Where do you always go when you need to search for something? This will vary from person to person, but most people resort to Google.

Google has been around for several years now and has risen to the top in searches. Not only is it the most used, but it is always being updated and enhanced to (hopefully) be even better each time. Improvements on top of improvements. Every once in a while they come out with something that is a failure. Not a complete failure, but more of an unsuccessful tool. More often than not however, it is always a fine addition, whatever it may be.

This time Google has enhanced our on the go lives! Google is already friendly to the cell phone, but now you can use it just the same as at home. Google was basically the same as searching at home except for one thing, its search suggestions.

Personalized Suggest has been launched in the US, and saves your search history. You can of course deactivate this in your Settings panel in your google account, but if you do want this, it can prove to be quite handy. Let’s say you’re looking for a restaurant and you did a search at home. Maybe you didn’t write the information down, or whatever the case, you’re on the way to the place and can’t find it so you need its phone number. If your account is synced for your mobile phone, you can just go through the search history and find it. Ingenious!

It’s amazing how something so simple could really make searching so much easier.

Good job Google.

On October 22 of this year, Microsoft will be releasing Windows 7 to the world. It’s normal retail price for the Home Premium version is $199. However, if you’re a qualifying student, then it’s a much cheaper 30 bucks! Where there are students, there is a need for cheaper items (speaking from experience).

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Nokia of phone fame is coming out with a cool netbook with an equally cool name: the Booklet 3G. Just released are the release details, and price for the new device.

Nokia’s Executive VP of Markets, Anssi Vanjoki, announced at Nokia World that the device will sell for EUR575 in Europe (817USD). After subsidies from mobile provider services, Nokia expects that the quoted price will drop significantly, though some aren’t so sure that providers will be willing to invest very heavily in the new device. Windows 7 will be the operating system for the Booklet 3G.

Although we think we’ve seen it all for netbooks, the Nokia Booklet 3G does have some features that deserve some respect, especially coming from a company that is accustomed to working on significantly smaller mobile devices. Looking strangely like a Macbook with black trim, the Booklet boasts an aluminum body packed with powerful innards. As measurements go, it is appropriately netbook-size, and lives up to its name, “Booklet.” It is less than two centimeters thick. The screen is a modest 10 inches (with 1280×720 resolution).

Nothing is too stand-outish about the computer’s speed. The Intel Atom X530 is a nice processor, but won’t be wining any races real soon, clocking in at 1.6GHz. 1GB of memory and a 120GB hard drive are relatively ho-hum for a just-released netbook.
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Though Playstation’s Slim PS3 has not yet been released, it’s already being discussed and available for preorder on Amazon.com for $299.99!

The PS3 has been suffering here and there with sales. It’s running in third place, trailing behind the Nintendo Wii and the XBOX 360. Sony is hoping that the PS3 Slim will inspire the same excitement as the PS2 did when they released the smaller version of it.

The Slim is more affordable than the normal-sized PS3, and not to mention easier to shimmy into smaller places with entertainment centers. Like its father-system, it has a Blu-ray player, and comes packed with a 120GB hard drive. It has built-in Wi-Fi and a web browser for those who want to browser the internet on their system.

Like the newer releases of the larger PS3, it is unable to play PS2 games, which is part of Sony’s downfall with this system. This could very well have something to do with it running in third place. Backwards compatibility is important with these new systems since they first introduced the concept. It has come to be expected and is disappointing when it is not available. This may or may not continue to keep people away. You can still get the PS2 compact version for $99 if you’re interested in it.

No matter what, this system seems to be a better buy than the currently available PS3. You can save some space with this guy, either laying it down horizontally, or standing it up on its side with the purchase of a stand. Either way you look at it, it’s still one sleek machine.

Cnet Reviews

Twitter went down this morning, Thursday for about two hours due do a denial of service attack. This isn’t the first time Twitter has been attacked by someone, in fact it happens all of the time.

There are hundreds and thousands of bots and people out there that use Twitter to spam everyone. There are strict rules set when you register your account to help prevent this from happening, but people still manage to do it. For instance, one of the things that will happen is if you try to register too many accounts from one IP address, it will lock them all down and make them unavailable to the public. They are deemed spammy and denied access to. To regain control of your account(s), you must file a Ticket within your account, which is a call to their attention that it should not have been blocked. Service happens much more quickly if you file it while you are logged in, rather than filing a ticket outside of the account explaining the issue with all of your Twitter accounts. They send you a response email with your information in it, but unfortunately there is no way to follow up on the ticket when you sent your ticket without being logged in. This creates a few issues, especially when it comes to needing your account back in a timely manner.

This issue doesn’t really come up too often as most people only have a need for one Twitter account. This does however make it a pain for people with the intention to spam all of Twitter, which makes it a cleaner and safer community for us! With all of the spam floating around, there’s no telling when you click on something what it’s going to do. It could go to a harmless site, or to one that is dangerous and you manage to find a virus.

Twitter seems to be a little buggy here and there, but nearly everything is that has that many members on it. It’s bound to run into a few issues, especially with the extensive spamming issues. These alone could bring their whole server system down. It’s commendable that they were even able to get it back up and running as fast as they did.

Makes you wonder how many people were panicking when they couldn’t tweet about their breakfast muffin’s deliciousness.

Google Chrome was designed for people who basically live on the internet. It is optimized for supreme web performance. As it advertises: http://www.google.com/chrome Fast start-up, Fast loading, Fast search. It is completely free to use and has caught the attention of many people, with it becoming their favorite browser. But what is that news of an operating system based off of Google Chrome?

Google has decided to create an operating system with the same goals in mind as Chrome had – optimal web performance. The OS, like the browser, is being designed for people who live on the web. Google explains in their Official Google Blog that the operating systems that run these browsers, whatever they may be, are on operating systems that were not designed for the internet. As a direct result of this, it causes the browsers to act sluggish at times and are bogged down by systems that have too much going on already.

And so, we get their new OS.

Google’s intention is to aim their new OS at netbooks. It is going to be a lightweight operating system and would function perfectly on these tiny laptops. With the popularity of the netbook coming to light, surely people will be interested in an operating system that light just like the netbook.

What about compatibility with the programs you need? Of course! Google fully intends to make their new OS compatible with anything you may need to use on your computer. What’s the point in having an OS that can’t run anything that people already use?

It sounds like Google has a good idea of what they need to do next. They are already the top in search, and keeping people interested in their browser, so why not strive for the top in operating systems as well?

Bring on the OS!

Google produce applications at ten to the dozen each month, so it’s not surprising that sooner or later, a browser would be on that list. Google chrome does win where the uncluttered interface is concerned so this does make it much more user friendly. Even though Chrome has surpassed the much more stable Internet Explorer 8, it is receiving mixed reviews from the public.

I figured initially that Google Chrome sets a number of possibly pretentious claims though on testing I did confirm:

• Speed and ease of use
• Being able to Drag links to the search box
• Recently bookmarked pages appearing in thumbnail visual form on a tab for easy selection
• Like Firefox, you can drag tabs and arrange multiple tabs
• Warnings if a site may contain malware or phishing techniques
• Bookmarking can be done at the press of a button
• Less cluttered appearance, much easier to use
• Inconspicuous download manager that sits on the bottom of the browser
• Incognito feature for private browsing, remaining anonymous on the web

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Do you know what you need? Do you know how much storage you want it to supply for you? Do you know what brand to go with? All USB Flash Drives are not created equal.

Start off by assessing what exactly you need this mini storage device for. Do you only transport text documents on it, and maybe a few pictures of friends and family? Or do you need to move movies around with it, lots of music, or large animation projects where the file sizes are ridiculous?

As far as quality items go, it’s pretty decent no matter what you go with. There are obviously superior technologies out there, but in general you’re going to be pretty happy with what you get. You will be more concerned with size. Yes, size matters.

Darth Maul Flash Drive – mimoco.com

So, if you’re say a college student, and you need to keep your research papers with you at all time in digital form, then you’ll be pretty happy with a 1GB to 2GB storage. Keep in mind you will only be storing smaller files. If you’ve just got text files on it, then it’s going to take you a long time to fill the thing. If you’re uploading all of your music to it, you’ll still be able to put quite a few songs on it, but it’ll run out a bit quicker that way. Remember that Flash Drives aren’t permanent storage devices and you can always delete files off of them to free up some space.
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Apple is on a campaign to conquer the technological world, with the iPhone leading the charge. For all its global success, however, the iPhone faces a formidable challenge breaking into the Chinese market.

Security Concerns

With its GPS-savvy technology, the iPhone has furrowed the eyebrows of security-conscious top brass in the Chinese governments. In most Western cultures, knowing where everyone is-at least where their phone is-isn’t that big of a deal. It’s really more of a novelty thing. To the Chinese, however, it poses an understandable concern. Apple’s way around this barrier would be to introduce an iPhone divested of GPS capability.

Bogged Down Talks

China Unicom is the primary telecommunication provider in China. As such, it is a mammoth organization, servicing the majority of China’s immense population with telephone service. Obviously, talking to an organization of such magnitude takes time, lots of it. The larger the organization, the slower the wheels grind. ‘Talks,’ whatever that means, between Apple and Unicom have been going on for months, and so far, no earth-shaking news items have been released. The fact that China Unicom is heavily influence by government leadership also compounds the issue.

An iPhone clone,
the CECT A380i

iPhone Knockoffs

Probably the largest foe to the iPhone’s takeover is the ubiquity of iPhone imitations in China. China is no stranger to technology. The country manufactures most of the electronic devices on your desk right now, but they also design and develop them. Chinese techies are some of the most savvy, innovative, and intelligent developers in today’s tech world. With their know-how, they have made their own iPhones-far cheaper, and just as cool-looking. To be sure, piracy and copyright laws are being broken left and right. But finding and prosecuting the copycats is a problem too big and expensive for Apple to mess with. If Apple can get past security and power through talks, they may well have an iPhone in China. But its success may very well be challenged by the fact that everyone already has an iPhone…kind of.

With all of the internet browser competition out there, it was about time Microsoft did another overhaul on the (un)trusty ol’ IE. With competition like Apple Safari, Opera, Google Chrome and especially Firefox out there, Microsoft needed to do something.

Firefox’s and IE’s browser use had been split down the middle for a little while, but recently, Firefox has been casting a shadow on the meek IE.

The new IE8 has some new features with it, and many that should put the user’s mind at ease while browsing the World Wide Web.
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