Some of the applications I use most often aren't desktop apps, they're web apps that I access through a web browser. Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs, for example. GMDesk is an Adobe AIR-based client for these and other Google-based services. It's based on the idea that you shouldn't have to fire up a web browser just to check your email.

The concept is sound, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. We've seen other attempts at taking web apps away from the browser. Bubbles and Mozilla Prism are two examples. But as with those programs, GMDesk just doesn't seem to offer much functionality that you couldn't get from a browser. What's more, while Prism and Bubbles offer stripped-down browser-style windows that tend to be a little lighter on your computer's RAM usage than Firefox or Internet Explorer, GMDesk eats 100+ MB of RAM as soon as you launch it.

There are two other factors that make GMDesk a bit limiting. First, the fonts in Gmail are kind of small and awkward to read. And second, you can only have one window open at a time. So if you like to keep both Gmail and Google Reader open throughout the day, you're going to want to fire up a web browser.

That isn't to say that GMDesk is useless. If the developer can reduce the RAM usage, and/or allow you to open multiple windows or multiple tabs, it would be nice for Gmail addicts to keep a window open all day while resisting the temptation to do some web surfing when they should be working.

[via CyberNet]

Trying to figure out whether to see Indiana Jones or Sex in the City this weekend? Why not just skip the movies and catch up on some of the week's best software news?

• Windows 7 says hello world, then runs and hides away
  After months of speculation, Microsoft has finally lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding Windows 7. And by lifted the veil, we mean one tiny little corner. We now know that Windows 7 will feature multi-touch capabilities. And that's about it.
• Flipping the Linux Switch: Banshee learns to sing
  While Microsoft is busy keeping secrets, the open source Linux media player Banshee is free for anyone to use. The latest beta version adds a ton of features, allowing you to play MP3s, rip CDs, organize your music collection, burn discs, aggregate podcasts, or even connect to your Last.fm account.
• Mozilla - They're unbeWeavable
  Mozilla launched Weave last year as a way to keep your Firefox settings synchronized across multiple computers. But for some reason Mozilla left out one of the most useful features: password synchronization. Fortunately, this week an updated version of the Mozilla Weave browser plug-in was released, which lets you synchronize your bookmarks, saved form data, cookies, and passwords.
• Bubbles single-site web browser updated, adds extensions
  Before there was Mozilla Prism, there was Bubbles, a tool that lets you launch pretty much any web site in a stripped down web browser. Bubbles has been around for a few years, but the developers recently relesed a new beta version that adds support for user-generated extensions that give you more control over how the browser interacts with web pages. Extensions include a Gmail notifier and a Facebook chat application.
• OpenOffice.org keeps getting slower with each new release
  Free and open source office suite OpenOffice.org has a dirty little secret. It's slow. Like, you have to wait 20+ seconds to open a document sometimes slow. And it keeps getting slower. It turns out that OpenOffice.org 2.4 opens documents slower than version 1.1.5. And OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta is even slower still. But you can't beat the price.
• Adocu: Nanoblogging gets even nano-er
  Twitter took the world by storm by launching a blogging platform that limits your posts to just 140 characters. So it stands to reason that the only way to beat Twitter is to launch an even more limiting service, right? Adocu lets users post just a single word.

Have a couple of web-based applications that you need quick and easy access to on a regular basis? You could set your browser homepage to Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Facebook, or Zoho Writer. Or you could use Bubbles to create a desktop shortcut that will open your web page almost instantly in a site-specific web browser. We first looked at Bubbles a few months ago, but this week the developers released a brand new beta version which is faster, and which adds support for extensions.

These extensions are scripts that let you change the way you interact with certain web content. You can find extensions at the Bubbles repository. When you click on an extension to run or install it, the extension will be added to your Bubbles menu. This provides a quick and easy way to create shortcuts to frequently used web applications like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Facebook. One user-generated script provides you with a window that keeps the Facebook Chat interface open even when you're not viewing the whole Facebook web site. Other extensions provide system tray notifications of social networking or email updates.

The beta is relatively new, and there aren't a ton of extensions to choose from. But Bubbles handles most web sites that you can access in Firefox or Internet Explorer fairly well. And while Bubbles will eat up a ton of RAM if you open 5 or 10 windows, it appears to use less RAM than Firefox when you're just visiting a single page.

Like having Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Flickr, and other web services at your fingertips, but don't feel like keeping RAM-hungry Firefox open all day? Bubbles is a Windows application lets you run web services in their own individual windows, no Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer required.

When you first run Bubbles, you'll see a list of web sites which you can open with the application. You can also add any page you want just by entering the URL. You can start a web app by clicking the "Go" button and you should see icons for each application pop up in your Windows system tray. Click on one to bring up the web app of your choice. Clicking the X bar doesn't close the window, but minimizes it to the system tray. In order to really close a window you'll need to right-click on its icon and select close.

Bubbles appears to use less memory than Firefox when accessing some web pages like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. But we noticed a window running Google Reader quickly grew to use 50MB. Overall Bubbles seems like a slick and easy to use alternative to Mozilla Prism. But there is room for improvement. For example, when you click on a link in a Bubble window, instead of opening a new Bubble, the program opens your default web browser, which sort of defeats the purpose if you want to do anything besides read web pages.

Bubbles has actually been around a lot longer than Prism, but it works pretty well with modern web applications and supports Greasemonkey. There's even a Gmail notifier that works even with the newer version of Gmail.

[Thanks Jim Mauro!]

I am amazed at the fact that much of an actor's work requires developing a good thinking face. It isn't enough to be good at talking, facial expressions, and the like. You have got to be able to look like you're thinking. I'm sure we've all seen one too many movies where the thinking either didn't look great or didn't turn out being a good thought once the plot had played out. If so, BubblyPly lets you do the thinking for the stars. You choose a video to use from YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, or Metacafe. BubblePly will let you mash it up with your own thought bubbles. I ended up putting together a bunch of bubbles for an episode of lost, where before I knew it, my extreme dislike for animals of the feline persuasion played itself out. It is for this reason that I will not link to the video here, it is too self-incriminating for the cat police to find. The interface was very easy to use and loaded quickly. BubblePly is fun to use and delves into an area of social media I haven't seen so well done before. Creating content and editing is one thing, but to hack-up something someone else made is priceless. Thanks to Lifehacker for the redirect.