By Michael Cohn

TransMedia introduced the upgrade of its Glide Effortless social network Thursday, after a bit of a delay.

The system, known as Glide Next, or the consumer version of Glide 2.0, was originally slated to debut in October, with a spiffed-up interface and a set of desktop productivity applications to go along with the storage, file sharing, blogging, calendaring, and social networking features of the original Glide Effortless (see Next Gen of Glide to Launch).

Next Gen of Glide to LaunchBut New York City-based TransMedia has been busy developing Glide for a wide variety of devices, including a version for new partner Intel and its ultramobile PCs (see Intel to Put Glide OS on PCs). The software also runs on an increasingly wide variety of cell phones, as well as PCs and Macs.TransMedia, an upstart developer, has been front-running a series of giants in the tech industry, including Microsoft, Google, Adobe Systems, and News Corp.’s MySpace.com, with its Glide system, which now has 250,000 users. Glide has evolved in the past year from simply a way to store and exchange files between PCs and Macs, into a social network, and music and photo sharing service that can synchronize contacts and calendars with mobile devices. More recently the company has begun offering a web-based set of desktop productivity applications. The company recently received a lift from Intel, with an appearance by an executive at the DigitalLife conference who said the company plans to offer the Glide software on the ultramobile PCs Intel has been developing with its hardware partners.

“The primary focus of this launch is mobility and software as a service,” said TransMedia CEO Donald Leka. “On the mobility side, we focused on a strategy to reach as many cell phone users as possible.”

He and his team at the privately held company set out to build a browser-based application without the need to install any software on the phone. Glide now supports 22 different types of cell phones and PDAs, including several models of RIM BlackBerries, Palm Treos, and phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

Glide synchronizes all the files from a PC or Mac with the phone with its built-in translator software.

Software as a Service

On the software as a service (SaaS) side, Mr. Leka sees the company’s new photo-editing suite as a linchpin of the company’s strategy. The suite includes 75 photo-editing features, and Mr. Leka hopes to challenge Adobe Systems’ image-editing software with his company’s offerings.

TransMedia has also added new formatting tools and document design templates to its web-based word processor, Glide Write, which aims to challenge Google’s Writely.

Next week, TransMedia plans to introduce its Microsoft PowerPoint presentation graphics challenger, Glide Presenter, when it debuts the business version of Glide 2.0, known as Glide Business.

The company has long promoted safe social networking to help families avoid the online predators who have plagued some rival social networks like MySpace,com. With the debut Thursday of the consumer version, Glide Next, TransMedia is giving out 10,000 free family accounts. Next Mr. Leka hopes to spur growth by announcing some major “white label” partners next month that will help market Glide under their own brands.