I’ve been following Prism development for quite a while now, ever since it was WebRunner, maintained by one smart man.
What is it you ask? It’s easy to explain, a little harder to understand until you try it for something it was designed for. Basically, it’s a web browser designed for single web sites. Instead of opening gmail in a tab in Firefox, open in it Prism. Prism has a Firefox back-end, so it’ll render with all the Firefox goodness.
Buy WHY, you ask. Prism instances are separate from your normal web browser, and from each other. They act like desktop applications. If one crashes horribly, none of the others die. Since they’re basically desktop applications, you can make custom icons and menus for your new application.
I haven’t used it much because there aren’t many web applications I use, but in the last week I’ve realized there are several things I use that are perfect for Prism. I have a little MLB flash widget that I’ve loaded in a pop-up window for the last couple years. Now I load it in Prism, and it has it’s own menu item in my Programs list.
Another one I just thought of today is my music. I have some music in a password protected area of my web site, with a built in Flash player. When I play it in my browser, the music stops if I close the tab, or restart my browser or whatever. When it’s in Prism, I don’t have to worry about it. it’s quite slick.
It’s not for every app, or every person, but it’s a nice tool to have around when you need it.
