Useful and Impressive Cloud Services

Are you lazy enough to download software just to convert a pdf file to word or video song to mp3? Are you afraid to handle a bulky professional tool to edit your small personal video? Well don’t worry because its 2014! The cloud services host too many handy little task specific tools that can be real time savers for these kind of work. Here we showcase few of the best ones.

Data Conversion Services

Every day we work with hundreds of different file formats based on our need, availability and comfort level. Most of the time while uploading to the web the format we have used is incompatible or target who is receiving demands other format of your file and we need to convert the file to some specified type. Usually doing this would require downloading a conversion software even if it is just for that one file. Now file conversion, encoding, transcoding is possible directly in the cloud. Your file gets converted into the required format and is sent to its final location in just a few clicks.

Zencoder [http://www.zencoder.com]

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Launched in 2010, Zencoder is a cloud based audio and video encoding service. It converts any audio or video into mobile and web compatible playback formats for the device you need to support. By using Zencoder you dont not need to maintain your own transcoding engine. Its API is used to create encoding jobs by sending HTTP Post request along with video attributes and API Key. By signing up for a Test account you can try out Zencoder for free and see if it meets your needs. Your videos need to be accessible in the cloud. 99% of the video codecs used today are supported by Zencoder. It is used by some very popular enterprises like AOL Network, Github, KhanAcademy, etc.

CloudConvert [http://cloudconvert.org]

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CloudConvert as its tag line goes converts ‘anything to anything’. You simply upload your files by dragging onto browser to the cloud, choose the format you want to convert it and the service converts it and sends it to the location of your choice (Dropbox or Google Drive). You can also provide url of the file if it is already available online. All the conversion takes place in the cloud and there is no need to install any software on your computer. It is currently in its beta state and supports over a hundred audio, video, document, ebook, archive, image, spreadsheet and presentation formats. CloudConvert is also a very secure service as all your files are deleted after conversion and transfer to the desired location. And best part is The Cloud Convert API allows you to integrate it with your own application and use its conversion services.

Cloud based Video Editing Tools

Video editing tool is usually proprietary with high cost and have to be bought or downloaded. If some of them are free than even you have to first download and install it on your device. Video editing tools in the cloud allows users to edit videos without downloading or buying specialized software. Of course not all of them are free but hey at least all the editing is done in the browser, making it easy, quick and convenient.

WeVideo [http://www.wevideo.com]

WeVideo easily connects to DropBox, Google Drive and other cloud storage tools to get the raw footage required to edit your videos. This is a major plus point as the alternative would be to upload hours of footage which, with a slow internet connection would be nothing short of painful. WeVideo’s user interface offers you a timeline on which you can do your editing which helps letting you know when and what will appear on your final video. You can add or trim clips, use soundtracks from their library with just a couple of clicks. One of WeVideos key features is that it allows collaboration. You can invite friends to help with your project. They can add footage or work on different edits based on the same footage.

Once done WeVideo can directly upload your videos to YouTube or other web services. It saves you the trouble of having to download the video and then upload it yourself. It is also available in Play Store for your Android Smartphone.

Here is Pro Tip! You can use this for preparing short video of your choice by using free account and after publishing the video you will see there is a banner in the end of the video. Download video to local computer and crop the last 3-5 seconds using any simple video cutter tool. This is how you can get completely personal video with so much less hassle without paying a penny.

Cloud Gaming Services

Streaming video and music to TVs, PCs and tablets using cloud services like Netflix, YouTube, Pandora and Spotify has become the predominant way to enjoy content for connected devices. The convenience of large cloud-managed libraries of content with stream-anywhere capability is impossible to resist. Now with revolutionary cloud gaming technology, you’ll soon be able to stream video games from the web just like any other streaming media. Cloud based gaming is becoming a trending phenomenon with the cloud becoming a means to offer state of the art gaming services.

OnLive Games [http://games.onlive.com/]

OnLive Games were the first to demonstrate cloud gaming.  OnLive’s computers run high end games, and then stream the video output of the gameplay to you, wherever you are, on whatever device you choose. Your actions are sent back to the cloud computers in a fraction of a second to give you complete control. Most devices capable of streaming video over the Internet are able to play our games instantly, without downloading the game, and without expensive hardware.

Onlive Cloudlift service

The game ‘Crysis 3’ was played on a low end laptop located several miles away from the server. Now using OnLive’s client users have access to all the games in their store and can stream and play any one of them. The company almost shut down recently because no one was signing up for the paid scheme when there were free 30 minutes demos to take advantage of. Now with new management in place it is said they are slowing recovering.

Cloud Data Backup

Backing up your data is one of the most important services that cloud based applications have to offer. Regularly creating backups of their data is also something the most people put till it too late which is why many cloud services offer automatic backup and sync services.

ZipCloud [http://www.zipcloud.com]

ZipCloud is simple and effective cloud based backup tool. Once installed it knows which files and folders it has to backup and the user doesn’t have to bother with any additional measures. ZipCloud will automatically sync up your computer to a schedule of your choice without you having to do anything. It is completely automated and offers unlimited storage space. Files are encrypted so privacy is not an issue. With separate business and personal deals it is tailor made to each user’s requirements. In business tier from your central administrative control panel you can oversee how your business not only backs up its files, but you can give your employees the chance to share and collaborate on projects seamlessly. It also has support for mobile operating systems like, iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

MiMedia [http://www.mimedia.com]

Currently in beta state, MiMedia is one such Backup Service that has one of the biggest and best free online backup plans. Once uploaded, you can access and share files, music videos from anywhere. MiMedia offers a free 7GB+ of space. If required you can easily upgrade and get more. MiMedia stores your data in Tier-1 data centers and uses highly reliable and secure server architecture so that data loss is nearly impossible. The MiMedia backup client runs in the background and ensures real time data syncing, omitting the need for scheduling backups. It also has shuttle Drive service for Premium users in which it sends an encrypted hard drive in the mail. Once you fill it up your files backup automatically and you can send it back the same box.

Explained: What “DirectX” really is, How it works

Ever wondered just what that enigmatic name means?

Gaming and multimedia applications are some of the most satisfying programs you can get for your PC, but getting them to run properly isn’t always as easy as it could be. First, the PC architecture was never designed as a gaming platform. Second, the wide-ranging nature of the PC means that one person’s machine can be different from another. While games consoles all contain the same hardware, PCs don’t: the massive range of difference can make gaming a headache. To alleviate as much of the pain as possible, Microsoft needed to introduce a common standard which all games and multimedia applications could follow – a common interface between the OS and whatever hardware is installed in the PC, if you like. This common interface is DirectX, something which can be the source of much confusion.

DirectX is an interface designed to make certain programming tasks much easier, for both the game developer and the rest of us who just want to sit down and play the latest blockbuster. Before we can explain what DirectX is and how it works though, we need a little history lesson.

DirectX history

Any game needs to perform certain tasks again and again. It needs to watch for your input from mouse, joystick or keyboard, and it needs to be able to display screen images and play sounds or music. That’s pretty much any game at the most simplistic level.

Imagine how incredibly complex this was for programmers developing on the early pre-Windows PC architecture, then. Each programmer needed to develop their own way of reading the keyboard or detecting whether a joystick was even attached, let alone being used to play the game. Specific routines were needed even to display the simplest of images on the screen or play a simple sound.

Essentially, the game programmers were talking directly to your PC’s hardware at a fundamental level. When Microsoft introduced Windows, it was imperative for the stability and success of the PC platform that things were made easier for both the developer and the player. After all, who would bother writing games for a machine when they had to reinvent the wheel every time they began work on a new game? Microsoft’s idea was simple: stop programmers talking directly to the hardware, and build a common toolkit which they could use instead. DirectX was born.

How it works

At the most basic level, DirectX is an interface between the hardware in your PC and Windows itself, part of the Windows API or Application Programming Interface. Let’s look at a practical example. When a game developer wants to play a sound file, it’s simply a case of using the correct library function. When the game runs, this calls the DirectX API, which in turn plays the sound file. The developer doesn’t need to know what type of sound card he’s dealing with, what it’s capable of, or how to talk to it. Microsoft has provided DirectX, and the sound card manufacturer has provided a DirectX-capable driver. He asks for the sound to be played, and it is – whichever machine it runs on.

From our point of view as gamers, DirectX also makes things incredibly easy – at least in theory. You install a new sound card in place of your old one, and it comes with a DirectX driver. Next time you play your favourite game you can still hear sounds and music, and you haven’t had to make any complex configuration changes.

Originally, DirectX began life as a simple toolkit: early hardware was limited and only the most basic graphical functions were required. As hardware and software has evolved in complexity, so has DirectX. It’s now much more than a graphical toolkit, and the term has come to encompass a massive selection of routines which deal with all sorts of hardware communication. For example, the DirectInput routines can deal with all sorts of input devices, from simple two-button mice to complex flight joysticks. Other parts include DirectSound for audio devices and DirectPlay provides a toolkit for online or multiplayer gaming.

dx11 Microsoft

DirectX versions

The current version of DirectX at time of writing is DirectX 11.1. This runs on versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8, before that DirectX 9.0 was the most supported version runs from Windows 98 to XP and including Windows Server 2003. It doesn’t run on Windows 95 though: if you have a machine with Windows 95 installed, you’re stuck with the older and less capable 8.0a. Windows NT 4 also requires a specific version – in this case, it’s DirectX 3.0a.

With so many versions of DirectX available over the years, it becomes difficult to keep track of which version you need. In all but the most rare cases, all versions of DirectX are backward compatible – games which say they require DirectX 7 will happily run with more recent versions, but not with older copies. Many current titles explicitly state that they require DirectX 11 or more, and won’t run without the latest version installed. This is because they make use of new features introduced with this version, although it has been known for lazy developers to specify the very latest version as a requirement when the game in question doesn’t use any of the new enhancements. Generally speaking though, if a title is version locked like this, you will need to upgrade before you can play. Improvements to the core DirectX code mean you may even see improvements in many titles when you upgrade to the latest build of DirectX. Downloading and installing DirectX need not be complex, either.

Upgrading DirectX All available versions of Windows come with DirectX in one form or another as a core system component which cannot be removed, so you should always have at least a basic implementation of the system installed on your PC. However, many new games require the very latest version before they work properly, or even at all.

Generally, the best place to install the latest version of DirectX from the dedicated section of the Microsoft Web site, which is found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=35. As we went to press, the most recent build available for general download was DirectX 11.1. You can download either a simple installer which will in turn download the components your system requires as it installs, or download the complete distribution package in one go for later offline installation.

Another good source for DirectX is games themselves. If a game requires a specific version, it’ll be on the installation CD and may even be installed automatically by the game’s installer itself. You won’t find it on magazine cover discs though, thanks to Microsoft’s licensing terms.

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Diagnosing problems

Diagnosing problems with a DirectX installation can be problematic, especially if you don’t know which one of the many components is causing your newly purchased game to fall over. Thankfully, Microsoft provides a useful utility called the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, although this isn’t made obvious. You won’t find this tool in the Start Menu with any version of Windows, and each tends to install it in a different place.

The easiest way to use it is to open the Start Menu’s Run dialog, type in “dxdiag” and then click OK. When the application first loads, it takes a few seconds to interrogate your DirectX installation and find any problems. First, the DirectX Files tab displays version information on each one of the files your installation uses. The Notes section at the bottom is worth checking, as missing or corrupted files will be flagged here.

The tabs marked Display, Sound, Music, Input and Network all relate to specific areas of DirectX, and all but the Input tab provide tools to test the correct functioning on your hardware. Finally, the More Help tab provides a useful way to start the DirectX Troubleshooter, Microsoft’s simple linear problem solving tool for many common DirectX issues.