Business
Universal Desktop Daily - Thursday, November 2, 2006
Adobe Acrobat 8 is available, Apollo on Ajaxian, and Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Adobe as Elephants.
- Adobe Acrobat 8 hit the streets today. One of the downsides to web applications is that they haven't done a good job of linking the web with reality, and there is still a very big print market. Adobe Rich Internet Application solutions have a head start here because of their PDF integration. And if you want an example of a very cool RIA in action, you should check out the demo for Acrobat Connect. Web-based collaboration with live video and audio. Very cool stuff.
- Apollo ended up on Ajaxian yesterday. Dion does a good job of breaking down the video and why the technology is so interesting for Ajax developers. I think once more Ajax folks realize what Apollo is and what it means for their applications, they will adopt it in droves. The desktop integration gives users so much more flexibility.
- Very good post by John Milan over on Read/Write Web titled Elephants and Evolution - How the Landscape is Changing for Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Adobe. He makes some good points but I thought he underplayed Microsoft's role. It was great to see Adobe get some credit, but I think Microsoft is way ahead of Google in delivering Rich Internet Applications. Google has them beat in the web application department, but Microsoft will be able to leverage their live platform and their desktop technologies to give users a powerful RIA platform. Now, obviously Google is a bit more nimble and this could change at any time, but I think Microsoft brings a lot to the table.