In a move that’s somewhat unusual for Google, they released version 1.0 of their Chrome browser today. This probably eliminates the last reason not to try this new browser for people who are hesitant to try beta software. Versions 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 were already pretty stable, and judging from the announcement blog post they’ve managed to make it even faster.
(more…)

Google Chrome’s default tab length works really well with Google’s web analytics system…

We used to have a similar problem over on Choking on Popcorn, where Bringing Down the House became Bringing Down the Ho. We felt really sorry for Queen Latifah…

I’ve been using the Google Talk application for years. It’s a lightweight Instant Messaging client that was built upon open standards and doubles as a pretty good Gmail notifier. My reason for not using another Yabber client like Miranda was that that wouldn’t allow voice chat, which I often use professionally.

Things turned a little ugly when Google decided to add a web-based gtalk ‘gadget’ to Gmail. All of a sudden I found myself being logged into the same account twice, with messages popping up in either the web or the desktop client without any sort of logic. I was quick to disable the Gmail gadget, but yesterday’s announcement of ‘Google Talk voice and video chat‘ had a big surprise in store for me. It’s a web-client-only feature.
(more…)

For the last couple of years, people have mostly used a Microsoft browser to use Google websites. I know this is a rather crude statement, but what I mean is that of the two Google has been most successful online while MS continues dominate the desktop and browser market.

Today, Microsoft announced they will be launching a web version of their Office suite. This made me chuckle, as it could lead to a strangely reversed situation where many users use a Google desktop application (Chrome) to use a Microsoft web application.

Chrome isn’t currently on the list of supported browsers, but the whole idea behind it is to create a browser that is ideally suited for online applications (as opposed to traditional, page-based websites). its lightning fast javascript engine could make those spreadsheets fly (by comparison that is).

My guess is that the Office brand name will help to quickly popularize its online exponent, and Chrome might turn out to be the best desktop application to go visit it. Go figure.

I’ve been using Google’s new browser for little over a week now. I need to have Firefox and IE running when I’m doing web design stuff, but for actually browsing the web, I’ve been using Chrome. And you know what? I just made it my default browser.
(more…)

Google’s cute little Android logo has been my desktop wallpaper for months now. I’m genuinely excited about Google’s efforts to create an open platform for mobile phones. Being an avid gmail/talk/maps/calendar/docs/etc user, my next mobile might very well be running Android. But up until now, the demos that were out there weren’t much to look at. With the release of version 0.9 of the software development kit, that has changed. Android now looks the part too.

Head over to Engadget to see more.

Gizmodo has a nice video tour that shows some of Android’s features.

I use three computers, and it looks like I’ll soon be adding a laptop into the mix as well. Google Browser Sync has been an essential tool for me for a long time now. It has kept my Firefox installs in sync, and has allowed be to continue working on other machines seamlessly. I was quite surprised to find it has been pulled by Google (see http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/).
(more…)

I’ve always found syncing calendars to be troublesome at best. I used a Palm III years ago, and even the software that Palm supplied was hard to set up and buggy as hell. Most sync tools nowadays assume you’re using Outlook, but if you’re using Google Calendar you probably aren’t. The whole point with “GCal” is that it’s the web 2.0 alternative to Microsoft’s horrible PIM.

Now that I run my own company, I have to have my appointments handy at all times. I hate those bundled stacks of paper that some people use to jot down their schedule, so syncing my calendar of choice suddenly became a priority. unfortunately, Google does not offer something similar to their brilliant mobile gmail software to access your GCal. While googling for solutions I found two interesting options.
(more…)