google

Amidst news that Google's Chrome has made remarkable strides in chewing up Microsoft's long-time browser market domination, there's now word that both companies have revealed test versions of their upcoming updates for Chrome and Internet Explorer 9 ... (IE9). Google's new Chrome beta comes with some impressive upgrades, including faster and more stable performance, bookmark synching preferences, and various themes and home page customization options. Users will also find that they can implement browser extensions while still engaged in private browsing mode. Google's HTML5 support also gets a ... (view more)

Microsoft's jubilation over the fact that Windows 7 has surpassed Vista to become the second-most used OS on the planet could be tarnished by the dreadful news concerning their browser, Internet Explorer (IE). According to the most recent figures, ... IE has officially fallen below 60 per cent market share for the first time in its existence. In 2003, Microsoft sat atop the browser market with a whopping 95 per cent market share. The remaining five per cent was impacted by users of other operating system platforms (since Internet Explorer is a Windows-only browser). Seven years later, more than ... (view more)

Google is once again at the center of controversy in Europe over the use of its technology in regard to privacy rights. Recent claims were made by German officials that the tech company is scanning for private wireless networks and recording the ... details through the use of its Street View service. According to Germany's federal data protection commissioner Peter Schaar, Google has been collecting MAC (Media Access Control) addresses of private citizens for some time now. A MAC address refers to a specific network adaptor -- and in this case, individual wireless routers. Schaar said that he was ... (view more)

X-Mouse Button Control This very cool program provides application-specific mouse button mappings, which means one application can use the mouse differently from another. This is useful for games which do not inherently support the extended mouse ... buttons, because you can map keys to each button. http://www.highrez.co.uk/ Google Government Requests Google regularly receives requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from its services, or provide information about users of our services and products. The interactive map shows the number of requests along with ... (view more)

Toshiba says it will be launching its own line of tablet computers to rival the Apple iPad later this year. That follows on from a similar announcement by netbook specialists Asus earlier this month . Toshiba may be working on more than two tablet ... machines, one running Windows 7, the other Google's Android operating system (OS). It says that as well as considering a 10-inch screen model, it's also looking at producing a dual-screen device, though the dual-screen version would run Windows 7 only. (Source: reuters.com ) That sounds similar to Microsoft's Courier project, which involves a ... (view more)

Google has announced it will ask all users to reconfirm their preferred privacy settings on its social networking site 'Buzz'. It follows a controversial launch in which many believed, correctly or otherwise, that their privacy had been compromised. ... Buzz is Google's rival to Facebook and Twitter. It's integrated into Gmail and allows users to follow and reply to posts made by people they decide to follow on the service. The service also allows users to share information from other Google-owned services such as Google Reader (an RSS newsreader) and picture-sharing site Picasa. It was clearly ... (view more)

Taiwan computer manufacturer Asus has announced it will release at least two tablet PCs in the next few months. They'll join a growing list of potential rivals to the much-hyped Apple iPad. Asus is better know for producing netbooks: indeed, it can ... be argued that its Eee PC, released in 2007, helped establish the market for the slimmed-down notebooks designed mainly for Internet browsing and light office tasks. Chairman Jonney Shih told Forbes that Asus is still committed to netbooks, but believes there is a gap in the market between netbooks and smartphones which can be filled by tablet- ... (view more)

Google Play Google Reader Play is a fast way to browse the most interesting stuff on the web, personalized for you. It keeps track of the things you star, like, or share, and shows you more stuff you'll like the next time you use it. ... http://www.google.com Disable Startup Disable Startup is a free startup manager and monitoring program that can scan all Windows Startups on your computer, and monitor all new startup items. It helps you control, manage and optimize Windows Startup configuration. http:/disablestartup.com Today's fresh software picks were provided courtesy of Bob Helmer at Shell ... (view more)

Google has upped the ante in its dispute against China by uncensoring its previously censored search results. Officially, Google has not breached Chinese rules which insist on search results being filtered to remove content officials class as ... objectionable; this includes political information and viewpoints the government wants to suppress. Instead, Google has set its Chinese home page (google.cn) to route directly to Google's search tool via the Hong Kong version of the site (google.com.hk). It looks inevitable that China will simply block access to that site altogether. The government has ... (view more)

Google has been considering pulling out of China for a few months now, saying it is no longer prepared to meet official demands to filter results its in line with Chinese government rules. The dispute heated up around the time Google was the victim ... of a substantial hacking attack , and while no link to the Chinese government has been proven, it's believed in some circles that the attack was an attempt to access the Gmail accounts of political opponents of the ruling Communist party. Officials Forewarn of Google Closure Chinese officials are now said to have contacted several major websites ... (view more)