Acer will be releasing Google Chrome OS based devices pretty soon and it will be the first one to do so. It will most like announce it during the Computex Taipei. There is no news on what type of device it will release. A tablet like or Smartphone like?

I am little skeptical of these devices as Chrome OS is designed to access all your stuffs online. Meaning you have to be connected to the internet always to access your data. You may call it the Internet Thin Client, if you want. There is no way you can access it offline unless Google Gears is expected to be installed as well.

Lets see if the Acer device can challenge the iPad and the HP Slate. Somehow I feel it will not unless it is priced really low.

The Network Hub Pte Ltd, an Adobe partner has it available for pre-order. All you have to do, if you are a student or educator, is to place an order online and wait for then to contact you. You have to collect it yourself though as you will need show your student card to be eligible.

It is available as CS5 Design Premium and Web Premium. Here is the table with the available softwares in the pack:

List of Eligible Schools

Order it here.

Note: Please make sure you order for the right Operating System  – Windows or Mac

Image from mine.com.sg

These are caused by different font/character encoding standards used by different computers. In most cases it should be similar but if you are using different language packs and so on the encoding might have changed.

Ask-leo.com has this covered in a easy to understand manner and a solution also provided. Go on and read it.

image from http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com

Yes, it is my favourite browser followed by Firefox. I use both Firefox and Google Chrome interchangeably. Don’t ask me why. Here are some of my favourite extensions.

IE Tab

There are still a number of sites that work well on Internet Explorer. It is sad but that is the fact. Like in firefox now there is IE Tab to view a page in IE but with in Google Chrome.

Visit a page, if it does not appear good on Chrome jut click the IE Tab icon and the page loads in a new tab using the Internet Explorer engine.

Google Mail Checker

Get notified when you have an email pending to be read. Click on the icon and be taken to your gmail account.

Session Manager

Session Manager allows you to save the session. Meaning, all your tabs that are currently open. Save and name it. Next time you want to access, just click on the icon and click open on the session you want.

Xmarks Bookmarks Sync

I have been the beta user for Xmarks and am still using it. Prior to Chrome I have been using it on Firefox. Xmarks Sync synchronises your bookmarks accross browsers and PC. I use this to sync with my Macbook Pro and Windows 7 machine.

This is a short review of a new kid on the block. A bookmarking site and more. It is the myhomepage.com. A name that makes sense and easy to remember isn’t it.

Myhomepage.com is a free site where you can gather all your favourite sites and login in place. Yes, a bookmarking site which you can access from any PC and any browser. Forget about Xmarks plug-ins and such similar sites which offers bookmark synchronization.

Sign-Up

Signing-in is done in seconds. Just key in your email address and choose a password. Agree to the terms and you are done. All site logons are VeriSign certified and you are safe from prying eyes stealing your password.

Features

The below are the 3 main tabs you will see. You can view and cofigure your bookmarks within. Simply search for the site you want to bookmark and add it to myhomepage. Categorise them by creating named folders and you are good to go.

Myhomepage

Myhomepage tab is where you keep all your most accessed sites. This could be your internet emails and other social media sites that you often access.

My Bookmarks

This is where you can keep or bookmark all your sites. You might not access these sites often but you could bookmark and organise them according to folders you create like Music, Video, Technology or even News.

For example, below I have searched for PCMech. A set of results will appear. On the link/result you want choose to Add Bookmark to the Main Folder or create a new folder to add. Consider the folder as categories. I would prefer if they are named Categories or Labels instead of folders.

No worries if you don’t create a folder/category in the beginning, you can always edit later.

Auto Logins

This is nifty feature and I like it. Auto Login allows you to automatically login to sites that require authentication. You might feel skeptical at first as the site will actually store the password for you. I have been assured that together with their patent pending encryption technology, MacAfee and VeriSign technologies our logon information is safe with them.

The trouble some part of this Auto Login is you will need to create a short cut on your browsers bar. Upon clicking on a sites bookmark, you will need to click on the Auto Logon button which will then login for you.

Myhomepage creators have lots of easy to understand videos on Youtube. Below is the demo of myhomepage. View the rest of them here.

Concluding

You have to understand it is beta and the developers are continually improving this site and will be providing new features to enhance our bookmarking choices. Some sites might not auto-logon and other minor issues might pop up.

I find this site to be one of the most useful if not best bookmark site so far. Frankly, I have not really used any other site. I have been using X-marks plug-in to synchronise bookmarks between Firefox/Chrome and Internet Explorer. That is between two of my personal computers only.

With myhomepage.com I can access my bookmarked sites from work or any other PC that is available to me. It will be convenient to access when I am overseas and I suddenly cant remember the site I need to access. Just logon to myhomepage. search your own bookmarks and voila there you have it.

Try it and let me know if it the best online bookmarking website you have used!

Oh well it is not a mystery after all. Microsoft together with Verizon will be releasing 2 new phones code named Pure and Turtle. Both are slider phone with keyboards and touch screens.

This seems to be an effort by Microsoft to get back in to the mobile phone market after acquiring Danger in 2008. Come on, even Google released its own phone together with HTC, its about time Microsoft did something. Now, how well it will suit up against Apple’s iphone OS 4?

I will update with more news soon and in the meanwhile read on at CNET and Engadget.

In an event at Cupertino, Apple revealed its new features that will be included in the upcoming upgrade to the iphone Operating System. Some of the features might not be new to the jailbreakers but is good news for those who don’t jailbreak.

Features

Multi-tasking

Its about time iphone had it. Other phones have had it for quite a while.

Folders

Each app can have its own folder. Easy to keep the apps organized,

Mail

Unified inbox for users of multiple mail boxes. Ability to add more than one Exchange account is a boon and am looking forward to that.

iBooks

An eBook app to read books on the go from your iphone. The ipad already has that but we will see that soon on iphone and itouch. But it will not matter to those in this part of the world(Singapore) as we don’t have an iTunes Store and will not be able to download books.

You can read on other features on Ars Technica as they have detailed out the features very well.

Availability

The iphone OS 4,0 will be available around summer which is June / July. Sadly iphone 3G and 2nd generation ipods will not get multitasking enabled.

Ipad owners will get the update in September.

More reading:

Apple
usingapple

It will be on the 8th April 2010 (Thursday) at 10am PT, which will be on the 9th April 1am in Singapore.

Here I am expecting some improvements like multi-tasking – I would like to see Skype running while I am surfing the web on Safari and so on. With the ipad released recently, I think it is about time we see some improvements coming on the iphone since ipad basically uses the same OS.

Read further at Engadget and Ars Technica. Ars Technica will be covering the event live on their liveblog. If you are an ardent crazy follower go ahead and follow it. I will be nicely sleeping and update the blog later on the day.

If you use your pc often to download and edit loads of stuff, fragmentation could occur. Basically, the hard drive, when written on to, writes data all over the hard disk to make write speed fast. This could cause fragmentation of files. When reading the files later, your hard disk read/write head needs to seek all over the disk to pick up the data.

My Defrag

Defragmenting software’s basically moves data of the same file together making reading of data faster. All Windows version comes with defrag utility. In most cases that would do but MyDefrag, based on the Windows API, does much more.

MyDefrag works based on scripts which you can modify as you wish. It does not have too many options like other defragmenter utilities you find but the scripting makes it powerful.

The basic scripts available are:

• Defragment Only
• Optimize Daily
• Optimize Monthly
• Optimize Weekly

I use only the Optimize Monthly script and schedule it using the Windows Task Scheduler and occasionally use Optimize. If you are more adventurous and would like to tweak the performance go ahead and write your own script. Help is available on their site and their forum is active.

If you are running MyDefrag on Windows 7 don’t forget to disable the Windows Defrag in the Task Scheduler. By default Windows own Defrag utility is scheduled to run Monthly.

Here are 7 tips that could make using Windows 7 much easier than it already is.

1. Burn ISO

Windows 7 now allows you to burn ISO images to a CD or DVD. No more hunting for a DVD burning software like Nero. Double click on the ISO image file and just follow the dialog box instruction.

2. Desktop Wallpaper change

Do you change you desktop wallpaper often? Now let Windows do that automatically.

Right Click on the Desktop and Click Personalize. Click Desktop Background. Select the images you want to show. Click Browse and add more images.

3. Snipping Tools

Ever wanted to capture the desktop screen or part of the screen? I guess you would have is print screen button on the keyboard and then edit it in paint or other programs. Now there is a snipping tool to assist you.

Click the Start button and key in ‘Snipping’. Click on Snipping Tool and play around with it

4. Minimise Messenger to System Tray

Previous version of Windows allowed you to minimise Windows Live messenger to the System Tray. Now, in Windows 7 when you minimise Windows Live messenger it stays on the Task Bar.

Right Click Windows Live Messeger (preferrably from the start menu) and click properties.
Click Compatability tab. Select Windows Vista.

Now you should see the Live Messenger in the System Tray

5. Show or Hide Icons in Notification area

It might be useful to show some regularly used icon in the notification area(system tray). By default often used or critical icons appear. You can change this by customizing.

Click on the small arrow beside the notification area and click customize.

Choose the available notification icons and choose show or hide from the drop down list.

6. Aero Snap

One neat feature that has been mention is the Aero Snap. Dragging a Window to the left or right hand corner will snap the window to the right or left half of the screen. This is useful if you are researching or comparing some notes. Sadly it wont be great on small screens.

7. Quick Launch

Windows 7 did away with Quick launch as you can use the task bar as the quick launch for any applications you want.

Right Click on an empty area of the task bar
Click Toolbars and click Quick Launch.

You will see Quick Launch appear. Add the apps you want.