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Via Charles Arthur, some ex-Apple employees have released a Beta version of 280slides. Presentation editor (and presumably viewer) that works in modern browsers. Powered underneath by “Objective-J” which apparently translates down into JavaScript and uses Canvas, SVG or Flash as needed.

Since I’ve never used the KeyNote app in MacOS, or even Google Presentations, someone will have to give me the skinny on how this stacks up. But it looks nice! Even in Firefox 2 on my 8-year-old Ubuntu machine, the performance is acceptable. I should try it on my Macbook Pro. Check it out.

As per these requests I made a screencast of running the SVG video demos on Opera 9.5. My apologies for the crappy video - it’s only my second attempt. Also, I should stress that the framerate of the video on Opera is perfect (any jitteriness is the screencast’s fault, not Opera’s).

Here are a few links to keep you busy:

• There appears to be a formal agreement established between Microsoft and Novell to develop and support the Linux-based version of Microsoft’s Silverlight, called Moonlight.
• Speaking of Microsoft, Alex Russell of Dojo speaks of how poorly the Microsoft IE team has communicated future plans. I agree. It’s not a way to build trust among web developers who you’ve pissed off for so long. Where’s the news on the next version of IE after 7?
• Speaking of web browsers, Apple announced the iPodTouch, which will soon put WiFi web browsing capabilities (via Safari) into the hands of many a music geek. Couple that with the iPhone now selling for $200 less and I believe that Safari is soon going to be one of the most widely used browsers out there in the Mobile Web, competing head-to-head with the Opera Mini. When Safari 3 gets out of Beta and is distributed to its millions of users, we’ll suddenly see a huge increase in the number of users that can view SVG.
• Speaking of Opera, I mentioned yesterday that Opera 9.5 Alpha 1 was out. Here are some interesting performance results, though Mozilla evangelist Asa Dotzler is quick to point out that Opera still lacks an auto-update feature.

That’s it for now.

To supplement all the iPhone buzz, I thought I’d throw up a few totally unrelated links/stories I found in my feed aggregator to make you a well-rounded geek. Click To Read More...

The disappointing season finale of Heroes has made me even more hopeful for the 2 hour Lost season finale tonight, got to try and lower my expectations so I don’t get crushed… Meanwhile, Jess posted this link to an absolutely hilarious visual recap of Lost Season 3 (best viewed if you already know what happened this season).

Go Vote For Your Favourite Music Video.

Caught a whiff of this from Robert Scoble. Go watch some vloggers in a contest to make a music video and then vote for your favourites (each IP address is allowed 2 votes). My favourites:

• Irina’s Deathmatch Rap
• “Video Killed The Radio Star” spoof
• “Ironic” spoof
• “Anarchy In The Uk”
• Stepcats

And if you’re one of those who aren’t sure what a “video blog” is supposed to be or do, go watch this awesomeness and tell me you aren’t fired up about it by the end…

This deleted scene from “Women’s Appreciation” is now, by far, the cleverest writing I have ever seen on NBC’s “The Office”. More Dwight and Andy jousting!