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Dell Sets Stage To Take On Apple's iCloud
adeelarshad82 writes "Dell has quietly created a cloud-based service offering that could offer consumers a compelling reason to keep investing in Dell devices. The new release, which began shipping last week, allows users who snap a picture with a Dell Streak or other Dell mobile device to automatically upload it to a pool of free, shared cloud storage. The new software also allows devices to remotely control and play back shared audio and video, plus other services."
I'm sure this will be even more successful than the time they re-badged the iPod.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
wait ..oh Dell - um yeah...seriously???
So the title should maybe read better and more accurately... "Dell rushed to market a delayed release of a copy of a competitors product"
I bet Steve Jobs is shaking in his boots!
I think the company should be sold and the money returned to it's shareholders.
Ferrand described his business as a "brand war," where Dell is aspiring to become something like an Audi of the PC world, where the quality of its fit and finish is complemented by a faith in its superior engineering.
Fit and finish are nice on an Audi, but it's still a lot to pay for a VW.
(Disclaimer: I have a 1988 VW Rabbit and I love that old thing.)
On Macs, iCloud will make sense because it's baked in. On PCs running Windows, anything Dell does will feel like bloatware. Dell is not Apple.
They can probably "set up clouds" in a few hours. You need connectivity and storage. They probably already have connectivity, and they already sell storage products.
The only thing they needed was to install a few of their off-the-shelf SANs with their off-the-shelf clustering solutions in a few of their already existing data centres.
The MOST work would probably have been to put software interfaces on their devices that talk to that storage. But that's also pretty standard stuff.
Dell will turn the cloud into a smog bank, full of crap and useless.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
It will look like crap, run like crap and take over your entire PC to make windows work like crap.
Does Dell want a crack at making another Danger Sidekick?
I can see this used as an excuse to go short on the storage on a phone. The problem is that SD cards and large amounts of flash storage won't go down if the cloud goes down, are faster than the network hardware, and are not subject to the data caps that a carrier would put in.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Remember when Dell used to have their own ideas, rather than bouncing around doing the corporate equivalent of "me too!" every 6 months? Yeah, me neither. (ObFullDisclosure: I used to work for Dell as a GTS -> Pro Support agent.)
The biggest hurdle is convincing customers to trust their data to Dell. After all, who knows how long their corrupt execs will find this foray interesting or profitable enough. As a customer I wouldn't trust them. I'd bet that Dell will kill this off in less than 5 years.
The problem is that SD cards and large amounts of flash storage won't go down if the cloud goes down, are faster than the network hardware, and are not subject to the data caps that a carrier would put in.
It's only a matter of time before a Google or Apple or Dell, or even a Hulu or Netflix, make a deal to exempt their devices access to their servers from bandwidth caps, in exchange for giving the carriers a better cut of the subscriber or service revenue.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
The new release, which began shipping last week, allows users who snap a picture with a Dell Streak or other Dell mobile device to automatically upload it to a pool of free, shared cloud storage.
Wow, Dell, way to innovate.
Seriously, what's the point of this? Dell doesn't make anything that runs custom software--their PCs run Windows, like millions of others, and their phones run Android, like millions of others. So why do I need a Dell device to connect to some random cloud service? At least Apple has the excuse of tying things in at a very low level with the software that they, and only they, make. Plus, being the market leader makes things like this a little more compelling, like how you can find a million cases and accessories for iPhones and iPods but not so much for any random Android phone.
Has Dell even announced how may Streaks they've sold? Have they broken the big 1-0-0 yet? Or will they just give up on this, too, and let it go the way of the their MP3 players?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Windows Mobile had this years ago. Ability to upload pictures/contacts etc... Might not have had all the services but bandwidth wasn't available at the time. Then Ms threw everything they had for 10 years out and started again with Phone 7.
Normally I would post something pointless about Dell, of all companies, trying to take on anyone, let alone Apple. But then I remembered the pointless "which Linux distro is easier" piece up-list and I remembered that some people are still blubbering about the Year of Linux on the desktop and how this is Slashdot so instead I'm going to shut the computer off, make some popcorn and play with the cat. I just wanted you all to know this.
I hope for their sake it doesn't run on Dell servers. I would expect that the availability of their cloud service would be important to any users they may acquire.