rollApp lets you run desktop apps, work with files, get things done — right from the browser on any device.

Blog Archive

The Best Tweets from #CloudBeat — Day 1
What top cloud computing experts and the leading cloud advocates are saying at VentureBeat’s in-depth CloudBeat conference that is taking place in San Francisco on September 9-10? Let’s explore the hottest cloud trends, technologies, and tackle interesting cases of cloud usage (please note that no live stream is available).


“CloudBeat will help you find new investors, new hires, and new business opportunities through a series of organized initiatives including roundtable lunch discussions, quick-connect sessions, receptions, and dinners.” - Check out the CloudBeat agenda.

Kicking off the conference - Pivotal One: An OS for the Cloud? (Paul Maritz, CEO, Pivotal. Moderator: Matt Marshall, Founder, Editor-in-Chief, VentureBeat)








You can also track the tweets from the conference by following the hashtag - #CloudBeat - for even more cloud insights on September 10 from Puppet Labs, PayPal, Dell Services, Wanelo, Simple Signal, Disney, Optimizely, Vidyo, Egnyte and Netflix.

How to Create App Shortcuts and Use The Chrome App Launcher

If you’re using Google Chrome on Windows or Linux, you can create application shortcuts to rollApp applications that you’ve installed from the Chrome Web Store. These shortcuts can be placed on your desktop and menus for quick and easy access. 


Just right-click an app icon in the App section of Chrome (see the image above) - you’ll see a dialog window that lists available options: 



Just choose where you’d like the shortcuts to be placed on your computer and you’re all set!

App Launcher - start rollApp apps directly from your desktop

To make it even quicker to open to your apps, you can also use the Chrome App Launcher for Windows (Mac and Linux coming soon). It will live in your taskbar as a handy tool for all your Chrome apps on the desktop. 

When you add an app from the Chrome Web Store, you’ll get an option to get the App Launcher and it requires you to sign in to Chrome.


Launch rollApp apps right from the desktop: a single click opens up a tray of installed Chrome apps. 

Get stuff done with rollApps apps from the Chrome Web Store: 

  • rollApp File Opener – Open your files with Google Chrome. Anywhere. Anytime. 
  • LibreOffice Writer on rollApp – Full-featured word processing and publishing tool. 
  • LibreOffice Impress on rollApp – Create effective multimedia presentations in your browser.
  • LibreOffice Draw on rollApp – Create a sketch, diagrams or a complex plan and dynamic 3D illustrations.
  • LibreOffice Calc on rollApp – Free spreadsheet app in the cloud 
  • GIMP on rollApp – An alternative for Adobe Photoshop. Great for retouching and image authoring.  
  • Inkscape on rollApp – Photo and video editing app for vector graphics 
  • Archiver on rollApp – Powerful archive manager with support for ZIP and RAR.
We hope you enjoy rollApp productivity solutions from the Chrome Web Store. And please share your favorites apps in the comments.

PS Check out Chrome App Launcher Developer Preview for Mac OS X (Sept. 05, 2013, The Chromium Blog) 

How to Use Your Apps in the Cloud with rollApp
As you probably know rollApp allows you to launch virtually any third-party application in the cloud just by using your browser of choice. Now when rollApp has more than 50 apps for everyday tasks – productivity, graphics, games – available anywhere on your computers, phones, and tablets, in this post we’ve organized them into four major categories for your convenience. And we bet you’ll find useful integrations and features that you didn’t know rollApp had.

“This is beautiful. I am a full time student and have been thinking about purchasing a Chromebook but was not too crazy about Google Docs. You guys sealed the deal! Thanks!” ~ Richard Calk, via Get Satisfaction

For example, if you are a Chromebook or iPad user and Google Drive or Dropbox addict, with a little help from rollApp you can setup your preferred workflows and the most popular apps to work in the cloud mode. After you experience our apps, you won’t be able to use a standalone software on your own again. 

Without further ado… here’s what and how: 

1. Universal File Openers

 

“I love this extension. I’m using it for mostly opening e-book files and for drawing purposes. So only single extension for many file formats.” ~ Barbara, a Firefox user

In your Chrome or Firefox, they let you open (almost) any file you’ve found while browsing the Internet, with just one click:

rollApp File Opener - Chrome Extension. The extension has reached 11,453 users in August 2013. With rollApp File Opener for Chrome you can open, edit and save files from your Dropbox. It is as easy as going logging in to Dropbox and clicking ‘Open’ in the rollApp toolbar. Your Dropbox account should be connected to rollApp as cloud storage. Learn more: www.rollapp.com/plugin 

rollApp File Opener – Firefox Add-On. View and edit doc, ppt, xls, pdf, epub, zip, rar and about 100 other types of files directly in your browser.

2. Productivity Suite for Chrome 


In recent months, we’ve seen over twofold increase of the number of users who visit rollapp.com from Chromebooks.


OpenOffice Apps for Chromebook / Chrome OS Users – available on Chrome Web Store:
LibreOffice Apps for Chromebook Users – available on Chrome Web Store: 
A few more Chrome apps:
All the apps also work with Google Chrome on you PC or Mac.

3. Office Apps for iPad Users


OpenOffice for iPad. Our technology allows rollApp to offer millions of users an easy access to their favorite applications on iPad:



OpenOffice is an open source software, therefore, rollApp users won’t face any licensing risks. 

LibreOffice for iPad. LibreOffice is the free open source personal productivity suite. LibreOffice 4.1, the most recent version of our software, marks a major milestone for the LibreOffice project.


4. Apps on rollApp.com 


With our App Collection, we offer a new way that fundamentally simplifies how you access and work with your apps and files. Choose an app, sign-up and you’ll be able to use Dropbox, Google Drive or other supported cloud storage to open or save files. You can also test drive any application without registering and logging in! 

Our next goal? Our priority is to make your work in the cloud easier and simpler. If you haven’t looked at the all-new rollApp.com yet, don’t wait. Do it now!  

rollApp Announces $1M Round of Series A Funding

Today we are announcing the $1M Series A funding, led by LETA Capital. TMT Investments, which made a seed investment into the company in 2011, is also participating in this round. rollApp plans to use Round A funding to transit out of beta stage of development to widespread adoption, add support to more devices/platforms, and start monetizing the service.

“Technology developed by rollApp eliminates the need to re-work existing software products every time when a new platform enters the market.” said Vlad Pavlov, rollApp founder and CEO. “There is no need to change existing apps to make it possible to use them on new devices. And there is no need to develop new software to work with existing files from the new devices. We have published a critical mass of apps on our platform, so our customers can use rollApp to view and edit virtually any file: documents, spreadsheets, pictures, e-books, archives, mind-maps, etc. In one click, inside a browser, from almost any device, with no downloads/installs.”

“We are confident in the success of the rollApp story.”  said Alexander Chachava, Managing Partner of LETA Capital, who will be joining the rollApp Board of Directors. “RollApp has a very ambitious management team. They were lucky enough to attract some of the best experts on the planet to join the rollApp crew. The company has a very precise and clear strategy. Most importantly, rollApp solves the problem of working with different platforms. A user must always have an option of working with any program or document regardless of the device being used. rollApp seamlessly resolves this issue.”

Test drive any application
Applications on rollApp are now a few clicks closer: starting today “test drive” any application without registering and logging in!


In test drive all the functions and features of the applications are available for you to try. However, during test drive you can not access your Dropbox, Google Drive or other supported cloud storage to open or save files. You will still need to register and sign in to connect cloud storage and save your work.


Luckily, you can do that at any time during your test drive and then continue working with the app with no limits.

Also, rollApp File Opener - plugin for Google Chrome and Firefox - which allows to instantly open almost any file you can encounter on the Web, now lets you open files without registration.


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