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.

How do you qualify for this? You need to have a university email address for starters. How do you get this? You have to be enrolled and attending a university of course. There are some universities that allow you to either keep your email address for several months after your graduate, and some are indefinite. Most likely because of this, there is a good chance that you’re going to have to supply some sort of verification that you have enrolled and are still attending. However, what the information is specifically is unknown at this point as this particular offer is running through a software maker called Digital River.

Why would you want to get Windows 7? Well, if you love Windows, you’re likely to continue following it through it’s upgrades. It’s unfortunate if you ended up getting the flop that Windows Vista was, but it seems that Windows 7 is going to be a major improvement. It’s supposed to be “simpler and easier to use” as their website says.

Some of the new features to look for in Windows 7 are:

• A taskbar with one-click program icons you can add and remove. Also, when you hover over the icons to display thumbnails of all of the files and windows open.
• A “Jump List”. The Jump List is what appears if you right-click on any of the icons in the taskbar. These are the most recent files open, and you can add your own to it permanently.
• Easily share files and printers with HomeGroup.
• Easier to use and more functional Desktop with improved gadgets.

Learn more about it on their website. Enjoy!

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

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.

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!

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.

There are several 2GB sized Flash Drives on Newegg.com. Here are a few you might want to look into:

• $7.99 Kingston 2GB Flash Drive – Model DT101Y
• $7.99 Transcend JetFlash V30 2GB Flash Drive – Model TS2GJFV30
• $8.99 Crucial Gizmo! 2GB Flash Drive – Model JDOD2GB-730

Now, of course if you have some larger files you need to be moving around, or a lot of them, you’re going to want a larger drive. Start with at least a 4GB, maybe 8GB minimum (I have an 8GB and I move around media files and raw image files quite frequently, it works well for me). If you are moving around maybe several movies or you’re an editor of some sort, you’ll probably want to graduate to a larger size, like a 16GB, 32GB or 64GB.

And here’s a few more you might want to check out:

• $14.99 Patriot Xporter XT Boost 4GB Flash Drive – Model PEF4GUSB
• $15.99 OCZ Diesel 8GB Single Channel Flash Drive – Model OCZUSBDSL8G
• $39.99 CORSAIR Flash Voyager 16GB Flash Drive – Model CMFUSB2.0-16GB
• $69.99 PNY 32GB Flash Drive – Model P-FD32GATT2-FS
• $149.99 SUPER TALENT Luxio 64GB Flash Drive 256bit AES Encryption – Model STP64GLXBU

The ones I listed are not necessarily the best ones available, but are reasonably priced for what you’re getting, and had decent ratings. It’s import that you do your research before you buy one. Like with any other electronics you purchase, it’s an investment, and no matter how small in stature or price, you want it to last and work well for you.

Customer ratings are an important resource when it comes to doing research. The people writing these reviews and giving these ratings are likely not being paid by the company to tell you good things about it. Something with a lot of positive ratings might be a better buy than something with just three or five, but that’s not always the case – this is where your research comes in. The most important part of all of this is that it works, and fits your needs.

Good luck and may the force be with you.

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.

SmartScreen filtering for blocking malware is one of them. InformationWeek.com explains a few of the new IE8 features:

InPrivate Browsing mode that keeps no trail of browsing history and new features that prevents certain cross-site scripting attacks, click-jacking, and the installation of malicious ActiveX controls.

Some more aesthetic features include the visual search engine to see images as you’re browsing, and color-coded tabs for tab-grouping. The new tabs show frequently visited sites as links, IE8 made a smart move when they made these new tabs independent. Now, if one tab crashes, the program remains stable.

An auto-complete feature assists you as you’re typing letters and words in your search, and address bar. There is also a new addition to the browser that allows you to search within a webpage, similar to Firefox.

As with any new release of any product, only time will tell how reliable it is going to be. Stability has always been a big issue with Internet Explorer, which is one of the reasons people migrate to other browsers. Maybe with the release of IE8 and Windowz 7, people will regain faith in Microsoft’s products.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 will be released today, at noon, Pacific Standard Time.

Mike McDonald from WebProNews Videos reported on this Cyber-shot® from CES 2009.

All you need is a hotspot to connect and login to your favorite photo-sharing website (YouTube, Picasa, Shutterfly, Photobucket, and Dailymotion). In just moments, from wherever you are, you can virtually have a live feed of images. Make your family and friends jealous as you share pictures from your vacation, while you’re on vacation. You can report back to work with the latest images from your assignment while you’re still on it. The Sony DSC-G3 Cyber-shot® Camera is an innovative approach to the photo-sharing world. In fact, this camera won the CNET® Best of CES 2009 award for digital photo and video.

Some other features of the DSC-G3 include the 4x optical zoom Carl Zeiss lens, SteadyShot™ for stabilization of shaky photos, 4GB of internal memory and a smooth 30 fps (frames per second) for video recording.

There is so much power and ingenuity fit into a slim, compact design. Take the Sony DSC-G3 Cyber-shot® absolutely anywhere with you and it is guaranteed to be the focus of attention.

Check out this video from WebProNews at the CES 2009:

• Stick position: for tennis and golf type games.
• Gun position: for shooter and combat games.
• “Inverted” Z, Rotated position: for use as a steering wheel, or a slightly different angle for aviation games.

It seems that no matter the style of your game, this controller will be able to deliver.

The Cywee Z is not just for gamers! It can be used as a mouse as well. You can move away from your desk and the confines of traditional mouse-use to relax. How wonderful to not have to sit in a desk chair! Of course you’ll need a larger monitor for this functionality to be useful at a distance. No sense in stepping back from your monitor if you can’t see it anymore. You’ll also need some place comfortable to sit that is strategically placed in view of your computer.

So, you can be comfortable and use it, and move around and use it, but what about cost? Well, if you don’t have a large monitor then you’re going to have to get one if you want to move away from your screen. This doesn’t sound like a big deal for the more intense technology buffs/gamers/computer users, unless of course you’re strapped for cash. Most people are struggling with money nowadays, given the state of the economy. Even though prices have dropped, large monitors or televisions with monitor capabilities are still not cheap. In fact, the Z itself is not cheap either. At about $120 (NT$3990), it is likely one of the most expensive controllers you’ll buy. Although, if you’re willing to spend a chunk of money on a new game, or drop a couple grand on a superb monitor/television, then what’s another 120 bucks? That’s a drop in the bucket if these electronics are important to you.

As fun as this controller would be to have, the current financial state of everyone really hinders excess purchasing. It’s really hard to say how well the Z will do. Although, since it’s not just for use with one game or system, perhaps people will decide that it is worth buying. As long as the Z is as fluid and easy to use as it looks, I’m sure it will get a lot of hype, and become quite the popular little PC controller.

Good luck to you, Cywee Z!