Daily Bits

google chrome

Google: The Body Is a Wonderland

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John Mayer may have become popular thanks to his bubblegum tongue-filled lyrics (I still don’t get what that’s supposed to mean, by the way), but Google is stepping things up a notch in this wonderland-body thingamajig. Google’s Body Browser was launched last week and is slated to be another of those Google creations that will keep you playing around for hours – well, maybe minutes, depending on the intensity of your interest in the human anatomy.

First thing you ought to know – you need a web browser with WebGL support. Google will try to make it easy for you and give you a link to download the new Google Chrome Beta (you have to admire the plugging). I didn’t have any problems making the application work on the first try, but it seems that in the early hours of its release, some people were not able to make it work.

Once you have the new Chrome Beta, just visit the Body Browser page, and you will see something like this.
Body Browser
The default 3D image is a fully clad female, which you can manipulate to learn more about the human body. You can peel layer after layer off – not clothing but skin, muscles, and so on. You can also rotate the body and make it smaller or larger, depending on your preferences.

I think it’s a pretty cool education tool, but squeamish person that I am, I didn’t last 10 minutes playing around with the 3D model. I am pretty sure lots of other people will find more use for the product, though.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Google Chrome!

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Time does fly, doesn’t it?  Not that we spend our days counting just how “old” web browsers are, but one cannot help but notice the hoopla surrounding Google’s celebration of the second anniversary of Google Chrome.  I cannot remember the exact date that I heard about Chrome, but I clearly remember my excitement.  Two years later, I have to say that Chrome has lived up to my expectations. (Although I have to admit that I still use Firefox more.  Chrome is always ready, though, in case Firefox crashes.)

So anyway, if you happened to check the Google Chrome Blog yesterday, you’d know all about the new stuff they’ve done to Google Chrome – manifested in the latest version.  The new version is much faster and even more streamlined.  You thought that Chrome was the simplest of all browsers out there?  Think again!  The guys at Google worked extra hard to make this new Chrome simpler than ever!

Some of the changes are:

  • Two menus have been combined into one.
  • Buttons have been moved.
  • The URL box and Omnibox have been cleaned up.
  • JavaScript performance is three times faster than it was two years ago.

Well, I’ll stop rattling on about it – why don’t you download the newest Google Chrome (2nd birthday edition, if you will) yourself?

By the way, that image up there is by Mike Lemanski and was used in the official announcement in the Google Chrome Blog.  Isn’t it awesome?

Firefox: IBM’s Browser of Choice – Should You Follow?

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Earlier this month, IBM made an announcement that Firefox is now the default browser of the company. The announcement came straight from the horse’s mouth – Bob Sutor, the vice president of open source and Linux at IBM’s Software Group. In his blog, he said:

We’re officially adding a new piece of software to the list of default common applications we expect employees to use, and that’s the Mozilla Firefox browser.

Firefox has been around for years, of course. Today we already have thousands of employees using it on Linux, Mac, and Windows laptops and desktops, but we’re going to be adding thousands more users to the rolls.

This development definitely gives Firefox points in the browser wars. Here’s the thing – if such a group as IBM has publicly announced its browser preference, should we follow suit?

I don’t know what browser you’re using, but I have been switching between Firefox and Chrome in the past year. Before that, Firefox was my main choice. I have been having to pull up Chrome because of speed issues (I know Firefox is supposed to be fast but for some reason I have problems with this), but Internet Explorer has been out of the picture for the longest time.

Why should you even consider following IBM’s example? Sutor gives his reasons for his browser of choice:

• Firefox is stunningly standards compliant, and interoperability via open standards is key to IBM’s strategy.
• Firefox is open source and its development schedule is managed by a development community not beholden to one commercial entity.
• Firefox is secure and an international community of experts continues to develop and maintain it.
• Firefox is extensible and can be customized for particular applications and organizations, like IBM.
• Firefox is innovative and has forced the hand of browsers that came before and after it to add and improve speed and function.

Is that enough for you?

Google Puts Chrome for Mac and Linux into Stable Beta Version

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Alright, Chrome browser users, here’s some good news from Google. The latest Chrome for Mac and Linux has been finally put into a stable beta mode and will be gradually rolled out to all Chrome for Mac and PC users. You know what it means when something comes out from being “unstable” to “stable” version, right? Well, it simply means that most often than not, the stable version is more reliable and has lesser bugs. Plus of course, tons of new features are also brought in.

For both versions of Chrome for Mac and Linux browsers, these features come in bunch. Generally these new features include – browser preferences synchronization in addition to the previous bookmark synchronization feature. Browser preferences include themes, homepage and startup settings, web content settings, preferred languages and even page zoom settings.  This means that once you’ve synchronized all these settings in one of your Chrome beta installation, you’d get the same settings in all your Chrome installations on various dekstop and laptops that you use.

In addition, the new Chrome beta release also enables each Chrome extensions to work in incognito mode. You can set this up via the Chrome extension manager.

The new Chrome beta release also incorporates HTML5 features including Geolocation API, App Cache, web sockets and file drag-and-drop.  You may want to see how HTML5 function by browsing websites developed in HTML5 such as http://scribd.com. You can also try dragging and dropping attachments in Gmail or enabling geolocation in Google Maps.

If you’re a Chrome for Mac user like me, you’d be glad to know that the latest version of Chrome beta now has full-screen mode and a powerful bookmark management feature. We’ve been wanting these features since Chrome for Mac was released and so the Google Chrome folks are finally giving it to us.

If you can’t wait for Chrome for Mac to be automatically updated, you may want to download it from this link.

Delicious is Alive, Goes to Chrome as an Extension

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Delicious, the social bookmarking site  has been pretty quiet for the past couple of months.  While the site is still alive and kicking nothing much has been heard from it for a long time now. No news, no updates and no new features, until now. And guess what’s keeping the Delicious folks busy? A Delicious Extension that sits right on your Google Chrome’s toolbar.

Yes folks, you read it right, Delicious a Yahoo property just got a new iteration as a Chrome extension.  Don’t get me wrong here, there’s nothing utterly incorrect about this. It’s just don’t I don’ t really expect Delicious to make its presence felt anew by way of Google Chrome extension.

Anyway, what does this early beta of  Delicious Chrome Extension has to offer? Pretty much actually. It lets you sync your Delicious bookmarks, get all your bookmarks right on the Chrome Omnibar,  bookmark a current page in just a click of the Delicious button and search your bookmarks right on the current Chrome tab you are viewing.

The Delicious Chrome Extension works pretty much the same way as other Chrome Extensions. But to guide you in using it properly, the Delicious team has prepared this guided tour.

And to install the Delicious Chrome Extension, just click this link. After installing you just need to register your Delicious account and you’re all set to go.

Google Chrome 4 Supports Greasemonkey Scripts

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If you’ve been using Google Chrome 4 as your web browser, you’ve probably installed several extensions right after it was launched recently. But if you feel like that currently available Google Chrome extensions is not enough, how’s 40,000 more extensions sound to you?

Yes, believe it or not there are around 40,000 new extensions which you can install/activate on your Chrome 4. Well, thanks to Greasemonkey user scripts which has just been supported by Chrome. If you’ve been using Firefox before, you’d know that these scripts lets you customize web pages through simple Javascripts

Actually the 40,000 extensions are basically the converted user scripts available on Greasemonkey before. And with Greasemonkey enabled, you can practically use these user scripts on your Chrome browser after it is converted into Chrome Extension.

Installing these  scripts is just like installing or activating the usual Chrome extensions. That means the process can be done easily.

Of course there’s caveat emptor here. These scripts are very powerful and even has full access to your data, so be cautious of what scripts your are going to activate. In addition, some Greasemonkey may not work with Google Chrome 4 just yet.

So there. To make Google Chrome 4 more fun and useful either you check out the extensions gallery or get more Greasemonkey scripts.