TransMedia, makers of the Glide Web OS that runs in a browser, have brought a new version of Glide to the iPad on Thursday. Rewritten in HTML5 for the iPad’s Safari browser, Glide provides access to Web-based document editing and collaboration tools, and it will even convert Flash files on-the-fly for viewing on iPad.
When run in a desktop browser, Glide is a full Web OS with fundamental features like a word processor, calendar, e-mail, and media playback—all built in Flash.
A new HTML5 version of Glide lets iPad users take advantage of most of the features of the Flash version and access their documents and media. It also offers browsing tools for searching different engines and media, then clipping results to your personal document space for saving and syncing with all your devices. TransMedia likely went with HTML5 because Apple made its stance on Flash abundantly clear back in April.
One of Glide’s most appealing features for iPad users is that It can play Flash video files stored in your account, thanks to a “universal translation engine” that TransMedia built to handle over 250 file formats, including Flash. Glide also offers some basic document-editing features on the iPad, as well as a search engine tool that lets you capture search results to your Web-based storage space and convert them into a variety of formats, such as PDF and Word.
“You can’t have convergence unless you have the ability to translate files across different platforms and devices,” Donald Leka, TransMedia’s CEO, told Macworld. “There’s a war between the big tech companies like Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and Google, and these compatibility issues are not going to go away.”
Glide also lets you share any documents or media in your account with other users or the public. And with new desktop clients for Mac and PC that can sync a local folder up to your cloud storage space, Glide is taking on popular competitors like Dropbox, SugarSync, and Apple’s own iDisk.
Glide is free to use in desktop browsers and on the iPad, and free accounts get 30GB of space to start. Premium accounts offer 250GB of space for $50 per year.
Glide OS