Sprint and Clearwire are on shaky ground financially but if they can survive the Great Recession™, then they might just be in position to take advantage of cloud computing with their 4g network.
ATT and Verizon may delay the rollout of their 4g networks due to the poor economic environment. This can only help Clearwire and WiMax.
Actually, since the new Clearwire (CLWR ... for a few weeks their symbol was changed to CLWRD) formed, they are now fully funded by the myriad companies contributing $3.2 billion to make this baby monster happen. The recession is a perfect time for them to go great guns and roll out their plans to get ahead of their competitors.
I hope the continue to offer full featured version as well as limited Web version. I love Google docs... but when it comes to actually finalizing a doc, then I invariably copy and paste to a word processor or spreadsheet. I'd like to see Apple's version of docs on the web... it has to be better than whatever MS is brewing... and probably better than Google's. Android sort of proved they are close... but not quite there yet in terms of user interface.
This could be responsive if the majority of the application was actually pre-existing on the user's Mac... ala Google Tools or something similar... but then it really isn't "web" applications either... just connected apps. The idea behind web apps is universal access... not download a bunch of "tools" to get my word processor document to open on a public terminal somewhere... If the tools already existed on my cheap, linux-based netbook, however... then I'd LOVE that. Go Apple... become the software company and let the others fight over nano-profit margins on low cost devices.
I have a five year old laptop that has latest ubuntu version of linux on OpenOffice that is very zippy compared to my much newer desktops running Windows Vista and Mac OS. I actually enjoy running OpenOffice and Google Docs on that POS computer.
It's probably also no coincidence that Safari 4 will have the ability to save web applications to the desktop similar to what Google Chrome and Firefox' Prism does. I'm not happy about the idea that valuable development time might be shifted from the desktop version of iWork to some pipe-dream. Despite living in a country with a very good infrastructure I'm still often without an Internet connection (think: trains) but need to have access to my applications anyway.
It's also incomprehensible that with the latest push of web applications that the iPhone currently can't be used as an Internet modem (Internet sharing) with Bluetooth. Every Smartphone I've encountered so far had this ability and it makes this "Internet everywhere" idea far more feasible.
There's some irony here as well. Using the open source SproutCore framework to create files with an unpublished format (Keynote, Numbers, Pages). Take a look at 280 Slides (http://280slides.com/), created, I'm told, by ex-Apple employees.
It looks like Keynote but only supports import/export of MS Powerpoint. Why? Apple hasn't published the format and, so, using it might bring a law suit.
Apple Position: What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.
There's some irony here as well. Using the open source SproutCore framework to create files with an unpublished format (Keynote, Numbers, Pages). Take a look at 280 Slides (http://280slides.com/), created, I'm told, by ex-Apple employees.
It looks like Keynote but only supports import/export of MS Powerpoint. Why? Apple hasn't published the format and, so, using it might bring a law suit.
Apple Position: What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.
Apple is expected to unveil a new suite of web-based applications that play off of iWork. They will primarily be extensions of their desktop counterparts not replacements. As Weintraub notes, the entire iWork suite that Apple currently offers (and iMovie too), will be given core functionality additions online. Based on Weintraub?s information, we were able to confirm the upcoming cloud-based push, as well as some new specifics about pricing and the way Apple will unveil the information.
This sounds far more plausible. It allows Apple to extend the iWorks brand onto platforms that normally would have been shut out. If the online versions can cover the core functionality in a slick and effective manner then it becomes yet another potential "switcher" tool for those using MobileMe with PC.
I'd love to be able to create documents using my Desktop iWork and then choose to either send the document to my MobileMe space for online retrieval/editing or saving it to my local computer.
That way I can modify documents on the road with any suitable network connection and browser and know that these modifications can be merged back to the desktop.
Maybe if they make it so the files can be easily viewed on the web.
That would be good.
I'm fairly certain that's what this would entail anyway. MobileMe syncs with existing programs on your desktop. Selling the suite as online only would cause so many problems that Apple would have absolutely no control over that I can't ever see them taking that route. I see this as mainly an online file server where you could quickly and easily retrieve any documents created with the programs (in fact, I see this as an evolution of the file storage system that already comes with MobileMe).
It looks like Keynote but only supports import/export of MS Powerpoint. Why? Apple hasn't published the format and, so, using it might bring a law suit.
Apple Position: What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.
Did they say that, or are you just assuming that? To me, that explanation sounds like FUD on your part rather than fact.
Why do I think that? I opened a Keynote "file" (a special folder) and found a gzipped index file. I unzip the file and open it in a text editor and I find a *plain text* XML file, and all the formatting is plain-text information. I see nothing in that XML that tells me that Apple is hiding something or trying to keep the format proprietary. If Apple wanted to hide it, they would at least encode it as a binary or encrypt it. All the other files needed for the presentation, such as photos or videos, are files inside the package, intact and usable by any program without changes. This stuff is not that difficult. I'm not an application programmer and I can understand what's going on in that file.
I see nothing in their answer about a lawsuit liability. Their concern about the format changing without notice, well I don't know about that, I expect file formats to change a bit with every new program version, but not within a bug fix update. There is a file format version key in the file.
What I like most about this plan is the slowness, unreliability, and limited feature-set of web apps!!! Thank you, Apple, for giving us what we really want!
I think many of you are going to be pleasantly suprised
Isn't HTML 5 supposed to make it easier to view different media types inside the browser? I would think any "web features" in the new iMovie would be to make it easy for properly coded HTML 5 pages to read the meta data and load the appropriate plugin to play the video.
Presumably, this will also allow document editing from mobile devices too - copy/paste has to come though.
I'm not personally keen on web-based software but I use web-based email every day and have done for the past few years without a problem.
Email is a bit different because you don't really have to deal with images and the file sizes aren't very large. Dealing with a 10MB+ document over the web is not something I'd like.
Google have realised this and added to their web-based document suite with Google Gears, allowing better performance. I think it just syncs and caches data to speed things up and probably allow offline editing.
Apple have already added a database cache to Safari in a recent version and I wasn't sure what it was for. This could put it to good use. It defaults to 5MB and although that doesn't seem like a lot, it actually holds a decent amount of plain text data and markup.
Pages documents are just gzipped XML. This can be loaded into a non-relational database. If there are no image changes, all the editor has to do is store the changes to the text in the offline database and do a very minimal database sync with the server. Images can be uploaded in the background and possibly downsampled if they are too big.
Google Gears currently doesn't support Safari but Apple could make their iwork software Safari-only.
The online service Apple can offer may not be online-only software but an alternative to the offline suite with a lower cost.
Collaborative editing can also be a feature.
I'm not against the idea, it has clear advantages so I'll wait and see how they've implemented it. The more and more business management systems I see like CRM tools etc, they seem to be moving more towards being web-based. Adobe offers a web service too:
Software As A Service business models are gaining ground the faster and more prolific networks are getting. IMO, the main thing holding them back are the limitations of relational databases, which don't easily map complex data structures onto them in a time or performance efficient way.
Comments
Happy new year.
WiMax is 4G.
More accurately, Clearwire is WiMax, at&t is LTE.
True.
Sprint and Clearwire are on shaky ground financially but if they can survive the Great Recession™, then they might just be in position to take advantage of cloud computing with their 4g network.
ATT and Verizon may delay the rollout of their 4g networks due to the poor economic environment. This can only help Clearwire and WiMax.
Actually, since the new Clearwire (CLWR ... for a few weeks their symbol was changed to CLWRD) formed, they are now fully funded by the myriad companies contributing $3.2 billion to make this baby monster happen. The recession is a perfect time for them to go great guns and roll out their plans to get ahead of their competitors.
I have a five year old laptop that has latest ubuntu version of linux on OpenOffice that is very zippy compared to my much newer desktops running Windows Vista and Mac OS. I actually enjoy running OpenOffice and Google Docs on that POS computer.
It's also incomprehensible that with the latest push of web applications that the iPhone currently can't be used as an Internet modem (Internet sharing) with Bluetooth. Every Smartphone I've encountered so far had this ability and it makes this "Internet everywhere" idea far more feasible.
Smart: Supplement iWork apps
There's some irony here as well. Using the open source SproutCore framework to create files with an unpublished format (Keynote, Numbers, Pages). Take a look at 280 Slides (http://280slides.com/), created, I'm told, by ex-Apple employees.
It looks like Keynote but only supports import/export of MS Powerpoint. Why? Apple hasn't published the format and, so, using it might bring a law suit.
Apple Position: What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.
Dumb: Replace (Supplant) iWork desktop apps
Smart: Supplement iWork apps
There's some irony here as well. Using the open source SproutCore framework to create files with an unpublished format (Keynote, Numbers, Pages). Take a look at 280 Slides (http://280slides.com/), created, I'm told, by ex-Apple employees.
It looks like Keynote but only supports import/export of MS Powerpoint. Why? Apple hasn't published the format and, so, using it might bring a law suit.
Apple Position: What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.
I'm more inclined to believe this update
http://www.macblogz.com/2009/01/01/a...e-mostly-free/
Apple is expected to unveil a new suite of web-based applications that play off of iWork. They will primarily be extensions of their desktop counterparts not replacements. As Weintraub notes, the entire iWork suite that Apple currently offers (and iMovie too), will be given core functionality additions online. Based on Weintraub?s information, we were able to confirm the upcoming cloud-based push, as well as some new specifics about pricing and the way Apple will unveil the information.
This sounds far more plausible. It allows Apple to extend the iWorks brand onto platforms that normally would have been shut out. If the online versions can cover the core functionality in a slick and effective manner then it becomes yet another potential "switcher" tool for those using MobileMe with PC.
I'd love to be able to create documents using my Desktop iWork and then choose to either send the document to my MobileMe space for online retrieval/editing or saving it to my local computer.
That way I can modify documents on the road with any suitable network connection and browser and know that these modifications can be merged back to the desktop.
This would be bad.
Maybe if they make it so the files can be easily viewed on the web.
That would be good.
I'm fairly certain that's what this would entail anyway. MobileMe syncs with existing programs on your desktop. Selling the suite as online only would cause so many problems that Apple would have absolutely no control over that I can't ever see them taking that route. I see this as mainly an online file server where you could quickly and easily retrieve any documents created with the programs (in fact, I see this as an evolution of the file storage system that already comes with MobileMe).
It looks like Keynote but only supports import/export of MS Powerpoint. Why? Apple hasn't published the format and, so, using it might bring a law suit.
Apple Position: What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.
Did they say that, or are you just assuming that? To me, that explanation sounds like FUD on your part rather than fact.
Why do I think that? I opened a Keynote "file" (a special folder) and found a gzipped index file. I unzip the file and open it in a text editor and I find a *plain text* XML file, and all the formatting is plain-text information. I see nothing in that XML that tells me that Apple is hiding something or trying to keep the format proprietary. If Apple wanted to hide it, they would at least encode it as a binary or encrypt it. All the other files needed for the presentation, such as photos or videos, are files inside the package, intact and usable by any program without changes. This stuff is not that difficult. I'm not an application programmer and I can understand what's going on in that file.
I did find this:
http://getsatisfaction.com/280north/...idget_280north
I see nothing in their answer about a lawsuit liability. Their concern about the format changing without notice, well I don't know about that, I expect file formats to change a bit with every new program version, but not within a bug fix update. There is a file format version key in the file.
What I like most about this plan is the slowness, unreliability, and limited feature-set of web apps!!! Thank you, Apple, for giving us what we really want!
I think many of you are going to be pleasantly suprised
I'm not personally keen on web-based software but I use web-based email every day and have done for the past few years without a problem.
Email is a bit different because you don't really have to deal with images and the file sizes aren't very large. Dealing with a 10MB+ document over the web is not something I'd like.
Google have realised this and added to their web-based document suite with Google Gears, allowing better performance. I think it just syncs and caches data to speed things up and probably allow offline editing.
Apple have already added a database cache to Safari in a recent version and I wasn't sure what it was for. This could put it to good use. It defaults to 5MB and although that doesn't seem like a lot, it actually holds a decent amount of plain text data and markup.
Pages documents are just gzipped XML. This can be loaded into a non-relational database. If there are no image changes, all the editor has to do is store the changes to the text in the offline database and do a very minimal database sync with the server. Images can be uploaded in the background and possibly downsampled if they are too big.
Google Gears currently doesn't support Safari but Apple could make their iwork software Safari-only.
The online service Apple can offer may not be online-only software but an alternative to the offline suite with a lower cost.
Collaborative editing can also be a feature.
I'm not against the idea, it has clear advantages so I'll wait and see how they've implemented it. The more and more business management systems I see like CRM tools etc, they seem to be moving more towards being web-based. Adobe offers a web service too:
https://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html
Software As A Service business models are gaining ground the faster and more prolific networks are getting. IMO, the main thing holding them back are the limitations of relational databases, which don't easily map complex data structures onto them in a time or performance efficient way.
I think many of you are going to be pleasantly suprised
Remember not to confuse the web with the cloud
It defaults to 5MB and although that doesn't seem like a lot, it actually holds a decent amount of plain text data and markup.
According to the Safari help file you will be prompted if an web application requires more storage space than the default.
Google Gears currently doesn't support Safari but Apple could make their iwork software Safari-only.
Actually, it does since a couple of months. Just go to http://gears.google.com/ with Safari and you will be offered the correct version.