Apple has made much of iCloud’s launch – and while it’s easy to be wary of hype, Apple’s past successes have made the world take notice of cloud services. So what does it herald for businesses?

iCloud embodies everything that Apple excels at: it’s user-friendly and seamlessly integrated into Apple’s product range. Microsoft’s SkyDrive provides a similar service, yet despite being older, it may become just another challenger. However, like Google Android’s open ethos in the mobile OS market, SkyDrive could become a more inclusive, business-friendly platform for data sharing than iCloud, which is likely to retain the ‘barbed-wire fence’ approach reminiscent of Apple’s App Store, iTunes service and iPod digital media format.

Following typical technology trends, both iCloud and SkyDrive are set to be rapidly adopted by virtue of the wide compatibility of product ranges, from Apple’s iPhone integration to the cross-platform flexibility of Microsoft’s sprawling business and consumer product range. To this extent, according to a 2010 IBM survey, thanks to the success of iPhones, iPads, Windows Phone 7 and Google’s Android operating system, cloud computing is on the cusp of mainstream domination. So, with mobile cloud computing set to explode in popularity, its advantages and challenges are more relevant than ever.

Advantageously, it enables cost-effective, flexible, on-the-go access, so staff will become more productive on the move, building relationships and sharing data online. Easy data manipulation via mobile devices will also allow businesses to react rapidly to customer demands. Furthermore, cloud computing will see businesses reduce costs by eliminating dedicated IT requirements and downtime on physical servers. And most importantly, the translation to mobile will make cloud computing’s advantages more widely available.

Of course, it also carries its share of challenges. Foremost is security. Hosting sensitive data off-premises inevitably poses risks. Coupled with the problem of mobile device theft, many businesses are understandably reluctant. It remains to be seen what security measures will be taken, but once these are addressed, IBM found that 91% of businesses expect cloud services to become the dominant feature of IT.

Cloud computing can expect a huge surge in attention from consumers and businesses thanks to iCloud. The relentless drive for mobile innovation, alongside the launch of Google’s ChromeBook, will further emphasise the clouds importance for business. However, businesses still need to adapt to survive. Cloud services mean IT is going mobile. It’s those businesses that unlock its potential that will thrive.

Article by Reg Spencer

The HTC S is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated phones of this year since it is the follow-up for the Desire. It is one of the most successful phones in the HTC line-up and it undoubtedly established HTC’s reputation as a company that makes only high end smartphones. The HTC S will have quite a lot of options that will improve the phone as a whole when compared with the previous version. It is going to make the phone compete once again in the high-end smartphone segment quite remarkably. The Desire S does not feature many changes in terms of style and HTC has retained the same design elements of the previous version.

As a result, the HTC will be coming with the same 3.7 inch touch screen display. Even the resolution of this display has not changed from the 480 x 800 pixel resolution that is present in the phone. It will have the gorilla glass display to protect the screen from scratches, while the usual options like the HTC Sense and the accelerometer are all present in the phone. The Desire S will be having touch sensitive controls that is going to embark on the prospect of making the task of controlling the phone much easier.

The HTC will be having limited amounts of internal memory, but the 32 GB memory card support provides excellent support for storing various files in the phone. The HTC Desire S is going to utilise this amount of memory by being able to provide enough space for the five megapixel camera to store its images and videos. While the video recording aspect of the previous HTC Desire was nothing much to speak about, the HTC Desire S will be having the 720 p HD video recording. The other features in the camera department will include the touch focus, image stabilisation and the secondary VGA camera. This is definitely a major improvement that this going to enable the phone to support video calls, which was not present previously. The HTC Desire S will have a 1 GHz processor, which might not be the dual core units that have been making its presence felt in the industry today.

However, it will be able to power the Android 2.3 operating system present in the phone quite beautifully. It is a remarkable change from the 2.2 version that is present in the HTC Desire. The 3G, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Hotspot and DLNA are the various connectivity options that can be seen in the new HTC Desire S, while the usual Bluetooth and micro-USB option is also present. The huge amount of memory makes the presence of this amount of connectivity features a prerequisite for the phone. The HTC Desire S is available in the United Kingdom after being launched by the company a few months ago. Contract prices for this new phone from HTC start at around

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The HTC Desire is an iconic smartphone. The most powerful Android smartphone to date from HTC, it provides users with everything you could ever want from a smartphone as standard, along with plenty of apps available for download from the Android Market.

Featuring the HTC Sense UI users are treated to a high level of customisation. Up to 7 homescreens can be assigned and customised with a multitude of different widget configurations for different situations such as travel, work, weekend etc. Rather than having to scroll from screen to screen manually, the interface allows users to view a thumbnail overview of the homescreens simply by pinching the screen, whereby a particular homescreen can be selected with a touch of the screen.

Another impressive feature which is sure to please the millions of social networkers out there is the FriendStream application. This pulls live feeds from a multitude of different social networking sources in realtime, giving a live overview of the day to day lives of friends and family. Of course, just like many other features of the user interface, this can be customised, by choosing which social networking sources are utilised.

As you may imagine, the HTC Desire also provides an array of impressive hardware. The handset itself is relatively compact and lightweight making it a comfortable phone to hold and use on the move. It has a soft feel coating, and feels really secure in your hand, and it adds a luxury feel to what is a luxury smartphone. The screen measures 3.7 inches and utilises a pixel setup of 480x 800. Within this, up to 16M colours are displayed providing great display quality of the on screen imagery. This makes it perfect for viewing photos and video footage. The screen utilises AMOLED capacitive touchscreen technology, which again, provides superb colour rendering and actually goes a long way to extending battery life.

An impressive 5MP digital camera does a great job of taking high quality spontaneous snapshots, however those serious about their photography are provided with a great array of tools for enhancing images. The camera can of course shoot video footage, and this is in WVGA quality at 15 frames per second.

The HTC Desire is a great tool for web browsing on the move. 3G coverage allows speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps thanks to an HSDPA connection, with uploads available at speeds of up to 2 Mbps via HSUPA. A faster internet connection can be achieved whenever local wireless networks are available thanks to built in Wi-Fi capabilities.

Along with the Android Market which allows users to browse and download thousands of apps, the HTC Desire must be amongst the most customisable phones out there. Whatever you are looking for in a smartphone, the HTC Desire deserves a spot at the top of your wish list for so many reasons.