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

With different types of browsers comes a new challenge to add value to a user’s browsing experience. Versions for the Mac and Linux platforms are being developed in-house. Increasing security warnings in the browser can help protect PCs that are inadequately protected. Version 2 of the browser brings the claim that it fixed a lot of the crashes occurring in the initial release.

A multithreading feature should make the browser more stable. One aspect that can be annoying with Firefox, Opera and IE is that when one browser crashes – you lose the lot. Ok, Firefox will recover the windows but is still perplexing when all close down. In Chrome, only the tab that crashed will close and not the whole browser so other tabs will be ok.

Phishing and Pop-ups are dealt with very smoothly. Phishing warnings occur in the tab so you can decide if you wish to view the site or not. Pop-ups appear at the bottom of the screen so you can decide if you wish to view them. That is a nice unobtrusive feature.

Some of us like to have a lot of browsers open and if streaming ads are occurring, this can be very taxing to the available memory. I do notice a vast decrease in speed generally on my PC with 3 gigs of RAM and a dual core processor when lots of tabbed Firefox windows are open. However, the same windows did not reduce the overall PC or browsing speed in Chrome.

There is a site offering plug-ins and themes for Google Chrome to create your own versions of the attractive browser at http://www.chromeplugins.org/.

Apart from an initial installation error (solved by simply trying again), all has been fine. Browsing is simple and non-quirky. I can open various web sites and switch quickly. I would be telling fables if I said that I am no longer using Firefox though for web surfers, I would say that it’s worth a look.

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.

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.

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.