Microsoft has already announced that they are building A PLATFORM for live mesh which will open new horizons for synchronized applications and provide a whole new user experience!
I have NO IDEA right now, what sort of platform is that going to be, but while thinking towards it, I can think of few applications!!
- Synchronized Browser Experience..
- This is something, I have been craving for, from a long time. I also blogged about this in my past 'How would it be' article..
- But I think with Live Mesh Platform, I should be able to do this very easily (If Microsoft doesn't do it themselves)! Having a browser add-in communicating with my Live Mesh storage on cloud, I should be able to store all my browser related data there like,
- Browser settings.
- For example, If I enable Inline URL Auto-Complete (BTW, I love this feature in IE), all machines that I own should automatically get this option enabled automatically! Having 5 physical machines and at least 14 virtual machines that I interact with, I have tired doing these very small settings on all browser again and again, I would love that if it happens automatically.
- Browser History.
- What I access on my office machine, should also be stored on the cloud (just the URL and Title of the page for "Search" purpose) so, when I come home, I just open IE and I can painlessly refer to that URL again.
- Bookmarks.
- Though, today I can have shared bookmarks between all machines with Live Mesh without any platform requirements (I will write a blog post later about how to do this!), Platform based Synchronized Bookmark solution will give many extra features like searching and sharing with other people!
- Browser settings.
- Store/Read/Reply SMSs from Any machine..
- I still hate typing SMS in Windows Mobile (or any other mobile device including iPhone for that matter).. May be because I type at somewhat faster rate on computers than mobile devices.
- I should be able to develop an application using Live Mesh platform so that I can interact with SMSs on my Windows Mobile Phone through any computer/web!
- I dont keep all SMSs (one that my Mom sent me on Birthday before 2 years! or one that a friend sent for his address before 6 months!) on my mobile phone! Wouldn't it be great if all SMSs are stored on cloud and search/interaction is provided!!
- All applications that I develop can store application related user settings on the web associated with user's Live ID.. So, wherever user goes (even if he doesnt have his machine with him, he just installs the application and fetches the settings after authenticating with Live ID) he gets same experience..!
- Say for example, I use Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Writer almost on all machines! So, wouldn't it be great if my windows live writer fetches my Weblog account configurations from Live Mesh and makes it ready to blog for me!! No more time waste when I setup a new machine!! Thats called productivity and a great software! Though, No doubt that today Live Writer saves a lot of time and it is already productive!
- Alerts from my mesh'ed devices diverted to my Windows Mobile!
- Live Mesh, being a platform that allows PCs and Windows Mobiles to be added to ring, I should be able to develop another small platform on top that, which allows me to subscribe to alerts on cloud data and get an update on Windows Mobile! What would be a typical use-case? Well, Just imagine,
- An IT administrator getting an alert on his Windows Mobile for Server5 running out of disk space.
- A Web Admin getting alert on his Phone for W3WP.exe crash on one of his web server!
- A Support Engineer like me getting an alert about a new CritSit from customer (Critical Situation).
- A kid getting alert on his phone about his favorite latest cartoon episode downloaded to his Media Center at home!
- A businessman getting an alert on his WM about somebody leaving a voicemail on his Desk Phone!
- A music lover like me getting an alert on Windows Mobile that his/her Zune is running out of battery!!
- If this becomes true, I would love to have an alert on WM that somebody just broke into my Car and its about to be stolen!
- Live Mesh, being a platform that allows PCs and Windows Mobiles to be added to ring, I should be able to develop another small platform on top that, which allows me to subscribe to alerts on cloud data and get an update on Windows Mobile! What would be a typical use-case? Well, Just imagine,
- All my search queries on Live Search are stored in Live Mesh (on cloud)!
- Google already does this (with Web History) and I think it is really very good idea. If Live Search team implements this with the help of Live Mesh platform (yes, they have to do that, any application developer can not do that)
- The main purpose behind this would be so that I can "Search" my past "Search Queries" and get correct "Search Results" very easily!
- Store data somewhere else on cloud and still Sync with other devices through Live Mesh!!
- Right now, Microsoft provides 5 GB space out there in the cloud and I have not heard of any plans to provide any more space as of now. If Live Mesh keeps on expanding at the rate that I am predicting, 5 GB will be very less for Users today living Digital Life!
- So, Live Mesh Platform should help me create a system that helps solve this problem! Where I should be able to store the meta-data on Live Mesh for actual data stored somewhere else in cloud (may be on my Amazon S3, or at my Data Center online). And use that meta-data to keep content in sync with all my meshed devices!
What do you think? Isn't Live Mesh opening up a whole new set of opportunities for Application Developers and lots of new 'Start-up' ideas?
Stay tuned.. 