[Amazon] The Kindle Experience on Chrome

As both a Kindle user and a major Google fan, I'm increasingly happy with the many different ways one can enjoy one's collection of Kindle ebooks with the aid of the Google Chrome browser. And the current gloomy weather in the Philippines has me thinking about ways to help fellow bibliophiles make the most of Kindle on Chrome.

Some of my Kindle books

The long-standing option for Kindle users is the Kindle Cloud Reader. As a web service alone, it allows you to read your Kindle ebooks as long as you are connected to the internet, which is cool in itself. Your progress in this app will sync with your Amazon account so when you move on over to your acutal Kindle device or any other Kindle Reader App you'll be able to pick up your reading right where you stopped on the cloud reader.

And sure, this is just a website and you'd think Chrome has nothing to add to the experience, but there you're wrong! If you install the full cloud reader app via the Chrome Web Store, then you'll also be able to save a local copy of some of your books to your computer so that you can still access your titles in case you lose your internet connection. I've found this to be a great option when you're using a computer that is either (1) not yours or (2) one that you do not have administrative rights for in order to install the full reader apps. thus you can read your books easily even when you leave your Kindle at home (or aren't allowed to bring it out at the office, if you get what I mean).

Send to Kindle Extension Overview

And just today, the Kindle Daily Post announced that there's now the Send to Kindle extension for Chrome! This was a feature added to Kindle for PC sometime back and now it works for anyone who uses Google Chrome. This means that you can send news articles, blog posts or even just snippets of text to your Kindle with this handy extension.

Naturally it comes with a handy keyboard extension so that it's just a matter of triggering that shortcut to send the page to your Kindle for further reading when you have more time to enjoy the article or blog entry when you have more time. You can configure which Kindle devices or apps it will send the page to by default and you can also choose to save such snippets to your Amazon account - thus making it as an optional download for all other Kindle devices and apps associated with your account! Teh coolness!

So yeah, I'm know I'm a walking Kindle advertisement at times, but I love it so much it has made me quite the advocate (and proudly so!) Hope this helps you fellow Kindle geeks make the most of your Kindles!

[Google] The Nexus S, Google eBooks, Google Wave Lives and Chrome OS

Google loves to surprise us - that much I've noticed over the course of the past few years. And man when it rains, it certainly pours!

First, they announced the release of Gingerbread, the latest flavor of the Android operating system along with the Nexus S, a Samsung-produced Google mobile phone that will herald this new OS release. And you thought it was all over when the Nexus One was discontinued, haha!




Introducing Nexus S

Second, Google finally announced the launch of the Google eBookstore. With over 3 million books, we now have an eBookstore that is not directly tied to any reader device and promises to share a lot of content that is no longer available in print.




Introducing Google eBooks

Then, the Google Wave folks announced that December 31 is NOT a drop-dead date for Google Wave. Sure, Google Wave is still a Google product without future support (hello Google Notebook!) but at least the domain will survive until Google figures out an alternative for all the Google Wave users out there (like me and my partner!). Plus the Apache Foundation has accepted Wave into its incubator for new products. Exciting times for us die-hard Google Wave geeks!

And today, we saw the official announcement of the Google Chrome OS, the world's first web-based computer operating system. And as alien as the concept is, the initial demonstrations look pretty amazing and the speed is a lot faster than some desktop setups. Imagine an OS that gets faster over time since it automatically upgrades itself and becomes better without the need to purchase upgrades.

And together with that they've officially opened the Google Chrome Web Store, the world's first open app store that lives independent of platforms. In means the benefits of apps as normally seen on iPhones and Android phones now on your desktop or anywhere you can run Google Chrome or Google Chrome OS.

Am I excited about all this? Of course I am! The continued success of Android is always a good thing. Google eBooks gives me access to more books without the need to get a Kindle or something. I still get to use Google Wave in 2011. And the Google Chrome OS together with the Chrome Web Store means new and exciting things for computing, netbook users like myself and a heck of a lot of other things.

And it's barely Wednesday - what else is Google giving us for Christmas this year?

[Google] Going Chrome (For Real)

Image via Wikipedia

When I first reviewed Google Chrome while it was still in beta, I made a declaration that it was pretty decent and that I was willing to experiment with using it as my main browser. Of course my dependence on more complicated websites and more innovative Firefox extensions eventually had me going back to my roots and using Chrome as an alternative when Firefox was buggy.

Of course since then Chrome accelerated to drop the beta label, came up with a beta version of the browser with new features along with a developer version for the more hardcore Google adventurers and over time it has secured a larger segment of the browser market.

Now with the announcement of extensions for Google Chrome beta, I find myself pretty excited to venture forth into this new realm. Sure, I had already been testing a few extensions using the developer version of Chrome, but this was different. This meant there's actually an extension gallery. Oh fun.

[Firefox] Integrated Gmail Extension

Despite my eternal love for all things Google, I still use Mozilla Firefox as my default browser. Sure, I can certainly appreciate how brilliantly fast Google Chrome is and I'm glad they've worked out the initial bugs the browser had in its early months, but the lack of full extension support always holds me back.

I know, I know, there's experimental extension support currently being toyed with in the developer version of Chrome, but that doesn't account for all the fun bells and whistles I get with the robust library of Firefox extensions already out there on the web.

Today is all about discussing one of my newest extensions of interest that pretty much taps into my love for Google as well.

[Google] No More Beta and the OS Announcement

It's the middle of the week and already Google has rocked the tech sphere once more with two rather significant announcements. It seems to be par for the course for them - why make only one revelation in a week when you can assault the world with several across the span of a few days. Seriously, at times it feels like a military engagement.

While some might argue that pretty much anything that Google says or does tends to be perceived to be significant or perhaps somehow "game-changing", I think that this week's press releases are of a different degree entirely.

Tuesday in the US, Google announced that Google Apps is finally out of beta. Now this may not seem to be significant news since it doesn't translate into anything radically new in terms of the affected services - Gmail, Docs, Calendar and Google Talk. However the reason for the change relates more to how business truly perceive the "beta" tag for what it originally stood for - a piece of software still in development and being tested with a limited audience.

Google's definition of the "beta" tag had more to do with the desire to continually innovate and improve these applications in order to make them better over time, never settling for a "finished" product or thinking that they had successfully done their jobs. It was a nice sort of idealistic notion, but not one Google consistently followed. The best example would definitely have to be how soon Google Chrome was announced to be out of beta (even though there's always a "beta" version of the browser with the latest tweaks and improvements.

We all know what this really means - a serious push to promote Google Apps as a business solution for small and medium companies. Naturally business are more familiar with what "beta" is supposed to represent and probably the Google Apps sales teams have had trouble convincing larger clients to adopt the application suite given it's supposedly still in the testing phase. To the average user, this probably won't mean much.

Today (as previously predicted numerous times), Google announced the eventual release of Google Chrome OS in mid-2010. People had been speculating about a Google-created operating system for ages now, especially given all the development work they've done in terms of Linux solutions for their data centers and even Android for mobile phones. What exactly Google hopes to achieve with this release is pretty tricky to figure out.

When trying to understand Google's motivation for doing anything, we always go back to their mission - to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. A lot of their free solutions are geared towards making information truly more accessible, may it be hidden emails from years ago, photos you need across various websites, driving directions to the nearest supermarket or obscure files on your hard drive.

An OS has always been considered to be well within this plan since it gives Google access to everything on a person's computer outside of the scope of Google Desktop Search. When people first saw Google Chrome, it already seemed like just few steps away from a full OS. As a browser, it was designed to work well with Google's cloud computing philosophy and benefited the more online user of today. Based on the initial blog report, it seems they're trying to position their new OS the same way, still using the Google Chrome brand.

It's primarily being positioned as an alternative netbook OS, competing in the same area as other Linux flavors and the various iterations of Windows (not counting Vista, seriously). It'll be open source, which is always a good thing since there's pretty much a whole world willing to slave themselves for the betterment of Google for free.

Like Chrome, they're claiming to want to rethink the OS from the ground up with the philosophy that it needs to be an OS truly designed to help the user get connected to the internet a fast as possible. It's a bold idea, but one that traditional OS makers may not appreciate since it's trying to encourage the user to bypass desktop software entirely in order to focus more on online solutions. Given the number of software developers well nested in the traditional OS environment, a radial shift like this may or may not affect their business negatively. It's too early to tell at this point.

For now, all we know is that Google is stepping up its game as it always does but making sure that the bulk of their applications remains free. It'll be interesting to see how this develops over time and how US anti-trust investigators will interpret this continued branching out into new areas given the lack of a clear revenue model.

[Comics] Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

When Google announced its new web browser, Google Chrome, they did so in a most unusual way - by releasing a 38-page comic that described just what made their new browser so different. It was a most inventive way of launching a new product and it helped more geeks like myself get introduced to Scott McCloud, the man behind the comic.

His unique style of creating comics in order to explain what could have been a technical nightmare was just brilliant and certainly refreshing considering how matter-heavy some product announcements can get. Given my love of ventures like the Common Craft show's "Plain English" instructional videos, I've always felt that it's a good thing to make more technical or even perhaps geekier ideas more understandable to the average user. Heck, it's why the Geeky Guide exists after all.

So I was pretty surprised when a friend of mine lent me one of Scott McCloud's earlier works and probably one of the main reasons Google reached out to him to help them promote Chrome.

Image via Wikipedia

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, can be categorized as both a book and a comic book, depending on your perspective. It serves the purpose of a book in the sense that this is a pretty in-depth look at the world and history of comics and why this particular media form is so popular and powerful today. At the same time, it is presented like a comic book, thus further pushing what's so important about comics and being able to present its various faces in the best way possible.

In some ways, Understanding Comics may read like a text book, since it does try to address that purpose. For far too long has the comics medium been left on the sidelines and not treated seriously and Scott McCloud decided to remedy that with this book. Thus the tone can get pretty serious at some points and Scott does have a tendency to get a little lofty here and there, but that's only because of has passion for the art form, if you can call it that. However since he stuck to a comics format, it makes things a lot easier to understand and to eventually digest since he makes sure to not just discuss the concepts he's trying to explain but he also clearly illustrates how these ideas are put into practice.

Whether you are some casual comic book reader who picks up the occasional Archie on his or her way to the bathroom or the die-hard comics enthusiast who dreams of breaking into the industry one day, this book is going to show you so much more about the world of comics and how it came to be. It'll give you a much clearer appreciation of the medium and the unique way it's able to present ideas, concepts, messages and stories to a diverse audience around the world every single day. This is simply a great read and I can't imagine anyone not gaining something of value from this book.

Now if only I could draw better...

[Browsers] Why I Still Need Firefox

Image via Wikipedia As you know by now, Google has come up with its own browser called Google Chrome, and it's pretty slick. It's not quite the perfect browser yet, but I have gone as far as setting it as my default since the speed benefits alone are just insane.

Yet despite that, I still have Firefox active on my system and am still using it. As with all beta products, Google Chrome still has some geeky needs that Chrome is just ready to fulfill. Here are some of my reasons for still using Firefox with all its bells and whistles.

Blogging - Writing these Geeky Guide entries isn't exactly easy and every little bit that helps me blog better counts. I tried using the Flock browser for a time since it claimed to be the more social browser with lots of blogging options, but it never really worked for me personally so I quickly abandoned that. What did work great for me was the Firefox extension Zemanta, which is just so convenient to use and helps me save time in terms of adding relevant links to my entries. Thus I continue to blog for the Geeky Guide using Firefox in roder to ensure I still have access to Zemanta. Plus I don't get unusual behaviors when navigating Photobucket, where I store a lot of my images.

Facebook Apps - I'm not that heavy a Facebook App user. In fact if you do check out my profile, it'll look pretty spare compared to most other geeky Facebook users out there. I don't quite know why - I guess I got sick of all the vampires and stuff. Despite that, I still have a few more passive games that I do like playing like Mousehunt and My Heroes Ability, both of which don't operate correctly when using Google Chrome. Others have reported side errors when tagging photos or commenting on content, so I guess Firefox needs to stick around a bit for this.

Remember the Milk - Firefox has really spoiled me when it comes to my favorite to-do list application, Remember the Milk or RTM. One of the best things about RTM is its many integration options with Google services like Gmail and Google Calendar. Of course for certain aspects like the Gmail sidebar to work, you need to install an extension to overlay RTM's sidebar when viewing Gmail. While Google Chrome still doesn't support extensions, I guess I have to load my to-do lists manually using Chrome or by going back to Firefox to have them side-by-side with my email.

Extensions in General - While it was possible to live without extensions before, after using Firefox for so long it's rather hard to understand how we could even do that. I control Winamp exclusively through FoxyTunes these days and of course it's been ages since I've last seen advertising because of AdBlock Plus. Then there's my favored social bookmarking-ish service, StumbleUpon, which remain a favored way of passing the time and looking for new things to blog about. Until Google Chrome adds in extension support, I guess I'll have to live a more minimalist life in terms of my browsing activities as well.

Then again, I still have Firefox has a pretty robust, albeit slower, backup browser. Oh joy.

[Google] Why Build a Browser?

Okay, so before you totally get sick of hearing about Google Chrome given all the media and blogosphere attention it's been getting this week (and from this geek as well, hehe), there's a great Google video that talks about why they decided to come up with Google Chrome and some of the thinking that went into the design.


#4 - The story behind Google Chrome

[Google] Google Chrome Beta - Build 1583 (First Look)

Google is known to churn out a million and one projects in a year, some of them pretty interesting with a majority of them duds in one way or another that eventually fade into the background. Heck, even some of the products that develop a fan-following end up on the chopping block depending on what direction Google wants to take overall.

Every now and then, Google manages to come up with an idea so revolutionary that it changes the landscape around it. Take Gmail, one of Google's first major successes. While it may not be the most-used web-based email service in the world, the features and concepts it brought to the world like built-in instant messaging and an ever-increasing amount of mail storage forced other email providers to follow suit with similar features. Google doesn't mean to dominate these alternative product fields - it often just wants to provide competition in the form of new ideas and a radically different approach to things that takes innovation to the next level.

Google Chrome is their latest product to enter the public eye, ready to be subjected to every possible insane test users can throw at it. Call me crazy, but I get this feeling that Google's attempt at a web browser is just radical to tip the development scales once again and totally change the way we surf the web. Here's the Geeky Guide's first look at Google Chrome.

Based on the developers, the Googlers behind this browser decided to rethink the entire concept starting from scratch (or zero in programming-speak). Instead of simply improving on what was already there (i.e. Mozilla Firefox), they decided to look at how users surfed the web now, what they used the internet for and the demands of those online services.


Google Chrome processes on Process Explorer

First, they aimed for speed and stability thus they built onto the concept of tabs and took things to the next level by making each tab into its own process (see above image), thus making each tab responsible for its own memory usage and once the tab is closed, the used-up memory is release for recycling. This also means that if a certain page errors out, you don't lose the entire browser but just the individual process tab. It may not seem like something that matters to your average user but what this ultimately means is not losing all your work when a page goes buggy.

This also translates into increased speed for the user since you don't lose memory to closed tabs whose data remains in the memory since the browser is not sure if it can give it up. Coupled with V8, their own take on a Javascript virtual machine and you get one of the fastest rendering of Javascript ever seen in a web browser by far. This I personally have to attest to - even after just a few hours of Google Chrome surfing, the difference in page-load speed is ridiculous. I even tried one of my favorite and yet slowest memory hogs, Google Docs, and found it running far faster than I had ever seen it, thus making working with the web-based application a lot more realistic.

There are also all these little bells and whistles that make Google Chrome a lot different compared to other browsers - and I'm not just referring to its minimalist design and classic Google-blue tone.

The Status Bar - or perhaps more like the lack thereof. The design philosophy behind Google Chrome was to give as much screen real estate as possible, thus the reason why the Menu bar has been totally removed and the classic bottom-of-the-page status bar is now a subtle little popup message of sorts that appears only when a page is loading. It's such a simple change but one that is definitely years overdue - why do we even need the status bar other than to monitor the progress of a page load, right? The Google Operating System blog was right in calling this the "The Invisible Browser given how you barely notice it's there at all.


Google Chrome Omnibar

The Omnibar - Google's answer to Firefox's Awesome Bar is their own Omnibar, the all-in-one address bar that also replaces your search box, a feature that has become standard fare as a consequence of the web search wars. Similar to Firefox's Awesome bar, it also checks recent URLs and bookmarks to try and figure out where you want to go. However it also throws in your search terms into the fray and makes more intelligent URL suggestion choices that give higher priority to things you've typed into the bar versus pages you've just visited. It takes some getting used to and if you want, you can still press ALT+K to go to the Omnibar. It adds a "?" at the beginning to make it clear that you're doing a web search, although it's not really needed in the long run.


Google Chrome Tabs

Tabs - On top of changing things over to making each tab an individual process, they also opted to move them above the address bar, further increasing your desktop real estate. Yes, they got rid of the Title Bar, figuring the name of the tab is all that you need. Manipulating tabs is amazing easy (and pretty darned pretty, too!) in case you want to rearrange tabs. Heck, dragging the tab out automatically places it into its own window, great for instances you need to focus on certain tasks.


Google Chrome New Tab Options

Better yet, they took an entirely different approach to the new tab debate of displaying the home page or a blank page in the interests of speed. The Google solution was to show you a comprehensive page that features the pages you visit most, your most recent search terms and your recently closed tabs. In other words, everything you're most likely to want to visit when you open a new tab.

I could probably go on and on about the neat new features built into this first beta release of Google Chrome, but that would make this sound too much like an advertisement for the browser, huh? So let's take some time to explore my initial concerns.

Learning Curve - More conventional users will have a bit of a learning curve converting to Google Chrome. Without all the menus and buttons they're normally used to, they'll need to re-learn where everything is, to some extent. More advanced users
will be happy to note that many of their favored Firefox keyboard shortcuts also work here, a fact that is bound to condition users to browse even faster.

V8 Isn't Perfect - V8, Google's answer to the Javascript conundrum is far from perfect. Sites that use a lot of complex Javascript or make references to other sites outside its domain either become very slow (like when importing a YouTube video into Multiply) or just break entirely (like with most Facebook Apps and even some Photobucket interaction). You're probably going to have to fall back on your current browser of choice to deal with pages of this nature.

Too Minmalist? - Years of Firefox usage has geeks like myself looking for the customization options we're so used to. In this initial beta release, Google Chrome has no extensions or skins. Ironically enough, I'm composing this entry in Firefox because of my dependence on Zemanta-enhanced blogging and the easy of having FoxyTunes on-hand to control Winamp for me. If you're too attached to all the tweaks you've made to your browser over the years, the switch to minimalist Google Chrome might be painful. Oh man, I might actually experience StumbleUpon withdrawal!

The Final Verdict

As far as beta products go, Google Chrome is a real gem. The speed benefits alone are sure to attract a large number of users and really provide Google with the sort of field-testing data they need to make Chrome even better. For average browsing, this is a great tool and seems to work for most pages.

On the flip-side, it's lack of special features like extensions and its challenges with complex sites like Facebook will definitely turn off app-heavy users who might not be ready to make the switch without all their electronic enhancements.

For me, I'm okay with having it as my default browser because I don't think I'll ever get over how amazingly fast it is. That and the promise of features to come definitely excite me and I want to be right there on the front lines ready to test them out. At the same time, I'm still going to keep Firefox handy for those other pages and services that aren't quite ready to make the Google Chrome transition and as a solid and reliable back-up in case things go wrong.

Still, Google Chrome definitely has the potential to change the entire browser market and really make developers think twice about how they'll prepare future releases of existing browsers. By releasing Google Chrome as an open source project, they help make things look like they're in the game purely for innovation and not to aggressively take away from the existing market shares of its competitors. At the same time, because of the kind of innovation associated with the Google brand, you know that this is going to make users flock to the new service and thus ultimately acquire a significant portion of the browser market perhaps without really trying.

[Google] Try Google Chrome Beta Today!

In case you've been living under a rock for the past 36 hours, everyone's pretty much been ranting and raving about Google Chrome beta, Google's attempt to redesign the web browser as we know it. I've just downloaded it and the speed is just amazing at this point - expect a more robust review within the day once I've really put this browser through the paces.

If you want to learn more about Google Chrome before taking the plunge, try this informative little Google video:

10 Features of Google Chrome

[Google] Leaked Comic Heralds Google Browser

Looking at my recent entries, I realize that I haven't been writing all that much about Google. It's not that I don't love the search company, because you know I do, but more because given the large number of Google-following blogs out there, I didn't really see the need to add to the noise based on every little Google movement. I do save my efforts for the big stuff, though.

Things started with Google Blogoscoped announcing that they had received an email from Google with a 38-page comic book announcing their new open source browser, Google Chrome. Google Operating System eventually chimed in with their initial analysis.

Eventually Webware added in their own detailed analysis of Google Chrome's many promised features and by then pretty much the entire blogosphere (myself included) was really excited about this new product.

Were it not for the fact that actually had to work last night, I would have immediately drafted an entry for the Geeky Guide. Given my personal rules about not blogging from the office (although I'm okay with checking on my Google Reader feeds, hehe), I was pretty keen on getting home quickly to write about all this.

Now that the dust has settled, Google officially explained the comic and how it was a bit of a mistake but all that aside, they also announced that Tuesday marks the official launch of Google Chrome for everyone to download.

And who says people don't work on Labor Day, right?