Linux

The usability gap and effects gap between Windows and Linux, in my opinion have shrunk. And that comment comes in lieu of my recent conversion to Linux.

I must admit, I'm quite sold on the Linux platform. Currently I'm using Ubuntu as it has some preloaded drivers which eased my setup. However, what more can you really ask. Just installing Beryl has already replicated or nearly replicated Windows Vista functionality.

Moreover, it is really fast. Much faster than Windows. Although there have been occasional crashes, and slightly more than Windows due to some hardware incompatibility as I have alot of "Designed for Windows XP" hardware. However, on the whole, its usable and software is really easy to obtain.

Compiling software isn't such a pain either...
GO LINUX!!

Apple Safari 3 (Now on Windows!)

Apple's standard compliant safari browser version 3 has entered into public beta. According to Apple, it is 2 times faster than Internet Explorer.

Web Developers which has been bound by Windows (like me) has reasons to cheer as now it is possible to test websites in Safari without the need to break my piggy bank to buy a Mac.

I would love a Mac but no financial funding to do so. Thus the news on Safari on Windows is highly welcomed.

By bringing Safari to Windows, Apple should have given Microsoft a jab to bring Internet Explorer even more standard compliant than now. Safari, based on the WebKit open source project, which is a standard compliant web rendering engine.

In my view, Internet Explorer, though more standards aware, still has a long way to go. Some developers (like me) still have to resort to using JavaScript workarounds (for example, Dean Edwards IE7 script) to get IE to behave and understand CSS which follows closely to standards.

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)

Adobe® has officially renamed the Apollo runtime.

Now named Adobe® AIR™, the beta runtime is now available to public. Go to http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/air.html to download it.

Read more about it on Adobe Labs or my previous blog post.

Cheers

Google Gears

Google is now on the path to making its Web-based apps available offline.

Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. For now, it consists components called LocalServer, Database and WorkerPool.

Only the Google Reader will be made for offline use for now. However, as time goes on, other useful applications such as Docs and Spreadsheets, Calendar and Gmail will be put for offline use.
With the talk about a Google Presentation Software (see my previous post), the bringing of these applications offline could post a serious competition to Microsoft in the future.

For interested developers, take a look at Google Gears Developer Website: http://code.google.com/apis/gears/index.html

Google Gears (Beta) can be found at: http://tools.google.com/gears/

Microsoft Surface

I guess many of you may have heard about it already.

Well for a closer view on it, Microsoft has a website for it at:
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Tech News: Google's PowerPoint

I guess this is expected every since the inception of Google Docs and Spreadsheets.
Google's future launch of a presentation tool was confirmed at the Web 2.0 Expo Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Expect integration of all their products (i.e. Blog, Docs, spreadsheet, presentation and mail. etc.)

Schmidt stressed that their office suite isn’t a threat to Microsoft. Of course, users feel slightly otherwise. Docs and Spreadsheet came after the acquisition of Writely and it seems that this time, the presentation tool announcment comes after the acquisition of Tonic Systems.

However, a search on the internet lists some sites saying that this technology has in fact been used in meetings at Google, fueling thoughts that this product has been under development for sometime now.

Most probably, the new tool will allow for the conversion of a document into a presentation, create slides and view full-screen presentations.

For now, consumers will have to wait for its slated release in Summer...

Yahoo's Photos and N.America Auction Closing

Last week, Yahoo made an announcement that it will close its auction service in North American with effect from 3rd June. This come just after the announcement that they will be closing down their photo service, Yahoo Photos.

Not much I can say for the N.America Auction site. Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are unaffected by the auction site announcement...

The closure of the Yahoo Photos doesn't really come as a surprise. Its closure seemed inevitable since its acquisition of Flickr, which was deemed as a pioneer for Web 2.0. Yahoo underwent a significant reorganization in December to better focus its efforts. The closure is seen as an attempt to rationalize its services and remove what was deemed as overlapping services.

Yahoo Photos users will be given the opportunity to move their pictures over to Flickr, Shutterfly or Kodak Gallery.

However, much is to be seen from the closure.

I for one feel kinda sad. Flickr isn't suited for everyone. Especially with limited set creation unless you have a paid account, it doesn't really match up to that of Yahoo Photos.
For now, we just have hope that Yahoo removes that limit which is highly unlikely.

Maybe Google can come up with a photo sharing site with unlimited sets and free.....Possible?... Just maybe...