The debate still continues. Do you prefer using web based applications or software installed directly on your computer? In past articles we’ve covered word processors and Twitter clients. In this article I will be discussing the debate as it pertains to free feed readers.
If you like to keep up with online content via feeds, you’re probably familiar with what a feed reader is. However, if you need more information about what feeds are all about, check out this article explaining a bit more about feeds and readers: What is a feed reader?
There are two kinds of free feed readers out there. There are feed readers you log on and access online (web application) and there are the feed readers that you download and install directly on your computer (desktop application). Let’s take a look at the differences and discuss some of the pluses and minuses of each.
The Web-Based Feed Reader
Many people prefer the web-based variety of feed reader. Most of the time it is because they can log on and access their feeds from any computer connected to the Internet. These free reader programs (of which there are many) are hosted on remote servers so much of the resource load is carried by the remote servers.
There are several popular web-based feed readers. My personal favorite is Netvibes mostly because I enjoy the interface. However, one of the most popular web-based feed readers is Google Reader which is very versatile offering many features.
Minuses? Feeds aren’t actually downloaded for offline viewing like a desktop reader. You may also have to deal with a slower load time. Also, you need a browser window open whenever you want to keep an eye on your feeds which uses memory.
Still, many still choose the web-based feed reader over the desktop feed reader.
The Desktop Feed Reader
Many people also prefer a desktop feed reader. They make this choice for many reasons, including more features and not having to have a browser open. These people also like having articles available to read offline when the Internet is not available.
There are a few favorites that people seem to like such as FeedDemon and BlogBridge.
Minuses? While on other computers, your feeds won’t be accessible with the same interface. Also, your own computer’s resources will be used to load your feeds, etc. This may not be that big of a deal for everyone, but it may be for some. Also, not everyone can or wants to have another program installed.
Conclusion?
Personal conclusion, if you choose to acknowledge it, is that it depends on each persons preferences and situation. For instance, if you jump computers a lot, a web based feed reader may be a good choice for you. If you are always on one computer and you don’t mind installing another program, then a desktop reader may be a good choice.
You also need to look at how much access you have to the Internet. If you are always on, a web based reader will work fine for you. If access is spotty, or you travel a lot and there’s not always Internet available, a desktop reader may be more suitable.

This is curious, at least amidst a massive publishing war with Amazon. According to the WSJ, Apple’s putting its massive newspaper-and-magazine-revival-on-the-iPad effort on the “backburner in favor of focusing on other content,” like its long-festering plan to bundle TV shows as a pseudo-subscription service through iTunes, as well as selling certain TV shows for a buck an episode. The idea being to get the deals in place by April 3, in time for the iPad launch. But! Everybody’s still being wishy-washy on signing to Apple’s terms, just like they have been for the last several months. So, maybe it’ll happen, maybe it won’t.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is tempering its own expectations for launch content on the iPad as it continues to struggle with finalizing deals with publishers ahead of the device’s April 3rd launch date. In particular, television content and iPad-specific presentation of newspaper, magazine, and textbook content are said to have been set aside as Apple focuses its efforts on other content that stands a chance of meeting the launch deadline.
Yet the company is still negotiating with media companies for a price cut on TV shows that people can download onto the device, said people familiar with the matter. Apple also hoped to work closely with newspaper, magazines and textbook publishers on new ways to digitally present print content on the iPad, but has for now put the effort on backburner in favor of focusing on other content, said one of those people.
The report notes that potential partners have been reluctant to sign on with Apple, weighing the benefits of bringing their content to new platforms against risks to their revenue streams as they consider forging new revenue models.
Presumably Apple has been focusing a significant amount of attention on eBooks, as it seeks to roll out its iBooks application and associated iBookstore in the U.S. as the device launches. Apple has also been working to provide tools to developers to allow them to move their iPhone and iPod touch App Store applications to the iPad and bring new providers on board.
The report also cites a source claiming that Apple has already sold “hundreds of thousands” of iPads since it went on sale last Friday, with the potential to outsell the original iPhone over the respective devices’ initial three months’ of sales. U.S. customers are currently able to pre-order or reserve for pick-up any of Apple’s six iPad models, with Wi-Fi models scheduling for launch on April 3rd and 3G-capable models to follow in late April. International availability of all models is also scheduled to follow at that time.

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Patently Apple points to a patent application from Apple published today addressing technology to allow users at large events such as concerts, tradeshows, and rallies to utilize their mobile devices to automatically create social networking groups by exchanging “tokens” using such wireless technologies as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The patent application, which was filed in September 2008, describes an example of the technology involving Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, specifically using an “iGroups” application on the iPhone to demonstrate the process by which attendees could invite one another to a group and access information related to group discussion and activities on their devices.

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A similar example shows how concert attendees could set their mobile devices to participate in the formation of a group at the event.
In this example scenario, a number of attendees of a rock concert set their Bluetooth-enabled devices to Token Exchange mode. All devices within transmission range of each other at the concert and that are set in Token Exchange mode begin exchanging and storing tokens. These devices are collectively referred to as a Group, and the users associated with devices in the Group are referred to as Group members. The Token Exchange is referred to as a “contact event.” The contact event can be associated with a “contact time” defined by timestamps provided to the trusted service.
Groups created using the method could then utilize functionalities such as e-mail and calendaring applications to interact with each other. The specific “rock concert” example poses a situation in which the musicians on-stage could initiate a group, linking to attendees near the front of the audience. The technology could also “daisy chain” to allow those further back in the crowd to still join the group via attendees further forward even if out of range of the musicians.

Apple has augmented its iPad “Features” section with a new page devoted to its iBooks application. Initially available only in the U.S., the iBooks application will be available in the App Store once the iPad officially launches on April 3rd and will serve as the hub for the iPad’s eReader functionality and offer access to Apple’s iBookstore where users will be able to purchase content. While many of the details of the iBooks application have already been disclosed, the feature page provides a slightly more in-depth look at the application and clarifies a few issues.
Apple confirms that the application will utilize the open ePub standard, which will allow users to import any open ePub content into iTunes and sync it with their iPad for viewing, even content not acquired through the iBookstore. Apple has been quiet about any sort of digital rights management (DRM) for content sold through the iBookstore, but reports have suggested that it will utilize a version of Apple’s FairPlay DRM that was formerly used on iTunes Store music and continues to be used on video content distributed via iTunes.
The new iBooks page also describes a number of the features of the application, including the ability to automatically switch between single-page portrait and double-page landscape modes by simply rotating the iPad and to change text sizes and fonts. Users can also tap on words within their eBooks to see definitions from the device’s built-in dictionary application or Wikipedia, or search for the word in the text or on the Web. iBooks is also compatible with the iPad’s VoiceOver functionality, allowing content to be automatically read aloud.
While iBooks will be a U.S.-only feature at launch, Apple appears to be busy preparing to build out support for the application and the associated iBookstore, with job postings

As information on the iPad continues to spill out from Apple in the wake of the launch of pre-orders in the U.S., more screenshots and feature information on iWork applications for the iPad have surfaced on Apple’s site. Announced alongside the iPad’s introduction in late January, iWork for iPad will offer multi-touch versions of Apple’s Keynote, Pages, and Numbers productivity applications priced at $9.99 each through the App Store.
Keynote features 12 Apple-designed themes for users to choose from as a basis for their presentations, as well as tap-to-add functionality supporting photos, video, shapes, tables, charts, and text. Items can be easily dragged, resized, or rotated using the iPad’s multi-touch technology. Keynote also supports animations, as well as routing to external video displays using an optional iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter.
Document editing on the iPad is performed using Pages, which offers 16 templates for easy creation of simple text documents, newsletters, brochures, flyers, and other content. In landscape mode, Pages offers a large on-screen keyboard that enables rapid text entry, which is also facilitated by the iPad’s auto-correct feature that corrects spelling, inserts punctuations, and suggests words. Finally, Pages offer a number of page layout tools, allowing users to add and resize images, create lists, format text, and set margins, tabs, headers, and footers.
For Numbers, Apple highlights the 16 included templates for spreadsheet formatting, table functionality with automatic sum, min, max, and count display for data selections, and simple forms for easily entering data on the go and automatically updating spreadsheets. Finally, Numbers offers high-quality charts in a number of different styles that can be copied and pasted into Pages or Keynote documents, and multiple intelligent keyboard layouts to allow users to take full advantage of Numbers’ more than 250 functions.
All iWork applications for the iPad support import of their respective traditional iWork file formats, as well as the corresponding Microsoft Office formats. Users have the option of exporting their finished documents in iWork, Office, or PDF formats.

With iPad pre-orders having begun in the U.S. just a few hours ago, observers are looking for any signs that might indicate how sales are going. According to one report, two orders placed 30 minutes apart this morning resulted in Order ID numbers approximately 10,000 apart, suggesting a rate somewhere near 20,000 orders per hour if order numbers are issued sequentially as they appear to be.
Now, of course, we can’t be sure every order was for an iPad. Apple does sell other stuff. But at 830am in the morning on the east coast, my guess is that most of the orders were for iPads.
Fortune has followed up with a report on a more organized effort that looks to be showing in excess of 50,000 orders in two hours, roughly in line with the earlier estimate.
“51,000 orders in two hours,” announced Victor Castroll shortly after noon. He’s an analyst with Valcent Financial Group and an AAPL Sanity member who, with the blogger-analyst who calls himself deagol, has been monitoring the spreadsheet.
The estimates of course come with several caveats. On the downside as mentioned, not all of the orders being placed through Apple’s online store are for iPads, although it is likely that a very substantial portion of them are, given the excitement over Apple’s tablet device and previous launches.
But on the upside, the data includes order numbers, not unit numbers, and it seems reasonable that some purchasers are ordering multiple iPads at the same time. Apple has restricted customers to two iPads per person, limiting but certainly not eliminating this effect on the estimates, suggesting that 50,000 iPads in two hours may at least be in the ballpark.

via Disney Blog

“Nope, your eyes are not deceiving you…that’s a light cycle from the Tron universe on our “highway in the sky.” And today, we’re sharing a first look at the attention-grabbing art coming to the Walt Disney World Resort.
The transformed trains will be visible on the Epcot monorail line as early as this month. And if you look close, you’ll notice that the design of the futuristic motorcycle-like vehicles from the upcoming film “Tron: Legacy” also includes walls of trailing colored light.

“Tron: Legacy” is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on December 17. But there will be more updates to come before then so keep checking the Disney Parks Blog for the latest.”

Owning a cutting-edge gadget has a certain cool factor, but early adopters rarely get a great deal. Some observers say Apple’s new iPad, available to pre-order Friday for an April 3 release, isn’t likely to be an exception — though there will probably be no shortage of shoppers wanting to go first.
“Most people are better off waiting for the technology to mature,” says Rob Enderle, the principal analyst at the Enderle Group, a San Jose, Calif.-based technology research firm. First versions of emerging technology are at premium prices and riddled with glitches. “Even the first iPhone owners were pretty unhappy.”
Apple, which did not respond to requests for comment, charges $499 for 16GB version of the touchscreen tablet with WiFi. 32GB and 64GB go for $599 and $699, respectively. (Later this spring, the company plans to offer iPad models with both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity for $629, $729 and $829.)
If the prices don’t spook you, and you’re still determined to own, you might consider pre-ordering, since demand for popular new gadgets tend to eclipse availability. When Barnes & Noble moved to introduce its Nook reader in late 2009, for example, so many consumers tried to buy, the company had to push back shipments by up to two months and ended up offering a $100 store gift card to consumers who were promised delivery by Christmas Eve. Shoppers who order close to the April 3 launch may have to wait.
Not completely sold on the need for instant iPad gratification? Hold off. Some of the difficulties with early adoption are likely to disappear within a few months. Consider these five reasons to wait:
Price Drops
Putting off your purchase a few months could cut your bill substantially. When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, it slashed the 8GB version’s $599 price tag to $399 just 10 weeks later. (Outraged early adopters received a $100 credit.) That swift of a drop on the iPad is unlikely, but the price could come down in as few as six months, says Michael Carnell, the founder of Charleston, S.C., information technology firm Palmettobug Digital. “The run-of-the-mill consumer can wait that long,” he says.
In particular, consumers could see prices drop on the Wi-Fi/3G version. “The extra charge for 3G in the device doesn’t make much sense,” Enderle says. Apple stands to profit from the $15 to $30 monthly 3G subscriptions.
Bugs
“This is version one — there’s a lot that has to be worked out,” says Aaron Ray-Crichton, an independent technology consultant and the founder of ARC Systems Consulting in Brooklyn, N.Y. Apple originally anticipated an iPad release in late March, and analyst reports have pointed to possible production problems.
App Availability
Currently, the iPad has very few apps of its own. Most are iPhone apps, Carnell says. Displayed on a 9.7-inch screen instead of a 3.5-inch one, they may appear too jagged and low resolution to be useful, he says. If you’re looking at the iPad for the apps, hold off a month or two until developers can catch up.
Connectivity
A Wi-Fi-only device is fine if you plan to use it at home or other areas with Wi-Fi hotspots. But 3G connectivity — available in iPad models set to launch later this spring — is basic for consumers who want their iPad to work while traveling in the car or in other locations where Wi-Fi is scarce. “Otherwise, you’re going to have limited access to that rich Internet content,” Ray-Crichton says. 3G subscription costs will set you back an extra $180 to $360 a year. Given that cost, an iPhone may be a more cost-effective choice for some users, he says.
Competition
It’s still unclear exactly what the iPad will do best, Enderle says. Competing devices slated for release may be better choices, depending on what you would use the iPad for. Shoppers looking for an e-reader may want to wait for Amazon’s expected Kindle 3, while Dell’s Streak tablet offers more computing power, he says. Another soon-to-be-released contender, Notion Ink’s Adam, “is probably closer to what the second-generation iPad will be than what the iPad currently is,” he says.

Late last week, Google (GOOG) made another aggressive move to stay ahead of Microsoft (MSFT) in the online productivity tools space by acquiring DocVerse, a startup founded by two former Microsoft employees, known for tools that let users collaborate on Microsoft Office files on the Web.
Google nabbed the three-year-old, San Francisco-based DocVerse for $25 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. What Google gets in return is the technology to make Microsoft Office operate more like Google Docs.
DocVerse provides a 1MB plug-in to Office 2007 that allows users to edit and share Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents online and in real-time with all the features of the Office client versions intact.
Ironically, the acquisition gives Google the authority to let users access full-featured Office files in a Web-based environment before Microsoft does.
Google plans to add the DocVerse functionality to Google Apps for free, but it has not announced when that will take place. Yet one thing’s for sure: Google is giving Microsoft no breathing room in the race to bring cloud-based productivity tools to businesses. Just yesterday, Google unveiled an online store called Google Apps Marketplace, where enterprises can buy cloud-based applications designed to work with Google’s own apps.
A Body Blow to Microsoft
It’s worth noting that Microsoft already provides the same kind of online-collaboration capabilities as Docverse via its free Office Live Workspace service. But this is an offering that Microsoft has barely marketed, likely because with the upcoming Office 2010, arriving in June (May 12 for businesses), Microsoft will include Office Web Apps. These are free, stripped-down online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. If users want the full features of Office 2010 they will still have to buy the full Office 2010 desktop suite.
While Microsoft still has an undeniable lead in the productivity tool space, especially at enterprises, the latest moves by Google turn up the heat. Just as Steve Ballmer anounced Microsoft’s “all in” commitment to cloud computing last week, Google comes along and integrates online collaboration with Office docs through its own established cloud-based productivity suite and opens up a apps store for businesses.
“I’d say this [Google's Docverse buy] was a body blow to Microsoft,” says veteran industry analyst Roger Kay. “Microsoft has to respond as best it can, whether shipping Office 2010 earlier or pushing Office Web Apps more, or both.”
Chasing Google’s Web Apps
Office still remains Microsoft’s main cash cow, along with Windows. It generates 90 percent of the revenue for Microsoft’s business division. However, the Office suite faces a variety of growing threats, not only from Google Apps, but also from IBM (IBM) with LotusLive iNotes and Oracle (ORCL) with its newly announced “Cloud Office.”
“Google is always trying to outflank Microsoft,” Kay says. “There are a lot of benefits to a client-based collaborative system that synchs periodically via the cloud. Having it as an Office plug-in through Google Apps is pretty sweet.”
The Real Problem: Google Incompatibility with Office
Nevertheless, there is a flip side to Google’s purchase of DocVerse: It is an acknowledgement by Google that Office is the king of productivity apps and that incompatibility between Office and Google Docs has been a weakness.
Does DocVerse solve this weakness? No, writes PCWorld columnist David Coursey.
DocVerse is essentially an Office add-on that stores files in Google’s cloud, writes Coursey. This may help convince Office users to try Google Apps, but it doesn’t address the bigger problem of feature and file format incompatibility with Office.
“Limited compatibility with Microsoft Office is a major reason why many Google Apps free and paid customers prefer to use the e-mail and calendar features, but not the word processor, spreadsheet and presentation modules of Google Docs,” writes Coursey.
Still Early Going for Google Apps
For the time being Office still dominates at large enterprises. A November survey of 2,000 IT decision-makers by research firm Forrester revealed that 80 percent of companies surveyed support some version of Microsoft Office, and 78 percent have no plans for implementing an alternative to Microsoft Office.
This could change as Google continues to tighten its focus on online collaboration tools for businesses, says Forrester analyst Sheri McLeish. But, she emphasizes, it’s still early going for Google Apps.
“Yes, businesses are experimenting with Google Apps, but Google is still trying to sort out its apps and enterprise solution sets.”
McLeish adds it’s hard for most companies to make the business case to switch tools when users are comfortable and familiar with Office. “Google realizes this,” she says, “which is why it is resorting to acquiring a company that basically helps people work online with Office formatted documents.”
Clearly Google’s long-term goal is to chip away at Microsoft’s Office desktop suite dominance, but the DocVerse acquisition doesn’t move the ball too far down the field, says McLeish.
“I see this as a complement to Office apps, not a replacement technology,” she says