TransMedia, makers of the cross-platform Glide cloud computing OS, announced the availability of a Twitter-like service that supports mobile embedded platforms including Android. Glide Engage is a rights-based social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to share messages with cloud-stored attachments, says the company.

Glide Engage is the latest in a series of apps that TransMedia has built around its lightweight "Glide" cloud-based OS stack for desktop and embedded devices. Glide Engage is said to be fully integrated with Glide Email, Glide Groups, Glide Meeting, Glide Write, Glide Presenter, Glide Crunch, as well as TransMedia's mobile desktop, Glide Mobile. In addition, Glide Engage offers users 10GB of free storage on the Glide cloud service.

Unlike Twitter, Glide Engage users can blog, as well as simply tweet, allowing text-based posts of up to 1,400 characters, as opposed to 140. These are displayed, Twitter-like, on the user's profile page and accessible to other users who sign on, or in Glide-speak, find the blogger "Engaging." In addition, Glide Engage users can join private or public chat discussions that are stored in the app's inbox and outbox. Glide Engage is also said to offer customizable news alerts.

Glide OS 3.0, which forms the framework for Glide Engage

Glide Engage integrates the Glide OS rights-based, synchronized file-sharing system, enabling shared attachments and assignment of "view only" or "edit" rights to files, says TransMedia. The app also offers access to the Glide OS rights-based collaboration application suite, including Glide Email, Glide Groups, and Glide Meeting, says the company.

Simultaneous publishing of Engage posts is available for Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. In addition, users can link to profiles from those services, as well as to Delicious and StumbleUpon profiles.

Stated TransMedia Chairman and CEO Donald Leka, "We are providing users with 1,400 characters so that they can share as many of their documents, photos and other personal files (as rights-based links) in their posts as they like. Engage with its built in rights based file sharing and complete suite of productivity and collaboration applications is the ideal micro-blogging service to facilitate the quick and secure exchange of information for breaking news and developing stories."

Availability

Glide Engage can be accessed now with Mozilla Firefox 3, Apple Safari 3, Microsoft IE 7, and Google Chrome browsers, as well as with native Glide Sync applications for Linux, Windows, Mac, and Solaris, says TransMedia.

Glide Engage will also soon be available on mobile phones running Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, Windows Mobile, and Symbian platforms. A native app for Android phones is due Aug, 14, with Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and iPhone native apps available after Labor Day. Glide Engage appears to be free, although TransMedia did not mention pricing.

More information may be found here.

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