drag2share: Virsto Has Better Storage Virtualization for VMware, HyperV

Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2012/01/virsto-has-better-storage-virt.php

Back last summer, Virsto announced the beta support of vSphere for what it is now calling its storage hypervisor. That has now been released, along with a second version of its HyperV product. Both Virsto products automatically thin provision your storage repositories, and also make your storage vastly scalable and easier to replicate, backup and clone.

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This is no small accomplishment, and can have big implications. One of their customers has saved a million dollars per year using their software. That is because virtual storage pools often waste a lot of the room in the process. What is impressive about both products is how carefully the Virsto engineers have adopted the native management frameworks: The vSphere version integrates into the vCenter management console and comes with rapid provisioning wizards to make setup easier. And the HyperV version integrates into the Microsoft Management Console interface. V2 for HyperV has an updated user interface, supports storage tiers, and has a utility that makes it easier to recover a snapshot of the entire Virsto environment for disaster recovery purposes. It also includes better integration with Veeam's VDI product line.

Both make it easier to clone VMs, taking minutes rather than hour with competing products. Above is a screencapture showing the VDI deployment utility. In tests using IOmeter, Virsto's storage delivered nearly a 10x performance improvement in terms of I/O response time. Pricing starts at $15,000 per terabyte managed.

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drag2share: 87% Of Connected Consumers Prefer Websites & Mobile Sites Over Apps

Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/87_of_connected_consumers_prefer_websites_mobile_s.php

Welcome to the connected consumer. This person most likely has a tablet and smartphone, and is constantly connected to their friends via Facebook. Today, more than 60% of 25-34 year-olds (Gen-Y) own a smartphone. One in three online consumers will buy a tablet by 2014. That's a lot to digest at once, right? A new survey from Zmags investigates the connected consumer and their digital habits.

Only 4% of these consumers use branded apps. Eighty-seven percent prefer to use websites and mobile sites. This is good news for the so-called tablet commerce revolution (can a consumer movement be rightly called a "revolution"? I shudder), which suggests that tablet owners are using tablet-optimized websites like Amazon.com. But this connected consumer is not a Gen-Y. She is...wait for it...a 40-something-year-old woman.

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The survey also cites Facebook as an untapped opportunity: More than 75% of connected consumers are also active Facebook users. We have written before about how Facebook is not and will not become a mall. Even though 50% of consumers are logged into Facebook while shopping on an e-commerce site and 40% are engaged with brands' fan pages, this doesn't mean they'll start shopping on Facebook. Meanwhile, social commerce sites like Fab.com growing quickly, attracting a design-focused audience.

The survey found that 87% of consumers relied on their PCs and laptops for browsing, researching and purchasing. Most consumers shopped on their tablet from the couch or from their smartphone.

According to the survey, a total 52% of connected consumers are women with a mean age of 40 and a household income of approximately $63,000. More than 43% of connected consumers own smartphones, and 16% own a tablet. The connected consumer prefers to shop via a website from a PC/laptop, not for a smartphone app.

The connected consumer is also on Facebook; in fact, 34% of tablet owners who are also connected consumers shop on Facebook from their tablet. This is pretty meaningless though, considering that only 9% of connected consumers visit a website from their tablet.

The Zmags survey is based on a relatively small sample size of 1500 people in the United States. It does not mention anything about their age, race, gender or location.

Image of the typical connected consumer via NutritionBreakThroughs.com.

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drag2share: Surface 2.0 now shipping, packing PixelSense and Gorilla Glass

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/16/surface-2-0-now-shipping-packing-pixelsense-and-gorilla-glass/

Samsung's SUR40 has been a long time coming. The 40-inch next-gen Surface was unveiled at CES 2011, but it's only just now starting to ship, following the 2012 edition of that gadget show. It finally went up for pre-order in mid-November for $8,400, but at the time we still had no clear date for shipments. Those of you waiting impatiently to get your table-PC can rest easy however, as the AMD-based Win7 machine should already be en route to your doorstep -- provided you coughed up the cash one of course. We guess it was just a matter of finally getting that sensor-in-pixel tech worked out. Head on after the break for the full PR.

Continue reading Surface 2.0 now shipping, packing PixelSense and Gorilla Glass

Surface 2.0 now shipping, packing PixelSense and Gorilla Glass originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Here's Google's Latest Weird Gimmick For Logging Into Your Google Accounts (GOOG)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-googles-latest-weird-gimmick-for-logging-into-your-google-accounts-2012-1

Open Sesame: Google will let you log into your Google accounts — like Gmail and Calender — on any device if you just scan a barcode over at one of their websites.

Here's how it seems to work — you check out the site and then scan the code with your mobile device. That then sends a signal to Google, which lets you unlock your account on whichever device you are viewing the barcode.

It's probably safer than typing in your password in at a public computer, which could be running programs to log your keystrokes and could lead to someone stealing your account information.

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See Also:

• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Motorola And Chairman Schmidt Agree That Differentiation (Not Fragmentation) Is Key To Success
• Microsoft Has Painted A Patent Target On Chrome
• Google May Have Made The Worst Mistake In Its History This Week

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drag2share: Is a Crappy Wi-Fi Signal Ruining Your Netflix Streams? Hy-Fi Routers Promise to Fix That [Internet]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5876043/is-a-crappy-wi+fi-signal-ruining-your-netflix-streams-hy+fi-routers-promise-to-fix-that

The nerdiest thing our Matt Buchanan ever wanted was an awesome powerline router. I'll see your nerdiness, Matt, and raise you one. Hy-Fi Routers crossbreed Wi-Fi, ethernet, powerline, and MoCA to give you a mutant baby of ultimate internet reliability. The dream of consistently fast 100Mbps internet all over my apartment is so close I can almost taste it.

Hy-Fi is basically a hybrid of all the different ways we connect to the internet at home. Wi-Fi and ethernet you probably know. Powerline transmits data through the electrical wiring already in your house—yes, those standard electrical outlets—so it essentially give you your own isolated, wired home network. Hy-Fi can use all of those together to give you a super reliable data-stream. If your wi-fi suddenly sucks (like it does sometimes) it'll adapt to pull more from powerline. If powerline is spread too thin, it'll take more from wi-fi or ethernet. You'll never know it's doing all of this. All you know is that is that movie you're streaming is playing just like it should.

Hy-Fi (not to by confused with Hyphy) is starting to gain ground, thanks to a new standard that was recently blessed by the IEEE. The standard aims to ensure that your Hy-Fi devices will play nicely together regardless of brand, etc. Qualcomm Atheros has been one of the companies working hard at developing this newer technology, and their new QCA6410 chip should make powerline/Hy-Fi gear smaller, cheaper, and better. I stopped by the Qualcomm Atheros booth at CES to see this gear in action, and it did something extremely surprising: it made me legitimately excited about home networking.

Watching the software in action was like seeing a symphony being conducted by a robot. The demo was pulling four separate video streams at once using a Hy-Fi router with Qualcomm guts. The information could be coming through Wi-Fi, ethernet, and powerline all at once, though they only had Wi-Fi and powerline set up for the demo. They would introduce interference, but data rates instantly adjusted, and performance remained consistent. Soon Qualcomm chips will also be incorporating MoCA (MoCA (multimedia over Coax Alliance, which is pretty much same thing as powerline, but with the coaxial cable you already have in your walls).

My TV is on the far side of my apartment from the office where my router lives. When Netflix streaming craps out on me, I curse TimeWarner. But often if I go closer to the router, it turns out I was just having Wi-Fi problems. I want those days to be behind me, now. Qualcomm is updating all of its new and existing Hy-Fi devices to the new standard this quarter, and others will be hot on their heels. Hopefully more and more devices will be made with this this in mind. And yes, I recognize that I am a total and complete geek right now. I've made my peace with that, but please don't pants me. [Qualcomm Atheros]

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