I thought the following chat was interesting. Edited for space.
SN: I have begun using Google Apps and, more and more, find online is the place for me 'cuz I can work from anywhere now and in the future, I want to be able to back up online. (Tried Mozy; not there yet.) A recent article at LifeHacker has me messing with Zoho as well. When do you think we might see Online Apple Apps?
1. Not soon. The user experience is not up to Apple standards.
2. Never. It would deep six Apple's relationship with Microsoft.
3. Soon. It a natural step in .Mac evolution.
4. Very soon. It's built into Leopard. (I have no idea this is true.)
LAM: Is this in "Apple's interest"? Will Apple make a difference doing this?
I think that "Apple's interest" is in letting you work from any Apple product from anywhere... so, it let you sync with .Mac. But you would like to use your iPhone or iPod touch to do it, so some kind of app would be needed out of iWork. iWork WiFi? iWork Lite? iWork Touch Edition?
But I do not see Apple doing Google-Apps' like applications.
SN: Good questions. Good point. But is it in Apple's interest for me to use my iPhone to dial up Google or Zoho apps?
iWork WiFi: Are you suggesting that there is an app residing on the iPhone that could call up dox online? That would be cool. And it speaks to my need to track and sync revisions. If the primary doc is online, I can load and revise anywhere—the app can automate linking, loading, and synchronizing.
JS: How about making .Mac a subscription available to iPhone owners for an extra $7.99 on your phone bill? You'd have access to an extra 10 GB of storage :-)
LAM:
Quote: "iWork WiFi: Are you suggesting that there is an app residing on the iPhone that could call up dox online?"
It would be whatever iWork gives you in the desktop but with the User Interface adapted to the touch screen.
It will do what you want to do.
JS: Having access to iDisk and online apps for iPhone owners via .Mac as a monthly subscription paid on your phone bill. Mac and iPod touch would still have to pay annually since there's no phone bill to tack it onto. This might be one way to be able to save documents without them being stored on your iPhone's internal memory.
SN: Instead of iDisk, call the service onFile or ProFile. When you open the iPhone app—munchkin versions of pages, keynote, numbers, iweb, and the yet to be named database—you can prompt it to search online for your files, chosen by name, date, author. Same thing happens at home with the full apps. On closing the file, the app autosaves the online file, with versioning as a part of the online service. Sounds a very Apple like solution, similar in character to iTunes. It's an .Mac service that I could love.
Posted at RoughlyDrafted
