Throughout 2007 The Shelf has extensively featured some of the most popular bits of technology released. From Facebook to the iPhone to the PS3 we have featured articles on all three, but as we move into the New Year The Shelf looks at some technologies that could have a bright twelve months ahead of them over the next five days.
The first technology sees us look at the mobile internet. Currently restricted to where there is an internet connection, web applications have there restrictions, and although mobile internet access is becoming increasingly popular unlimited connectivity regardless of location is a long way off.
Last year we saw three technologies launched by Google, Adobe and Microsoft that are aimed at blurring the boundaries between offline and online environments. Named Gears, Air and Silverlight respectively, each application aims to take endless achieves of web content and make them available offline.
Adobe’s has already demonstrated an Ebay type Desktop application using Air which allows users to do all the work of setting auctions up offline, with the auction going live the next time the user connects to the internet.
“Adobe AIR lets developers use their existing web development skills in HTML, AJAX, Flash and Flex to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop”
Silverlight offers and reversal of this service in that it allows desktop applications to be built and run within a web browser.
“Silverlight enables developers and designers to easily use existing skills and tools to deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.”
Gears does not allow the creation of new applications but does allow users to take web applications offline. Google Gears would therefore allow developers of online office package Zoho to use Gears to allow users to use their applications in a similar way to that of a normal desktop program.
“Google Gears Beta is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using JavaScript APIs”
As part of The Shelf’s first technology of 2008 we tip more examples of applications built with or using these three tools to further merge the online and offline user experience.
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