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PC Today | May Issue 2007

Gliding To Higher Productivity

From the Glide desktop, you can access all of your online documents, search for a specific file, send email, chat, or share a document.

May Issue, 2007

Back in December of 2005, TransMedia announced the launch of Glide (glidedigital.com), a fully mobile, online desktop software suite. With its integrated office applications, the Glide operating system is meant to either supplement or entirely replace your existing suite of office productivity tools. We recently spoke with Donald Leka, chairman and CEO of TransMedia, about why he thinks Glide is a universal product that can help anyone, from students to enterprise clients. Leka says, “Certain products are ubiquitous and apply to everyone,” so Glide was designed as a broad application with commonly used tools in mind, potentially making it useful to anyone.

According to Leka, there are five factors that set Glide apart: synchronization, compatibility, mobility, productivity apps, and integration. First, with Glide, you can seamlessly synchronize photos, music, videos, documents, bookmarks, and email—virtually any digital file—between your online account and your hardware. Currently, Glide supports PCs, Macs, and ultra-mobile PCs, as well as over 20 cell phones and smartphones.

The second factor, compatibility, is closely related to synchronization. Glide is essentially a universal translator that automatically converts Glide documents to a format that is optimized for a given piece of hardware—whether that hardware is a PC, mobile phone, or smartphone, whoever needs to edit the document next will have the right software. This translation feature also makes files ideal for sharing and collaboration. You’ll never have to worry about whether you have the right spreadsheet software to edit the quarterly spending report or the patent presentation that your legal department prepared. With Glide, you can simply open it on the device you’re using, and away you go.

The third factor that makes Glide unique is mobility. Using it as a universal translator, you can create a document on your cell phone, edit it on your home PC, and then present it from your boss’ smartphone. The Glide mobile operating system currently supports 20 applications—including word processors, presentation software, and a photo editor, with more than 75 tools—each of which are available anywhere, anytime and fully supports collaborative editing of documents.

Finally, the integration of the 20 in-house designed applications means that you’ll be able to seamlessly transfer file content between document types. For instance, if you edit a photo, you can paste it into a word processor document, along with a sound file and text, and then finally save it in PDF, Microsoft Word, or OpenOffice document format.

When you register for a Glide account, you can select from free individual (300MB) or family plans (1GB for four users), or you can opt for a monthly subscription plan with more storage space. There is no limit on document size or online storage; if you start to run out, you can always subscribe for more space. To sign up, you’ll also have to identify your operating system and provide a username, password, email address, and mobile phone number. Verification will take place when Glide sends you an SMS message. Don’t worry about the security of your information, though. Glide is an ad-free environment, with no selling of your personal information and no advertising. According to Leka, “Glide is very serious about protecting the privacy rights of users. Very serious and very different.”