I’m an avid consumer of all that is web; I’m constantly on the search for new and exciting ways to compute. I thrive on finding new sites and services that can somehow make my life, and those around me, simpler and easier to manage the day-to-day tasks of living.
A little history…(of how I came to desire)
During my college days, the worst thing that could ever happen to a student besides the nightmare of realizing you’re naked during your final presentation is the lose of all your data after your less-than-a-year-old PC takes a shit on your life and files. So I, like so many people have done before and so many are doing now, switched to the gloriously simply Apple computer. But that’s neither here nor there. Shortly thereafter I came to rely on hard drives and back ups of hard drives and CDs backing up those back ups and all together like most people having a slew of solutions to prevent myself from ever losing a file again.
In steps the glorious sales pitch of .Mac (currently called MobileMe) that revolutionized how I thought about file management, and later on computing in general. At the time I signed up for .Mac, for $69 a year, I got a few gigs of storage space to dump files on their servers with the capability of retrieving them from any computer regardless of operating system. All I needed was an internet connection, and being 2004 at the time, it was fairly easy to find any place with some sort of wi-fi connection. So if that was all that was sold to me, I still would have bought it because it saved me hundreds of hours, not to mention the money it saved not having to keep up with all the back ups I had. The other features I came to use and love were the synchronization and integration it did so well with apps on my computer. Address book, iCal, Safari Bookmarks, Mail all synchronized their local data with Apple’s servers allowing me access to all of my important data at any one time. Brilliant concept! I used it for years with various upgrades coming over the time, including storage additions, new synchronization features, etc. I mean, talk about something really revolutionary. I could use my computer and input all kinds of data and have it synchronize over the internet and not have to worry about losing this data because it was always on some website I could access anywhere.
As the web started to boom and pop out new online apps, I started looking around for more of these online operating system apps to quench my thirst for online synchronization. I mean after all, Apple had a great start but where was the synchronization in iPhoto for my photos. I had to publish everything as a web page with little control. Then .Mac turned into MobileMe and synchronizing suffered, in my opinion. And I just wanted to more.
The Meat and Potatoes (of Online Operating Systems)
So here we are, fast-forward to the present and I find myself setting up what I like to call an “online operating system”. It came in real handy when my computer got sick and had to go to the doctor leaving me knee deep in PC without my data. Or did it…
Here I’m going to try and provide some insight into what it means to have an online operating system as well as show you how I use it. Remember though, this is by no means a complete directory of apps and services and I use a Mac, so things may be different if you’re on a PC, but I’ll try to distinguish what I can. Please comment and let me know if I missed something or any corrections.
Requirements for an app to be considered part of the Online Operating System
- Have an online interface…duh!
- Mac/PC compatible
- Synchronize data from local machine to server/web interface is essential, but would require a desktop app, and so not required
- Although not required, having an iPhone app helps
Core Apps
Google Docs -Document creation software. Always at the forefront of application concern is how to create documents. Every had those problems with people sending you documents you couldn’t open because you were on a Mac or PC and didn’t have their software. If you don’t have Pages on Mac or even the different versions of Word can cause all kinds of file sharing issues; so Google’s answer just makes sense. An online document creation solution that can input various formats as well as output them. Some features include support for almost every document format standard, (Microsoft Word, Open Office, PDF), online collaboration, and allowing users to publish docs as web pages for the world to see. As an added bonus, Google has created an applet called Gears that allows you to work offline (no internet connection required) on all of your created documents. And Google does have their iPhone app that allows you to access these sites although its not really an app, just links to these pages.
Dropbox – This is a simple app for file storage. I use this over MobileMe for a few reasons. One, its a very easy to use app being that it just takes a folder you specify and synchronizes it to a web server. Mac and PC compatible makes this 1 step beyond Apple’s solution. No real application needs to be running; put a file or create folders in your Dropbox and within minutes you’ll see it on the web interface or other computers you’ve specified. You get 2GBs of storage, but can pay for an upgrade of storage if needed. You can also share a folder with the public or people you specify making this an easy solution to share pictures with loved ones, or files for businesses. No iPhone app that I know of as of this writing.
Gmail – eMail solution. In this day of computer messaging, its nice to have a simple email program. Mac Mail is great and it allows you set up Gmail as either an imap or pop3, but the way it handles Gmail’s unique way of threading emails its poor to say the least. So I reached out to find a better solution and on Mac, its definitely MailPlane. It basically looks like Gmail but with 1 exciting feature, the ability to drag and drop attachments on to the app and create a new email with the attachments all ready to go. Will all kinds of enhancements and add-ons Google has easily become my choice for email. Want to keep your existing email name (ex. myname@mydomain.com), then Google still has a solution for you with their Google Apps on Domains service. There is a bit more involvement in setting this up, so if you’re not web savvy then you might want to enlist Googles help to get you set up on this.
Flickr/Picasa – Picture storage. These, like many others out there, are your photo programs and storage solutions. As of this writing, Apple is about to release iPhoto ‘09 that will allow you to synchronize your iPhoto albums up to Flickr. And Google has already released a comparable piece of software in Picasa 3 for Mac. Each has its benefits and if you’re going to use these for your photo storage, sign up for their free accounts and play around to see which one is better suited for your needs. Each solution has the ability to geo-tag photos, face recognition type features, set permissions, etc. As of now, I have a pro account for Flickr and use that for all my pictures and I have a free Picasa account that I use to store photos for this blog because it integrates well being both are owned by Google. As far as iPhone apps go, I use PixelPipe to upload any pictures that I may have taken with my camera or I can actually take pictures with PixelPipe. There is another app that I might start using more for this as it does more than just Flickr, its called Shozu and it works on Picasa, Flickr, Blogger and more.
Mint – Financial solution. In this tattered time of market woes, its nice to have a free solution for your financial needs. Mint is definitely one of my savors for the online OS. 100% safe as it doesn’t store any of your financial information; it simply aggregates your account activity and automatically categorizes it for you. Now most people don’t use any financial software, but for those who have spent money on Quicken or QuickBooks and feel they don’t use all of the features, this might be for you. I don’t have to input any transactions anymore, Mint does it for me. It creates a budget for me (fully customizable to fit your needs), gives me suggestions on how to save money and warns me when I’m going over my budget or credit limits. With most major banks on board, its simple to set up and easy to use. This saved me hours for my taxes this year as it gave me a total of my expenditures in specific categories. It even has some cool user interface pie charts that specify your spending habits. Mint has an iPhone app. And as far as desktop solution, I’m using Fluid to house the Mint site. See further down here for an explanation of Fluid.
On a side note, if you have your own small business like me and still need a better financial solution, Mint is not a replacement for QuickBooks or a good accountant. However I do use Blinksale for invoicing and have a good accountant to give me financial advice.
Google Calendar – My choice for a calendar app service is Google’s. The only reason this works for me is because of a simple plug-in called BusySync (Mac only). Synchronization of my iCal with Google’s calendar is made very easy with this app and I love the creators for this. It synchronizes both ways, meaning I can subscribe to calendars I find on Google, from either friends or their directory of calendars made by users, and I can publish my calendars to Google. Google does have their own Mac solution, and Outlook solution for you Windows users. As far as iPhone app, you can use the calendar app built in since iCal syncs with the phone and vice versa, or you could use Googles app. I suggest the former.
Toodledo – Some people like to keep track of their list of to dos on something other than a Post-It note. I happen to be one of them. So I was introduced to Toodledo. A super easy interface allows you to set up to do items, add priorities, tags, due dates, start dates, levels of importance, notes, etc. Everything to keep your life organized comes in the form of this app. I use this app almost hourly at this point and have come to rely on it to keep me on task. There is an iPhone app and an Adobe AIR app called ToodleAir. The AIR app is a quick way to add tasks, and since my friend wrote this app, he tells me that their might a feature added later that allows you to view your current tasks, but we’ll see. I also use Fluid for this app to view all my projects and tasks.
Soocial – Contact management. Synchronizes contacts across Outlook, Gmail, Macs, and Phones. If you believe in this online operating system, then you’re already using Gmail and since Gmail already has a contact storage solution, why not use an applet that allows you to synchronize your contacts across multiple platforms. There is a Mac and PC solution as well as support for more than just iPhones. No need for an iPhone app because iTunes synchronizes for you. Although at this time, I still think its a bit buggy due to in part Googles lack of support for various fields in their contact solution, I still recommend using this over no solution. However, if you have an iPhone, iTunes currently allows you to synchronize with Google, so until Soocial works out the kinks, I’ll stick to using iTunes.
Scrnshots – Screen capturing program. Not exactly essential to an operating system, but nonetheless it provides a way to synchronize those screenshots you’ve been taking across multiple systems as well as provide an online interface. Its a very basic program with both a PC and Mac applet that integrates into your system in the menu bar on Mac, and system tray on PC. Basically allows you to take a screenshot in the various forms and upload it as well as tag it and create a description. There is no iPhone app as of yet, but if you take a screen shot on your iPhone, you could then upload it to your computer and then onto scrnshots.com if you needed.
Non-Essentials
These apps are not really apart of the online operating system, as per the requirements above, but are good to know and do have some presence in the article. The following don’t require personal data to be synchronized or uploaded to a web server and therefore, are considered the non-essentials.
YouTube/Boxee/Joost – Video player. Not a replacement for a DVD player, but each has a solution for watching videos, tv shows and all sorts of visual content. YouTube is the standard for watching user generated content and offers millions of videos from all over the world. It has no desktop app, however has an iPhone app that comes standard with the iPhone. Boxee is an app that allows you to watch millions of TV shows accessing sites like Hulu, Netflix, CBS, Comedy Central, etc. It has no web interface, no iPhone app, but has a desktop app. Joost is almost a mash up of Boxee and YouTube. It carries full movies, TV shows, music from all sorts of providers including NBC, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, etc. It has an iPhone app and a web app, but no desktop app, although originally it was exclusively a desktop app.
Last.fm – Music/Radio station. Sticking with the media section first, last.fm is a social network based around music. People can find their favorite artists and add them to their profile and essential create their own personal radio stations that can then be shared with friends or the public. What really makes this app great is the ability what they call “scrobbling”. If you download their desktop app, it will keep track, or “scrobble” your played tracks and then upload that list to their site as well as recommend new music based off your tastes. So theoretically anyone can see what kind of music you listen to and enjoy your own customized radio station. It also scrobbles your iPod so you can listen to music on the go and upload those tracks to last.fm when you connect your iPod to your machine. There is an iPhone app that allows you to listen to your online radio station.
Blogger/Word Press – If you’re like me and want to journal and/or blog, then you sure enough probably have one of these accounts. You can obviously see I use Blogger, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have nor appreciate the simplicity and customization that both offer. I like to write articles about various things, and the only reason I chose Blogger over Word Press was the shear ease of integration with various Google apps, including AdSense and Picasa. But as far as I’m concerned, they are both great at what they do. So if you want to write articles or just journal your life, both have their place. As far as desktop apps, I’m using Fluid for Blogger as there is no desktop app I could find as of this writing. However, I have found a program called Ecto that would work with WordPress as well as Blogger, but it costs $$$, and I don’t mind using Fluid for free. iPhone apps…for Blogger I’m using Shozu. It also works with WordPress, however they have their own app.
Twitter – The undeniable leader in micro-blogs or status updates. Everyone at this point knows what Twitter does. For those of you who have no concept of the internet in the 21st Century, Twitter is a micro-blog limited to 140 characters or less. Basically it allows you to update your status throughout the day, week, month or whatever you like. The idea being that you don’t want to write an exhaustive blog, like this one, and you just want to update people and what you’ve done or been doing. Now there are a whole host of mashups and various Twitter apps out there. Too many to name here, but just know that you can search Google or the App Store and find plenty. Of the apps that I’ve mentioned, Fluid would work for Twitter as a desktop client, there are a host of AIR apps that would work, and as for iPhone apps, Shozu allows Twitter posts as well.
Grande Finale
I love the ability to keep my works and creations platform independent with the secure knowledge that my data is stored on a secure server. With or without my lovely Mac, I always have the ability to retrieve something as long as I have an internet connection. If you have any suggestions on how to make this article better or have new apps for me to check out and include, please feel free to comment below. There are some additional resources below that I’ve included in case you haven’t heard of some of the things I’ve discussed.
Additional Resources
Adobe AIR – This is Adobes new innovative framework that allows desktop application engineers to develop 1 application to distribute to 3 different operating systems. So now software developers can write an app once and have it work on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. I almost always try to find one of these apps before settling for a Mac only solution.
Fluid – You can read about the specifics of this app on their website, but basically it allows you to create an application for web services such as Blogger, MobileMe, Toodledo, etc. I basically use this for whatever web services I have that don’t have some sort of Adobe AIR app or desktop app. Its brilliant technology and has made my life much simpler.
