For those of you who are organized and have time to prototype your web application before building it, I have great news. Software Solutions has announced the release of Axure RP Pro 4, the latest version of its popular web application prototyping tool. Axure RP Pro 4 is the first modeling tool on the market to allow easy prototyping of AJAX or other Rich Internet Applications (RIA). RIAs can deliver a much more interactive and engaging user experience and are quickly becoming the standard for next generation web applications.

iChameleon Group has been using Axure for a while to diagram site flow, user interation, and form fields before we start developing. After we build a full prototype we get the client's approval, and only then it goes into production. This has been great, but every time we needed Ajax calls we would write notes in the page without being able to represent it visually... the new release makes it a little easier.

Check out a full article on the new release here, or go directly to the official site for demos and more info.

WHAT'S NEW?
Well, about the biggest thing ever: they've been Googled. That's right, Google Inc. has acquired Four Jumping Midgets Inc.… so you might have just spit your coffee all over your keyboard, or you're rolling your eyes thinking this is another one of my April Fool's jokes. Believe me, they're still having a hard time believing it themselves, but it's real — they are now Google!

I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE THIS
Neither can I. As you all know, it's our users who have spread the word and helped build our little idea into what it is today. Jumping Midgets was launched with what Joe refers to as the “Field of Dreams” business plan — build it and they will come. Thank goodness so many of you did! It is a rare and wonderful thing to have a dream, to watch a community develop to support that dream, and to see it eventually take on a life of its own. Users have played a big part in their success, and no one will ever forget that.

This is definitely not the end; this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for the next incredibly exciting chapter. From me personally and from all the midgets here …THANK YOU.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Google has been acquiring like a company a week. This month it was Writely, SketchUp, and Jumping Midgets… I'm working what will they do next? It is an amazing company, completely unpredictable.