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Yes, you have heard correct my friend: Google has announced the release of Chromium OS during the holidays of this year. This is a cloud based operating system, the first of its kind, and it is designed to let the user access it from anywhere. There is also a notebook called the CR-48, which is exclusively a Chrome OS notebook, sources say Acer and Samsung have dibs, the release expected in mid-2011. The new operating system will have to contend with Windows 7 and Mac OS x, how will it compare and what is the contrast which Chrome OS brings to the stage?

First is the amazing transformation from internet web browser to operating system, Google is a tough competitor when it comes to innovation and ideas put to the test, so this is nothing new. But it is quite a leap, and it will be interesting to see how it reaches both business and personal computer users. I mean, it is a Chrome is all about the internet. How can a browser be an operating system?

The answer comes in the form of Apps, which will be the only way for the user to accomplish anything on the operating system, since there are no downloads. This is what makes it versatile in that you can access the system from anywhere, with the apps the saved content from them will be stored like it is a web browser. No software needed.

Instead of trying to be their own entity and create web apps only for Chrome, this operating system includes all apps for all programs, including Microsoft Office. You can run most of these apps offline.

The big boast of Google with Chrome OS is the boot-up speed: 7 seconds. Wow, that is fast. In tests of Macintosh and Windows 7 it takes at least 30 seconds for Mac to load and a minute of so for Windows, so Google beats them hands down in speed.

One drawback it has right now is that it will only work with Solid State Drives(SSD), so all you people with netbooks have to buy the new netbook that has the Chrome OS pre-installed.The OS will look similar to the internet browser Chrome, with icons for web apps on the screen. Notifications of email, calendar events, and instant messaging will be on the screen as well.

But what is perhaps the most important piece to this puzzle is in the failure of other regular operating systems: you can recover and log on to Chrome OS if your hard drive breaks down, you lose your laptop or netbook, or your system fails.

What about security? Chrome OS will be protected much like the internet browser, with HTML5 and Open Web Platform, as well as sand-boxing technologies. What this means is that the access will be limited so that hackers cannot slip in undetected. People often wonder about cloud based programs, such as privacy and not wanting companies like Google knowing exactly what they are doing on the internet. Depending on what you are up to, the cloud has it’s up and it has it’s downs, the point lies in what you want out of an operating system.

The choice is yours.

In a recent blog post about the browser war going on between Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox, it looked as if Chrome was winning the battles and taking over. But as in war, the victor only seems to win, thus catapulting us back into the firing lines of these fast and ever-advancing browsers all competing for the top spot on the world’s computer.

Firefox is pumping out these new versions, with this new release being the seventh beta version since its inception a little over six years ago. However, release of the full version has been delayed until 2011 due to bugs and problems that pushed back the release date. It seems this is not the first time Mozilla has slipped up and missed a deadline, but let’s look past the mistakes and look towards the future with all it’s wonders and possibilities.

Can it get much faster? That is one question that seems to be popping up a lot lately as these browsers heat up the race to be the fastest out there. According to people who claim to know something, Firefox 4 is THREE times faster than the existing 3.6.12 version. What is so great about this new browser? Let’s take a look at the record.

The tests came in from both the Kraken and Sunspider JavaScript benchmark, and the V8 benchmark test, to prove just how fast this browser was. There are three reasons for this improved capability of loading web pages:

1. JägerMonkey, an upgrade from TraceMonkey which propelled Firefox 3.5 to the front stage, is designed to do the same again yet keep Firefox on top. JavaScript is very heavy on certain web sites such as Gmail and Facebook, slowing down most browsers because they do not have the speed or strength to keep up with all the code. JägerMonkey is the future of JavaScript.
2. Hardware acceleration, both in graphics and in Windows xp and Mac OS x, is supported enough so that loading the web pages with all those videos and pictures will be much faster.
3. 3D capabilities that enable Firefox to skip the question of asking users to download plug-ins to view certain web pages, it is built in.

Together these equal a powerful web browser.

The improvements could make Firefox the number one used browser in the world, right now it is number two behind Internet Explorer. We all know the reason for that right? IE has a deal with all the new computers to have it built in to the system so that when you buy a computer or laptop, you get IE. No wonder they are number one.

Firefox also is coming out with a new feature to get rid of the already old use of tabs at the top of the screen. The Panorama feature is designed to allow the user the ability to customize and create their tabs in any way they would like. With a stroke of the key, you can see an overview of all your tabs and easily maneuver through them to find the ones you want.

Watch out everybody, the browser war has only just begun…



There is a new cloud on the horizon, and it is in the shape of an office. It is called Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, and it is going to be a huge advancement in how people conduct their business and personal lives. DocVerse is a startup company that was bought by Google last March, and now is getting a chance to shine through integration into a widely used application for email.

The combination of a program like Google Docs and an email powerhouse like Office is deadly. One of the coolest features of Google Docs is the ability to access a document and edit it simultaneously with co-workers or other people. Forget about attaching the documents, that takes too long and is a thing of the past.

This is an amazing tool that will make life so much easier, no more having to wait for your client to look over changes in the document you just emailed and send it back, with Google Cloud Connect all you have to do is share the email and you are closer to finishing before you even start.

Another great feature of Google Cloud Connect is that you can connect to it from anywhere, just like Google Docs, all you have to do is save it. Once you save it, the document is given a unique URL(Uniform Resource Locator), allowing you to get it on your smart phone or office computer.

It is really a beautiful thing, this new “software of a service” office suite will be offered for free WHEN IT COMES OUT. Right now it is in the stage of testing.

The main reason Google is using MS Office as its platform to launch this new software is the fact that there are millions of people using Office, and it is not likely they will move to Google any time soon…unless…

Google Cloud Connect is targeting Microsoft Office and is taking over. With this new service users will also be able to work on PowerPoint presentations and Excel documents as well. The ones who need this are small business owners or companies that communicate throughout a large office that is otherwise hard to get things done.

Don’t worry, it will work with all existing Office versions, from Office 2003 to Office 2010.

Perhaps the best feature of Google Cloud Connect is the ability to access it from anywhere in the world with a computer and internet access. This is the cloud feature of the software. Personally I am an editor for a newspaper, so this tool is perfect for a person like me that needs to have constant contact with editors and writers on stories. When I am away from the computer, anything can happen where if I do not get to a computer, the whole operation could be compromised due to the fact that I could not see the article before it went to press. Google Cloud Connect will help a lot of people, including me.

Stay tuned to Geek Choice Blog for cool news and awesome updates that are sure to keep you informed and in-the-know.

If you have not heard about this new word processor, then you have been missing out my friend, because Google Docs competes with Office and is completely online. There are so many benefits to this type of document platform that they are too many to write about in this blog. However, I will try to contain it in simple and easy terms that even a layman could lay down and understand.

The centerpiece of Google Docs is the collaboration feature that allows multiple people to look at a piece of writing and edit it simultaneously. I have used this tool I cannot count how many times, and it never fails to amaze me as well as save me. My editor could be across the country, yet by connecting via Gmail to the Google Docs folder, we can look at an article together like we were sitting next to each other. Technology shines light on how easy life can be with new tools which make working and writing much better.

Let’s say for example, that you are in the airport on your way to Wichita, Kansas for a big business meeting. On your laptop you have saved the big presentation, all on Google Docs, and there is not a cloud on the horizon. CRASH! No more presentation because the laptop is infested with a virus. What are you going to do? Head to the bar and drink your anger away? Get on the plane and have a breakdown and end up behind the bar? Or are you going to take a deep breath and realize that you are safe, with no fear because you can get onto the presentation from anywhere that has internet access! If you have an iPhone, iPad, or Android, there you go!

More great features include the auto-save and the organisation of Google Docs. When you are using an online application to write anything from school papers to business protocol, auto will save your life if the server goes down and freezes, making sure that data recovery is simple by saving all the time. As I write this blog, WordPress saves the document every minute, this action has literally saved my life and my blog a couple times when if I did not have this auto-save action? A lot of words would have been lost in cyber space this way, they are floating around out there when they should have been saved.

About organizing, Google Docs gives you a folder to share with others along with the ability to move folders and files to different locations. This is perfect for people who need to have things just so. Google Docs is perhaps the best way to write, save what you write, and to share what you write,  organize it all in a nice package, and live life easy.

I strongly recommend using Google Docs if you are a writer like me, or work in any business related to communicating with the outside world where editing and proofreading are essential to getting the job done. Amen.

In Google Docs We Trust.

On and on it goes, updates to better and faster versions of an already decent web browser from Google. Chrome is what homies would call “Bling Bling”, or “Fresh”, since right now it is rising to the top with all the new gear. Just what is the new gear, and how does it apply to your life?

That is exactly what Geek Choice Blogs is here for: to answer any of those perplexing questions that you might have concerning your personal computer, laptop, or hand-held device. Right now there are a lot of new and exciting innovations coming out for web browsers, so we do not want you to miss out on the opportunity to learn about some of them.

Google actually hired several Firefox developers and built the first version of Chrome, impressing even the founder, Eric Schmidt, who was hesitant to enter the ongoing “browser wars” between Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera. Google seems to be the one who jumps in front of the others in the action line, coming out with ideas from browsers like Firefox first. For instance, the graphical user interface which created the name “Chrome”, integrates the search and the address bar together to form a very easy to use interface.

The aim of every browser is to be fast, simple, and secure. Which does it the best? Let’s look at the record.

Chrome went through all the acid tests, 100 or so tests that are measured almost like the colors of a real acid test with litmus paper. Google passed all three with good colors, this is important to see as it gives us the truth about a browser that will not fail us.

Chrome certainly does not fail us on speed. Using a V8 engine, it revs up very fast power to surf the net, with the V8 JavaScript engine. In a speed test in 2008, Google flew by Firefox 3.0, two times faster with the V8 engine. Google did not stop there, they went even farther with SquirrelFish Extreme, marking a 36% improvement in speed over the V8 JavaScript Engine. Wow.

Enough jargon for today.

Basically, Google Chrome seems to be the one coming out with all the new toys and trinkets for web browsing. They started the “pages” idea, if you use Chrome then you notice how on the start page it is not just one page, it is all the ones you have visited most in the past. A pretty cool feature, making life using email and other jobs simple.

Now, for the headliner: Chrome 8. Right now it is in the experimental stages, so do not go searching the world wide web for the full version, as it does not exist yet. But guaranteed you will be impressed at the new features.

A search-as-you-type feature is something that goes along with the address bar as a search tool. What else? The searches are scanned by AVG! Talk about secure and safe, as well as useful. Typing a single letter will turn up a bunch of sites that are most related to it. It is like Java on steroids! No more having to wait 10 seconds for a search page to load, those days are in the past, welcome to the super-information highway.

Also in the new Chrome 8 there is the Cloud Printing feature, which allows you to print to your home printer from anywhere. Chrome just makes like easy.

So we have covered the aims that browsers need to meet the standards: fast, simple, and secure. What about better? Yes, we will see how Google Chrome battles it’s way to the top becoming “King of the Browser Mountain”.

How many times have you heard people say, when they are trying to find out some information on a question they themselves cannot answer, “I’ll just ‘Google’ it!”? They type the words in the search box, and like magic 100,000,000 results come up for asking the ‘meaning of life’. Google is actually in the dictionary as verb!

Behind Google Lines

Who is behind this giant? When did it become the number one provider for information globally? What is a search engine and what does Google do to stay on top of the market?Just how did this giant of an engine that grabs so many results, 99% of the results being random non-related content, come to be? These are questions I will answer for you.

At the head of Google, Inc. are two men named Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In 1996 these two graduate students who attended Stanford University were working on finding out how many “backlinks”, the number of web pages that link to a certain site, were out there in the world wide web and how to pull them all together.

Originally, the name 0f the project was called “Backrub”, a clever one talking about how it rubbed the backlinks of the internet. This web-crawler traveled across the internet picking up all the sites that had a connection to a certain web-page, instead of the conventional method of search engines at the time, which only counted how many times the search term appeared on a page. The super-information-highway was on it’s way to being paved.

The name ‘Google’ comes from the misspelled ‘googol’, a name for the number one followed by one hundred zero’s. This was a powerful name to choose for a search engine that boasts it can find that many search results. What is interesting today is that the googol signifies more than just search results.

The “Google Guys” have come a long way from the days when they had to put together 10 four Gigabyte hard drives in a case built out of Lego’s, hence the colors of Google, they are advancing rapidly into every territory you can think of.

After maneuvering through financial difficulties, Google was able to get into a unique online auction and sell their shares at a high price, instantly making many Google employees millionaires. They did not stop there, Google grew into an enormous beast of a company buying out YouTube and creating service such as Google Earth and Google Voice. At the rate that this company is going, there will soon be a Google Life!

Google is top-secret too, they are not kissing and telling. That is perhaps why they stay on top and always ahead of the market in terms of fresh, innovative ideas. They are even turning green: recently this year Google Energy was created, after an investment was made in a North Dakota wind farm to harvest mega-watts. What else will Google do?

In basic terms, Google connects the world to the internet, and allows people to get the most of what they are searching for. The real story of Google is still a mystery, since they won’t even tell how many servers they have, so you will just have to guess that this company will probably take over the world!

by Sean Wilcoxson

A new PC utility enables users to slim up there computer and cut down on all those programs you do not need which fills up disk space.

“Bloatware”, or software bloat, is a term that is used to describe the unnecessary features that are not being used but takes up valuable space on your computer. In the beginning, back in the 1970’s, every byte was accounted for because disk space was like gold not to be wasted. It seems in today’s world the reverse is the normal: pack in the useless nonsense!

With all the new operating systems, browsers, protocols, and storage formats, no wonder your computer is fat and farting! For example, a program that once could only save in text format is now demanded to save in HTML, XML, XLS, CSV, PDF, DOC, and other formats.

In comes SlimComputer software from SlimWare Utilities, a useful tool that collects user ratings of programs that ship with that PC you ordered and aggregates them to make it easy to decide which ones to delete, and which ones to keep.

“As more users participate, we get more data. As we get more data, the better the ratings are,” said Chris Cope, CEO of Slimware, based in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Looking at these ratings, you might still be skeptical at whether or not certain programs are valuable or not. The tool will identify and remove programs that many users don’t want, like the free games that come with many PCs, and also list nonessential toolbars, startup items and shortcuts. Basically the SlimComputer eliminates all those annoying programs that take up all the space that you could be using to store all those “movies”.

Why Is Bloatware Bad?

How does it feel to be bloated? Not good. That is what your computer feels, and it will go a lot slower than usual because it is too busy farting. Software companies often pay PC makers to include trial versions in the computer so you will get a nice variety of nothing!

This software can slow boot times, drag on performance, and take up disk space. Other examples of bloated software are trial productivity tools and accounting. So what can you do to get your PC up and running full speed?

With Slimware the main goal is to not interfere with important programs that are used to help the computer function properly. That would screw things up big time, no, what this program does is make it so that when you get a new computer or have an existing one, based on user ratings of how important a program is you can decide for yourself which ones to get rid of.

This is a valuable tool in this day and age of endless content that never ceases to fill up your screen with useless nonsense. Get rid of all that crap with slimware.

Microsoft, iTunes, and other applications like NERO burning ROM have been accused of being bloated. They come with all sorts of ridiculous add-ons and downloads that look great, but actually are just there to slow you down.

Here is a tip: if you feel your computer is bloated and is not as fast as you would like? Instead of buying a new expensive Sony laptop, download this free program and see how much money you can save by freeing up space.

If you’re a user of Google’s internet browser Chrome, their arguable answer to Mozilla’s Firefox (offering much of the same functionality and performance that places these two competing browser’s well ahead of Microsoft’s stagnant Internet Explorer), there’s a good chance you also use Gmail.

With Chrome now supporting extensions, a long overdue addition to its impressive features, we have a new extension that augments your Gmail experience. Called Better Gmail for Chrome, this is an unofficial extension that renders your use of the popular email service a bit more manageable.

After its installation, you’re ready to begin taking advantage of it. To access the extension’s features, click on the wrench and select Extensions -> Better Gmail Options. Looking at the list of options, simply click on those you’d like to toggle for activation. An upcoming update that includes support for POP3 Email is said to be on the horizon.

Those of us in the Geek Choice office have no real preference between Chrome and Firefox, finding both to be far preferable to Internet Explorer. If you have a favorite extension to use with either browser, feel free to share it with us!

Better Gmail for Chrome can be retrieved here.

Planning a trip that will see you taking long walks through an as yet unexplored city with winding streets and the confusing noise of bustling pedestrians? Bringing your smartphone along for the trip?

If your answer to the two questions above is “yes,” you might be interested in yet another innovative offering from Google, a nice accompaniment that aids those travelers looking to work those legs during their travels.

Part of Google Lab’s stable of services being tested before an official rollout, City Tours aids travelers in planning their trips, knowing that the uncharted streets of an unfamiliar city are part of the excitement we feel when traveling abroad.

When you input the city you’re visting, City Tours will craft a comprehensive tour for you, mapping out a three day itinerary that includes 10 suggested places to visit each day. Once they’ve offered their suggestion, you can add and remove sites, tailoring the tour to your liking.

Does your husband want to visit a location that famously served as the launching point for a popular band? Add it to the tour.

This great resource includes walking directions, names those locales you might want to visit, estimates the average length of time it’ll take you to go from one point to the next, and is just a generally welcome tool to employ when planning a trip.

Even if you’re not traveling, you might want to become more acquainted with the city in which you reside, making this just as invaluable a resource.

While it’s still being tested in Google Labs, you can use City Tours here.

Google has proven to be a tremendous resource that many people reference for all kinds of information –  from the budding chef looking for the latest recipe, to a research assistant comparing their findings with an already published study.  Offering a myriad number of links, there’s nothing that Google  will not uncover, the extraordinary depth of its offerings the main reason it stands alone atop the peak of search engines.

While performing research, running multiple searches is a common task, one that can become frustrating when transitioning between multiple tabs. Alleviating you of that headache is a site called googlegooglegooglegoogle.com.

As the name of the website suggests, it affords users the opportunity to perform four Google searches simultaneously, splitting the screen into 4 separate Google windows.  Acting independent of each other, each screen serves as its own Google search, even allowing users to visit the links within that screen without impacting the content of the remaining 3 windows.

If you want to visit another website in one of the windows, click the green arrow at the top of that particular screen, where you’ll be prompted to enter the URL that you’d like to visit. This will not impact whatever you’re viewing on the other screens.

At the bottom, there’s a link – called “Menu” — that’ll draw up a list of options. You can restore previously closed google pages, switch to other Google services while maintaining the split screens, and alter the layout of the screens.

This is perfect for those of you performing a lot of research, especially if you’re a student who needs to cull information from a variety of sources.

Try it out here.