Google eBookstore Online
Google’s eBookstore has opened their virtual doors with the goal of capturing some market share away from other eBookstore’s including Amazon for the Kindle, Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Kobo from Borders with over 3 million titles from some 4,000 publishers.
Google provides a web reader but the iOS and Android apps have been released as well allowing synchronization of your bookmarks and library.
What I like about the Google library is that you can download the book as either an ePub or PDF format. ePub is the open source ebook format. With these formats you can view and print on just about any device not to mention “loaning” books to friends.
Web Browsers Benchmarked
Ars Technica performed a battery of tests with modern browsers. All tests were run on the latest stable and the recent nightly build of each browser.
The tests included SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark to measure JavaScript performance, V8 Benchmark Suite which is developed by Google, Nontroppo General Browser Load-Time Test and the Peacekeeper: The Browser Benchmark.
What’s the verdict? Chrome one again performs best with Opera in second. Safari barely beat Firefox for the number three spot and Internet Explorer continues to bring up the rear. In Ars Technica conclusion:
Chrome: it’s fast!
Chrome is the obvious winner in these tests. It has a such a significant lead that we doubt it’s going to be bumped out of the top spot anytime soon, especially if we take into consideration that the team wants to release a major version every six weeks. Still, competition in the browser market is only getting fiercer, so Chrome’s king-of-the-hill status may not last forever.
Are Google and Verizon still getting together to speed Google’s traffic to Verizon customers?
After last week’s New York Times story about Google and Verizon getting into bed to (presumably) discuss flaunting the net neutrality convention, Google was quick to respond that they were doing no such thing. Verizon and Google then quickly followed that up with a press conference today to further repudiate the claim and have also published a joint policy proposal backing an ‘open Internet’. This proposal even includes enforceable prohibition of traffic favoritism.
Now, what they’re saying quietly is that wireless and wired will get separate treatment. In a related op-ed piece, Robert Cringely thinks that while Google and Verizon may be publicly backing net neutrality, they may still be getting together to help each other out, possibly with data centers in shipping containers plopped right down next to Verizon data centers and major Internet access points. Sounds crazy, but isn’t.
Who to believe? Time will tell. Us little end-consumer folks can only hope it works out well for us.
Google now offers simultaneous multiple account sign-in
Another one of those ‘at last’ features: Google now has a multiple account sign-in feature, so you don’t need to use a different browser or logout-and-login in order to check a different Google account.
For now, this feature only works with a select few G-services, but they include Gmail, Calendar, Reader & Voice.
To use, just head over to your Google Account settings and edit the Multiple Sign-In option.
Be careful though with this feature – it’s not exactly trivial, so you’ll want to read the help on it. By the way, if you’d rather not use this, there’s a neat Greasemonkey Script called Google Account Multi-Login that works similarly.
Gmail now lets you drag attachments out of e-mails
And now the reverse is true. The reverse of dragging a file to attach to a Gmail message is… dragging an attachment out of a Gmail email to save to your desktop.
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Gmail now lets you drag attachments out of e-mailsRead More »
Microsoft shows off Street Slide, trumps Google’s Street View
I don’t know about you, but I use Google’s Street View option in Google Maps all the time. It is just one of those completely ‘wow’ products that is also totally practical.
Well guess who’s knocking on the ‘wow’ door of street level imaging? Microsoft. They just showed off their new Street Slide (hmm… nice similar name) at a technical conference and produced a video showing it off.
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Microsoft shows off Street Slide, trumps Google’s Street ViewRead More »
Google signs a 20-year contract to buy wind power
I know that in the past few years, Google has received a lot of grief for seemingly acting contrary to their “Don’t Be Evil” motto, but you have to give credit to them when they do something that is genuinely positive, even altruistic.
Take for example, their goal to become carbon neutral and the ensuing action of agreeing to purchase power from a wind farm for the next 20 years. Of course, what this means is that this NextEra wind farm (in Ohio) will be reasonably funded for the next 20 years. If for no other reason, here’s hoping that Google is a going entity for the next 2 decades.
Apple tried to buy Palm
It turns out that even Apple and Google tried to buy Palm, despite the wails and moans about the bleak outlook of the company, even with its new webOS and phones.
I still think this was a good buy for HP. They’ll be able to take and use webOS in more ways than the other possible suitors. Google probably would not have used webOS (they have Android), or at most sucked in the best parts to Android. They also probably don’t want to be in the phone hardware business.
As for Apple, the ‘patent theory’ seems right, especially with NTP now going after the rest of the big phone makers, after taking a nice bite out of RIM.
I’m sure too that HP was looking for a upgrade of sorts for their iPAQs (remember those?). But as with all such things, time will tell if this works out for HP.
App Inventor for Android lets you build apps without programming
Here is where a little Google magic may make Apple’s iPhone/iPad division worry a bit, if not a lot. Google Labs is rolling out a new tool called App Inventor, which is an Android app development tool that does not require any coding.
Let me say that again – you can build applicaitons for your Android phone without knowing how to program. If you can drag and drop, you can ‘program’ apps!
App Inventor is invite-only right now, but you can watch the demo video here as well as see some of the other sample apps on the site.