CLOUD: Google’s new “Remind Me”

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/check-out-googles-new-remind-me-feature-for-tv-shows-authors-and-more/

Check out Google’s new “Remind Me” feature for TV shows, authors, and more
Easily follow your favorite media properties in Google Now.
by Ron Amadeo – Aug 30 2013, 5:51pm EDT

*** begin quote ***

The “Remind Me” button works in search results on mobile and desktop, and the cards will show up in the Google search app for Android or iOS. You can view and remove your current reminder subscriptions from the “My Reminders” setting in Google Now or by searching for it again.

A reminders app is always useful, but a cloud-powered reminders app has more potential. Here’s hoping Google adds a bunch more supported categories (like sports teams). App integration would be great, too. Just scan my Play Music library for all favorite artists and add them as reminders. This should be live for everyone by now, so try searching!

*** end quote ***

After the Google Reader fiasco, I am reluctant to get excited about ANY Google “service”.

Plus TV is dependent upon which market and service you’re in at any given time.

And, a “reminder” to watch TV is counter to the whole “turn of the boob tube” meme.

Now a better way to stalk … err, I mean, track Taylor Swift’s << @twsift13 #tswift13 #tswift >> activities. That could be useful to this fat old Swiftie.

# – # – # – # – #   

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CLOUD: Yahoo keeps changing their UI

Monday, September 2, 2013

Argh!

Is there a rule that the UI of a cloud service has to change to something incomprehensible?

argh!

# – # – # – # – #   

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CLOUD: Nothing is as unbelievable as an “eternal” promise

Monday, August 19, 2013

Dear F John,

We’re writing to let you know what we are shutting down the 1000memories.com website.

Archived versions of your memory pages will remain up indefinitely at the following links:

– Evlynn Mahoney Reinke – http://archive.1000memories.com/people/4744-evlynn-mahoney-reinke/memories

We have also created two ways for you to export your photos that can be used until September 15, 2013:

– Export to Ancestry by visiting 1000memories.com/export.
– Download a ZIP file of all your photos here

We regret that this decision will adversely affect many people, but we are excited to continue serving many of you at Ancestry.com. Since being acquired last fall, we’ve launched a beautiful way to tell your ancestors’ life stories as well as a new and improved version of our Shoebox mobile app. We will now be working toward a new photo-sharing experience on Ancestry.com.

We can’t thank you enough for your support and input over the last several years. If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at contact@1000memories.com.

Sincerely,

The 1000memories.com team

# – # – # – # – #   

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CLOUD: A feature I didn’t know about

Saturday, August 10, 2013

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2013/08/google-timer.html

August 5, 2013
Google Timer

The desktop Google Search has a cool feature: search for [set timer for 5 minutes] and you’ll see this interactive timer box. You can stop the timer, reset it and Google even has a notification sound you can disable.

# – # – # – # – #   

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CLOUD: MSN TV RIP

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

http://allthingsd.com/20130706/microsoft-quietly-shuts-down-msn-tv-once-known-as-webtv/

Microsoft Quietly Shuts Down MSN TV, Once Known as WebTV
JULY 6, 2013 AT 7:31 PM PT

*** begin quote ***

Microsoft said that its MSN TV service will be closing down at the end of September, in a post on its Web site and in an email to users.

*** end quote ***

So what do you do with the now worthless hardware that you bought?

Argh!

This doesn’t bode well for ANY cloud User. Even if you pay, it may disappear.

# – # – # – # – #   

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CLOUD: You can’t count on it being there

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

http://www.chromestory.com/2013/05/scratchpad-is-moving-to-google-keep/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChromeStory+(Chrome+Story)

Scratchpad Is Moving to Google Keep
By Dinsan Francis, 11/05/2013

In a no-surprise-here move, Google has made it official that Scratchpad will be moved to Google Keep. This was an expected change because Google stopped development on the official note taking app Scratchpad a couple of months back.

# – # – #  

Use these things at your own peril. If you don’t own it, then you better be prepared for it to disappear some day. Google Reader going away is a big loss for me.

# – # – # – # – #   

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CLOUD: My alumni twitter account was suspended

Saturday, May 11, 2013

“Your account (@jasperjottings) is currently suspended. For more information, please visit Suspended Accounts.”

No reason given. 

Maybe it was a hack.

Sigh! 

Time to change passwords on everything?

# – # – # – # – #   

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CLOUD: “Stealing” your photos!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

*** begin quote ***

Dear CNET members,

Imagine this: you’re at a beach in Hawaii, snapping photos of your family having the time of their lives. Later, you upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site to show your family and friends on your social network, not giving it a second thought. Two years from now, you go to a travel site to book another trip to Hawaii, and lo and behold, you see a familiar-looking photo in an advertisement for the Hawaii resort you are looking into. You look a bit closer and you realize that in the advertisement is a picture of your kids at the beach that you took two years ago! You wrack your brains trying to figure out how it happened, who did it, and why.

If you think this scenario is a bit frightening or just can’t be, you better take note of this report by CNET writer Declan McCullagh: “Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos.” Declan reports that with the first major policy shift since Facebook bought the photo-sharing site, Instagram claims the right to sell users’ photos without payment or notification. And if you don’t opt out of this by deleting your Instagram account by January 16, you can’t opt out of it afterward.

So what do you think of this new policy? Do you care that your photos could potentially be used or sold for commercial purposes without being notified? Or do you believe that this is just part of business, and because it’s a free site and the photos that you post on Instagram are made public, this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone? If you are a user of Instagram, are you going to opt out before the deadline? If you aren’t a user of Instagram, does this change how you would use photo-sharing sites in general, and how so? Read Declan’s article and share how you feel!

Lee Koo

Community manager

*** end quote ***

I’ve advise “correspondents” to drop this in favor of the many equivalents.

Not that anyone listens to me.

I wonder how legally defensible the ownership claim could be.

Considering standing and notice.

(I’m not a lawyer; nor do I play one on TV.)

Like shrinkwrap licenses, I think Judge Judy will side with me.

(At least, I hope so. I’d hate to look like a bozo on TV.)

Surprised the politicians haven’t extracted campaign contributions to “permit” this?

FWIW

–30–

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CLOUD: GOOGLEHEALTH rip

Sunday, December 23, 2012

*** begin quote ***

This is an important Google Health service announcement. You are receiving this email because you have an active Google Health account.

As we announced in June, 2011, the Google Health service will be discontinued as of January 1, 2013. After that date, any remaining data in your Google Health account will be permanently deleted, and you will no longer be able to access or download any data from Google Health.

If you want to keep using the data you have stored in Google Health, you will need to take action before December 31st, 2012 to download it or transfer it to another online health service. We’ve made this easy for you. All you have to do is:

– go to the Google Health site at https://health.google.com

– log in with your Google account

– follow the on-screen instructions to download your information and close your Google Health account.

For more information, see our help center article at http://www.google.com/support/health/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1347989

Note that, if you log in to Google Health, and are not given an option to download your data, it means that you do not have any data stored in Google Health and you do not need to do anything more.

If you have not retrieved your Google Health data by January 1, 2013, it will be removed from Google’s systems and permanently and irrevocably deleted. Google will be unable to recover any Google Health data for any user after this date.

For more details on the discontinuation of Google Health, see our blog post at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-on-google-health-and-google.html, and see answers to frequently-asked questions at http://www.google.com/intl/en/health/faq.html.

Note: you will continue to receive periodic service announcements as long as you have an active Google Health account. If you do not wish to receive further announcements, simply go to https://health.google.com and follow the process to download your data (if desired) and delete your Health account.

Thank you for your support and use of Google Health.

The Google Health Team

*** end quote ***

ANYTIME, you have something for “free”, you’re at risk of having “your” data repurposed. Or like Bloomberg did to Merrill Lynch, sold back to you.

“Free” can disappear anytime.

So, the inet is NOT the be all and end all of stuff.

It’s more like a casino or con game.

If you’re not paying for it, it’s not “yours”. And, don’t EVER forget it.

–30–

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: GIST goes bye bye; don’t depend on anything in the cloud?

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Gist
We started Gist in 2008 to make connecting with your key contacts faster and easier to help you create stronger business relationships. In February of 2011, we become part of Research In Motion (RIM) to bring the Gist vision to millions of BlackBerry customers. Since our acquisition we built the BlackBerry Playbook Contacts app and more recently, our team has been tasked with creating the native address book/contact manager for the next generation platform, BlackBerry 10.

In addition to our core focus on the Contacts app, we have been given expanded responsibility for everything social at RIM including BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook and Twitter apps and instant messaging as well as much of the identity platform, location services and user analytics features.

With all this responsibility, we feel even more empowered to deliver a truly unique and amazing experience for aggregating, enhancing and connecting you deeply with your key contacts. All of this feels pretty exciting, but you may have noticed limited innovation on the core Gist product offering over the last year. In an effort to make the most of our new focus, we have, with heavy hearts, decided to shutdown the stand-alone Gist service. Sigh.

As of today, we are no longer accepting new users and Gist.com will officially be closing on September 15, 2012. Click here to read the blog post and learn how to get your data out of Gist so you can transition to another service.

Thanks,
The Gist Team
http://www.gist.com

# – # – #  

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #   

Leave a Comment » | CLOUD, SERVICE | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

Next Entries »