jack89
Date:
2008-04-23
Time: 11:30:15
|
Microsoft has lifted the lid on a new web
service called Live Mesh, designed to connect
a multiplicity of devices and applications
online.
The service is seen by many as a key plank in
the company's vision for the future of the
web.
Live Mesh is designed to blur the lines
between running software and storing data on
a desktop and "in the cloud".
Microsoft's Amit Mital said Live Mesh would
"connect and bring devices together... to
work in concert".
Live Mesh pits Microsoft against companies
like Amazon, Google and Salesforce[censored]
which are already offering different
varieties of so-called software-as-a-service
systems.
It comes as Microsoft is engaged in a bid to
buy rival [censored] and emphasises just how
important the web has become to the firm.
"We may be seeing signs of a Microsoft that
is newly focused," Jonathan Yarmis, a vice
president and analyst at AMR Research, told
Reuters news agency.
He added: "This is exciting because it has as
much to do with who is doing it as what
Microsoft is doing."
Microsoft has long been criticised for its
unfocused efforts in the online space and for
attempting to tie the use of Windows to the
web.
While initially offered for Windows XP and
Vista users, Microsoft has said Live Mesh
will also be rolled out to Apple Macs and
other platforms.
Mr Mital, general manager of Live Mesh, said:
"Devices are how we interact in this new
"web-connected" world and we use a variety of
them, including PCs, laptops, media devices,
phones, digital picture frames, game
consoles, music players and the list grows at
every CES.
"However, as we discover, adopt and use more
of these digital devices, it becomes
increasingly difficult to keep the people,
information and applications we depend on in
sync."
Microsoft says Live Mesh can be used to
create an online network of devices, from
your PC to your mobile phone.
Files and folders, such as documents, music
and photos, on those devices can be
synchronised online and accessed via a web
browser.
Live Mesh is also designed to facilitate the
sharing of media online between different
users.
"This new software-plus-services platform
enables PCs and other devices to 'come alive'
by making them aware of each other through
the internet," said Mr Mital.
"We aspire to bring together Windows, Windows
Live, and Windows Mobile by creating seamless
experiences that span these offerings," Ray
Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect,
wrote in a memo to staff this week.
Users will have 5GB of personal online
storage and unlimited peer-to-peer data, for
synchronising information between devices.
Source: BBC. |
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