Throw Away That Presentation Software

Posted by Kenneth Ronkowitz on


Well, don't throw it away if you already bought it, but you might want to reconsider purchasing the next version of presentation software like PowerPoint or Keynote as yet another web application (call it cloud computing, thick client...) makes its debut.

This one is at 280slides.com. You can create very nice presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with anyone. No software to download and nothing to buy. You can even store your presentations on their server if you create a free account. You can also download them as a PowerPoint 2007 file without an account. I heard about this service when the developers were interviewed on the podcast Net@Nite, episode 57.

The app has a built-In media search and you can add photos and movies to your presentation directly from popular web services like Flickr and YouTube. You can put your presentation on SlideShare, e-mail it to someone, or embed it directly on your own website very easily. 

The service just launched, so there are only a few slide themes, but you can also upload your own presentations and work on them too. 280 Slides runs right in the browser, and it feels more like a desktop application than a web service because of the way it was built.

The developers are ex-Apple employees (their company is 280North, a reference to the highway out of Cupertino, CA) and wrote this in Apple's environment Cocoa and then built a cocoa-compatible/Objective-C like platform that runs in pure Javascript. (As the podcast mentioned, it's interesting that Apple has also recently announced a more conventional javascript library called SproutCore.That's as tech as I get. All further questions can go to Tim.) And they plan to go open source with this when it's running smoothly. Their blog blog.280north.com should keep you updated on things.

This is a good tool for students who don't have access to software like PowerPoint or Keynote or for working on the road when you don't have access to your usual computer and software. It may be underpowered for folks creating fancier presentations at this early point. As with apps like Google Documents, you may find you don't need the bigger commercial products. The PowerPoint 2007 viewer is a free download so that you can view and present what you create online.

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