Virtual Office
McAfee: The definition of workplace changes, dramatic increases in productivity could be ahead; http://eicker.at/VirtualOffice
Apple‘s iCloud (beta) goes online: iWork gets web apps, pricing from free (5GB) to $100 (50GB); http://eicker.at/iCloud
Wolfram has released the Computable Document Format (CDF): bringing interactivity via computation; http://eicker.at/CDF
Wolfram: “Today we launched our Computable Document Format, or CDF, to bring documents to life with the power of computation. – CDF binds together and refines lots of technologies and ideas from our last 20+ years into a single standard—knowledge apps, symbolic documents, automation layering, and democratized computation, to name a few. – Disparate though these might appear, they come together in one coherent aim for CDF: connecting authors and readers much better than ever before. … With CDFs we’re broadening this communication pipe with computation-powered interactivity, expanding the document medium’s richness a good deal.”
RWW: “It isn’t simply readers who are meant to benefit from having more interactive publications. Wolfram says that the CDF is also designed to make it easier for authors and publishers to create and incorporate these knowledge apps into documents, arguing that up until now, these sorts of things have often required a knowledge of programming. CDFs can be created using the Mathematica software, and Wolfram insists that building a knowledge app is as easy as writing a macro in Excel.”
O’Reilly: “Wolfram’s tools create documents that can be shared on the Web, and are free for use by people who publish free documents. The tools can be licensed by organizations that charge for documents. Access to the tools can be on the Wolfram site (Software as a Service), or licensed and installed on your own server. – These tools look to me like a boon to educators, and I predict that all manner of publishers in the sciences and social sciences will license them. … Wolfram plans to release the format itself as what they call a ‘public standard.’ This is not the same as an open standard. … I assume Wolfram will keep strict control over the format, which draws a lot from the Mathematica language, and I doubt other companies will want to or be able to catch up to Wolfram in the sophistication of the tools they offer.”
Amazon starts Cloud Drive with 5 (free) to 1,000 GB for music, photos, videos, documents; http://eicker.at/AmazonCloudDrive
How media has been dealing with WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and the secrets he spilled; http://eicker.at/DealingWithWikiLeaks
Apple: Pages lets you export your documents in ePub format for reading with iBooks; http://j.mp/bXtk9L
Naughton: Is the internet changing the way we think? Affecting the way we think for the worse? http://j.mp/apBvu3
Use Projecturf to manage projects and teams efficiently, and virtually from anywhere; http://j.mp/90qjUN
http://TwitDoc.com: Share documents (PDF, MS Office, …) and pictures on Twitter – no OAuth yet; http://tr.im/kTrE
Apple: “iCloud stores your music, photos, apps, calendars, documents, and more. And wirelessly pushes them to all your devices – automatically. It’s the easiest way to manage your content. Because now you don’t have to. … iCloud is so much more than a hard drive in the sky. It’s the effortless way to access just about everything on all your devices. iCloud stores your content so it’s always accessible from your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, or PC. … When you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of free storage.”
9to5Mac: “Apple has just opened up the iCloud.com web interface for developers. The website is in beta and features all new web apps for Mail, Calendar, Contacts, and more. In addition, it appears that iCloud.com will offer a portal for users to view their iWork documents that are stored in the cloud via iCloud. On top of all of this Find my iPhone is an integrated web application. As you will see, the interface for the website is very iPad and iOS-like. We also have a video walkthrough after the break.”
MR: “iCloud is Apple’s upcoming syncing and storage service for both iOS 5 and OS X Lion. iCloud (the service) stores your music, photos, apps, calendars, documents and keeps it in sync across multiple devices. iCloud.com (the website) represents Apple’s MobileMe website replacement that gives users online access to their Calendar, Email, Address Book, Find My Phone and iWork data. The entire interface borrows heavily from iOS and Lion and incorporates many nice graphical flourishes and animations.”
TC: “Not that this should be surprising. One of Apple’s strengths has always been aesthetics. But what’s equally nice is just how slick the apps function. Both in Safari and Chrome, all the apps feel responsive and feature many subtle transitional touches presumably using HTML5. – In addition to iCloud.com going live, Apple has also posted more information about iCloud pricing. ‘5GB of free storage is plenty for most people. But if you need extra space, you can always buy additional storage,’ Apple notes on the site. Those prices are: 10 additional GB for $20 a year, 20 additional GB for $40 a year, 50 additional GB for $100 a year – Of note, your iCloud Photo Stream, iOS apps, music, and TV shows you buy from iTunes/the App Store do not count against your 5GB of free storage.“