It's an extra piece of equipment you have to maintain. Ultimately, it's worth considering how secure you need your files to be."A week later, I'm still using My Cloud. Perhaps it's because I've invested so much time loading it up, or because the idea of having my data at home is preferable to entrusting it to some faraway corporation. Either way, it's certainly better than the patchwork arrangement I had before. And my conception of the cloud is that little bit more solid now than it was a week ago.

A mobile phone coverage map broke rules

A mobile phone coverage checker on provider 

EE's website has been ruled misleading by the advertising watchdog for not making clear that it is "only a guide".

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received a complaint from aT-Mobile customer after parent company EE reported that 3G coverage for his postcode was "excellent" when the man had no mobile phone signal at home and a poor signal outside.

The man said the results displayed when he entered his postcode read UK mobile coverage for 3G calls and internet was "excellent", with further text saying: "Fast, reliable internet access and high quality calling. Available on 4GEE, Orange and T-Mobileplans."

Text below a map, also shown, said: "This map is only a guide and not a guarantee of service availability in a particular location. It shows outdoor coverage only and may include locations where mobile devices don't work.

"As with all radio-based systems, service may be affected by a number of local factors, such as building materials, tree cover and weather conditions ..."

Each of the mobile networks have coverage checkers on their sites, which can give an indication of 2G (voice and text) and 3G (mobile broadband) coverage according to postcode.

The strength of a mobile signal varies depending on where the user lives and the service provider.

T-Mobile said the structure and design of the coverage checker was updated on July 24, and it was willing to make further amendments if it was considered necessary.

The company acknowledged the complainant had received poor coverage, but said that might be as a result of the device, the structure of his home or living in a very small area of the postcode that received poor coverage.

They also emphasised that consumers could obtain a refund if the coverage was not as expected.

Upholding the complaint, the ASA said: "We considered the ad did not make sufficiently clear that the claims that appeared under the 'coverage results' were intended as a guide and that coverage could be affected by a range of factors.

"We therefore concluded that the ad breached the code."

It ruled that the advert must not appear again in its current form, adding: "We told T-Mobile to ensure their future advertising made immediately clear the conditional nature of coverage checker results."

Is LTE available at your area

Some folks have more Gs than others, no matter what the carriers try to tell us

LTE is something that many of us will take for granted. Verizon and AT&T keep telling us about new locations, and around the world companies like Vodafone and Rogers have an impressive list oflocations they service withLTE high-speed data.

But in many areas, like the English countryside or the great plains of the United States, mobile broadband just hasn't happened. We know people live there, and enjoy their Androids as much as the people who live in New York or London or Amsterdam do — even if they don't have multi-megabit download speeds. It's time to get a measure if just what sort of service you, the AC faithful, are actually seeing from the folks you send money to every month.

There's a poll in the sidebar to the right, and it's been embedded after the break to make things easy. Let us know if you have access to LTE where you live, work and play.

IBM's Watson uses Jeopardy skills to become House-like medical diagnostician

IBM's Watson hasn't been in medical school long, but he already has two jobs. Teaming with the Cleveland Clinic, Big Blue researchers have developed WatsonPaths, a diagnosis and education project, and Watson EMR Assistant, a tool for delving deep into medical records. WatsonPaths is the more ambitious of the two, drawing on question-answering skills acquired from its Jeopardy days to examine medical cases from all angles. It'll gather data from journals, texts and on-the-job training, helping doctors improve differential diagnoses and create better treatments. When first deployed, WatsonPaths will be used as a classroom training tool after physicians have decided what's wrong with a patient, but doctors can already see its real-world potential as a clinician.

Researchers are also taking advantage of Watson's natural language talents to scour medical records with the Watson EMR Assistant project. The goal is to analyze unstructured patient records -- which can easily pass 100MB over a patient's lifetime -- with "a deep semantic understanding of the content." That'll take a lot of the grunt work out of parsing such data, letting physicians more easily see the relationship between clinical concerns, lab results and medications in order to provide better care. Despite all that prowess, Watson will mostly remain a learning tool and research project pending further development at the clinic. If the researchers are thinking primary care, however, they may want to bump its people skills.

Top ten must have app's on iPhone

Apps make the iPhone the powerful little device that it is. And Here are ten apps I want every iPhone owner to know exist.

Picking ten essential iPhone apps isn't easy, especially considering there are dozens of excellent apps, and hundreds of very good ones. Beyond the most highly acclaimed apps are ones that fit different personality types or special interest groups. I, for one, love language-learning apps and fitness apps, but I recognize that they're not everyone's cup of tea. Rather, this list aims to hit the most important apps that are applicable to just about everybody.

The ten apps on this list of must-haves covers the most basic functions most of us do with our phones: find information, get directions, communicate with others, and so on. I didn't include here apps that come preinstalled on the iPhone, even though many of those are indispensable, such as Contacts, Mail, Music, iTunes, and Calendar.

Throughout the article, you'll find links to full reviews of the apps when available, where you can often findtips on how to use the apps best, as well as any snags we found while testing them.

You can find even more recommendations for iPhone apps in our 100 Best iPhone Apps list as well as our list of the best 50 Free iPhone Apps. And if you have suggestions for other essential apps, please do share them in the comments.

—Next: Apps 1-5 >

IPHONE APPS 1-5

Awesome Note (+Todo/Calendar)

$3.99

Awesome Note (+Todo/Calendar) is among the best multi-purpose task management apps in the App Store. It gives serious list makers and task masters utilitarian tools to help them keep track of ideas and chores, and graphical customizations at nearly every turn. With customizable alerts, repeat settings, a handy calendar, and the ability to sync with Google Drive and Evernote, Awesome Note is hands-down the to-do app worth buying.

Dashlane

Free, subscription for full service optional

Dashlane is a simple and elegant password manager app for iPhone. As with any password manager, you need to set one strong password for your Dashlane account, and all other passwords can be generated (on a computer or laptop) and saved automatically to your account. From the iPhone app, you can access your login credentials and even copy and paste the encrypted passwords into apps and mobile websites when you need to use them. The app is free to download and use, but you'll hit some a few limitations with the free version. A Premium account costs $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year and includes syncing, which is a vital part of the service if you use the iPhone app. (Some legacy users are grandfathered into getting syncing with a free account.) Most importantly, Dashlane is extremely secure, keeping your information private and encrypted.

Dropbox

Free

Dropbox remains one of the best known names in the file-syncing game. For many computer users, the word "Dropbox" is synonymous with file syncing and sharing. It's been in the arena a long time, and as a result, it integrates with dozens upon dozens of other apps and services. Dropbox is a great tool for giving yourself and your collaborators access to files of all kinds, from music to videos to spreadsheets, from anywhere you have an Internet connection, courtesy of its mobile apps—including Dropbox for iPhone. If you're an existing Dropbox user, there's no question: You should have the Dropbox iPhone app.

EasilyDo

Free

EasilyDo connects to your email accounts, social media accounts, and other online spaces, then asks if you want it to automate simple tasks that you might need to do, such as post a "happy birthday" message to a Facebook friend or add contact details to your address book of someone new who has just emailed you. Some of my favorite tasks are package tracking (after you purchase an item online and receive a shipping number) and saving the contact information of a new person who has emailed you to your iPhoneContacts.

Evernote

Free

Everyone will tell you to download Evernote, but few are able to put into words why it is such an amazing service. The problem with convincing someone of Evernote's worth is it is a uniquely personal tool. Everyone uses it differently. To summarize, the free iPhone app synchronizes notes of all kinds, like text notes, audio recorded notes or voice memos, and pictures, and then makes them all highly searchable. It doesn't sound exciting, but the moment you figure out your own use case for Evernote, I swear you will never look for a replacement (the company highlights different use cases on the Evernote blog; do skim it). The app excels as a pared-down word processing program, and Evernote integrates with dozens of other iPhone apps. When it comes to staying organized, keeping track of ideas, and writing things down, Evernote for iPhone does the heavy lifting for you.

—Next: Apps 6-10 >

IPHONE APPS 6-10

Google Maps

Free

Of all the apps on my iPhone, Google Maps is among the top five that I use the most. Google Maps is still the best free map app you can get on an iPhone. You can look up addresses and get turn-by-turn directions in real time. If traffic seems like a problem, Google Maps can skirt you around it. Bicyclists in select areas will find green-highlighted routes to steer them to safer riding. Sure, there are a few improvements I'd like to see (better integration with saved map locations, for example), but Google Maps remains the best there is. It's an app every iPhone owner needs to have.

HealthTap

Free; optional in-app purchases

Sign up for a free HealthTap account, and you can ask medical professionals specific questions and expect an answer within about 24 hours. It's not for emergencies—no health and medicine apps are. It's free to ask a question, but those Q&As will be made available to other users to read. If you want to ask a question in private, ask a question of a specific doctor, and be ensured your follow-up question will be answered by the same professional, you can pay $9.99.

LinkedIn

Free

LinkedIn remains one of the most important online networks for professionals to join. The thorough iPhoneapp helps you stay on top of business relationships, job opportunities, and other career-related events like no other app. Having access to your professional network and all the details of those important relationships at your fingertips when en route to a meeting or while at a large conference is invaluable. TheLinkedIn iPhone app is an essential tool for business professionals no matter which industries are the core focus of their work.

Snapseed

Free

Snapseed is our Editors' Choice among iPhone camera apps for its non-destructive editing capabilities, powerful photo correction, localized adjustments, and many image-enhancing effects. Snapseed also works very well when it comes time to share photos, integrating with all the major social networks, and it sports a clear and innovative interface. Moreover, Snapseed is the only iPhone app that even approaches the power of desktop digital image editing software. It used to cost about $5, but it's now free. Hooray! For more camera app recommendations, see "9 Great iPhone Camera Apps."

Twitter

Free

Twitter has quickly become one of the most important destinations on the Web. Whether you use it for business opportunities, for second-screen fodder while watching television shows, news, education, or just for bantering with friends, you need the Twitter mobile app. With a clean design and simple but smart look,Twitter's own iPhone app is the one to use to reach the network.

Mobile Miscellany: week of October 7th, 2013 Mobile

If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought a sneak peek of HTC Sense 5.5, along with an exclusive HTC One in Vivid Blue to Carphone Warehouse and the beta release of Nokia Glance Background for Lumia smartphones. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of October 7th, 2013.

NOKIA GLANCE GAINS BACKGROUND IMAGERY

In exchange for a bit more battery drain, Lumia users can now gussy up their smartphone with the beta release of Glance Background. This should be familiar territory for users of Sleeping Screen on Nokia's older Symbian platform, as the app allows users to choose up to four images to showcase on the Glance screen, which provides the time and simple notifications while in a low-power state. Glance Background requires the Amber software update from Nokia, and isn't supported by the Lumia 625 or 520, but you should otherwise be in good shape to check it out. [All About Windows Phone]

HTC SENSE 5.5 LEAKS WITH CUSTOM QUICK SETTINGS

Thanks to custom ROM developer mike1986, we're now able to see a handful of the changes that HTC is cooking up for the Sense 5.5 release. First and foremost, the company is building a customizable quick settings menu, which allows users to reposition the various options such as airplane mode, auto rotate, brightness and WiFi hotspot. Sense 5.5 will also gain a new 'Do Not Disturb' mode -- also accessible from the quick settings panel -- along with the ability to disable BlinkFeed. Changes are also in store for the camera app, which introduces two new functions called Panorama+ and Dual capture, along with new emoji in the keyboard and a redesigned app switcher. [Android Revolution HD]

HTC Sense 5.5 leak

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HTC ONE ARRIVES IN VIVID BLUE AT CARPHONE WAREHOUSE

Following on the heels of Best Buy, UK shoppers now have a blue version of the HTC One to call their own. The color is described as Vivid Blue, which is close to teal and features light blue accent stripes. Carphone Warehouse is currently offering the Vivid Blue model as an exclusive, which is available for £490 outright or free on contracts of £32 or more per month -- certainly more affordable than the 18 carat gold option. [Android Central]

Microsft dropped the "RT"

Microsoft's product marketing manager for Surface, Jack Cowett, recently admitted thatMicrosoft dropped the "RT" from its latest ARM-based Surface tablet to reduce customer confusion. Microsoft reportedly blamed "customer confusion" for the lack of sales of its first-generation Surface RT model, which ended up costing the company $900 million in fiscal Q4 2013. Removing the "RT" will supposedly help alleviate that confusion even though Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 use two different architectures.

"We think that there was some confusion in the market last year on the difference between Surface RT and Surface Pro," Cowett said. "We want to help make it easier for people, and these are two different products designed for two different people."

The new Surface 2 will feature a 10.6 inch ClearType 5-point screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, powered by Nvidia's Tegra 4 SoC, 2 GB of RAM and Windows RT 8.1. Other features will include a 3.5MP camera on the front, a 5MP camera on the back, an SD card reader, Wireless N and Bluetooth connectivity, HDMI output, 32 GB or 64 GB of internal storage, and more. It will also have a new two-stage kickstand based on customer feedback from the previous model.

"We got quite a lot of really good feedback from the original Surface Pro, but one thing people said to us was, 'hey if you really want us to use this thing on your lap, you need to make it easier to use as a laptop'," he said. "We've added a second angle for the kickstand, so it's much more comfortable to use on your lap. It's a tiny change but it makes a huge difference."

The problem Microsoft will face, whether it uses "RT" in the device name or not, is that customers purchasing the Surface 2 won't be able to install their favorite x86-based desktop apps. Granted, Microsoft made a bad choice in offering Surface RT exclusively in Microsoft Stores and Microsoft's website until the end of 2012. Surface Pro's faring better (even though it costs a bit more) shows what customers seemingly want in a Windows device. Yanking the "RT" out of the device name could be seen as a little deceptive to customers who don't know the difference between ARM and x86-based architecture.

Recently, there's been a lot of talk about Microsoft moving to one storefront and eventually merging Windows Phone and Windows RT. The Windows team is even shooting for one silicon interface, one cloud service, one set of APIs and one marketplace spanning both architectures. A big push in this direction is supposedly beginning in Spring 2014, but we'll see.

Back on October 2, the Surface blog was updated with news that pre-order stock of the Surface 2 (64 GB) and Surface Pro 2 (256 GB and 512 GB) were close to selling out, even at Microsoft Stores. How many units were actually available to pre-purchase is unknown, as Microsoft will likely avoid the same overstocking misstep it took with the original Surface RT.

However, the Register reports that Microsoft only shipped a total of 2,000 Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 units to nine resellers in the UK, 1500 of which were Surface 2 models. That said, Microsoft may be "selling out" of Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 pre-purchase stock, but this stock could be highly limited in numbers.