Many Providers Offer Tools for Performing PC Tasks on the Net
A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft announced a new direction for the company that it’s calling “Microsoft.Net.” The plan would make its software available for use over the Internet. The strategy would also bridge the gap between small hand-held devices, such as cell phones, pagers and palm-size organizers, and PCs so that a user’s data could be entered in one place and accessed in another.
Although this might be a major strategy change for Microsoft, the concepts are hardly new. The idea of shifting computing tasks from the PC to the Internet has been around for years and numerous rival companies are already implementing pieces of this strategy. There is a growing number of “application service providers,” or ASPs, that let you use the Internet to perform tasks that might otherwise have been performed on a personal computer.
NetLedger (https://www.netledger.com), for example, offers a complete small accounting and business management system that you subscribe to rather than purchase on a CD-ROM. Since the application runs on their servers instead of your PC, the service and your data are accessible from any Web-enabled device. I don’t know if anyone would want to do accounting from a cell phone, but it’s theoretically possible. It might, however, make sense to use a wireless hand-held organizer or even a Web-enabled cell phone to enter an expense or two from the road or check on the status of an outstanding invoice.
Another company, ThinkFree.com (https://www.thinkfree.com), offers Internet-savvy software that treads directly on Microsoft’s core applications. ThinkFree.com bills itself as “anywhere, anytime computing” that allows users free access to “Microsoft Office-compatible applications,” including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program and file manager, all of which can access and create files used by Microsoft Office. Although the software is downloaded and runs directly on a PC or Linux machine, the files can reside on ThinkFree’s servers, which means you can access them from wherever you are, even if you don’t happen to have your own PC or laptop with you.
Another example of using the Web to replace some PC tasks are the “virtual desktop” applications that are springing up over the Internet. They range from Web-based e-mail services such as Hotmail.com (which Microsoft acquired in 1998) to more sophisticated personal information management systems, such as MagicalDesk.com (https://www.magicaldesk.com), that not only give you Web-based e-mail but also let you maintain your calendar and address book and share files with colleagues. Some of these virtual desktops, including ones you can access through Yahoo and Excite, also let you synchronize data with your PC and hand-held devices. I use Microsoft Outlook to maintain my address book and calendar and synchronize it to Excite’s calendar and, in turn, to my Palm organizer. This way, I can modify my calendar or address book anywhere and have the changes show up on my PC and my Palm.
Visto.com (https://www.visto.com) offers a similar series of services as well as a virtual photo album in which you can store, organize and share images. Like Yahoo and Excite, it allows you to synchronize your Web desktop with Microsoft Outlook or a Palm. I uploaded my Microsoft Outlook phone book and calendar, which I can now access from any Web-enabled device, including my cell phone. I tested the cell phone access while parked at the side of a road, and I was able to look up a phone number from the 1,000-plus names and numbers I have stored in my Outlook file. It did work, though it was time-consuming and tedious to type in the search string on my phone’s dial pad. Dialing a phone while driving is dangerous enough. Using it to access data is downright treacherous. Yet, it is reassuring to know that I can access my personal data from anywhere now that they reside on the Internet as well as on my PC.
FusionOne (https://www.fusionone.com) has an even more ambitious plan to allow users not just to access Web data on cell phones, but also to synchronize it between the Net, cell phones and all sorts of other devices. The company’s concept is that the most important solution to your information needs is not the device or operating system that you sit in front of, but the network that brings the devices together. The free service allows you to enter information on a PC, on a hand-held organizer or even on a cell phone and access it from any device without having to even plug the devices together. FusionOne account holders who have a wireless GSM phone from Pacific Bell or any other GSM provider can, for example, transfer telephone numbers from their PC to their phone’s internal database wirelessly via the telephone network. Like other Web-based information services, the company also allows you to synchronize your address book and calendar, but its long-term goal is to allow you to synchronize any type of information.
Although less ambitious than FusionOne, I-drive.com (https://www.idrive.com) is one of several Web sites that allow you to upload and share files via the Internet. You can upload files from your PC or Mac to the company’s servers and download them to any other Web-connected computer. I-drive, in a sense, is a virtual disk drive, which you can use to store your MP3 audio files, spreadsheets or any other application file. Xdrive (https://www.xdrive.com) not only has a similar name but also offers a similar service. The site lets you share documents, presentations, photos and other files with friends, family and colleagues and makes it possible for two or more people to collaborate on the same document.
Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard between 2 and 3 p.m. weekdays on the KNX-AM (1070) Technology Hour. He can be reached by e-mail at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld .com.
