Your browser maybe your next OS

As Web 2.0 ’s popularity is skyrocketing,people are using the web to do things that they did more often on their desktop.Google plays a major role in this web 2.0 revolution.Earlier people who used mail clients like thunderbird have now found satisfaction in gmail which has keyboard shortcuts,folders and almost all the things you get on a mail client.People who used MS office,Openoffice,koffice etc are slowly moving to the refreshingly dynamic google documents which allows you not only to create your presentations and spreadsheets but also to share them with a click of a button.Google reader also serves as a good replacement for a desktop feed reader.Also there are web-based im-messengers,music players and much more.

So,the browser is the new OS which u can say boots up when u click the browser icon on your desktop and the work begins.With the growing popularity of cloud computing and the plethora of browsers in the race the OS in a browser or rather a web based browser is close to erasing the thin line between the present and the future of next-gen computing.

This also may lead to a new unexpected change in the world of computing that is the OS popularity may go down.The trend of the OS market will change drastically as people will shift to opensource Operating Systems more as an user will think “If my whole work starts and ends within the browser why should I spend 400 $ on an OS?”.Linux again is getting web 2.0 friendly and if it keeps going on the same track the desktop market share stats may turn around.Examples of the same can be seen in the new twitter app in KDE 4 and online desktop in fedora.But you never know with the microsoft.

Microsoft to Add ODF Support to next version of MS Office

Microsoft on Wednesday quoted that they will be providing ODF support in the next version of MS Office.Which means that without adding any special software to MS Office, users will be able to open documents sent to them in the open source Open Document Format (ODF), the company said. As well, users will be able to edit and save documents in that format.
“Microsoft is going to be providing support for three new file formats directly in the Office product,” said Erich Anderson, vice president and general counsel for Europe, in a telephone interview.Microsoft said it will add support for ODF version 1.1 when it updates its Office 2007 product some time next year with “service pack 2.”In addition to ODF, Microsoft will also support Adobe’s popular PDF fixed format and Microsoft’s competitor to PDF, known as XPS.
Thomas Vinje in Brussels, a lawyer who has represented clients opposed to Microsoft, said the announcement was meaningless unless Microsoft made ODF the default standard when people opened office.If ODF is not the standard its presence “won’t matter because the vast majority will not use it. That was the experience in the U.S. case,” he said, referring to a case which found Microsoft in violation of the Sherman antitrust act.
Carlo Piana, a lawyer in Milan who represents clients who make open source software, called Microsoft’s approach “too little, too late.”

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Tags: Microsoft, ODF

Why UMPC enthusiasts still have to wait a while

What is UMPC?

Ultra Mobile PC is a futuristic,ultra portable PC which is expected to take over laptops and desktop computers soon. The ambitious project is jointly developed by Microsoft,Samsung and Intel.The UMPC can run Windows Tablet PC edition,Vista Home Premium or Linux.

What’s so special about UMPC?

A 7-inch touch screen with a minimum resolution of 800 x 480 with 900 Mhz processor ad 256 to 1 GB of RAM and 30 to 160 GB HDDs.Also features like Wi-Fi,Bluetooth and Ethernet,GPS,fingerprint reader,stereo speakers,TV tuners and memory card readers.

Are we there yet?

Well Samsung,Nokia,Acer have already launched different models of UMPCs.

In spite of the models launched by big companies the UMPC is not hitting the market as expected.Here are the reasons

1)Battery Life

The battery life of UMPCs is close to around 7 hours which is nothing as compared to cell phones and laptops.Also the daily usage of the average user is more than 7 hours.

2)Graphics

The user needs television,video and games to be portable but the graphic quality in UMPCs is lower than expected.

3)Connectivity

Wireless networking is very expensive.3G et al are still to take full advantage of the networking market.

Verdict

It will take another 2-3 years till UMPCs start taking a significant share in the market.So just hold on to your laptops and wait till they come up with a better battery.

Notable Products

Samsung Q2 Ultra

Features

7-inch Touchscreen

690 grams 228mm by 124mm by 24 mm ( 16 mm smaller than older Q1 )

1024 x 600 with AERO support

800MHz Intel cpu

60gb hdd

1 GB RAM

Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi (802.11b/g)

and many more

(Product details)

Check out some more devices link

image source:Endgadget.com,Wikipedia