Filed under: WWDC, Internet Tools, Interviews, Developer
WWDC '08: 280 North
The guys who comprise 280 North aren't actually working on any Mac applications. I tracked them down because what they are doing -- bringing the quality and usability of the Mac experience to the web -- is remarkable. Their web application, 280 Slides, turns making beautiful, web-based presentations into quick work. It's built on a platform called Cappuccino, using what they've dubbed Objective-J (named for its similarities to Objective-C) -- a library they created which provides a highly useful layer of functionality to standard javascript. According to 280 North, Objective-J provides a web development platform that is more Cocoa-like by removing a lot of the lower-level variables that are the bane of most web developers. Easy cross-browser compatibility, anyone?
2 of the three members of 280 North are former Apple employees, working on the iPhone and iTunes, respectively. They state that 280 Slides isn't so much "Apple-inspired" as it is "good-inspired," but the Keynote resemblance is hard to deny, especially in comparison to other, less-polished web-based presentation apps. 280 Slides is still a work-in-progress, but these guys are coding hard and fast to build what is going to be an excellent application. Check out the video (after the jump) and then take a peek at 280 Slides.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave Schultz said 10:35AM on 6-15-2008
Wow... this web app is a real paradigm jump. We're gonna hear more about cloud computing 'til you turn blue, but this is the first web app that *REALLY* looks/feels like a local one. Great job guys. Gmail looks like a stone mallet now.
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Adam S said 1:23PM on 6-15-2008
Let's hear more about Objective-J. Is it portable? I'd love to see this thing.
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Jackinloadup said 4:01PM on 6-15-2008
i agree. What is this Objective-J? Where can we find out more.
Jash Sayani said 1:33PM on 6-15-2008
Another cool app turning into a WebApp !!!
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wb said 4:22PM on 6-15-2008
can someone in the blogosphere please learn the meaning of the word "comprise." The word you wanted was compose, not comprise.
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Jonathan Perkins said 12:17AM on 6-16-2008
actually I think they are saying that those guys comprise the "company" 280 North, not that they composed the program....
Brett Terpstra said 10:52AM on 6-16-2008
From the OS X Dictionary:
According to traditional usage, comprise means ‘consist of,’ as in : the country comprises twenty states, and should not be used to mean ‘constitute or make up (a whole),’ as in : this single breed comprises 50 percent of the Swiss cattle population. But confusion has arisen because of uses in the passive, which have been formed by analogy with words like compose: when comprise is used in the active (as in : the country comprises twenty states) it is, oddly, more or less synonymous with the passive use of the second sense (as in : the country is comprised of twenty states). Such passive uses of comprise are common and are fast becoming part of standard English.
(Technically, @wb is correct, but I reference the last sentence as a mediocre defense.)
Unknown said 9:34PM on 6-15-2008
Looks promising.
SlideRocket is another web-based presentation app that looks fairly good.
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Chris said 1:27PM on 6-16-2008
Excellent work.
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Anton Sotkov said 3:35PM on 6-17-2008
I think apps made by 280north will be a part of MobileMe sometime. That's gotta be like that.
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