All Articles Tagged webapps

Search Google.com from your iPhone (or Android or webOS device) and notice the brand-spanking new Options drop-down on the top right. Tap it a list Google’s Mobile Blog says:

Finding the exact information you need sometimes requires filtering and refining your search results. Earlier in the year, we launched a collection of tools called Search Options which enable you to easily and quickly do this from a computer. Today in the US, we are making Search Options available on Android/iPhone/Palm WebOS devices so that you can slice and dice your mobile search results as well. For example, suppose you are shopping at a store for a camera, and you would like to see what users have been saying about a specific model within the past week. You can do this simply by searching for the name of the product. Then, on the search results page, use “Options” to filter by “Forums” and refine further by choosing “Past week”.

Let us know how it works for you…

[via PreCentral.net]

Now this is something from Microsoft that we’re really excited about — Office Web Apps that take the traditional second pillar of Microsoft’s business and launch it up into the iPhone Safari browser-compatible cloud.

We’d prefer a native Microsoft Office for iPhone at this point, of course, but a free (ad supported, though hopefully not with 15-30 sec. un-skippable commercials…) version online? That’s a great “good enough for now”.

Microsoft has just begun showing off the tech preview, though Techcrunch says the mobile version is still in its infancy:

We mentioned in our original post in July that the ability to use products across the OS, browser, and mobile device is a key part of Microsoft’s strategy. We actually demo’d the Sharepoint-based version of PowerPoint on an iPhone and it was disarmingly sleek. While this functionality has already been established for Sharepoint, the SkyDrive-based apps are still being developed to work on mobile browsers. Microsoft says it will be done by the time the product launches next year.

With Google’s Web Apps really raising the bar (and bringing the competitive pressure), it’s not surprising to see Microsoft pushing back. And, hey, maybe Apple could get in the game and start doing something more interesting with iWork.com as well…

Determined to maintain their place atop WebApp mountain, Google released a new service today as part of their Labs testbed, and again it helps push forward just what’s possible using cloud services (online data) and interactive front ends (AJAX in the browser). Google Blogs says:

Fast Flip [http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/] is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized.

Right now they’re providing content from New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, Salon, Fast Company, ProPublica and Newsweek, but the news we’re excited about, and indeed have come to expect from Google is this:

We’ve also made a mobile version of Fast Flip [http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/mobile] with tactile page flipping for Android-powered devices and the iPhone, so you can browse on the go. This is accessible at the same address.

Now if this were combined with something like Google Books, lets say…

A couple more pics after the break. If you try it out, as always, let us know what you think.

[Thank Muero for the tip!]

Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like YouTube is following parent-company Google’s increasingly awesome mobile optimization initiative, announcing an iPhone-friendly version of the dominant media site. According to their official blog:

Just visit youtube.com from your mobile phone, and you’ll be taken to a new website specially designed for your device. You can log into your account, view your favorites, and discover and share new videos quickly and easily with whoever you choose. It’s part of our mission to create the best possible YouTube experience for you, whether you use the site on your computer, in your living room, or on the go.

Since Google’s own Android, as well as Palm’s Pre, use the same Mobile WebKit foundation as the iPhone, YouTube hits three advanced platforms with one code-base.

Nifty.

[Via PreCentral.net]

As part of their ongoing Office 2010 ramp up, Fortune reports:

Microsoft – the king of paid software – will announce today that it is going to give a version of Office away for free online. Both the online and desktop versions are scheduled to arrive in the first half of next year. Yes, you read that right. The latest version of its ubiquitous productivity software, dubbed Office 2010, will come as both a piece of software you can buy for your computer, and as a service you can access in your browser. [UPDATE: Microsoft says it will support the Firefox and Safari browsers as well as IE.]

Which immediately makes us ask — how about Mobile Safari?

While native Office-supporting apps are obviously the way to go for many people, Google Docs has proven a place and usage case for WebApps, and having Microsoft Office 2010, of all things, as a WebApp on the iPhone would no doubt appeal to many, many users as well.

(Not to mention WebKit, the engine behind Mobile Safari, is also used by Android, Palm, and some Nokia devices, which would certainly be additional eyeballs for Microsoft’s ad sponsorships.)

Our sibling site, Android Central, brings word we’d almost given up faith at ever being brought’ned. Google apps, including the Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Talk we love so much on the iPhone (and iPod touch), are out of beta and high on life! Google’s own blog explains-ish:

We’ve come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn’t fit for large enterprises that aren’t keen to run their business on software that sounds like it’s still in the trial phase. So we’ve focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out of beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have now met that mark.

Makes the kind of sense that doesn’t, but whatever. Opaque, non-standard definitions of beta aside, it’s still good news. What’s next, announce a second operating system or something?

Anything but Push Gmail, right?

TUAW brings word that Wolfram|Alpha, the revolutionary computational engine from the creator of Mathmatica, now has an iPhone (and iPod touch) optimized version available via http://www.wolframalpha.com/iphone.

Confession: aside from typing in “are you Skynet” and “do my taxes” I’m not quite sure how to use this new beastie, but if you’re smart enough to query up an answer to “what’s the second coolest smartphone, BlackBerry or Palm Pre?”, let us know your results!

Once upon a time, Google had an iPhone optimized version iGoogle. Then Christina Warren from Download Squad caught them in the act of taking it away. Now, our sibling-site Android Central tells us it’s returned. Confusing saga, good update:

Today, we’re excited to roll out an improved beta version of iGoogle for the iPhone and Android-powered devices. This new version is faster and easier to use. It supports tabs as well as more of your favorite gadgets, including those built by third-party developers. Note that not all gadgets — like those with Flash — will work in mobile browsers.

Are you an iGoogle user? If not, is this enough to interest you? Either way, if you check it out, let us know what you think!

Techcrunch reports that during Google’s I/O developers conference they showed off the iPhone version of Latitude — which lets users stalk keep track of their friends via GPS and other location-based services — but not as part of some revamped Map or Google Mobile application as many suspected:

Google has been waiting for the [iPhone] 3.0 software is because it’s not actually creating a native iPhone app for Latitude — as all other location-based services on the iPhone are — instead it’s using the Safari web browser to run Latitude. Thanks to HTML 5, Safari will be able to access a user’s location information and Latitude will be able to access that as well (provided the user gives permission). This will put it on par with what Google is doing in its browser for Android.

Now, Google has made arguably the best and most impressive catalog of WebApps seen on the iPhone to date, but why go that route with Latitude? And waiting for iPhone 3.0 to be released this summer, which also sounds strange given MobileSafari in 3.0 doesn’t look to answer any of the persistent-connection problems Latitude faces on the iPhone platform (i.e. lack of background multi-tasking).

So, call us interested but not impressed… yet.

(Thanks antonioj for the tip!)

A minor tweak in iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 changes the language for the — still-unannounced by Apple — “Find My iPhone” feature from simply saying it uses your MobileMe account at me.com, to saying it uses a MobileMe Web application.

The assumption has always been that this feature would let you track a lost iPhone (or perhaps the child for whom you bought it), web application sounds — at least to us — a tad more substantial in terms of implementation.

Since Apple will have to build out MobileMe to support this, and since we’re speculating anyway, we’re also still hoping a revamped MobileMe in general might make a guest appearance at WWDC (where Phil Schiller introduced it last year). With note sync finally available, adding it to MobileMe seems an obvious move. Tasks/Todo sync, as well as Photo Sync (currently photos can be shared and stored, but sync only to iPhoto web albums, not to the iPhone) and perhaps — some of the other improvements we’ve dreamt of?

/Tangent

(Thanks to Cody for the tip!)