In contrast, Desktop.com doesn't offer any mainstay applications, and it doesn't plan to do so. The company says that it hopes to entice third-party developers to create office programs for its platform, although nothing further had been announced at press time. Instead, Desktop.com is showcasing more ancillary software packages, such as a day planner and a news gatherer.
Early versions of these programs leave ample room for improvement. My beta version of myWebOS's HyperWord, for example, can be maddeningly slow: There is often a slight delay between the moment when I press a key and the moment when a letter appears onscreen -- even when I'm using a high-speed cable modem. And HyperWord doesn't have nearly as many the bells and whistles as Microsoft Word.
But those shortcomings will almost certainly be addressed as the software matures. And there are some compelling reasons to hope that they will be. myWebOS.com says its HyperOffice programs will always be free of charge and they will be compatible with Microsoft Office programs.
Better still, HyperOffice is by definition as ubiquitous, and as agnostic in regard to operating systems, as the Web itself. Even at this early stage in their development, Desktop.com and myWebOS.com offer a tantalizing taste of the kind of independence that could define computing in the near future.
Coordinates: Desktop.com, www.desktop.com; myWebOS.com, www.myWebOS.com
A two-hour layover in Detroit gives you just enough time to kick back in an airport lounge and leaf through your regional sales forecast for would-be investors. But suddenly you get a call from your company's West Coast rep, and the news is both heartening and heart stopping: Sales in California are dramatically higher than earlier projections. You've got to crunch numbers and change that report before your plane takes off for New York City. The computer in the lounge's business center is equipped with Excel and a printer, but you need a copy of the up-to-date worksheet. So you log onto your data-storage site and quickly download that file. With the new numbers in place, you print out the rosier forecast and head for the Big Apple.
Even if you're not ready to move your primary office applications online, there's no reason why you can't move your data files to the Web. In fact, there are two pretty good reasons why you should move them there. First, the files on your hard drive can be destroyed by a virus or a system failure. Second, the basic applications that you use in your office are likely to be available on PCs at the airports, hotels, and offices that you pass through on your travels. Delta Air Lines, for one, is equipping some of its Crown Room Club lounges with Hewlett-Packard computers that feature Microsoft Office software and Internet connections. Many hotel chains are doing the same, either on their own or through such services as PCRoomLink.
There is a growing cadre of services that can play virtual host to your most critical work. Driveway.com, from Driveway Corp., is one of the better offerings. Using it to put your data files on the Web is fairly simple. Once you sign up for an account and log on, you select the file that you want to store. Driveway then compresses your files before transmitting them to its server.
When you want to retrieve a file, use any computer to log onto the Driveway site and then select the file. Driveway downloads the file to your system, wherever you happen to be. Actually, your files are probably safer with Driveway than they are on your own PC. Files uploaded to its site (or to another site like it) are stored on a "disaster-proof" server that is backed up every day.
The basic Driveway service, which is free, gives you up to 100 MB of storage space -- a binary bay that's large enough for plenty of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. You automatically get 30 MB just by signing up and activating your service. But amassing additional space requires a little effort on your part: To earn an additional 70 MB of storage space at no cost, you'll have to fill out surveys and sign up friends for the service.
The downside of online data banks is that to use them effectively, you must practice diligence. Uploading larger files can take time if you have a low-speed Web connection, and the service can rescue you only if you've remembered to store the latest version of your files on its server. And when you're mobile, that Excel or PowerPoint file will be useful only if you're sitting at a computer that already has the appropriate software running on it. That said, a digital guardian angel for your files will help you fly light -- and rest easy.
Coordinates: Driveway, www.driveway.com
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