Some Great Chrome Web Apps

I'm new to Chromebooks, as are most of us, but I am not new to Chrome and as such I am very familiar with the Chrome Web Store. More and more it is becoming my go to place for extending the functionality of the browser in my personal war on local storage.

Not that the Chromebook doesn't have some local storage, it does. (The fast SSD hard drive is 16Gb and it also supports SD cards and USB drives.) But my aim is to wean myself off it as much as possible. Less local data means more mobility and lower hardware requirements.

So here are a couple of my favourite Web Apps with more to come as I discover them

1. Kindle cloudreader

Read all your Kindle books in the browser thanks to good ole HTML5. Kindle is available on a variety of platforms and devices including IOS. Recently Apple decided in their way (read stupid) that they would demand 30% of all 'In-App' purchases that users make on the platform. This would have had the effect of increasing costs for customers or lowering profits publishers and authors... Sort of like a Troll under a bridge asking for payment...anyhoo...

Local Storage - Weaning myself off it.

World Wide Everthing

Most of my work is web based. The balance has shifted in the last 18 months from desktop work being the majority and I would bet all the money in my pocket right now that yours has shifted towards the web as well. Unless that is you are a heavy AutoCad user, in which case I have just lost £1.26. (I never said it was a lot of money)

This week the web as we know it turned 20 years old. And it certainly seems to have grown up. So what better time to evaluate the notion of a web centric life. My email, office and all my line of business apps are now all web based. Google Apps working in tandem with Zoho CRM, Zoho Reports and several bespoke Credible Systems applications written on Zoho Creator platform are pretty much all I need.

Samsung 3G Chromebook

The last step is to try doing all this on a device that embraces the web completely. Yep, a Chromebook, a device that doesn't just embrace the web, but gets down and dirty with it from the get go.

My friend Alex at Nerds-Central has been trying one on for size and has been pretty impressed. My old clunker of a laptop has failed me several times in the last week so I ordered one yesterday and it arrived today. This post is being written on it as I type.

First impressions are...lovely keyboard, good screen, and so easy my mum could use it. Scratch that, my dog could use this.

Highlights:

• Incredible boot time - typically 6-8 seconds
• Super simple set up, all my faves/passwords/apps were waiting for me.
• Instant on from standby
• Web focused keyboard with special keyboard functions

Lowlights:

• Still trying to overcome the urge to minimize and see my desktop
• No SIM in the box!

I went for a 3G enabled Samsung Chromebook in manly grey rather than a girlish white. Whilst I don't have a SIM for it (There should be a free SIM from Three with 3Gb of data allowance) I will tether this from my Nexus 1 Android phone until I really need anything else.

Three are doing a SIM only deal with data only (no voice) for £5.11/month providing 2Gb/month. Plenty I should think as this will mostly get used on my office wi-fi.

More to come....much more.

Musical Inspiration for Application Development

A darkened room, classical music
and buckets of tea please...

I do a lot of application development on the Zoho Creator platform. I've created a few simple applications that collect data from users in the manner of a feedback form.

The majority however are much more complex. At the moment I am working on two projects that integrate data across two platforms and contain a strong reporting element requiring integration with Zoho's Business Intelligence platform Zoho Reports

Featured Zoho Partner

As a Zoho partner for over 2 years I've created numerous applications for my clients using the web development platform of Zoho Creator. Apps for all sorts of uses, some simple, yet unique for my clients and some more generic, yet far more complex. Credible Systems uses a handful of these to help us run the business too. We eat our own dog food so to speak.

Recent advances in Zoho integration have allowed a new dynamic to these apps though. The integration between ZohoCRM and Zoho Creator allows us to easily build apps that expose and use CRM data. YOUR customers, YOUR contacts, YOUR opportunities.

This work recently culminated in a Zoho Case study. More details here: http://bit.ly/n6ziWu

Integration V's features

The comparison between on premises software (traditional) and cloud computing (emerging/maturing) are made on a variety of levels, with a primary element being cost.

The ROI of any technology is always far more than the price on the box. One needs to factor in the costs of administration, servicing, security, backup, training, availability, customisation and heck, the list is loooong.

Just hold that list in mind a moment and digest a comment made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference...

For every $1 Microsoft makes on its software, partners make $8.70 in additional revenue servicing and customizing these products

Raju Vegesna at Zoho summed this up very succinctly.

"If integration costs more than software it is a bug, not a feature."

With close to 30 products offered Zoho obviously understands the value of integration. Early products were developed and the effort seemed to be on digging deeper and deeper to make very full featured standalone products.

Zoho Creator - in House?

Zoho Creator is a Platform as a Service. (PasS) It allows people like me and you to create forms driven database applications with relative ease and access them via a browser.

Even better, sprinkle lightly with Zoho's Deluge script and the addition of logic and workflow transforms the app from data collection to a workflow driven tool that can solve many unique business problems.

Until now this has only been available via a subscription from Zoho. Many people, myself included have asked for either a Zoho device or a version of Zoho that will run behind a company firewall.

Well according to a post by the Zoho Creator team on Facebook today that might be happening.

Why the cloud?

When weighing up the decision of moving to Google Apps or an other cloud based solution it is worth remembering the changes seen during the industrial revolution. From the 18th to the 19th century, this revolution saw a tide of inventiveness and social change that left no part of the UK untouched before sweeping over the USA, Europe and many other distant lands.

New industries were forged and in their inception they tried to do or own all their subsequent processes. Manufacturers creating products required power, and sought the only solution available to them. They built their own power-plants that serviced their own factories.

Early steam and belt driven motors