Microsoft has finally launched its Azure cloud computing platform, more than a year after it was originally announced. The software, which promises an operating system in the cloud, will be a "community technical preview" until the end of the year, and then go live for paying customers on 1 January.

The idea behind the system, which competes with Amazon's elastic computing service, is that developers will be able to build web apps on the service, and consumers will be able to store data that'll be accessible from any web connection.?The first month of the service will be free, and billing will start in February, said Microsoft's Ray Ozzie.

He added: "Customers want choice and flexibility in how they develop and deploy applications. We're moving into an era of solutions that are experienced by users across PCs, phones and the Web, and that are delivered from datacenters we refer to as private clouds and public clouds".

Azure will be priced from $0.12 to $0.96 per service hour depending on how much power you need. All virtual machines come with 1.75Gb of memory.

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Tags: Software Microsoft Azure Cloud computing Online

Microsoft's Azure cloud platform now available originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:45:42 +0000

BT has finally begun to make something of its acquisition of Ribbit in 2008. The phone company is taking names for a beta trial of a cloud phone service, which will allow any mobile users (not just BT customers) to get online access to their calls, messages and phones.

BT Business got a Ribbit for Salesforce app back in April, but this is the first time consumers have had access to the technology being offered by the cloud computing startup. It'll enable users to get a virtual, online, version of their phone to reply to emails and texts, read voicemail messages and make and receive calls from.

Ted Griggs, founder of Ribbit, said: "There are more than 60 million mobile phones in the UK today, and the Ribbit Mobile service works with most of them. You don’t need a new number or a new device, and you don’t have to download software or sign a contract. You simply activate Ribbit on your phone and go".

Interested mobile users should head over to the Ribbit Mobile site and fill in their details, though don't expect to be allocated an account until early 2010. That's when the beta test is due to start.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones BT Ribbit Cloud computing

BT begins Ribbit cloud phone beta trial originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:12:50 +0000

Disney is prepping an interesting solution that will redefine "ownership as access rights, not physical possession", reveals the Wall Street Journal.

The project, currently codenamed "Keychest", will offer cloud-based content that those who have paid to access it, across multiple platforms.

By paying a single price consumers would be granted permanent access to a movie or a TV show that they could chose to watch on-demand via a connected television, on a computer, or on the go on a similarly hooked up portable device, such as a mobile phone.

As well as addressing the modern consumer's need for flexible digital content, and falling DVD sales, the solution would mean that the content would not eat into the memory capacity of smaller portable devices, although consumers would have to be careful with data costs.

The WSJ reports: "The company has been quietly demonstrating Keychest for other movie studios and technology companies in a bid to get them to sign on".

Disney is said to be due to unveil the technology next month - we will keep you posted.

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Tags: Home Cinema Disney Video on demand Disney Keychest Software Cloud computing Storage

Disney to offer "Keychest" cloud-based solution for content across devices originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:05:15 +0100

Nvidia has announced a new graphics platform called RealityServer. Intriguingly, it's based in the cloud rather than on a big, hot, bit of silicon in your desktop case. The idea is that web apps and video games will be able to tap into a good chunk more graphics power than they normally would.

The server uses an array of graphics chips and some software developed by a company called Mental Images that Nvidia acquired in 2007. It's claimed that it can serve up quality akin to movie SFX in the browser and on mobile phones.

"This is one giant leap closer to the goal of real-time photorealistic visual computing for the masses", said Nvidia's SVP, Dan Vivoli, "mental images fully embraced the concept of GPU co-processing to enable interactive photorealism anywhere, any time – something that was science fiction just yesterday".

The platform and a development kit will be available from 30 November, but there's little in the way of applications just yet. Still - Nvidia is saying that it'll be free to deploy non-commercial applications, so we could see a boom in users when that arrives. We'll keep you posted.

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Tags: Hardware Nvidia Online Cloud computing RealityServer Graphics cards

Nvidia launches RealityServer platform originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:52:43 +0100

Vodafone has announced it has teamed up with Decho to develop a range of cloud-based services for both consumers and business customers.

Vodafone PC Backup, based on Decho's Mozy online backup service, will let customers "simply and securely" back up both work-related and personal content from their PC to a remotely hosted online location.

"Once a customer has backed-up their digital content they know it is protected and that they will always be able to access it, even if their primary device is lost, stolen or otherwise unavailable", says Vodafone.

The backed up content will be available to view and share from any connected PC, laptop or netbook.

With both business and consumer solutions available, Vodafone says the service will be introduced across a number of major European markets this year, but has not provided details of pricing or UK availability yet.

Tags: Phones Vodafone Software Cloud computing Decho Storage Hardware Biz

Vodafone PC Backup announced originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:29:48 +0100