Uncool Mobility

File Storage and Viewing Apps for iPhone

Apple iPhone Downloads: Three Great File Storage and Viewing Apps - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership.

Review of three remote access applications for iPhone. It's interesting to me that this product area continues to be the source of new applications even though existing ones have been around for years without spurring uptake.

A product looking for a use case or an unsolved need not met by current generation solutions?

10 Worst Web glitches of 2008 (so far) | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET

Link: 10 Worst Web glitches of 2008 (so far) | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET.

This roundup is a fun list and a good recap of the downsides of cloud computing. Note that two of the top 10 were infrastructure outages, and two of the consumer solutions listed (Apple and Netflix) are having more problems as this was posted.

Movable Type, Wordpress becoming social platforms | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET

Link: Movable Type, Wordpress becoming social platforms | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET.

This is very cool--blogging and social networking continue to merge with some excellent tools being provided by Movable Type and Wordpress. The extension of tools and feature sets back and forth from social networking sites to blogging sites will render the distinctions meaningless, with the important differentiator being the type of content shared (written word, short text posts, video, images, links, etc.)

Beyond the iPhone: NYT review of mobileme

The NYT has an in-depth review of MobileMe which is worth reading.

One of the key points for me was this line:

"MobileMe is the usual Apple value proposition: you might be able to find less expensive versions of its features online — various sync, backup and file-transfer sites — but none have the integration, polish and automation of Apple’s offering."

Microsoft bundles subscription Office software, Live services; brands as "Equipt"

Microsoft announced it is launching an annual subscription package called "Equipt" bundling Office Home and Student 2007 suite with Windows Live Services, Office Live Workspace, and Windows Live OneCare, for US $69.99 annually. It can be installed on up to three PCs.

The included software suite averages about $125 retail price if purchased as shrinkwrapped software, the included OneCare is priced at $49.99/yr as a standalone service.

This package bundles some of Microsoft's less successful online services with a stripped down Office suite. The combination of the world's most common productivity software with online storage, messaging, and malware protection raises the bar for competing services such as Google docs. Bundling one of its strongest cash contributors with free services indicates Microsoft will continue to wrap existing free online assets as value-added components to SaaS offers targeting both mobile and desktop. This is Microsoft's most substantial step toward "software plus services" and the first signal Microsoft will sacrifice cannibalizing existing revenue streams.

Note also the selection of storage and security as the first services to bundle.

The service will be sold initially through Circuit City and will expand to other distributors and suppliers.

Product/service components:

Office Home and Student comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote but not Outlook.

Windows Live Services include Messenger, Photo Gallery, Live Writer, and Live Toolbar and will also provide the mail component of this suite (Windows Live Mail, not Hotmail).

Windows Live OneCare is an annual subscription service which installs a PC client to scan for viruses and automatically seek the latest security updates to Microsoft software. It is pitched as "pro-active, anti-malware subscription service".

Office Live Workspace enables remote storage and sharing of Office documents.

This isn't going to get any coverage (who's the genius launching this mid-week two days before a huge summer holiday in the US?) but it's a huge move.

File storage and share as table stakes in SaaS messaging

Competitors large and small are including online file storage and sharing as embedded features of online messaging and collaboration suites. This signals the trend of pure-play startups seeking accelerated market adoption by switching to an emedded service model rather than relying upon direct to consumer.

The ASP/ISP market for such services will be the near-term battlefield for adoption as messaging and collaboration services target SMB.

Adobe is launching the next version of its Adobe Acrobat software, which adds support for Flash multimedia technology and a new Web site offering users free hosted services for document creation, sharing and storage.

"While its competitors use online advertising as a business model for their online services, Adobe has no current plans to go this route, the company said. Rather, it eventually will offer premium, subscription-based versions of the services for a fee."

In a related move from startup competitor Box.net, which is a PC-based remote access and store service, Box.net landed a hosted messaging provider as a go-to-market partner. "Everyone.net, which provides secure hosted messaging and collaboration solutions, has signed a partnership with Box.net to provide integrated online storage service to all of its web mail customers. Box.net, a leading provider of tools for managing and sharing data online, allows users to share, access, upload, edit and email files (documents, photos and videos) from any location with the help of a web browser."

Adobe ConnectNow key features:

Free Web conferencing for up to three people

Online document storage with 5GB free. The company also provides

Guidance for converting documents to PDFs; users can convert up to five documents into PDF for free on the site.

Box.net key features:

Mobile access thru optimized mobile web browser only (no true built-for-mobile solution)

Online file sharing and storage

Widget for self-publishing content

Online editing of MS Word and Excel