Site Specific Browser - A Killer Web 2.0 Application

Site Specific Browser is great web 2.0 application. What is it?

Basically it is a stripped out firefox which is tied to a specific site. If you click on the app's icon, it connects and opens that site. Add Off-line features, it would become a application service. This is going to take off like fire in the near term.

I have been using the notepad for about 10 years to jot down my thoughts. with this tool, I have switched to google docs because i can access it any where instead it getting scatter in different machines and me having a tough time organizing it.

It would be great platform for applications like youtube to organize videos in one's own machine..

Humble Beginning of a New Revolution

OPML is going to become a great platform like HTML to write Applications. Take a look at IUI based OPML browser.. IPhone is the new HyperCard.

I am planning to build a OPML based widgets platform. More Details to follow.

ASUS Eee PC - First Mass Market Linux Device?

The ASUS custom linux for its Eee PC is the first GUI that has impressed me as very professional quality. While the secret of this $199-$200 laptop might its smaller screen, it has all the ingredients to take the PC platform to the next level. OLPC and Eee PC have the potential to become the PC standard for the future, at least in the 3rd world countries.

JavaFX - Java Flash Wannabe - A Skeptic's View

I am seriously skeptic about JavaFX. I had earlier burned my hands by putting a big effort in SWING applications. I had developed first an IDE, which was quite ok as it was targeted at developer community. But when I developed a consumer p2p application with SWING, the application had serious performance issues. After a long while came SWT from IBM and there have been some successful apps based on Java/SWT for desktops. It took quite a long time for Desktop Java to reach the usability stage.

I had later ventured in J2ME. First for Games and then mobile information streaming. It was obvious to every serious developer in the J2ME domain that Flash/Scalable Vector Graphics is the way to go in mobile computing because mobile devices had non-standard screensizes and the only way to get write once run anywhere apps at least in mobiles was to go the Flash way.

SUN has taken so long to realize this. And the time of announcement is also bad as it immediately follows Microsoft Silverlight Announcement. It is going to take such as long time for JavaFX to be delivered that it would be dead on arrival.

It is not Flash/Silverlight that is going to kill JavaFX but Ajax/browsers. iPhone is not even going to include Java. All third party apps have to be through browser. Other manufacturers might also follow suit. While there is still some value proposition for JavaFX, SUN might have to deliver it right the first time itself, but History is not favourable to JavaFX.

Interestingly, if SUN is also adopting a scripting language to achieve write once run anywhere, then it is not Java which is going to fulfill this promise but JavaScript as it would be the basis for browser apps.

Flex to be open sourced

Adobe has announced that Flex would be open sourced. This is a good development for RIA Platform developers. It opens the Flash Platform and Apollo for developers.

Computing for the Next Billion

This is the World's PC Population Map . Following OLPC's plans, Microsoft has also announced that it is going to reduce the price of its windows and office software to just $3 in developing countries. With the emergence of UMPCs, Mobile Multimedia Computers (la Nokia) , Computing is set for another paradigm change. This shift, along with the Rise of Linux and other open source technologies, would provide new business opportunities for startups. So we are into interesting times again

Intel's MID UMPCs : Hello Linux

Before the ink has dried from my previous post, comes this surprising announcement from Intel that it is going to launch its own Linux powered mobile Internet enabled UMPCs.


I think that this announcement is as monumental as Dell's announcement of its intention to adopt Desktop Linux. As discussed in my earlier post, Linux could very well ride on UMPCs to gain significant market share from Microsoft. With Intel's support, Desktop Linux should aspire for more. Go Linux, Go.