It’s happening!  The world is starting to utilize cloud computing in natural, meaningful ways.  Who would have thought that the instigator would be a computer without a hard drive, keyboard or mouse?  Yes, I’m talking about touch pad computing … iPads, Android pads, whatever kind of pad is your personal favorite.

If you haven’t noticed, this is the next wave of computing.  I’m not talking about the next consumer favorite.  This is much bigger than that.  Because the proliferation of touch pads will drive the next revolution: Cloud Computing.  Apple has recognized this.  That is why they introduced iCloud.

It only makes sense.  There is a basic problem with the personal computer.  It hardly ever gets backed up.  According to my (not so through) research, only 1 in 200 personal computers is backed up on any kind of a regular basis (if they are outside of a data center).  We all know that every hard drive ever made will eventually crash.  From this, we can interpolate that 99.5% of all data stored on a personal computer will eventually be lost.

So, what if there was no “real” data storage.  Where would you put your data?  On the cloud!  There are lots of companies out there who will gladly store your data forever for free (limited amounts for free, nominal fees for larger amounts).  No need to back up.  If your computer dies … your data is still in the cloud.  Buy a new computer … your data is still in the cloud.  It’s a great solution.  I personally use DropBox for my cloud data storage and Google is announcing a new service called Google Drive where you can get 5 gb of storage for free and more than that if you want to pay a small monthly fee (it is so cheap it is ridiculous).

But, “what about a keyboard?” you say.  There are a number of bluetooth keyboard options for iPads that work great.  I have one integrated with the cover for my iPad.  It basically turns it into a small, ultra-portable notebook.  Open it up and it is on!  No booting and the battery lasts forever.  It is great for carrying around to committee meetings or any time you want to have a computer but don’t want to lug around a notebook.  The other alternative to this is the Google Chromebook, which is a notebook form-factor (though it is very thin, sleek and light) with long batter life (like 7 hours!).  I am going to get one of these newest Samsung Chromebook as soon as the 3G versions become available.  I already have an iPad.

If you don’t already have one of these at your church, you will.  Why not get on the bandwagon now?  Try it out and see if you agree!

– The Church Tech

Usually when I am in church, I am busy doing various duties with The Band or Sound and don’t have time to really think about things during the “Praise and Worship” time of the service.  However, recently while on vacation and attending a church out-of-town, I was a not part of leading worship.  This gave me some time to think a little bit about how technology can be further integrated into the worship service.

I have used “phone apps” for many things, but I was thinking, why is there not some kind of “broadcast app” that shows the words of the songs, sermon outline, announcements, etc. on a phone app.  There have been times when the Big Screen “conks out” for one reason or another.  Wouldn’t it be GREAT to have the option of displaying the projection screen on our phones.  Maybe even having the option of saving the screens for later use.

There’s got to be someone out there who is working on this doesn’t there?  Maybe someone already has it.  I don’t know, some times I am just too techie for my own good!