STFU && RTFM

Web search and advertising giant Google has gone against what seemed to be a foregone conclusion by not only not buying the norwegian web browser development firm Opera software, but also publishing their own web browser, called Chrome. They’ve built it on Web Kit, the same rendering engine used by Apple’s Safari, and added their own JVM (Java Virtual Machine).
 

 
The first thing I noticed when I’d installed Chrome was how shiny it was, how eyecandy-y it was. The second thing I noticed was its lack of a “stop” button. That was it though. I didn’t notice any obvious usability flaws. There were no illogical keyboard shortcuts.
 
Even so, it does seem somewhat underdeveloped. Chrome is a very early Beta considering other Beta projects of Google’s. To me, it immediately felt a bit like Windows XP’s default skin, that is to say, I think it looks a bit like they’ve teamed up with Fisher Price to create My First Browser.
 
Like my conclusions on Apple’s Safari and Opera, I like it, but I can’t really see it substituting my current default, Mozilla Firefox.

So, I finally bought a new computer. It’s a pretty smooth bit of kit if I might say so. It’s a HTPC, with a 3GHz CPU and 4GB RAM. It also runs Windows Vista Ultimate, and is my first real day-to-day encounter with said OS.
 
The computer arrived at my place a little more than a week ago. Setup was quick (quicker than the setup of a preinstalled Windows XP machine) and simple (simpler than the setup of a preinstalled Windows XP machine). It boots quickly (well, it’d better with the amount of CPU and RAM I got for it), and seems stable.
 
I went for Vista Ultimate, because I wanted all the bells an whistles of Vista, and so it seems I have got. First off, is visually very appealing. Windows Vista is pure eyecandy, no doubt about it. When that’s said, most of the tips, tricks and hotkeys I know for Windows XP Professional, seems to work in Vista as well.
 
Vista has a handfull of new features, compared to Windows XP. Though I haven’t tried them all out, I have found the following particularly useful:
 

• Windows Flip 3D
• Search pane in the start menu
• Windows Media Center
• User Account Control
• Breadcrumb view in the Explorer Address bar

 
At first glance, Windows Vista could easily be mistaken Windows XP with a facelift and some eyecandy. Having used the computer for a week seems to indicate there is more to this than meets the eye though. What, exactly, this more is, remains to be seen. I can say that I like what I have seen so far.

On June 18th, 2008, some eight and a half million people downloaded the latest version of Mozilla Firefox. A powerful browser, built on the Gecko engine its greatest advantage is the fact that it is so easily expandable and customizable through powerful add-ons.
 
There are a few new features that are most decidedly practical. One of them is a “Verified by” function, which simply means that when you are visiting say, a Microsoft site, the addressbar shines up like this:

 
Another nifty function is the “Most Visited” button, which lists your ten most visited websites:

 
The password-saving feature is still there, but comes up as a noticebar, instead of a dialog box:

 
Designwise, the changes are minor, but noticeable. There are new buttons, like so:

 
All in all, Firefox 3 seems to be a decent browser, and it simply works, which is always nice. By the by, everyone who downloaded Firefox 3 in the first 24 hours were part of a world record setting event, and got to download a Download Day certificate like this:
 

I’d been wanting to get a new mouse for my portable computer for a long time when I actually did. Up until last week, I’ve been using your regular two-buttons-and-a-scroll-wheel kind of mouse, and I wanted a little more functionality when on the road. I’m used to using one of Logitechs larger mouse with my desktop computer, and wanted something like that, only smaller.
 
I remembered a product test I did a while back, of Logitechs newest portable cordless, with their smallest receiver yet, called Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks. I also remembered liking it, so I decided to go for it.
 
Functionwise, it’s great. The scroll-whell has two modes, (almost) friction-less and regular. It has backward and forward buttons, sideward scroll, and a total of five programmable buttons. Comfort is also excellent. It lies very well in the hand, and the gripping pads on the side makes it very comfortable to use.
 
The greates feature is the receiver though. It is small enough to fit in the back of my laptop, even when it is docked. It is to me the epitome of plug-in-and-forget.
 
The conclusion is simple; though not cheap, this is an excellent little bit of kit, which works beautifully. It is definitely the best mouse in this size I’ve ever tried, and I am very content.

A friend of mine whose tech savvy is usually worth listening to waxed religious about Opera the other night. When he does, there’s usually a good reason, so I decided to check it out.
 
Setting it up
Setting up a webbrowser shouldn’t be a complicated process, and Opera is as simple to install as most other browsers. When you open it, you get what Opera has decided to call “Speed Dial”, basically a page with nine “buttons”, previews of nine websites, to be defined by the user. Here’s what it looks like:

 
Using it
I’ve used earlier incarnations of Opera, but it’s been a while, and they’ve gotten very far since then. Opera has a decent ease of use, but utilizes different hotkeys than comparable browsers Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, which makes crossing over a bit difficult. Nevertheless it presents itself as an intuitive and simple webbrowser.
 
One of the major features of Opera has since its inception back in 2000 been tabbed browsing. As an extension of this, Opera now features a preview-function of open tabs, which is activated by simply hovering the mouse pointer over the tab you wish to see as shown below:

 
All in all, Opera, like Safari presents itself as an impressive, intuitive and helpful addition to the family of webbrowsers. I’d like to have seen a higher degree of standardization when it comes to hotkeys, but mostly it’s a good browser, even though I doubt it will replace Firefox as my standard browser

I like trying out new pieces of software, and when Apple released Safari for Windows I had no choice but to try it out. First impression is that it is most definitely an Apple product, and bears great resemblance to e.g. iTunes. It is a sleek piece of software, and it seems to be sturdy enough.
 
Having used Firefox for years, it is great seeing that they’ve implemented the same keyboard shortcuts that seem to have become more or less the norm for such functions as opening tabs, closing tabs etc.
 
The way it renders websites is another point I like; it seems to render much like Firefox, and more to the point, not like Internet Explorer. This is especially noticeable with sites that run a wiki, like my website. For example, in Safari and Firefox the bottom bar is rendered across the browser, unlike in Internet Explorer where it is cropped to “fit” on the right of the sidebar.
 

 
All in all, it strikes me as a decent webbrowser, although I am unsure if I will allow it to replace Firefox. Even so, at times it is good to have a second third-party browser installed, like when I was reinstalling Firefox…