Today's browsers are capable of doing tasks that were impossible only a few years ago. Development of HTML5 created the revolution, empowering current web browsers in desktops, tablets, and smartphones to become equally capable of handling websites and business-critical applications.
Indeed, employees can do most office work using web apps instead of standalone software.
Developers like Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce.com hope to transition clients to web-based features such as email management, document- and file-sharing, task and calendar management, and videoconferencing, through their rich HTML features like drag and drop, and advanced web GUI dashboards that make the user experience easier and more productive.
For example, Google+ Hangouts allows up to 10 people to simultaneously communicate in a videoconference. This can reduce travel costs, and participants can even simultaneously edit a document in real time using a web browser from any device, further underscoring the power of modern web apps.
Some projects, such as Apache’s Open Office, will become one of the web app-based solutions that may one day compete with products like Microsoft Office 365 in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) arena. Cloud-based solutions typically have web-based, end-user interfaces that enable service anywhere by using the web browser on any device, at any time. As a result, it's the platform-independent solution of today -- and the future.
Working on the Web
The Samsung Chromebook uses web-based apps to ensure apps -- and security -- remain current, and ends the need for time- and storage-consuming software downloads.
Already, web-based services are improving communication and collaboration between corporate departments, customers, suppliers, and partners. Since the end-user's platform is no longer a concern, the barrier to sharing has disappeared. Some tools I like include:
For iOS 6 devices, Google developed the Google Maps web app, which people can access through Apple's Safari browser. This web app can even display the Street View of Google maps. Users can pin this web app to their apps list in their iPhone.
When users take images in photsphere mode on an Android 4.2 device, they can see the photos using Google Street View, like the photo viewer on Google Plus. This is a revolution in photography for both enterprise users and consumers.
With Google Chromebook, we complete day-to-day activities just using web apps. As Google says, this web-based OS is always up-to-date. We simply click the refresh button to update an app so the security -- and any new software features -- update in seconds. This is a major example of the future of web app based computing. No doubt there will be many more this year.
Which web apps are important to your business today? What would you like developers to create in order to make your business even more productive and profitable, and your IT department even more efficient?
— Raj Kumar is an independent industry analyst and IT professional in the Coimbatore area of India.
It appears to be the de facto standard, though, until developers get another alternative to coding for each separate platform. You're right though, Usman, it's not perfect.
The problem with HTML 5 is it's not been standardised which makes it difficult to optimise for all the browsers and compatibility with older systems. Otherwise it's great especially for smartphones.
I know it's faced criticism because it's difficult to write code with and has debugging inadequacies, as well as inconsistent support for audio file formats. But because it's an open standard and has a lot of backers like Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Intel, and Amazon, isn't it going to be the de facto standard? Developers are working to make it run on multicore processors, which will make web apps run faster. I think, then, that despite its imperfection and challenges today, HTML5 will eventually rule the market. But it won't happen overnight... these things never do!
it's not just about the internet access. Not all browsers supports HTML5 equally and not all web apps run perfectly on each browser. A few days back Google maps stopped working on Windowsphone 8 browser.
You are creating a bottleneck. Everything is predicating on internet access and that your pipe leading to the internet is working correctly. I'm finding clients are not comfortable with that at all, once they take a hard look at how many people would be sitting twiddling their thumbs if when that happened.
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In today's digital world, we have to remember so many passwords for the different accounts we use for banking and work, for social networks, and other websites. Despite our many security precautions, we often can see the results of password theft on the news. For IT departments, this creates the challenge of choosing a better way to safeguard our data and access.
The quest for Webpage clicks and ad impressions is creating a market for sensational truths and lies in equal measure. How are we going to get to the bottom of any real issue online – like what's really going on with Carrier IQ, for example – if we can't separate hype from reality?
In the final episode of this series about the death of Internet anonymity, Saunders describes how the Internet of the future will start to attain a level of intelligence that requires no human intervention. Scary.
What can users today do to protect their online privacy? The simplest and most obvious option is to not use the Internet – at all. However, once all digital information is consolidated over the Internet, trying to protect digital identity by simply unplugging from the Internet becomes impossible – a fact that has manifest implications for civil liberties, Saunders says.
By 2011 the number of Internet-connected sensors will exceed 1 trillion, making your chances of doing anything or going anywhere unnoticed pretty much zero. Saunders talks about how the 'sensortization' of the Internet is eliminating the traditional divide between online and offline populations.
The 20th Century Internet was characterized by the ability to interact with other people and information on the Internet largely without anyone knowing who you were. The Internet of this century, conversely, will be defined by identity. Saunders explains how Internet users are unwittingly contributing to the demise of the anonymous Internet.
More companies are trolling social networks to find and vet potential job candidates. Beware the pitfalls of blurring the line between personal and professional lives.
A survey by JD Powers found that customer interest in product features is lessening as phones evolve. Rather than features, price is driving purchases, and that change could have a dramatic impact on how IT departments secure these devices.
A recent release of the popular TweetDeck app for Twitter power-users gives new life to software that had previously taken a wrong turn. Here's a quick walk-through of the new TweetDeck, to show you why it should be at the top of your Twitter toolkit.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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