Watchout iPod Touch! here comes UMPC 2.0

Take a look at this video: Great UMPC Concept Device with some love from Intel. Lot of these are powered by Ubuntu's UMPC version..



Here is yet another UMPC device from BenQ :



can Intel's support for Linux for the MID Platform help Linux compete with iPod Touch and MS-Windows.. I hope there is some support for Java in all these platforms.

UI 2.0 : Some Thoughts of Adobe AIR and SilverLight

Rich Internet Applications is finally coming of age. Adobe AIR is providing a good platform for developing next generation of Desktop/Internet apps by leveraging the Ajax frameworks. The great thing about Adobe AIR is that it is providing a tool without development entry barriers as converting websites to AIR apps seems to be trivial. Adobe AIR seems to deliver a application layer above the operating systems, which was the promise of Java. Adobe AIR would also empower application development which were not possible in Ajax such as developing a Photoshop application... Now it seems someone already releasing a Photoshop developed on the Flash Platform. As Flash is about to get HD support, Adobe would become the media based applications platform.

Microsoft's Silverlight is going to go head to head with Adobe AIR. As Microsoft also embraces the Adobe's concepts, Software Development and Delivery mechanisms are going to change drastically. Software As a Service Model will become mainstream. Firefox Community would now have lot of catch up to do. However, Site-Specific-browsers, SVG/Canvas and other core pieces of technology are already in place. It would not be long before they also release a completely integrated platform.

Interestingly, these technologies severely undermine the OS as the Application Development. Ubuntu and Linux based Desktops would become more widely accepted as the OS gets commoditized as the users would be more and more engaged with the Adobe AIR/Silverlight /Firefox Platforms.

For Developers, these technologies are providing graphical and visualization capabilities. The programming frameworks with ease to use constructs such as Pie-Menus, Graphs etc. have to be readily available. It would take atleast 2-3 years for the next generation of applications that take advantage of these platforms to emerge.

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.