Crenk » chrome

Google Chrome OS To Launch Within a Week

Steven Finch — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:01:04 +0000

Google’s Chrome OS project, first announced in July, will become available for download within a week.

Google has previously said they are working with Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba on the project. It is expected that Google will be very careful are launch and will only endorse a small set of devices for installation.

There has been a lot of news around the Google Chrome OS, including Linux OS and reports that it was going to launch back in October.

Google Chrome for Mac is Coming in December

Steven Finch — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:30:30 +0000

PC users have been able to use the Google Chrome browser for some time now, however for everyone using Macs they have been waiting patiently for their own non-developer version. Chrome day for the Mac is coming very soon.

CNET is reporting that recent discussion in a Chrome mailing list points to an early December launch. We could be just weeks away from a beta version of Chrome for Mac.

The Google group update in question is light on details, but by requesting that developers update to support Browser Actions, it also suggests that a December launch date for a Mac version is fast approaching.

Google Chrome’s product manager, Nick Baum, writes:

“The extensions team has been working hard to get BrowserActions ready, and
they’re already working great on Windows and Linux. We’ve noticed that many
of you have updated your extensions to take advantage of the new UI. We’d
like to encourage the rest of you to do so as well!

You can find the latest docs here:
http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/browserAction.html

Why make the switch now? The earlier you switch, the more time you will have
to polish your experience for our Beta launch in early December. We realize
this means dropping Mac support for a couple of weeks, but we already have
people working on that. If you prioritize the Windows and Linux versions,
we’ll bring you cross-platform parity as soon as we can!”

The post provides an interesting clue to the future of Google Chrome for Mac. We can only hope the early December beta launch date is accurate.

Google Chrome 4 Beta Released on Windows

Steven Finch — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:06:18 +0000

It has been amazing that Google have been able to pump out 4 releases of a browser that has only been in the market for a little over a year. Compare that to Firefox, which took over six years to reach 3.6.

We’ve improved performance scores on Google Chrome by 30% since our current stable release, as measured by Mozilla’s Dromeao DOM Core Tests, and by 400% since our first stable release.” – Idan Avraham and Anton Muhin

Expectedly, Google Chome 4 is currently only available for the Windows platform. Reports have come in that it works just fine with the latest release of Windows, despite the fact that it only specifies XP/Vista as being currently supported.

Download Google Chrome 4 Beta

Fast, Simple and Free: New Google Chrome Themes from Artists

Steven Finch — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:57:18 +0000

Nearly exactly a month after launch Google has announced more cool themes for Chrome. This release is based upon prominent artists which include Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Karim Rashid, Jonathan Adler, Oscar de la Renta, Anita Kunz, Tom Sachs, Kate Spade, Donna Karan, Kid Robot, Casey Reas, Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Graves, Todd Oldham, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Mariah Carey (and that’s just to name a few!).

For a behind-the-scenes look at one illustrator’s unique creative process, check out the Google Chrome Blog. And for a preview of these themes, here’s a video flipbook we’ve compiled to showcase some of the artistry behind this project:

My favourite:

Google Chrome OS: Install Chrome OS for Linux

Steven Finch — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:11:55 +0000

There has been a lot of reports about Google Chrome OS which Google officially announced they have been working on. Since that time I have been very keen to get my hands on the product and give it a good test.

I came across a very interesting article today about installing Google Chrome OS for Linux machines.

First things first you will need to download Google Chrome OS Beta and Virtual Box.

Once you have downloaded the .ISO file and unzipped it you can create your virtual disk.

Step 1 – Name the Virtual Machine and set OS and type to other

Step 2 – Set the base memory size(RAM) I used 1000MB NOTE: Go easy on this at first you can always bump it up later if need be

Step 3 – Create a new hard disk and boot hard drive

Step 4 -Pick the type of storage you would like I did dynamically expanding storage.

Step 5 – Now set your hard drive space. I could spare 2 GB so that’s what I used.

Step 6 -Go ahead and Run your new Virtual Machine

Step 7 -Begin installing your Chrome ISO

Step 8 -Select your ISO image and blast off!

Step 9 -Select to install Chrome OS then sit back and watch it install.

Step 10 -Enjoy, test and play with Google Chrome OS.

Create Google Chrome Windows 7 Jumplists

Steven Finch — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:25:08 +0000

Jumplists are part of the new Windows 7 taskbar. The jumplists basically provide access to program related options.

The latest dev version of Google Chrome is now offering jumplist support in Windows 7. The jumplist can be opened by right-clicking the Google Chrome icon in the Windows taskbar. The Google Chrome jumplist is divided into four areas of which three are always visible and one only if the user has added at least one item to it.

The Google Browser will display the most visited websites, the recently closed websites and tasks in the jumplist. The most visited and recent websites are directly taken from the web browser’s history while the task allow the user to open a new window (either normal or in incognito mode).

The fourth group only becomes available if the user pins an element in the jumplist. This is for example excellent for quickly accessing favorite websites from the Windows 7 jumplist. The latest developer build of Google Chrome can be downloaded from the dev channel page. It is interesting to see that the Google Chrome development team has added jumplist support while the Mozilla Firefox team has not shown any signs that they intend to support that feature in the near future.

Google Chrome Theme Gallery Is Now Available

Steven Finch — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:09:10 +0000

Just a few days after being spotted in Chrome’s new tab page, the official Google Theme Gallery is now open for business. Currently there are 29 new themes in which you can add to Chrome.

Remember, you’ll need to be running the Chrome 3 beta or developer channel or be using a recent build of Chromium to get in on the fun. If that includes you, check ‘em out then tell us which one you’re switching to in the comments. Unless you’re not impressed with the selection, in which case – sound off!

Google Chrome TV Ad In Japan

Steven Finch — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:12:20 +0000

For the last few days I have been seeing a lot of new reports about Google’s new Chrome ad in Japan. Im not really sure why this is now big news, because this ad has been running since January! If you want to read more about the ad then head to Techcrunch, Mashable and Startupmeme.

Google Chrome Releases New Beta

Steven Finch — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:02:56 +0000

Google has just release Chrome (its internet browser) to the world in beta stage. If you are interested in testing out this new browser then head here to download.

So, what does a Google Chrome beta bring? Speed, and lots of it. According to Google, it’s 25 percent faster than the stable build of Chrome, which is nothing short of amazing given that Chrome is already blazing fast.

Other new features are form autofill, full page zooming and autoscroll, as well as a way to get a side-by-side view by dragging out tabs to the side of the browser window, which you can see in the amazingly short video below.

Which Web Browser Do You Use and Why?

Steven Finch — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:18:59 +0000

With so many Internet Browsers currently on the market I wanted to pose a question, which Internet Browser do you use and why?

Currently, the readers of Crenk have so many different browsers and operating systems in use it is simply crazy. The majority of our readers either use the traditional Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Internet Explorer

IE is the automatic defualt browser for any computer running Microsoft Windows. Internet Explorer 7 was a huge step forward for the Microsoft Internet browser. IE 7 was light, faster and a lot safer than ever before. The new IE8 has just come out in beta and we are in the process of testing, in which we plan to write a review in the coming weeks. You can download the new IE 8 here.

Firefox 3

Firefox has always been a tech geeks favourite browser. The new version of Firefox is Firefox 3 in which has more theme, add-ons and features than ever before. The main reason why Firefox 3 is a browser that is favoured by geeks, is that it is so fast and light. Web pages are normally a lot faster to load in Firefox 3 because they have a much quicker javascript engine than IE, thus making web pages load in your browser quicker.

Safari

Safari is the traditional browser from Apple. Safari can be found on all Apple macbooks and mac computers as its default browser. Safari is a very light browser with very limited add-on capabilities and themes. Safari also has a PC version that can be found here. Apple claim that Safari is fastest browser on the market for both HTML and Javascript.

Chrome

Chrome is the new browser by Google. Chrome is a very light browser with currently no add-ons or themes available. Chrome runs on a very fast javascript engine so you can expect your websites will be in front of you in a flash. Due to Chrome being so new it tends to currently freeze on occassion, which can get annoying after a while.

Overall

After quickly running through those browsers Im keen to find out what our readers are using and more importantly why they are actually using that browser. Just post a comment below and let us know!

Google Chrome gets first update and more confusing

Mike Panic — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:35:12 +0000

The new web browser that everyone is talking about and not using, Chrome, just got an update to it. This update is kind of unusual though in the fact that you now have a choice of how beta and unstable you want it to be. If you are into trying out new things, reporting bugs and getting fresh updates daily or every few days, this is for you. If you use Chrome on a regular basis though, the update is kind of mandatory as it

fixes bugs with areas including Microsoft’s Silverlight software, tab behavior, video playback with YouTube and other Flash players, and scalable vector graphics, and it suppresses full-text indexing of sites accessed with encrypted Web connections

Cnet News has all the information on how to do the update, to me the killer is you can’t even update from the software itself, you need to go to another website. Then you have to choose which updates you want to receive, Beta or Dev, and then watch as it updates. I have no problem with software being released and not being finished, it happens all the time, but with Google’s track record of keeping apps in beta for years and years, why put so many users through the growing pains of both Dev and Beta versions? Me thinks Chrome should have been a private invite only release like Gmail was originally to get most of the issues flushed out in the first place.

Chrome is nice, it has a lot of cool features and has everyone who uses the internet interested, but as reported earlier, no one is really using it and no one on a Mac can even start to use it. It pains me when major companies rely on the free labor of their own users to finish building and fixing software that shouldn’t be released yet, much less make them jump through hoops to get the update.

Anyone here a die-hard Chrome user yet?

Google Chrome browser 1 week later

Mike Panic — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:00:19 +0000

Last week I gave a first 5-minute impression of Google Chrome, the new browser that is supposed to be faster and better than anything else out there. A week later and what seems to be a hundred thousand reviews in the blogsphere later, everyone seems to like it, and no one seems to be using it. Less than 1% of Crenk readers are using it, more people are using Opera belive it or not.

What’s so great about it? Well it’s new and shiny, has a minimalist look and feel to it and consumes about 75% less memory than Firefox does, at least for me on my Windows XP box. Google really seems to have done their homework with regards to chewing up your CPU cycles and there appears to never be a memory leak. Additionally, you just need to type something in what used to be known as the address bar, as it now functions as a search bar and many other things. It’s also fast, but how fast? My seat dyno says slightly faster than Firefox, but to a normal user, it might only feel faster because it’s new.

What’s not so great about it? Well first and foremost, Windows only. As a Mac user, I once again feel like someone put me out in the cold. Lack of any add-ons that I’ve come to love with Firefox is also missing, but if you were coming from Internet Explorer you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about anyway. Dedicated search box is something I miss. Why you ask, since Google answers all questions on it’s own? Because it simply doesn’t. I’ve been using a Firefox add-on called OpenSearchFox for more than a year now; it allows you to add a drop down in Firefox to search any site that has search enabled on it. That means, rather than going to say Netflix and then searching, I can select Netflix from my drop down menu in the search bar and type in my query there. My other gripe is the lack of a status bar. I understand how important screen real estate is, but I like it, I’ve been using the status bar for more than 10 years in browsers, I’m used to it. Lastly, Chrome doesn’t work with all websites yet. One site that I order digital photos from requires a Java plugin, to upload the photos. I have the plugin installed in Windows but the browser doesn’t pick it up. I’m sure small kinks like this will iron themselves out but it’s still an inconvenience.

One of the most interesting Easter eggs is kind of a joke in Chrome. In the address bar type about:internets – then sit back and chuckle, at least someone around the Google camp has a sense of humor. Chrome is interesting, but it’s not a killer app for me yet, nor do I plan on switching. For now, I will use it to beta test website design and other various things on the Internet but Firefox will continue to be my primary browser.

First 5-minute Impressions With Google Chrome

Mike Panic — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:04:49 +0000

Yesterday Google’s new browser, Chrome was announced so today I downloaded and installed it onto my work Windows XP box to see what all the fuss is about and check for cross compatibility on sites we work on. I spent about 5 minutes poking around, if I can’t figure out how to use a browser in 5 minutes, it’s too complicated for anyone but the most 733t 1337.

Download was very small; it then opens an applet and downloads the rest of the software. Installation requires Firefox to be shut down so Chrome can import all your bookmarks, favorites, history and passwords; this goes quickly and rather painlessly. Next you get a TOS about reporting options for crashes, I denied their request and the install was complete.

Upon launching Chrome for the first time an unusual question is asked, “Do you wish to keep Google as your default search engine?” It’s unusual in that, it’s a Google product and the first thing about this new killer app is to strip out Search, the one thing Google does very, very well. I selected to keep it.

All my bookmarks and history imported, what didn’t was my homepage. I’m a long time iGoogle user and rely on the RSS feeds to get me caught up quickly at a glance to what is going on with the sites I follow. Not there. Instead six white boxes stare at me. A little note tells you that these are your most visited sites. Nice idea, but not for me. I easily look at 50+ sites in six different tabs of iGoogle. There is no apparent way to set a traditional “homepage” only what Google wants you to see.

The other thing lacking is an option to show the status bar. I rely on the status bar while at work and home to see where any link will take my, by hovering over it. There are also several add-ons for Firefox that sit in my status bar that I’ve come to love, from what I can tell in Chrome, there is no status bar option.

On the plus side, it is fast. How fast? I don’t have scientific numbers or pretty pie charts, but it really feels fast. One site that I know uses a fairly common Java plugin to run an app wouldn’t work and there was no option to install it but everything else on the dozen or so sites I quickly browsed seem to work.

Is Chrome the next killer app? Hard to say now, Firefox has such a loyal, loving fan base to it, but I think this could compliment it very well.

Google to Launch Open Source Internet Browser in 100 Countries Today, Called Chrome

Steven Finch — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:22:19 +0000

Google to launch a web browser today to 100 countries, and it will be named Google Chrome. There is a lot of buzz already about this new product and Im sure you have probably already read about it on Techcrunch, AllthingsD, Sizlopedia and more.All of this was just a rumour until it was confirmed by the Official Google Blog.

For a long time now there have only really been 3 key players in the online browser market, IE, Firefox and Safari (MACs). I’m very interested to use this product today and see how it compares to all these other browsers.

For a long time also Google has been funding Mozilla by paying to have their search engine as default in the browser, so if Google Chrome becomes popular and out grows Firefox, will they still pay top dollar to be the default search in Firefox?