The world of computing and IT has made some big jumps in the last decade. The once powerful Microsoft has started to take a backseat to other companies gaining a strong market share in a variety of industries such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, to name just a few. As the playing field changes, so do the technologies, and virtualization has become a way businesses are now doing business.
We’ve seen an increase in cloud computing, reducing the need for physical technology expenditures and manpower to maintain them. We’ve seen conferences, webinars, communication, all taking place online using online applications that help facilitate these needs.
Techinline Remote Desktop offers virtualization services that offer secure and trouble free connections between PC’s across the globe. While a powerful tool at the corporate level, Techinline is also useful for small businesses, saving on travel and other related expenses.
This instant connection to solve your customer’s technical needs is useful especially if you’ve got clients in multiple locations. Why hire someone for each location when the technical needs associated to software can be handled virtually from one location with Techinline.
There are a lot of remote pc apps out there, so add this one to the list and give it a try If you’ve used remote PC web applications, I’d like to hear your take on it. And if you used Techinline Remote Desktop, let us know your experience and if you’d recommend it.
My second Twitter post today – I must have tweet fever or something! This one is however a little more on the serious side – Stocks.
Yes, I suppose we can partially blame them for the recession and be totally jealous of their riches but they need to talk too, right? StockTwits Desktop is a new piece of software that allows people all over the world to talk to one another about stocks. Within the tweets you’ll find the latest gossip, trends and advices about trading.
The programs basically consists of columns of tweets in different categories as well as StockTwit TV which gives you the latest news about the software. For example, they recently teamed up with the trading giant NASDAQ in the Big Apple.
It’s all free and extremely useful to anyone who currently trades or is interested in becoming a stock trader. I used the programs for five minutes and discovered that AIG stocks may be a safe bet for the future and that USD-JPY would not have been a good move.
You can get a feel for the software or download it at their homepage.
Since the launch of Adobe Air we have seen a huge amount of very slick desktop based applications launched and Polaris joins this group. Polaris is a free AIR based application which allows users to manage one website profile on Google Analytics.
The dashboard gives you nice overview of total visits, pageviews and other useful metrics. Other than that, Polaris has 7 different individual reports: Visit Overview, Map Overlay, Traffic Sources, Referring Sites, Top Content, Keywords, and Goal Value.
For those who are managing multiple profiles, the upgrade to the full version is $15/year. Both the free and the full version will get regular free updates with new functionality and features.
Yesterday I got my hands on the new Seesmic Desktop application which is a direct competitor to Tweetdeck. The new Seesmic desktop app is simple to use and is a great way to control all of your twitter accounts in one location. Head here to signup for Seesmic Desktop.
Seesmic Desktop includes the following features:
Control more than one Twitter account in one location
Ability to add more windows for all of your accounts
Can see one full Twitter stream for all of your followers on all of your accounts
Ability to perform searches within the application
Able to store searches that automatically update
If you are a constant Twitter user then you need to check out Seesmic Desktop.
Lovely Charts is a slick new web-based tool for creating flowcharts and wireframes. Features you’d expect from a similar desktop app come standard: copy-paste, undo up to 20 steps, and pan/zoom all work the way you’re used to. Objects snap into place, and the basic drawing tools are all there. The only drawback? You can only save one chart at a time until you upgrade to the pro version. Depending on your needs, though, the 18 euro for 6 months might be worth it to you.
The advantages of having a web-based wireframe app are obvious if you’re a designer who works from home and an office. You can access your stuff from anywhere, and let collaborators work on it if need be. Lovely Charts also comes pre-stocked with some network diagram symbols and wireframe templates that could save you a lot of time. You might want to wait to buy until they implement a few more export formats. JPG and PNG are currently supported, with more on the way.
Okay, laugh if you must, roll your eyes at worst, but it did not take me all night to think of that title. How could I refuse, it was too easy!
So ATT has jumped into the browser market with Pogo, and their first foray into the fight, let’s just say that this browser will leave a sour taste in your mouth, if not a hole in the wall where you put your fist through in frustration. Let me at least point out that this browser is still in beta, and while not available to the public I am skeptical that much will change from what I see.
Here we go!
Installation: This browser is not for the faint of heart. Jokingly amongst my friends we stated that if you did not pay 2k for your computer or more than bow out and save yourself this frustration. A bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but this monster requires a 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a video card with at least 256MB of VRAM. Ladies and Gentleman, let me just say that even with the minimum you might be forced to destroy a small country in anger with how sluggish it can run. If you have more than the requirements good for you, enjoy the experience, but it seems a little steep just to run a browser don’t ya think?
Downloading is not as bad as the actual installation itself. The process is long and tedious and rather than just walking away, it will check your system, offer suggestions, and update if necessary. At some point it may say your system is not up to par, and if so you have the option to bow out, but why they would even allow you to click continue is beyond me. They have requirements for a reason, and if not taken seriously you will desperately wonder why you allowed that time in your life to be wasted…literally.
Interface: Now that you’ve had this monstrosity installed, let’s get to the meat and potatoes. For starters, Pogo thinks that it needs to be so different that icons and naming conventions should be entirely different to what users are expecting. Buttons are not easily recognizable in terms of functionality, and instead of tabs for the pages, they are called “cells.” Each of your “cells” is tabbed at the bottom instead of the top, and instead of a tab, you get a thumbnail version of the actual page you are on. WARNING: One or two “cells” might be okay, but anything over that really taxes your system’s resources.
You cannot import your bookmarks, from what I could tell. Perhaps it’s an option that I overlooked, but the bookmarks that I did make are instead viewed in a coverflow-like window that practically made my computer want to explode. The flow was sluggish and lagged at times that I almost wanted to just throw the computer out the window. Luckily, since there is a minor similarity to FireFox in terms of what’s behind the scenes, a quick button combination (Ctrl-I) puts the listing in textual format. While coverflow looked pretty it did nothing to enhance the experience for practical use.
Final Thoughts: I hope, I can only hope that ATT is still a long way off from finalizing this product. The size and it’s downfalls will sink this browser quickly. It’s a pretty web browser, that is a fact, but it’s not enough to save it. I personally would never use this browser for everyday use, especially in the state that it’s in. Again, this browser is in beta, but right now FireFox and all it’s plug-ins are find for me. With ease of use, easily recognizable features and buttons, and compatibility across the board for MAC and PC, I prefer to stick to what I know…for now.
Pogo was a no go for me. I uninstalled it and hope to never experience frustration like that again. Innovative yes, practical…nope!
Since Twitter is a growing phenomenon and they have just about to gain some more funding for the service, we thought we would provide you with a list of some of the best Twitter applications out there in the market today. The applications has been broken down into desktop, mobile and web. Make sure you test them out and let us know which is your favourite.
Napster have announced that they are dumping their desktop client and re-launching with a new web-based version. Napster customers will now be able to listen to their music from any computer anywhere in the world. This will hopefully enable Napster to also develop embeddable widgets that can push their products on possible web enabled devices.
Napster is still going to be based as a subscription model, which most industry experts think is holding back the company, because it makes Napster incompatible with the iPod. Consequently Napster has lagged behind Apple’s end to end iTunes system which reportedly controls 70% of the digital music market.
UMG has announced they are now happy with iTunes and the revenue split, so it is only a matter of time before DRM free becomes standard and Napster will really need to gain some market share before Apple.
If you would like to see a slideshow of the new Napster service, please head over to Crave.
My second 
