Today’s term-of-the-day is “cloud computing.”
In the geek world, “cloud computing” is a white-hot buzzword these days. It basically means working with files and programs that reside on the Internet, beyond your company’s walls — out there in the “cloud.”
Everyday consumers are doing cloud computing, too, maybe without even realizing it. When you use an Internet-based backup service, or Google’s online word processor or spreadsheet, or a Gmail or Yahoo mail account, you’re working with data on a secure Internet server somewhere — not on your hard drive.
Or so says David Pogue in a review of Apple’s new “cloud” service MobileMe.
NewMexiKen has been experimenting with MobileMe. It’s an improvement over dot Mac despite rough beginnings late last week. The sync function between computers is the biggest benefit — keeping your email, bookmarks, contacts and calendars the same on Macs, PCs and iPhones (and in my case an iPod touch). MobileMe is $100 a year; a 60-day free trial is available. For the $100, you get no ads, and a much cleaner web interface — to my taste Yahoo! is too cluttered, iGoogle too plain-jane.
MobileMe, of course, keeps the master copy in the — all together now class — “cloud.”