Chrome for iPhone, iPad: It’s Safari with Smart Extras [HANDS ON]

Chrome for iPhone, iPad: It’s Safari with Smart Extras [HANDS ON]
June 28, 2012 by Christina Warren

Chrome for iOS is Here

Chrome for iOS is here. Available for the IPhone and iPad, how does it compare to the third-party browser competition?

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Sign In

You can sign-in to Chrome for iOS with your Google user name and password. This allows users to sync bookmarks, view open tabs from other devices, access passwords and automatically login to Google services.

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Take a Tour

The first time you launch Chrome for iOS, the app offers a user tour.

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Search Omnibox

The search and location bar are on in Chrome for iOS, just like with Chrome on the desktop.

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Tab Switching

Tab switching works by dragging at the edges. It is card-like, similar to webOS and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

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Browsing in Portrait

The number of open tabs is displayed at the top, next to the Omnibox.

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Browsing in Landscape

Landscape browsing offers minimal cruft.

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Tab View

Tabs can be browsed like cards and quickly removed with a swipe to the left.

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Context Menu

The menu button brings up options, including quick access to favorites, email, "Find on Page" and the ability to view tabs on other devices.

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Open Tab Sync

You can select open tabs for any of the computers currently logged into Chrome on the desktop or for mobile with open tab syncing turned on. Tapping on a tab will open the window in Chrome for iOS.

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Blank New Tab Screen

After closing all tabs, this subtle background greets users.

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Chrome on the iPad

On the iPad, Chrome looks much more similar to its interface on a Mac or PC.

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Tabs On Top

Chrome's famous "tabs on top" motif carries over to Chrome on the iPad.

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Context Menu

The context menu in Chrome for iPad has more room to breath and expand, thanks to the larger screen.

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Browsing Open Tabs

It's easy to browse open tabs from other synced devices. Here, you can see I am browsing open tabs on my MacBook Air and my iPhone 4S.

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Chrome Keyboard

Chrome offers a custom keyboard for search and address entry with the Omnibox.

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Chrome for iPad in Portrait

This is how Chrome looks on an iPad while in portrait orientation.

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Mobile Safari in Portrait

This is how Safari looks on the iPad. Please note, this iPad is running iOS 6.

As promised, Google’s Chrome web browser is now available for iOS.

We’ve spent some time playing with the app — which you can download from the App Store now [iTunes link] — and trying it out alongside Mobile Safari, iCab Mobile, Opera Mini and others.

Understanding the Trade-Offs

Because Apple restricts the way third-party web browsers can work with iOS, Chrome isn’t substantially different from any other mobile web browser. In fact, it’s basically just the UIWebView (geek speak for the basic Mobile Safari rendering engine) with a customized skin.

That’s not a bad thing — Mobile Safari is a great mobile web browser — but it means that users have to accept a few trade-offs. First, Apple restricts the super fast Nitro JavaScript engine to its own Mobile Safari browser. For security reasons, third-party apps can’t use Nitro within their own UIWebViews.

The lack of Nitro JavaScript support is one of the reasons Facebook for iPhone is so slow (and why the team is building a native version of the app).

In practical terms, this means that web pages aren’t going to load any better in Chrome for iOS than they would in any other third-party browser. Moreover, Mobile Safari will always have the home-field advantage.

Second, because Apple won’t allow users to designate default apps, users will have to manually invoke Chrome for iOS each time they want to use it. This works fine for most tasks — just move the Chrome iOS icon to your home screen or dock.

It does mean, however, that tapping links in email, messages or other apps will still open in Safari.

Google Sync is Awesome

You might be asking yourself — why bother with Chrome for iOS at all? If you’re a heavy user of Chrome on the desktop (or on an Android device), it’s all about cross-platform simplicity.

When a user logs into Chrome for iOS, he or she instantly gets access to bookmarks, passwords, search histories and open tabs on other devices.

Even better — you can choose what aspects you want to sync with other Chrome devices. For instance, I might not want to sync bookmarks or open tabs on my mobile device with my desktop — I can choose exactly what to sync in the settings section of the app.

While bookmark sync solutions are not new — XMarks, Firefox and Apple’s own iCloud all offer bookmark syncing from the browser to iOS — it’s the open tab aspect that makes the Google integration worth it.

I rarely use the feature on the desktop, usually because I am only logged into one machine at a time. But having the ability to pull up an open tab from my browser on my phone (or vice versa) can save tons of time.

The Look and Feel

On both the iPhone and iPad, Google has given its own distinctive design to Chrome for iOS. The browser looks and behaves very much like Chrome for Android and little flourishes like the ability to swipe away tabs or search and enter an address in the same bar are nice touches.

Although Chrome for the iPhone looks and works well, it’s on the iPad that the browser really shines. Unlike Mobile Safari, users can open more than 8 tabs at once (though don’t expect to switch between them quickly) and the tabs on top motif works really well on the 9.7″ screen.

A Solid Debut

All in all, Chrome for iOS is a solid alternative iPhone browser. The Chrome sync is what sets it apart from the competition, but for Chrome devotees, that’s enough.

We do wish there was more of a focus on social integration in the browser. iCab Mobile [iTunes link] — my favorite third party browser — really excels here with support for a slew of add-ons, including Readability, Instapaper, Twitter, Facebook and more.

We’d love for an easy way to post to Google+ from the browser, for instance.

Given Chrome for iOS a spin? Let us know what you think of the app in the comments.



Source: Mashable


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Google Doodle Offers Sweet Mother’s Day Surprise

Google Doodle Offers Sweet Mother’s Day Surprise
14/05/2012 by Charlie White on Mashable


Google’s done it again, creating a Google Doodle for Mother’s Day that’s touching enough to warm the cockles of even the hardest heart.

There’s mom, the blue g, standing there all alone wearing her string of pearls and wondering if those two little ones, her brood depicted as the letter “o” in red and yellow, will remember to honor her on this special day.

As you can see, she’s not disappointed, as they come running through the door with their tiny floral offering and heaping helpings of love, jumping into her arms and showering her with love and thanks for bringing them into this world.

Makes me want to call my mom. Thanks, Google.

By the way, see this little gem for yourself by going to Google.com, and here’s a little viewing hint: Ironically, the animation looks a whole lot cleaner in the Firefox browser than it does on Google’s own Chrome browser.




Source: Mashable

Sci-Fi Google Glasses Will Let You Take Pics Like This One [VIDEO]

Sci-Fi Google Glasses Will Let You Take Pics Like This One [VIDEO]
10/05/2012 by Sam Laird on Mashable


You know those futuristic augmented reality glasses Google‘s been developing? A Googler recently posted a photo showing more of what you’ll be able to do with the sci-fi spectacles.

Google launched its Project Glass on Google+ last month, sending techies and futurists into a minor hysteria. The glasses — which don’t actually feature lenses, according to preliminary photos released by the company — will project augmented reality images into wearers’ field of vision. So when you wake up in the morning, for example, you’ll see weather forecasts, appointments and online correspondences projected in front of your eyes. Google has already released a concept video for the devices, and posted shots of people modeling early designs (see gallery below).

But this week, the world got another small glimpse at what the Google glasses will be able to do. Sebastian Thrun, a computer scientist and Google Fellow, posted a photo to his Google+ page of himself twirling his young son around in a circle. The shot shows a perfect point-of-view composition, with Thrun’s arms and son in clear focus as the background grass blurs. It’s not clear how he took the picture — a voice command? Eye gesture? — but the shot does indicate some pretty cool capabilities for the gadgets.

The New York Times reported in February that the glasses may be available to the public by the end of this year for roughly the cost of a smartphone — indicating they are meant to be a consumer product. But a Google spokesperson told Mashable last month that the glasses going on sale in 2012 is “extremely unlikely.”

What kind of P.O.V. shots would you take with Google glasses? Let us know in the comments.

Stephen, Google engineer

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Emily in a candid moment

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Monica

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Emily out and about

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Lyndon

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Thumbnail image via Sebastian Thrun.

Source: Mashable

Google Currents [App Review]

This was going to be a post about the recently leaked Flipboard app...

But it was a huge meh. The popular app that has been released for iOS is finally coming to Android later this year, and is going to be exclusively available on the yet to be released Samsung Galaxy SIII. The leaked app performance supposedly varied on different devices, and was pretty finicky on my own Galaxy Nexus, so I decided not to (p)review it. Plus there's a philosophical debate about using apps that were hacked from their original intended source.

However, this has renewed my interest in Google Currents, Google's own take on the visual RSS reader game.

I've always been confused on which RSS reader would best work for me. I've gone through the whole lot (at least for Android) such as Pulse and Zinio, and Google Reader. None of them presented themselves strong enough for me to keep using them for long.

Phone format, not too small, not too big

Then comes along Currents, which is more like a magazine service than a simple RSS feed catcher. The Providers (which could be any website, even me) can decide what the reader sees when they subscribe to their current. Subscribing to the Android Central current, for example, shows different sections of their website such as reviews, videos, their Google+ feed and whatever other posts they decide they want. The publisher can also elect to just show their plain 'ole feed from their blog if they don't want to get fancy.

Like any other reader, you can manually add a website's feed, and Currents will "convert" it into more of a magazine format. There's also a list of popular currents to subscribe to, from many of the major news source. Google Reader support is also built in (figures, right?) which lets you import whatever you've been subscribed to and add to Currents' format. Again I'm a Google-centric guy, but this just makes Reader another redundant app which really annoys me.

Reading an article on the tablet

The tablet experience is just as consistent, and scales up quite nicely if I do say so myself. Pictures are just as clear as they are on their original website. Along with video integration, which means you don't have to open an external website, a cool feature lets you view all the pictures in a particular article/post in a gallery-like feature without having to scroll to them individually.

The tablet format is just right

Any article that has been synced to the device will be available for offline reading, images too, depending on your settings. The initial push of Google Currents was focused on offline availability, but I can see it going farther than that. Loading of each provider's currents are fast, and lets you quickly get to reading.

I won't go into how much customization the providers have, but my own setup is in the following screenshot, more of an aggregator of my own posts. Kind of limited right now, but hopefully they start to support more feed types than simple RSS and Google's own services like Picasa.

Terrible colors... need to change that

You can download Google Currents for your device down below:

Download on Google Play | Download for iOS

Facebook PAC Gives More Money to Republicans Than to Democrats

Facebook PAC Gives More Money to Republicans Than to Democrats
07/05/2012 by Alex Fitzpatrick on Mashable

Bucking the tide for technology companies, Facebook’s Political Action Committee FB PAC contributed to slightly more Republican politicians than Democrats during the first quarter of 2012.

Republican members of Congress, including Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-Ky.), were on the receiving end of $65,000 from Facebook’s PAC. Congressional Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on the other hand, received slightly less: $53,500.

The minor lean to the right is unusual for a technology company, which tend to favor Democrats. For example, Microsoft has contributed $694,284 to Democrats and $477,706 to Republicans via its PAC this year, while Google has given $101,800 to Democrats and $100,000 to Republicans.

A look at technology companies’ contributions to presidential campaigns reveals a wider split. Microsoft has given $289,088 to President Obama’s re-election effort this year, compared to $71,990 for Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Comcast’s contributions offer a similar example: $157,962 to Obama and $13,750 for Romney.

The traditional logic suggests that Democrats are the more technology-friendly of the two major American political parties, but Facebook’s mostly bipartisan congressional contributions could be interpreted as the early sign of a changing tide.

Facebook also gave to several leading members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, which oversee the U.S. court system. That may reveal some of Facebook’s political strategy, as it routinely finds itself either on attack or defense in the courtroom.

The disclosure forms also revealed the top contributors to Facebook’s PAC: CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen all chipped in the maximum allowable amount of $5,000.

Does the Democrat-Republican split of Facebook’s PAC surprise you? Sound off in the comments below.




Source: Mashable

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New Gmail Comes to All: Do You Approve? [POLL]

New Gmail Comes to All: Do You Approve? [POLL]
by Todd Olmstead
The new Gmail is officially here. We’ve known about this new design for months now, but much like Facebook Timeline, the rollout to all users has been a slow process.

Google officially announced the redesign in November. Until recently, however, users still had the option of reverting back to the old look. That’s not the case now, as Google has followed up its redesign of Google+ with an involuntary change to new Gmail for all users.

James Fallows of The Atlantic was one of the users putting off switching to the new look. He laments the changeover, calling it “the forced ‘improvement’ of something that wasn’t broken,” an opinion that’s been echoed on Twitter throughout the product’s prolonged unveiling.

However, many people feel just fine about the new Gmail, including some of our commenters. Jeff Kee wrote that he was a voluntary convert. “I actually like the clean look without clutter,” he wrote. “More focus on the emails – I love it.”

But as with any major redesign of a widely used product, there will be a range of opinions. So we’re asking you to let us know what you think. Answer our poll below and tell us in the comments what you think of the new Gmail look.

What Do You Think About the Gmail Redesign?

It doesn't make a difference to me.It's not an improvement, but I don't mind it.Give me back my old Gmail!I love it.I don't use Gmail.

View Results
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1. Resizing Options

Gmail users can now control the density of their inbox. Depending on your preference of white space, you choose manually between three sizes: comfortable, cozy or compact.

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2. Cleaner Interface

An overall cleaner interface could make the initial shock of a heavy unread inbox a little easier to bear.

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3. Adjustable Chat and Labels

You can now adjust the size of labels and chat areas to view more or less of each.

Labels have also been moved to the top of your inbox in tab form, making it even easier to filter your inbox according to priority.

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4. Automatically Adapt

The new gmail automatically adapts to fit any size window. As you resize the window, the inbox becomes more or less dense.

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5. HD Themes

Like before, you can select themes to personalize your inbox, but now there are high definition choices available. After testing on various sized screens, there is not a hugely noticeable difference, however the images are easier on the eyes.

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6. Redesigned Email

Emails have been redesigned, making it feel more like a conversation. The people included in the conversation can be found on the right, appearing just as they would in Gchat with their status.

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7. Profile Picture

As we recently noticed, there have been some changes made to Google's photo editing applications. These have been integrated with Gmail, allowing you to upload and edit a profile picture.

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8. Customizable Search

Taking a cue from its own search engine features, Google's search in your inbox is customizable to your content, making it easier to find what you're looking for even faster.

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9. Search Filter

There is also now a filter feature in the search box, making it easy to sift through a certain time period or find an attachment

ASource: Mashbale.com