00110102… WTF?!?

Aprox 2.5 years after Google claims they have no plans to release a web browser, they release Google Chrome, so it is good or bad?

Sure Google Chrome is made by Google (All hail O mighty Google!) but does that make it a good web browser? I Don’t think so. Google Chrome seems to be a very simple web browser, and I personally don’t like all these new applications and their lack of the typical menu bar containing the “File” menu and such.

When you open a new tab you are presented with a neat page that displays your”Bookmarks toolbar, Most visited websites (along with a image preview of the page) for quick and easy access, and a search bar.

The bookmarks bar is similar to that of Mozilla FireFox although it is only accessible from new tabs and disappears once you navigate away from that page. This is both good and bad as you save some extra screen space ad don’t accidentally click a bookmark when you go to enter a URL but do you really want to open a new tab every time you want to use your bookmarks toolbar?

You are also able to quickly and easily move tabs around or move a tab to a new (or existing) browser window simply by clicking and dragging it.

When you are typing in a URL the web browser uses Google’s database to predict what website you are trying to access. (Security risk? As it is sending your typed URL’s to them I don’t see why it’s not)

There is an “incognito” mode which allows you to surf the web without leaving traces on your computer, nothing in the history. It seems like this mode doesn’t try and predict the URL’s you are typing either. When in incognito mode it opens a new window with a slightly different theme, it is a darker colour with a picture of a spy in the top left corner of the window. It also deletes the cookies after you have closed that window although bookmarks you create and files you download remain on your computer.

When downloading a file a neat little download box appears at the bottom of the browser window to show the information regarding the download, it saves you from opening a separates download manager.

Google Chrome has (just like Mozilla FireFox) warnings about suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe websites. It is just like what FireFox does so nothing new here.

One of my favourite features is one of the things the average user might not even realise untill something goes wrong! Every tab is run as a separate process, so if one tab crashes then the rest of your tabs can stay open and be saved. (although if you’re like me and usually have 50 tabs open, your process list will be full of chrome.exe’s)

Oh and just a little side note… Does anyone else find it a little funny that all the videos that are on the official Google Chrome website are “no longer available”… I thought that if they are on YouTube (which they own) they would remain available, but maybe that’s just me.

My final verdict: Google Chrome is Stylish but has no plugin support and alot of the features can be replicated on firefox with existing plugins.

-Hintswen

Google’s brand new browser, Google Chrome, went live yesterday with a beta version which can be found on Google’s website, which is located here.  So get off your backsides and download this sleek looking new browser, which has great looking GUI, a simple interface, and tons of options and features, including the ability to import bookmarks and other things from your other browser, and a quick and easy web search tool. I advise you to visit Google’s youtube video about Chrome at this link.

- Angus

Hey everyone, I’m Angus. I’ll be posting some things occasionally, so I’d like to say hello. =P

*Short post*

- Angus

I pluged an old phone into my computer and was surprised to see the emssage “Your hardware is installed and ready to use”, At first I thought that it worked because I had the nokia software to communicate to my other, newer phone… But windows also told me the devide is “unknown”. So tell me Microsoft, how do I use my “unknown” device?

I knew the PlayStation 3 has limited backwards compatibility but after seeing this I’m starting to wonder why it has to be so confusing! 5 different models and they all seem to have different compatibility. Couldn’t they just make it all the same!

Here are the answers to the Spiderwick Chronicles Quest for Habbo Australia:

Level 1:
Question: “all can be known with a lens of *”
Answer: Stone

Level 2:
Question: “In the movie The Spiderwick Chronicles, what is the name of jared’s twin brother?”
Answer: simon

Level 3:
Question: “Who plays the evil ogre Mulgarth?
Nick _ _ _ _ _”
Answer: nolte

Level 4:
Question: “What is the Director of the film’s last name?
Answer: waters

Level 5:
Question: “What is the name of the item both sides of the unseen world want to possess?”
Answer: fieldguide

level 6:
Question: “In what does jarred originally find The Field Guide?”
Clue: c _ _ s t
Answer: chest

Level 7:
Question: “Timbletack is the house what?”
Answer: brownie

Level 8:
Question: “What does thimbletack turn into when he’s angry?”
Answer: boggart

Level 9:
Question: “What is Hogsqueal distracted by?”
Answer: birds

Level 10 (final level):
Question: “What city did the Spiderwick family live in before they moved to Spiderwick Estate?”
Answer: New York City

They are posted in the following format:

Level
Question in that room
Answer to that question

So if you want to get into Level 5, the answer under level 4 is the answer.

Comments would be nice =]

I’ve been reading about these ‘subscriptions’ for Skype lately. Basically you select a country and pay a monthly fee, you then get ‘unlimited’ (subject to fair use policy which is 10,000 minutes a month) seems like a great deal doesn’t it? So after a few days of thinking about it I decide to get a subscription for Australia. When I get to the payment options I choose PaPal. The most convenient option for me seeing as I don’t have a credit card and it is the easiest option for me… Or so I thought.

Once I chose PayPal as my payment option and filled in my details I was presented with a screen asking me to enter my credit card details. Credit card details? What do they need my credit card details for? I have AU$28 in my PayPal account and Skype should only be charging me about $6. I canceled the payment and tried again only to get the same problem. I did some research and it seems you can no longer use your PayPal balance to pay for anything on Skype, or if you can you need to enter your credit card details first (some even saying then needed to add multiple credit cards to their account).

So what is someone like me supposed to do? Someone who has no credit card. Here are all the options for people in Australia:

• Paypal – don’t have a credit card so I cant use it.
• Visa – don’t have a visa card.
• mastercard – don’t have a mastercard.
• POLi – never heard of it so I wouldn’t want to use it. some kind of internet banking thing though
• Diners – what is ‘Diners’? Isn’t that what I’m called when I go to a restaurant? Or do they mean Diners club? Why don’t they just say that? (and I don’t have one anyway)
• Moneybrookers – same reason as POLi
• Regulat bank transfer – Sure I would but this would be too much hassle for me.

So goodbye Skype you just lost a customer. Maybe you can e-mail me when you let me use my PayPal balance.

Firefox download day has already started to head on over to the Firefox website and download your copy of Firefox 3 today!

MySpace will undergo a major makeover tomorrow in the attempt to attract more casual users and fight the competition of the rival social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo. The changes should make the website easier to use.

Heath Tully at Project182 plans to travel the entire Melbourne train network tomorrow. The trip will take over 18 hours to complete with the first train departing at 4:32am and the last train arriving at 10:50 assuming everything goes to plan. I can only say goodluck to Heath and I hope that delayed/cancled trains and other passengers dont get in your way.

See the post on his website here.