Not any more! New technology developed by Adobe® changes  all that, offering a platform that provides a new environment for creating powerful Web software that can run without a browser.

The Adobe® AIR™ runtime, introduced last year, lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems. Adobe AIR offers an exciting new way to engage customers with innovative, branded applications, without requiring changes to existing technology, people, or processes.

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How AIR Works

You are most likely already familiar with Adobe Flash- the browser plug-in responsible for powering much of the Internet’s multimedia content–from YouTube videos and Flickr slideshows to addictive Web-based video games. Flash applications are however limited by the fact that they require a host application, most often a web browser.

AIR covers for this limitation, creating “stand-alone” applications that run from your desktop just like any other application. AIR apps are developed in much the same way that Flash applications are, providing developers with a new environment for creating powerful Web software that can run without a browser.

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Business Benefits

With the Adobe® AIR™ runtime, you can deliver branded rich Internet applications outside the browser that give you a closer connection to your customer.

Adobe AIR uses the same proven, cost-effective technologies used to build web applications, so development and deployment is rapid and low risk. You can use your existing web development resources to create engaging, branded applications that run on all major desktop operating systems.

With Adobe AIR, you can:

• Establish a more persistent connection with existing customers
• Deliver fully branded experiences with desktop functionality
• Leverage existing personnel, processes, and infrastructure
• Develop and deliver RIAs efficiently using proven Adobe technology
• Increase the ROI of your web investments

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As an AJAX developer myself, you can only imagine my excitement.  AIR applications run across operating systems on the WebKit HTML engine and are easily delivered using a single installer file. With Adobe AIR, Ajax developers can “use their existing skills and code to build responsive, highly engaging applications that combine the power of local resources and data with the reach of the web”.

I just downloaded and installed the latest version of AIR, and SDK (Software Development Kit), and am already impressed with the capabilities so far.

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What! Postal letters? Yeah postal letters. You know;

• write your letter,
• insert it into an envelope,
• rush to the nearest post office,
• buy some postage stamps and drop the letter in a post box.

That kind.

I was glancing through this blog I recently fell in love with, when I came across a post titled;

“Send Postal Letters Anywhere in the World Through Internet – Email to Snail Mail”

A title like that would no doubt spark up interest so naturally, I read through the post and what I found left me astonished. Though (technically speaking)  it obviously isn’t possible to send Postal Letter through the Internet, there are a couple of online services which allow you do just that.

The postal service may not be as important as it used to with the advent of Email, but there are still a couple of reasons why you may want to use the service. This is particularly true with regards to our beloved “Mama Africa”. Let’s recount a couple shall we:

1. Some of your relatives live in remote villages where they don’t have computers let alone access to Internet.
2. Your grandparents know computers (or not) but they’ll probably feel more happy if you could send them emails and photographs in paper form that they can read in the lawn outside.
3. You are trying to reach someone who already gets a few hundred email messages per day. Your email may get lost in the clutter but if you take the snail mail approach, chances are high that he or she will at least read your message if not respond to it.

Whatever the case may be, should you need to send a Postal Letter, and would like to avoid the hassle, there are web based letter printing and dispatching services that “work more or less the same way”.

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You send then an email or upload the document as Word or PDF on to their servers, make the payment online and they’ll send the letter via regular postal mail to the specified physical address.

I have taken the liberty of compiling a list of some web based letter printing and dispatching service companies, according to the nature of their service;

Country-Specific

These companies provide their services to clients within a specific country;

• Via Post (for the UK)
• Pixel Letter (for the European Union)
• Snail Mail Me (for Canada), and
• India Post (for residents of India)

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Non Country-Specific

• Postal Methods
• Mail a Letter
• Postful
• EZGram
• L-Mail
• Click 2 Mail
• Email 2 Postal
• PC 2 Paper

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tags

For 2008, Intel posted revenue of $37.6 billion, operating income of $9 billion, net income of $5.3 billion and EPS of 92 cents. Intel generated approximately $11 billion in cash from operations, paid cash dividends of $3.1 billion and used $7.1 billion to repurchase 324 million shares of common stock.

President and Chief Executive, Paul Otellini, in a statement said;

The economy and the industry are in the process of resetting to a new baseline from which growth will resume,”

“While the environment is uncertain, our fundamental business strategies are more focused than ever. Intel will continue to extend its manufacturing leadership, drive product innovation, develop new markets and implement operating efficiencies that have already taken more than $3 billion out of our ongoing cost structure since 2006. Intel has weathered difficult times in the past, and we know what needs to be done to drive our success moving forward. Our new technologies and new products will help us ignite market growth and thrive when the economy recovers.”

Intel Reports Fourth-Quarter and Annual Results

• Fourth-Quarter Revenue $8.2 Billion, down 19 Percent Sequentially
• Gross Margin 53 Percent, down 6 Points Sequentially
• Operating Income $1.5 Billion, down 50 Percent Sequentially
• Quarterly Net Income $234 Million; EPS 4 Cents

• 2008 Revenue $37.6 Billion, down 2 Percent Year-over-Year or up Slightly Adjusted for Divestitures
• Gross Margin 55 Percent, up 3.5 Points Year-over-Year
• Operating Income $9 Billion, up 9 Percent Year-over-Year
• Annual Net Income $5.3 Billion; EPS 92 Cents

Citing an excerpt from an article posted by Antone Gonsalves on the “Tech Web” website;

“Besides lower sales, Intel’s profits were hurt by a $1 billion net loss in its equity investment in Clearwire, a wireless broadband provider that leverages WiMax technology heavily promoted by Intel. Overall, Intel reported a $1.1 billion net loss in equity investments. The company had originally forecast a loss of $50 million.

Intel’s closely watched gross margin fell nearly six points from the third quarter to 53%, primarily because of charges from higher underutilization of its factories and higher inventory write-offs. Gross margin for the first quarter of this year is expected to fall to the low 40s, primarily because of charges from underutilized factories and startup costs of moving from the current 45-nanometer manufacturing process to 32 nm, which will provide the foundation for the next generation of products.”

Reports have it that Intel earns over 80% of its revenue from outside the United States, and there have been reports of dismal market for most Intel products across the globe, an exception being in sales of mini-laptops, also called netbooks.

Sales of the low-cost systems that sell for as little as $300 have been growing fast, and Intel has been gaining traction in the market with its Atom processors.

While declining to provide a formal projection for the first quarter of this year, Intel said that for internal purposes, it’s planning for sales of around $7 billion.

There were also quite a number of changes in SEO trends in 2008, most notably Google’s Custom Search, and toolbar update, which saw a number of websites lose and gain PR.

As far as global IT trends for 2009 are concerned, there have been a number of predictions, especially on the growth in “Tech Spending”. Quoting the Wall Street Journal blog;

“Businesses and other organizations in the U.S. will spend $573 billion on computer software, hardware and services next year, just 1.6% more than they spent in 2008, according to new data out Tuesday from Forrester Research Inc. In contrast, U.S. tech spending grew 4.1% in 2008 and 7% in 2007. Earlier this year, Forrester predicted U.S. tech spending would grow 6.1% in 2009.

The results are based on several factors, including real gross domestic product growth and how technology is valued by businesses, says Andrew Bartels, an analyst at Forrester.

Despite forecasts that show real GDP declining, tech spending will grow slightly because “businesses have become more dependent on technology”

As the baseline mag puts it ;

“.. enterprises with a forward-thinking approach and a solid grasp of technology trends will have a distinct competitive advantage. The following technologies trends in areas like SaaS, virtualization and project portfolio management, among others, are likely to shape IT and business in the coming year, and they can give your company the advantage it needs to do business in this challenging economic environment.”

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Expected global IT trends for 2009

• Saas- Software as a Service
  Cloud computing environments will contribute to the expansion of SaaS into areas beyond ERP, CRM and HR management systems. Rob DeSisto, analyst for Gartner, says organizations increasingly see the benefits of moving large-scale software expenses from the capital budget to the operating budget.

• Document management and E-discovery
  Systems that retain, manage and retreive documents and data quickly and seamlessly will continue to rise in 2009.”Today, anything electronic is discoverable as any part of litigation,” Forrester analyst Kyle McNabb points out. “Developing rules and procedures is essential, and it is going to receive a lot more attention in the coming year.” Not surprisingly, the focus is rapidly moving beyond ERP and enterprise systems and into the broader realm of all documents and communications.

• Virtualization
  was a huge trend over the past 2 years, and will continue to expand in storage, desktop and data center technologies in 2009.According to industry estimates, 50 to 60 percent of all servers are now virtualized. The goal is to reduce server inefficiencies and lower costs. It is now moving into the realm of SMBs, and is also extending into storage and onto the desktop, says Moosa Matariyeh, enterprise storage specialist for CDW.

• Energy efficient Data Centers
  Data-center hardware in conjunction with virtualized systems, will continue to reduce power needs with more green componentry and infrastructure.Chip and PC manufacturers are moving toward more energy-efficient components including improved memory and resource management, but the big action in 2009 will be in the areas of virtualization and storage. Businesses are quickly recognizing that they have little margin for error, and energy costs are now a huge variable, says Anil Desai, an independent IT consultant.

• Security, Risk and Compliance
  Expect risk and compliance to be automated in intrusion, detection, authentication, patch management and security analytics.

• Enterprise mobility
  Being secure and synchronized to live data while on a host of pocket computing devices will continue to expand and improve in 2009.

• Social Networking
  “the champion of 2008″- Social Networking will continue to expand in customer relationships with brands and corporate team building efforts as ways to help the bottom line.Organizations are increasingly looking to next-generation social networking tools to conduct sophisticated business intelligence and analytics. In many cases, they are mining data and looking for trends and patterns, such as which salesperson has the relationships to pull off a deal or which customers seem to have the biggest influence with others online.

• Web 2.0
  Applications built-on Web technologies will continue to prosper and proliferate in new and more cost-efficient ways in 2009.

  Some organizations are now exploring Twitter or Facebook-like applications that allow individuals to push information out and create a simpler, organic communications structure. Others are using Web 2.0 tools to handle everything from asset management to business intelligence and analytics. Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media. says “We are seeing the Internet become a preferred platform for app development.”

• Project and Portfolio Management
  Robust Portfolio management systems that offer collaboration tools, business-process rules support, advanced reporting capabilities and governance tools will expand in 2009.
  
  PPM is evolving and bringing greater order to business-level decision making. Applications such as Daptiv PPM and Primavera are providing tools to mesh diverse workgroups, such as finance, marketing, human resources and IT–all while viewing groups of initiatives, conducting detailed analysis on them, and understanding underlying relationships across organizational roles and teams.

• Web and Video Conferencing
  Bigger pipes and converged data and voice networks will help spur more, cheaper video conferencing and use of video for connecting with new and existing customers.Collaboration tools are poised to go mainstream and further change the way business is conducted. According to the Boston-based research firm Aberdeen Group, 63 percent of companies say they will be using videoconferencing and so-called telepresence systems (essentially, a form of videoconferencing with high-quality images and audio) by the end of 2010.

There you have it. The future looks bright enough.

Seems the global recession played out differently for the IT industry. African firms and businesses will have to prepare themselves to meet these global IT trends, as the results would no doubt be a more productive year for business.

In an earlier post on this blog, we discussed the challenges facing the use of IT infrastructure in some parts of Africa. Recent studies have shown a slight improvement, but we aren’t there yet.

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Paul Boutin’s controversial article begins with some words of advice for intending bloggers;

“Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.”

“Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”

So should we stop blogging then?

As expected, this article has started a variety of discussion across the web, with comments pouring in from all quarters. Though many seem to disagree with Mr Boutin, there are quite a few who share his sentiments.

Boutin seems to be of the opinion that blogs have become too impersonal and are being monetized.

“When blogging was young, enthusiasts rode high, with posts quickly skyrocketing to the top of Google’s search results for any given topic, fueled by generous links from fellow bloggers. In 2002, a search for “Mark” ranked Web developer Mark Pilgrim above author Mark Twain. That phenomenon was part of what made blogging so exciting. No more. Today, a search for, say, Barack Obama’s latest speech will deliver a Wikipedia page, a Fox News article, and a few entries from professionally run sites like Politico.com. The odds of your clever entry appearing high on the list? Basically zero.”

In my candid opinion, and just as Mr Boutin’s article proves, blogs are still relevant, and are just about the best way to get the word around on the net.

Wayne Forrester murdered his wife Emma on 18 february 2008. The couple had been together for for 15 years, in a marriage which has been described as “volatile and unstable, characterized by periods of seperation and reconcilation”.

Forrester 34, said he killed his wife because she had changed her face book profile status to “single” just 4 days after he moved out of their Croydon, South London home.

Ms. Alex Lewis, the prosecuting lawyer on the case said “He was angry about an entry on Facebook he said made him look like a fool as she had advertised her marital status as single. He accused her of having an affair.”

Forrester said;

“Emma and I had just split up. She forced me out.”

“She then posted messages on an internet website telling everyone she had left me and was looking to meet other men.”

According to BBC news’ report;

“Forrester, an HGV driver, was drunk and high on cocaine when he attacked the mother of two in the early hours as she slept. He beat her, tore out clumps of her hair, and repeatedly stabbed her in the head and neck. Neighbours were woken up by her screams. They found him sitting outside the house covered in blood and called the police.”

Social Networking websites have been hailed as being amongst the best things to happen to the Internet, but this is just about the saddest event yet in their history.

Many schools of thought believe the latter is more effective, seemingly because “colours and moving images are more appealing to the eye than regular text”. I must admit, i was a part of that school …. well, until today.

A Recent study conducted by iPerceptions Inc. (TSX.V:IPE), a leading provider of web-focused Voice of Customer analytics, has shown that users are more likely to click on text ad’s, as opposed to banners, and …. YES! even video ads.

iPerceptions collected user-generated feedback from over 14,000 visitors to leading media sites during the month of August 2008 to paint a detailed picture of consumer advertising preferences based on their likelihood to click on different types of online ads.

Here are the results-

• 25% of respondents more likely to click on simple text ads

• 20% for right banner ads

• 12% for top banner ads

• 11% for video ads

I already see a number of open mouths. Yup! I felt exactly the same when I stumbled on the results myself.

There have also been a number of other surveys which came up with similar results. Not the exact same figures of course, but close.

Well there you have it. In the end, the facts speak for themselves. So all you marketers out there who have focused most of your time and money on banners are video ads, neglecting the good old text need to have a re-think.

But that is not to say- totally ignore video ad’s though, because just as Chris Crum of Small Business Newz puts it;

“there is no question that they are a better branding tool”

It’s just a question of whichever suites you better then. Are you looking out for just a couple more clicks, or perhaps your in it for the sake of your overall brand? Whatever you decide, you should bear one thing in mind though- Once again, I’m tempted to quote Chris Crum on this one;

“Clicks are great, but they’re not everything. A brand is invaluable.”

Brands stick around. Brands survive. Brands are remembered. “

You couldn’t have possibly said it better Chris. Couldn’t agree with you more on that.

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This confirmation is from the results of a test conducted by a team of scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles. The team found searching on the Internet stimulates parts of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.

24 volunteers aged 55 to 76 were asked to either search online or read while their brains were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The volunteers comprised of two groups; half were experienced Internet users and the others were not.

All the study participants showed increased brain activity while reading a book, but Internet searches revealed a difference between the two groups. Those who were Internet savvy registered more brain activity, while those new to the Internet did not.

Quoting Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at University of California-

“The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults”

‘Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function.”

“Our most striking finding was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading – but only in those with prior Internet experience,”

There you have it. Internet usage really does improve brainpower. I, for one, am rather excited at this because I had once been involved in a debate over this, but have always had to stand down because of insufficient evidence. Now, the proof is out there for all to see.

As I pondered further, I was quickly reminded of an article I had written for Darrel Technologies, on web trends in Ghana, where I had placed the estimated number of Internet users (users here refering to people with “steady” internet access at the time) in the country at about 609,800 in Sept. 2007. I also went on on to talk about the increase in actual web surfers.

The reality of the whole issue quickly dawned on me- the number of “Internet Users” in Ghana is actually less than 5% of the country’s 22 million plus population.

According to the Ghana News Agency- Mr. Eric Akumiah, General Secretary, Internet Society, Ghana places Internet usage in the country at a mere 2.7%. Mr Akumiah seemed to blame the issue on “some policies (Government no doubt)”, and called on government to recognize the importance of a multi-stakeholder model of decision making especially on Internet Policy Development.

He went on further to say;

“To achieve an increased usage there was the need to ensure that human capacities in that area were preserved, including the ability to connect, innovate, communicate and share information.”

“We also encourage the government to create maximum benefit through networking to draw on the insight and expertise of all stakeholders, especially those from the internet technical community, to conceive and implement an internet-friendly policy framework”

With all due respect to Mr Akumiah, I totally disagree.

It’s all well and good to talk about the issues raised, but as good as Government policies and the likes may sound, i think there are more pertinent issues as to the spate of low Internet Usage in Ghana, and this i believe, cuts across the entire West African sub region.

Just so I have something else to blog about later, I will mention only one, and the most relevant of all in my opinion- Affordablility

Simply put, Internet Access is still too expensive in Ghana and West Africa as a whole. Most people would rather use the Internet cafe’s than subscribe to any of the ISP’s, solely becuase of the cost of Internet access.

Ghana Telecom’s Broadband 4U service which is amongst the cheapest in the country costs within the range of $45 – $280 per month for speeds of between 128Kbps to 1Mbps. Technically speaking, this really isn’t Broadband, but DSL => which costs at most $12.99 per month, in the US, with speeds of up to 1.2Mbps.

Actual Broadband in some countries costs no more than $45 per month, and
provides the user with speeds of up to 10Mbps.

You may want to Read This- if you haven’t already done so- to fully understand the following;

With the next generation of Operating Systems based on Cloud Computing, and in light of all the issues mentioned above, I can’t help but ask the question- Is Africa really ready to “Take To The Clouds“?