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The recent press release of Adobe about ceasing Flash Mobile development is one of the biggest IT news this month. It probably will cause Flash technology to disappear from the web. Companies cautious to start new projects based on Flash (Flex and co.) And those who have already invested raise hackles, Adobe will reassure them with an extended support. Of course, this is my opinion, subjective certainly, but it may be what will happen in the future.

Alongside this, there are some rumors that Microsoft is going to abandoned Silverlight soon. Microsoft has not denied yet, and above all, they promote HTML5 for IE10.

Is HTML5 responsible for this web transformation ? I must say yes when looking at the general enthusiasm and it will not be just a fad ! Microsoft and Adobe have finally admitted it, joined the opinion of another giant and strong supporter of the project since its inception, I am talking about Google.

However, let’s back to reality… Almost in 2012 and some of us still have to build IE6 compatible applications (11 years now, it’s not the end of the world, but it looks like !), HTML5 sounds pretty far ! Besides IE6 will be supported by Microsoft for at least 2 years.

Fortunately, what is true for the business world is not always true with broader public. The web evolves quickly for personal use.

To convince you, I invite you to visit these websites showing impressive HTML5 demos. I recommend the using of Google Chrome / Chromium browser which is the fastest browser for HTML5 at this time.

• http://www.html5rocks.com/
• http://www.chromeexperiments.com/
• http://html5demos.com/
• http://chrome.angrybirds.com/
• http://music.google.com/about/tour/

A few years ago, you would probably never imagined doing such things inside a web browser, and without adding plugin. Not bad ! No ? When will we start programming a management application with HTML5 and NoSQL (but to the Caesar or nothing !) ? What ? In 10 years ? Uh, ok, I go back to Java 5 and my IE6 GUI tests…

The web is constantly changing. A few years ago, we were talking of Web 2.0 or “social” Web. Social networks, blogs, communities, everyone interacts with everyone now, we are in a world of sharing. Actually, the change was more functional than technical (remember that Ajax is a new way to use existing standards).

Are we now entering a new era ? I would say at the dawn of a more dynamic Web 3.0, where the capabilities of your computer are fully exploited by the browser. The graphic card helps improve the fluidity of the pages and videos, your speakers to listen to music, your microphone and webcam to communicate. Conversely, your hard drive will not be essential, all your data will be stored in the Cloud. Steps to Web 3.0 seems primarily technical.

Finally (if we simplify a little), does it mean that we put the operating system on the back burner (e.g. just to start our favourite browser) ? You certainly know the Chrome OS project from Google, launched in 2009. Google has always been a forward-thinking company.

Dropbox is a sharing “box” where you can sync any type of file. It’s a kind of mini personal SVN…

Any file you save to Dropbox also instantly saves to your computers (and your smartphones), and the Dropbox website.

Extensible storage space

At first, you have 2 Gb of online storage. Then you can extend your Dropbox up to 8 Gb through invitations. There are also two premium subscriptions, 50 and 100 Gb.

Also, an invited user get an extra 250 Mb of Dropbox storage.

System integration

Dropbox works with most systems : Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. I am using it with Windows 7, XP and Ubuntu, Dropbox is fully integrated to the system with notifications, a context menu, small icons on synchronizing files…

Advanced file management

Dropbox keeps a one-month history of your files. You can restore deleted files (or permanently delete them), any changes can be undone… You can also select folders that you do not want to synchronize.

Internet connection

The bandwidth used by Dropbox may be set manually to avoid hogging your connection. The Dropbox works even when offline, it will synchronize the next time you will be connected.

Simple sharing

You can easily share a folder of your Dropbox with another user, he will access it from his own Dropbox. You can use public links to share files with people not registered on Dropbox. Finally, a folder containing photos can be viewed as a gallery / slideshow on the website of Dropbox.

I use this software recently and now I can’t do without ! I invite you to use this link to create your account and get the 250 Mb of extra storage.

Are you tearing your hair out by trying to make your website be cross-browser compatible ? Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome… Multi-compatibility increases significantly the development time!

Moreover, cross-browser is always tricky to test when you haven’t the targeted browser version. And it goes without saying that having multiple versions of one browser on your computer is not so simple.

Fortunately, Spoon is here ! Behind this mysterious name is hidding a virtualization platform that lets you run desktop applications from the cloud. Ah ! Cloud computing ! There has been a lot of buzz around the concept lately, but also some bad press recently (Amazon’s cloud crash). You should be careful to review any privacy policies if your data is hosted by a third party.

With Spoon, you will be able to access many applications without having to worry about installing or updating them. Note that the files saved from applications are stored on your local hard drive then allowing you to keep a good control.

I previously take web browsers for examples, but there are many more applications available on Spoon, the list of software is growing every day. Include web browsers like Chrome, text editors such as OpenOffice, IDE like Eclipse, PDF viewers… There’s even a section dedicated to video games.

To start using Spoon, you must create a free account and install a plug-in (the first and only installation needed). At the moment, Spoon is only compatible with Windows operating system (XP, Vista, 7…).

Extra options are available such as desktop integration, files & folders synchronization. Some other options are not free, but the basic version will usually be enough. I invite you to read the official blog for more information.