Is this what comes to your mind when we say OFFLINE?

Technology Review magazine rated “Offline Web Applications” amongst the “The 10 Emerging Technologies of 2008″.

Being on-line with a web browser is a Cloud Computing model (so called because it involves software that resides in the “clouds” of the Internet). But Cloud Computing has drawbacks: users give up the ability to save data to their own hard drives, to drag and drop items between applications, and to receive notifications, such as appointment reminders, when the browser window is closed.

A lot of people are working towards Offline web applications like Mozilla with XUL(XML User Interface Language) runner and Google with Gears. Another one on the block is Adobe with AIR(Adobe Integrated Runtime)
Adobe believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop. Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), programmers can use Web technologies to build desktop applications that people can run on-line or off.

AIR is a “runtime environment,” an extra layer of software that allows the same program to run on different operating systems and hardware (like Java) With AIR, developers can use Web technologies such as HTML and Flash to write software for the desktop. Users won’t have to seek out AIR to enjoy its bene­fits; they’ll be prompted to download it along with the first AIR applications they want to use. Adobe currently offers versions for Windows and ­Macintosh and is developing versions for Linux and mobile devices.

Popular auction site eBay has released a beta AIR-based application called eBay Desktop. Designed to improve the customer’s bidding experience, the application itself retrieves and displays content about eBay auctions rather than relying on a browser. AIR enabled the company to create a customized user interface, without constraints imposed by the browser’s design and controls.

As a customer it will be interesting to see what protections these technologies going to build in to prevent hacking and other distasteful experiences.

Btw our dear WordPress has also started using Offline web application technology. WP-Offline is a WordPress plugin that lets your readers cache your entire blog for offline reading[link]. 

Is this what comes to your mind when we say OFFLINE? Then read on:http://techbhai.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/offline-web-applications/

Ao contrario do post anterior, seguindo sua tradição anual o MIT publicou uma lista com as 10 tecnologias mais emergentes na area da computação, medicina, nanotecnologia, our infraestruturas energeticas.  Algumas dessas tecnologias sao:

Enzimas celuloticas
Mineração Real
Connectomica
Aplicações web offline
Transistores baseados em Graphene
Magnetometros atomicos
Transmissao de energia por ar
Nanoradio
Chips probabilisticos
Modelagem de surpresa

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