Abgnet: Science, news, technology and design

Google Chrome: A Quick Hands on Review

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:59:36 +0000

Chrome is Google’s recently unveiled entry to the browser market, purported to make the web “faster, safer and easier”.

The beta is available for you to play with (on Vista and XP only at the moment, Mac and Linux users will have to wait) from this site. So is it a winner? Can the web heavyweight’s new offering really take out Firefox as king of the browser ring?

Download and Installation

First things first; an excellent virtual unboxing is what you’d expect from Google software, and Chrome doesn’t disappoint. Download and installation is rapid and efficient, with the only blip coming when Firefox had to be closed to allow bookmark and history download. This is achieved painlessly and everything seems to have been imported correctly. After a default search provider was picked, it was straight to the meat and potatoes.

Look and feel

Initial impressions of how the browser looks, even at this early stage are good. Minimalism is the order of the day. The tab bar is promoted to the top of the window, with each having its own URL bar and navigation links. This seems to have been a key UI focus of the team judging by Google’s promotional comic (Which can be found here). The tab system doesn’t actually seem all that different from the Firefox system (aside from switched places) upon initial inspection, but a few things come to mind.

Getting the tabs to the top means that the window header is removed. Whilst this is great for those looking for more webpage real-estate, it means that should a large number of tabs be open in the same window, the full page title will be obscured for good (though the tooltip on ...

Interfacing: In Defense of the Mouse

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:29:42 +0000

The way we interact with our computers is changing. With gestural devices and multitouch interfaces becoming more and more popular (industrially and commercially speaking) what of the humble mouse? At least one recent article proclaims that our not-so-furry friends will soon be a thing of the past.

The idea is certainly controversial, and there is no doubt in my mind that the analyst in question has jumped the gun. Gone in three to five years? Not a chance. But looking further into the future, does he have a point?

Multitouch systems are just beginning now to truly come of age. Take Microsoft’s Surface Computer for instance (which has had a preliminary April launch). The demo had me hooked; it truly does seem a more natural and intelligent way of interacting with a PC. Need to transfer some photos? No problem, just drop on your camera and out they pop. Paying for a meal? Drop on your credit cards and drag out your cash. Strangely enough for an MS device, I can actually see the real world possibilities, and the future looks bright. Although it carries a £5000 price tag and is not available to consumers (and is initially expected to be taken up by hospitality businesses), it’s an encouraging start. And MS are looking to focus even further on multitouch with their Windows 7 platform, due late 2009 to early 2010 (apparently attempting to disown the entire Vista fiasco?).

Of course multitouch has entered the public eye primarily through Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. To a large extent they deliver their promises of offering a fluid and natural user interface; using one for the first time feels glorious; flicking, stretching, pinching and twisting have a very satisfying feel.

But it’s...

Beijing 2008 - A Pre-games Round Up

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:44:33 +0000

With just 5 days remaining until the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics, speculation over the games appears to be reaching its peak. Amidst outcries from human rights and Pro-Tibet organizations, pollution fears and potential terrorism in the capital, plenty are left wondering where the event is headed. Could it ever be a total success?

There’s no doubt the media has assigned it a conspiratorial air, particularly due to China’s apparent failure to deliver on their promise of free and open internet access.

Yes, the so-called Great Firewall of China is still in apparent effect for journalists during the games, and sites dubbed sufficiently ‘sensitive’ will remain blocked. Like many others, I did wonder exactly what was construed as objectionable, and a little digging offered some surprising results.

Understandably for a government surveillance and censorship programme (yet at the same time alarmingly), websites related to Tiananmen Square, Pro-Tibet organisations and what the government see as inflammatory websites are not permitted. Chinese versions of many news sites are blocked (although BBC Chinese has recently been made accessible).

Many blogging sites, including xanga and livejournal, as well as sites for NGOs including Amnesty International, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch are also off limits. Users searching for banned terms on sites such as Google China (as well as local search engines such as baidu) will receive a truncated list of results accompanied by an explanatory message.

The Golden Shield Project, as it is has been named, does appear scarily draconian in the extent to which it limits access.

However, the most surprising thing is that getting past the blocks is a piece of cake; any proxy or VPN connection seems to do the trick (and there appear to be a number of other security h...