Posts Tagged ‘Google’

5 Desktop Applications You Didn’t Know About, But Need

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Open-Source Logo

A lot of the time, when people but a new PC/laptop, they just don’t know what software to install on it. There are a few key bits of software that everyone should have, that tend to make life a lot easier – in fact, many seasoned PC users won’t have even come across these, but I’m going to share some of the best bits and pieces with you today. I’d say that a decent amount of the best desktop applications available today are ‘open source’, meaning that instead of being developed entirely by one self-contained company, the software is open and available for anyone to work on and contribute to. It’s both a cool philosophy, and conducive to the production of very user-friendly and user-orientated software. So here are a few of my favourites:
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Posted in Reviews, Software, Tutorials | 5 Comments »

How Google Buzz Can Be Improved

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Google Buzz

A couple of days ago Google announced their new product – Google Buzz. Seemingly another attempt to conquer social networking (they have had some success with a service called Orkut but only really in India and Brazil.. and no, I’ve never really heard of it either) I thought I’d note down my thoughts on the service, specifically what needs to be improved.

So what is Buzz? The best way to describe it is probably to get you to imagine what the offspring of Facebook and Twitter would look like. Now, once you’re over trying to imagine two websites mating (I tried, it just doesn’t work!) try to imagine the status part of Facebook being much more prominent, like Twitter’s is. There’s no word limit that I’ve noticed, the rest works more like Facebook with the ability to like peoples comments as well as being able to share pictures and videos. You also have the choice to Buzz privately (like Facebook) or publicly (like Twitter).

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Is Changing To Google Chrome A Good Idea?

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Google Chrome Logo

For the past couple of months Google have been heavily marketing their new web browser Google Chrome. I can’t speak for the rest of the world but here in the UK I’ve seen it on the cover of the Metro, on huge billboards around Edinburgh and on posters in my gym… just naming a few. The question, “Is it any good?”.

Yes…

Well I suppose I should actually give you some reasons! I’ve been using Chrome on and off for a long time now, I can’t put a month on it but certainly well before it came out of beta. I’ve also used all other major browsers throughout that period including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari. One of the cons of being a web designer is you spend a lot of time hopping in and out of browsers to check things are working. Not everyone’s heard of Chrome so I thought I was in a good position to weigh up its pros and cons.

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Sync Your Google Contacts, Calendar(s) & Email With Your Mobile

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Use Google Sync for Mail, Calendar & Contacts

Nowadays, most people will have heard the term ‘cloud computing‘ being bandied around like some generic technological buzzword, and won’t give it a second thought. What they don’t realise, is the potential that the concept of ‘cloud computing’ actually has. Today, I’ll be talking about one relatively simple (but important) extrusion of this concept  into our everyday lives, and how we organise them. It’s called Google Sync.

So Google Sync is a very handy service, provided for free by everyone’s favourite world-dominating company, Google. It basically involves a simple, singular, online place to store and interact with your contacts, calendars and email – and then have any combination of these sync with whatever devices you see fit. If you have a Google Account already, great – you can go start using these services right now! If not, you can sign up for one here.

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Posted in Internet, Software, Tech, Tutorials | 3 Comments »