Well not totally live, but close.  It all lives in the browser, check out the video. I’ve been away for a while, but I think things are about to get very very exciting so I need to figure out how to post updates more often.  More to come…

via Engadget

I’ve mentioned some of the MS Office competitors, but there are also some great online tools for editing photos. Sometimes, Photoshop can just be overkill.

This was on my list of to-do’s, but Sean P. Aune over at Mashable has done in his article called, “20 Great Online Image Editors” in which her reviews web based photo editors.

Take a gander.

I’ve been thinking about how MSFT has made the move to change one of their core products, MSFT Office, fundamentally changing the way they do business. This, in my humble opinion, is in response to what they’ve seen newer, and some smaller companies do. Please see previous post in which I elaborated on this. I see other companies that would fundamentally have to change the way they do business. For instance, the pass on the Free the Airwaves initiative could potentially effect the business models of ISPs. They need to understand the implications of this, and how this can potentially change user behavior.

Comcast and other ISPs could be like EarthLink (full disclosure: I used to work for EarthLink) or AOL, if they don’t decide to reposition themselves. EarthLink held on to its dial up business for too long, and never made the adjustment. They have high speed access, but they are a reseller , so there isn’t enough margin for that to be a sustainable business. Over the past few years, they’ve begun to layoff the majority of their staff.  The strategy never changed. AOL made a transition from subscription based revenue to an advertising revenue model. And they’ve also acquired properties such as Bebo which helps them keep up with current online trends.  An organization has to have vision, one can’t assume that the industry will remain the same.

I remember having a conversation with Doug White, from Mindcomet (i’ve cited this before as I frequently revert back to his statement) but paraphrasing “if Union Pacific or Norfolk Southern would have thought of themselves as a transportation provider, instead of a rail road company, we’d all be flying Union Pacific” or Norfolk Southern. I interpret this statement as companies can’t be myopic when it comes to how they perceive themselves. There must be constant checks and balances in order evolve with where their particular industry is going, and identify opportunities in which they can take advantage of because of either legacy systems, historical knowledge, technology, and/or expertise.

Just like how BP changed from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum. British Petroleum merged with Amaco. Amoco (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) in December 1998, becoming BPAmoco until 2000 when it was renamed BP and adopted the tagline “Beyond Petroleum,” which they still use today, recognizing that they had to be more forward thinking. Apple changed its name from Apple Computer to just Apple, realizing that they were becoming more than just a computer company. Steve Jobs, Apple CEO and Cofounder,  argued that traditional computing was now just a part of his firm’s overall business strategy, which now focuses heavily on handheld devices and those built for the living room.

I think their are other companies, in other verticals, that need to change their approach and thinking. Some larger organizations can be on offense versus being on defense. Being reactive to market isn’t a good thing. They just need to be a little broader in their approach and more nimble. Larger organizations tend to hamper innovation, and they can be slower to market. While smaller organizations remain nimble.

So over at Androidguys, Sriharsha wrote a post in regards to Fennec, Mozilla’s new mobile browser, not being available for development on Android phones. I had missed this news today, but I have some thoughts on this.

If I’m understanding correctly, this potentially falls in line with my thoughts on the Browser as a Platform (BaaP). A mobile device that is less dependent on an OS, and more dependent on the browser would definitely lead to brisk innovation if developers only need to consider the browser and not the device that is running on. As long as a user can download a new browser to their phone, they can easily take advantage of the applications/add-ons for their phone. Its almost like the iPhone OS, or Android, but without being dependent on the manufacturer or wireless providers to take the product to market. It becomes device and wireless carrier agnostic. Which would quickly allow it be on already existing phones, so it has a low barrier to entry.   Its still earlier to say exactly how this will pan out, but its definitely something to keep an eye on. I’m sure there is something that I’m missing, but I’ll continue to follow and read up to see how this potentially impacts the mobile industry.

In their own words, “Fennec will bring a true Web experience to mobile phones and other non-PC devices, yet take advantage of the specific opportunities for new and useful user experiences enabled by mobility and telephony. Fennec will do what users need out of the box, enabling access to their favorite content and rich internet applications. It will integrate smoothly with device features, including easy initiation of phone calls from Web pages, access to local search, maps and directions.”

Additional Key Highlights:

• We need to pay close attention to very basic operations that are still hard to accomplish on most mobile phones, like entering URLs, managing bookmarks, providing an equivalent to multiple windows/tabs, designing zooming and scrolling to achieve readability; we will need to question assumptions about how people use the Web when they’re on the go, and not view the UI as a “port” of desktop Firefox.
• Fennec will provide access to the “full” Web, including rich internet applications developed using AJAX. Web content developers should be able to optimize to smaller screen sizes, etc., but not be required to adopt alternate technologies.
• A key strength of Firefox is its support for third-party innovation through full support for rich internet applications and for Add-ons. By providing full support for JavaScript, AJAX, offline storage and other key ingredients of RIAs, as well as JavaScript access to native phone features, Fennec will enable a whole new wave of mobile application development. Fennec will support Add-ons as well, so that the mobile browsing experience can be augmented and improved by anyone.
• We can improve the usefulness of Fennec for each desktop Firefox user, especially if we adopt an online “bridge” to enable a mobile user to easily access bookmarks, history, form-fill data, and other browser metadata from his desktop PC.

So what’s a Fennec – here it is. They’re doing a good job of keeping with the “Fox” theme with their browsers.

Yesterday, Microsoft(MSFT) announced that Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will have a new home in the cloud.  I previously had concerns on how MSFT was going to handle/compete with products such as Zoho, Google Docs and SlideRocket and IBM’s Lotus Symphony.  Not to say that they couldn’t, just when were they going to release some products to protect their core business.

However, this new announcement lets me know that they are thinking about how the industry is changing and how it effects their core product offerings. This is definitely a good strategic move for them. They are in a position to take advantage, considering their market share. Consumers are already familiar with their products, so this could be a easier transition, versus them moving over to a new brand.

In, Bill Gates’ book, “The Road Ahead” , which I read in college, he hints at some of this, and I’m glad that it looks like its coming to fruition.

Related Articles:

From FT.com Microsoft in online Office demonstration

From Gigaom.com Microsotf Office is Coming to the Cloud

I’ve been quite anxious to test this out. I was supposed to be on the beta list, but I never got to test it out. SlideRocket is a presentation tool, much like Microsoft’s PowerPoint.

On their homepage they say “SlideRocket vs. PowerPoint – Like with bullets instead of pebbles.” If you haven’t seen the demo its capabilities, check it out – it looks great!

I’ll write some additional thoughts once I have time to create my own presentation with it. 

Excerpts from their email:

PRICING

COLLABORATION FEATURES

SlideRocket has some great new features that allow you tocollaborate with your peers. SlideRocket takes the “labor” out of Collaboration and empowers teams to make great presentations together.

“Just as Wi-Fi sparked a revolution in the way we connect to the web, freeing the “white space” airwaves could help unleash a new wave of technological innovation, create jobs, and boost our economy. But it can happen only if the FCC moves forward with rules that make the best possible use of this spectrum.”

The above is an excerpt from Rick Whitt’s post on the Google Public Policy Blog. He is their Washington telecom and media counsel.  I was also going through my RSS feeds and saw this post from Tom Evslin called Act Now for Better Internet Access. This is also a great read that discusses the impact of freeing the “white spaces.” Here is an email I received this morning from the Free the Airwaves initiative. Please VOTE on November 4th!

Hi,

This Election Day, there’s more than one important vote going on. And there’s something we need you to do to get ready.

While you’re casting your ballot at your polling place on November 4, the Federal Communications Commission will be voting the same day on rules governing “white spaces” — the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels.

Last week, after months of testing, the FCC announced that white spaces devices could operate without interfering with TV broadcasts or wireless microphone signals.

The science speaks for itself, but that’s not going to stop the broadcasting lobby from trying to derail the technology before the rules are even written. Since last Friday, the National Association of Broadcasters has been trying to stop the vote from taking place.
We can’t let that happen.

Thanks in part to your efforts, we’re less than two weeks away from a vote that could transform the way we connect to the Internet.

We can’t let up now.

Call your Member of Congress and let him or her know it’s time to open “white spaces” for everyone:

Click Here to find your Member of Congress

Just as Wi-Fi sparked a revolution in the way we connect to the web, freeing the “white space” airwaves could help unleash a new wave of technological innovation, create jobs, and boost our economy.

But it can happen only if the FCC moves forward. Encourage your friends to sign the petition and call your Member of Congress today.

Thanks,
FreeTheAirwaves.com

Click “bookmark” below and add it automtically to any other social media site on the list!

Seth Rosenblatt, with cnet.com,  just posted an article about the new Firefox Beta. Looks like they are trying keep up with Google Chrome. They have a new JavaScript engine, called TraceMonkey, which based on Seth’s estimates, is twice as fast as the current Firefox release. Woohoo!

Read the full post here on Cnet.com

After some feedback from my original post, I wanted to make sure I clarified some of thoughts.

The stronger implication for browser as a platform (BAAP),  is that potentially, the software based OS (Windows, MAC OS, etc) can go away. If all the functions that were once handled by an OS, are now handled within the browser, there essentially wouldn’t be a need to for it (”it” meaning Windows, MAC OS etc) Additionally, because many browsers allow for browser based plugins, they can and will evolve more rapidly because of competition and the low barrier to entry for creating browser plugins.

There are a few contingencies that will help BAAP reach its full potential. The browser alone can’t survive on its own. With the rise of cloud computing, Free the Airwaves campaign, and other ubiquitous wi-fi initiatives,  which could lead to the proliferation of computers that run off of a Browser OS, and instead of hard drives. Take a look at this video which elaborates on what this campaign is about:

There are companies that are focusing on those initiatives, cloud computing and free wi-fi, which I will also review in this blog.

Its going to take some major shifts over the next few years. Shifts in mindsets, government regulations, and business models.  Again, definitely an exciting time as connections get faster, and browsers become more advanced.

So i decided to keep a running tab now for when something happens on my desktop that gives either my browswer based applications, or my desktop applications a leg up on the other. 

A few minutes ago, I accidently, kicked out my power cord to my desktop.  After my pc booted back up, I opened up both Firefox and Google Chrome, which I had opened before my little mishap. They both allowed me to restore all of the pages I had up. I had been working on a pretty robust spreadsheet in  Google Docs, so I’m glad I didn’t lose a thing. I had Excel and Word opened, but it looks like it saved an older version, vs. the newer versions I had been  working on. 

Point for the browsers! I was able to get back to work, without spending too much time starting my desktop applications. The browsers new what I had opened, restored them, and I got back to work. The desktop just doesn’t allow that.