David Duey

WebOS on the Radar

Nova Spivak has a good post where he discusses the WebOS.  There’s already been a lot said about the WebOS, but it’s often vague.  Nova provides a little detail about where he thinks the WebOS is headed and even mentions his stealth company, Radar Networks.  Cool stuff!

In my view the coming WebOS will not live only on the desktop, rather it will be a web service that lives "in the cloud." Desktops will become views into it, rather than the center of it. The desktop PC era is almost over. We are entering a new era of mobility and plurality -- our digital lives will be spread across multiple devices, most of which will be mobile. We will require access to everything, no matter what device we are on.

When a user logs onto any device -- be it a laptop or a mobile device -- they will connect to their account in the WebOS. The local device will synch with their WebOS account to get their latest desktop layout, their preferences, and any new notifications or changes.

Browser Evolution

It’s obvious that desktop applications are dying a slow death even though we’re seeing things like Acropolis.  It seems as if the masses are happier using browser plug-ins like Flash and Adobe Reader than they are downloading applications via ClickOnce.  And, Google Gears is adding fuel to that fire.  So, it looks as if the browser sandbox is the place to play.  But, I don't think the browser offers a terribly compelling user experience; the internet is compelling, but the browser sucks.

Ajax is great, but I think things like Adobe Apollo and Microsoft Silverlight (both plug-ins, so to speak) are really going to make a big difference in the way people interact with online applications.  Unfortunately, the browser will still be in the way. 

What I’d like to see is a simple browser toolbar that launches pages onto the desktop.  Tabs are fine, but they’re still confined to the browser window.  I want something that allows me to stash pages anywhere on the desktop, iconize them, maximize them and treat them as something separate from the browser.

I’m going to create a simple browser app to do that so I can see if I really do like it.  Of course, it may end up on my long list of bad ideas.

Popfly

I just came across Popfly on TechCrunch.  Popfly  is an application development and mashup creation tool (IDE?) built with Silverlight.  It really looks cool!  I can't wait to check it out first-hand.

If you have about fifteen minutes to spare, take a look at the video demo of Popfly.  It looks awesone.  I think MS has a real winner on their hands; if nothing else, they've substaontially raised the bar for everyone else.