ON Tuesday, January 13, 2009 12:29 PM Art Alexion wrote:
>I'm sure you followed the discussion regarding online backup of, say 4 GB. Any idea what that will to do to your not really unlimited data plan? Let alone how long a restore will take. No, I didn't see that, but that is a good point. I'm not sure I'd ever be backing up 4GB of stuff from my phone, though. I mean all of my applications and settings on my WM device (and I have a decent amount) fit nicely well under 500MB, maybe well under 250MB, I haven't really looked. The only bulk is some audio books I've downloaded and maybe some applications that I've left on my SD card to install later, or just in case something happens and I need to reinstall. Still, I do think that if the paradigm switches that this 5GB ceiling that all the carriers have settled on will have to go up, or else people will really start to complain a lot when either their data gets cut off or they have to pay $400 bills because they went over there allotment and started getting charged even just $.10/MB... >By ad hoc, I mean transferring files to computers and other handhelds (including cameras) that aren't part of the so-called "cloud". Stuff that you want to do -- stuff that you can do now -- even though you hadn't planned or set it up. Like using your card in a camera, or transferring a copy of some freeware program to a friend, or loading your music at 3 MB/sec instead of your real online speed. I guess you want this faster due to quality? Of course bandwidth will go up and take care of this, but yes, this a concern. I don't think this matters right now for listening or watching on the device itself, but if you want to hook it up to your stereo or TV and have decent quality, these things will need to go up. As for images you take with the camer or other items, you could still presumably upload them to a website where your friend could download them. No, you can't just hand them a card, so that is a point of convenience that will be going away, but perhaps mechanisms will be put in place that allow for pretty seamless transfer that kind of virtualize such a transaction. We'll see.
