Mozilla Prism – Power Up Your Web Application!
Prism is an application that lets you split web applications out of your web browsers and run directly on your desktop. That’s cool isn’t? This means you could add your favorite web applications to your desktop environment. When you need the application, just run directly from your desktop.
This software do more than just a shortcut. According to Alex Faaborg (a staff of Mozilla labs and should be the project leader of this exciting Prism project) claimed that:
By being trapped inside the browser, Web applications are unable to fully integrate with a user’s computing environment, and when accessing Web applications, users are constantly forced to think about what underlying technology the application is based on.
Now with Prism , web users are jumping out from the browser’s trap and it simply allow us to use web applications with desktop experience!
Why use Prism?
The simplest reason of course is no hassle on software installation. You simply integrate the web apps into desktop and it works like desktop apps. Further more, Mozilla labs is working to increase the capabilities of Prism such as support for offline data storage and access to 3D graphics hardware (by using canvas3d in Firefox 3).
How to use Prism?
Since the Prism is still in the labs, this means it still in experiment phase. Eventually the Prism is going to integrate with future Firefox 3, but for current phase you need to download Prism as a separate software.
After the installation, simply start Prism. It will display an Install Web Application dialog just like the screen shot below.
Enter the URL of the web application you want to use in Prism (e.g. gmail.google.com), a name for the application (e.g. Gmail), and select where you want to create the shortcuts. After that, press the OK button. Prism will create your web application at where you choose. So what you waiting now? Download a copy Prism for yourself and start experience it! (Now only available for Windows version)
My two cents
I can’t wait to experience the early prototype of this new transition of personal computing technology. Since I use Gmail everyday, I prefer it to stay as my desktop application. I’ve downloaded Prism and create Gmail as my desktop application as screen shot below. Now I can access my Gmail with single click! :)
What else can you think of to integrate into your desktop application?
More on Mozilla Prism
- WebRunner becomes Prism
- Mozilla Labs Blog – Prism
[Contributed by: AhTim , the author behind AhTim.com, is an IT techie that have a dream to become a full time blogger. He blogs for dream, for fun and hopefully for life!]
