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Blink, Chrome’s new ‘Rendering Engine’∝

Or should I have put the quotes around “new”? Blink is Google’s fork of Webkit. A lot of people like this as the Webkit market was becoming so overwhelming that it could have let us lapse back into the Internet Explorer 6 days.

But I think the most interesting piece here is that while Opera said they were going to use Webkit, they’re actually going to use Blink. Which is funny, because I assumed the entire point of Webkit and Opera together was so they could get onto iOS without fragmenting their platform.

Chrome’s Design Problems∝

Here’s a sample:

The trouble is, with the tabs on top, the application window’s title bar height is reduced to a bare minimum, making it difficult to click on the app or move it around. Tabs on top also causes the page title to be displayed within the tab (rather than in the title bar), so we can abandon any chance of knowing the entire page title, even for those sites that set this HTML tag to some meaningful value.

And why on earth are the tab close buttons on the right?

Ahren has more comments about Chrome’s design and over all Google product design, and I left my response there too.

Chrome is 4∝

I remember Tuesday, September 9th, 2008.

I was sitting in my cool basement computer class learning a mixture of self taught PHP, JavaScript and class taught Java. I remember sitting there and the news being that Google released a browser. It just happened. Until that day, it was Firefox that reigned supreme. Now, I can’t even Firefox more than a couple minutes a day in the form a backup browser. Chrome welcomed the masses into the new age of browsers: constantly updating, fast and minimal interface distractions.

But it’s funny. Chrome is so prevelant. When Firefox was the browser, most people had no clue. Now people understand browsers to some degree, at least better than they ever did when Firefox was displacing Internet Explorer. Chrome even comes preinstalled on many PC laptops. That’s impressive right there.

So, thanks Chrome, and thanks Google, for making the Internet take a leap.

Chrome 22 Bug∝

There appears to be a bug with Chrome 22 on OSX 10.8.1 where using webkit transitions causes text to look disgusting when the background is faded in and out.

Hopefully, this gets fixed sooner rather than later. It looks horrible.

Update

It is definitely a Chrome bug — the problem is not exhibited in Safari.

Browser Shortcuts Everyone Should Know

My dad and I were in the living room recently and he was using our TV computer.

While using Chrome, he kept mouse over to each little circular x to close each tab. I suggested he try a different shortcut. If you’re using a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can press the scroll wheel to close a tab. Just hover over a tab and click the middle-button and away the tab will go. He liked that since it’s tricky to be precise on the screen with the mouse when you’re ten feet away.

A little later, he accidentally closed a tab he wanted to get back. He was about to retrace his steps through a bunch of links but I suggested a different shortcut. Control + Shift + T will reopen the last tab closed, and continue to go through historically closed tabs too. He really liked that little trick.

Finally, he was typing an email up. Somehow, he got to the word “monotny” but it was underlined so he knew it was wrong (because that’s what Word does when words are wrong). I told him if he right clicks the underlined word in Chrome, it will bring up spelling suggestions from Chrome’s dictionary. I warned him that it’s not same dictionary as the one Google uses to fix keywords when searching. Instead of copy and pasting into a new tab, there was a better way. Like right clicking for built-in word corrections, he could look down the list for ‘Search Google for “monotny”‘. He thought that was pretty helpful too.

In short, my dad learned a lot today while sitting in the living room around the TV computer. That’s pretty good for a rainy day, isn’t it?

Lion Gestures in Chrome 14

I’ve been running the beta channel of Chrome eagerly awaiting any updates for Safari-like features in Lion. I checked today and apparently they are, mostly, here.

I’m running Chrome 14.0.835.35 beta. The full release notes on the Chrome Releases blog mentions Additional Mac OS X Lion feature support.

Two-finger swiping for going back and forward works although without the page-behind animation that Safari offers. I liked that, so you could decide if you wanted to actually go back, or if you wanted a peak and could cancel halfway in.

The other new addition is the fullscreen support in Lion. In the top right corner, there is a fullscreen button just like there is in Safari. Like Safari in fullscreen, the Menubar hides when the mouse isn’t near the top of the screen. However, there is an extra button, it looks more like an up-arrow than the opposed arrow Apple uses for going into fullscreen, that will allow the Address bar and bookmarks bar to automatically hide like it did with previous builds.

The remaining feature that is not yet in Chrome is double tapping to zoom. It might seem out to want that as a feature, but I’ve come to love it as I often used to make the text bigger even on my desktop, but on the laptop, it’s so effortless to make the screen bigger and it’s so easy to read.

At least we’re out of canary!

Update:
After more testing, while double tapping to zoom doesn’t work, using two fingers and dragging away from the center will do something. It’s not pretty. It’ll clumsily make the font bigger, or in reverse of course, it will make it smaller. Sadly, the Safari version of zooming is much better.

Happy browsing.

You might want to watch these Chromium bug tickets that concern scrolling, two and three finger swipes: 78676, 90342 and 90228. There are probably other tickets that are reporting similar problems.

Keyboard Shortcut for Back on Chrome on Ubuntu

For some reason, the standard backspace does not function as a shortcut for going back a page like it does on Windows. While this is a replacement on Ubuntu, it certainly still works on Windows.

Try ALT + left-arrow for back and ALT + right-arrow for forward.

Chrome does not expose this shortcut in any visible way. Yet using left and right for back and forward makes a certain intuitive sense. It’s fast and easy, and it keeps your hands where they need to be – on the keyboard.

Angry Birds for Chrome Review

During Google IO 2011, Google annouced that even their own App Store would have the platform invading Angry Birds game from Rovio. If you hadn’t heard of Angry Birds, you must have been living under a rock. With the deployment of Angry Birds to a bigger platform, Google Chrome, it’s now possible to not only play on your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, a morass of Android handsets, your Mac, your PC, but also now in your browser. In fact, I think my list is missing a few.

I first played Angry Birds about eight months ago in October of 2010 when I bought my first iPod touch 4G. I played more recently when Amazon open their own Appstore with Angry Birds Rio as the free-app-of-the-week for Android. It’s always been a lot of fun, either smashing pigs or release fellow birds. That said, I like the simple improvements they made in the new Chrome version.

Let’s start out with the obvious. It’s huge. I can see everything because it’s not sitting in a 3.5 inch screen anymore – it’s on a 21′ monitor running at 720p. It’s fantastic.

Angry Birds - Chrome!

Zoomed Way Out - Angry Birds on Chrome

One gripe I always had was that the restart control was hidden in a slide out menu instead of being on the mainscreen. That made the price of restarting higher because it took two taps/clicks instead of one. In the new Chrome version, the restart button is now aligned to the left of the game screen and it’s much easier to try something, hate your choice, and quickly restart before someone else looking over your shoulder notices. It’s just that easy.

Controlling the birds angling and firing is a nice change. Using your fingers was a great way to draw people in but the accuracy and precision wasn’t always there. Or maybe I’m just clumsy without my mouse.

Finally, there are some special Chrome-extras. For instance, on various levels, you’ll see a little Chrome-logo floating around or sitting somewhere. Once you hit it, you’ll get your points and it’ll disappear from the level entirely. It’s a one-time bonus. They’re not always easy to get to either.

Three Stars

Finally, I got 3 Stars - Angry Birds on Chrome

I give Angry Birds a 5 of out 5 for the simplest of improvements that just come naturally for being on the big-screen. Great work, Rovio, and of course, Google, for making Chrome excellent. Finally, I offered a shorter review on the Chrome Web Store for Angry Birds. Oddly, there is no way to link to individual review. Here it is.

It’s hard for the same game to get better every time it’s remade and put on a different platform. This edition of Angry Birds actually puts the restart button on the game screen so experimenting is encouraged now. I’ve officially played Angry Birds on more platforms than any other game, ever. It’s really fun and I really hate games.

Install the Latest Google Chrome on Ubuntu

If Firefox is too slow for you now, Google Chrome might be worth it. I’ve used the Ubuntu Software Center since I started using Ubuntu last year to grab Chrome from the official open source channels, but lately it’s been outdated because Google releases Chrome at the speed of light.

Since the USC is slow to update you’ll end having to wait a much longer time to get updates. To fix this, skip the USC altogether and go straight to the source – Google. The Google Chrome website automatically detects the OS you are using so you have to do this on Ubuntu directly. Once there, do not click Download Google Chrome! Instead, look below it for Try the latest BETA version or
Get Google Chrome beta or developer releases which will ensure you always have a cutting edge more than up to date version of Chrome.

On the next page, you’ll see the Early Access Release Channels header. Scroll way down to Subscribing to a channel and then to Linux. Look for Beta Channel. You’ll need to pick either an x32 or an x64 version to download. Once you click the link, it’ll bring you to the beta release page and show you the Google Chrome terms of service. Accept and the download should start.

You’re downloading a .deb file so it is basically an installer. If it doesn’t open automatically upon finishing, just go to your downloads folder and click on it a few times. Once the installer is open, click Install Package and then enter your password if prompted.

Once it’s installed, you should take a look in the Applications menu: Applications > Internet > Google Chrome. You’ll see the new Google Chrome browser right there.
Another thing I’d like to point out is the difference between the icons. Looking at the icons – the bland blue washed icon is the open source Chromium while the colorful icon is the true Google Chrome.

Now you can use Google Chrome and it’ll be always mostly updated!

Finally, I was looking for a reliable way to transfer or import the Chromium profile into the newer Chrome. However, on Linux, it doesn’t appear to be very straight forward so I’ll leave that for another day.

Enjoy Google Chrome on Linux!

Chrome RSS Subscription Button Like Firefox

If you’re like me, you’ve been slowly giving up on Firefox for a while now, but you hate going into your Google Reader and manually adding a feed. Chrome solved this issue, but doesn’t package the functionality by default, even though they seriously should.

To get Chrome extensions, a trip to the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery will be the best place to go. For the RSS Subscription icon, once on the gallery, you’ll need to search for RSS because such a common and useful tool would never be on the front page – or just use this link to get there quickly.

Then, on the page simply hit the big blue install button. You’ll download the extensions then, and then be prompted if you want to really install it. You of course do agree and you now have a brand new RSS subscription icon, just like your favorite Firefox used to.

Happy feeding.

Google Chrome 5 Media Global Variable

Axel posted some great information in the MooTools User google group a while ago, sharing his expierence with Chrome 5. Recently, I ran into this very problem.

The problem was that a global variable defined by chrome itself. It was a global read-only variable, it was special. My plugin could not override it, so my plugin broke. It was the media variable. Chrome sent back this error:

TypeError: Object #<a Media> has no method ‘play’

Google went completely against the mantra of reducing global variables and functions. I seriously hope this doesn’t happen increasingly as more browsers update their feature sets.

Good luck.

Google Chrome 3.0.193.1 has a new layout

This morning I was excited to see a new layout on the Google Chrome start page.

New Layout Chrome v3.0.193.1

New Layout Chrome v3.0.193.1

The new look is cleaner than the previous iteration. You now get to see eight thumbnails instead of nine. Each thumbnail has a slight gray border and hovered over, it darkens and eventually, about 1.5 seconds in to hovering, a little toolbar fades in. The toolbar is designed to be out of the way but it does give users new control over their thumbnails. You can pin a particular thumbnail to a particular position and of course close one outright. The thumbnails can even be moved around!

The Thumbnail Toolbar

The Thumbnail Toolbar

There is also a different option for displaying your most used sites. You can do away with the thumbnails by clicking the icon with three lines in the top right corner. Doing so will cause your thumbnails to fade out, enlarge their title while reordering.

Titles Only

Titles Only

I’m sure this isn’t a final version but I’d say this is very stable and an excellent refresh of the previous layout. Good work Google.

Update

A few minutes after I tweeted about this, you know what Google does? They send me a Google alert about my tweet.

Top 10 List of Programs of 2008

I used so many programs this year. Some were great and some weren’t so fun. It’s been a good year for free programs. I doubt that more than 2 of these programs even came out this year but they’re all great in my book and because of that, I made a Top 10 List of Programs of 2008. (Of course, there is no way I can easily have a reverse ordered list here. So I start with number 1!)

  1. Ultra VNC – UltraVNC is an amazing program that allows me to view and even take control of any Windows PC on my network. I use it daily and because of it, when my parents need help with something, they simply let me take control of their screens and give them step by step on screen help. But it’s more than that. We build a lot of computers in-house so we often need to get a file from the computer on the top floor but hate walking three flights of stairs. UltraVNC is there to help with that.
  2. IdleBackup – This hasn’t saved my life yet; it will someday though and I’ll be glad. IdleBackup backs up your selected files only when you aren’t around. I have it set to check for differences on my my /Ryan folder (on Vista, the user account’s folder) and also my main storage drive every four hours. It will back it up if there are differences. It’s an excellent program. I have some criticisms about it’s design and minor points of functionality, but this year, it’s had me safe.
  3. Launchy – Launchy is similar to what Spotlight is on the Mac. You hit alt+spacebar and up comes a little box you type into and then hit enter. For instance, I type fox and hit enter and firefox opens. It works for files and programs and also has many other commands such as Googling and looking up words in the dictionary/thesaurus. I use it daily at this point and I always like to do it when someone’s watching, it always gets them.
  4. jkDefrag – In Windows Vista, the defragger is a failure. It’s just a loading bar. I like to see my de-fragmenting in action. jkDefrag isn’t fancy for visuals but it’s clearly useful. It’s more than just defragging too. It will move the most used files to the faster part of the disc and the huge zips, rars and tars to the skirts. Isn’t that a clever way to handle data? Sure, it’s probably an insignificant optimization and someone could point out a reason it’s unnecessary or even wrong, but it’s simply neat.
  5. NotePad++ – As a programmer, you have to have a Text Editor. My favorite is NotePad++. It’s never let me down with syntax highlighting but it could use some code hints. Otherwise, it functions as my default replacement for opening txt files. It even is integrated with the Context Menus of files saving me so much time.
  6. Rocket Dock – I only put this on computers with a high resolution. On the computers that have it, everyone loves it. It’s really nice to have a couple of folders docked to it and have it hidden. You gently move the mouse to the side of the screen and out it pops with our recently used folders. It’s skinnable and fast. It uses less than 5MB of memory which is excellent.
  7. InfraRecorder – I was going to do a review about this, but I’ll probably hold that off for a while after this point. InfraRecorder, undetectable from the name, burns discs. I use it to burn ISOs and other disc media. Recently I figured out how to save an entire disc as an ISO for backup purposes. It’s great at that. It’s simply layout is an asset too. Even my parents can use it because the visuals help you rather then confuse you.
  8. Google Chrome – Now, I don’t think it’s fair to list browsers in this list (like Firefox) because they’re indispensable. But Chrome is just great. I’ve used it since it came out back in September when School had just hardly started. I use it when I watch anime (so as to not crash firefox with 19 tabs each with flash). It works and it’s fast. I don’t know if the javascript engine really made that much of difference in my personal browsing, but I’m always happy to get more out of the browsers.
  9. FileZillaFTP Client – I don’t FTP very often but this year I used it to upload my first blog (wordpress 2.6) and later the great WordPress 2.7 release. It’s clean and easy to use for uploading over FTP. I can’t say much about it but it’s worth a download if you use a lot of FTP. I’m not sure how it compares to other software, but it works for me.
  10. 7Zip – Finally, as the not my top-rated program of 2008, but it’s useful nevertheless. Unlike WinRar that either you pay for or you get bothered by, 7Zip lets you unzip rars and even compress files in a superior (but uncompression is slower) compression. I put it on all my computers because the Windows extractor is simply not going to cut it for my needs.

That’s my Top 10 List of Programs of 2008! You’ve probably heard of all of these, but you know they’re good. Do you agree with the list above? Other suggestions for programs? Anything at all, leave a comment.

Note – Gallery

I had orignally included these screenshots next to each list item, but for some reason, WordPress not happy with that and wouldn’t let me. So I include it here as a gallery.

Chrome issue with WordPress Login

Wordpress Login on Chrome

Wordpress Login on Chrome

I use Chrome for blogging when I’m using one of my parent’s laptops so I don’t mess with their firefox sessions. I’ve noticed something odd though when I get to the login page in Chrome.

The log in box (where the two fields, username/password are) has rounded corners. For some odd reason, the rounded corners in Chrome don’t work out right and show blocky-black boxes.

I can’t really describe it better than the picture, but it reminds me of the lack of PNG support in IE6.

Updates

After some poking around the WordPress Trac, I found this ticket, that talks about those black boxes showing up in Chrome. It’s Chrome’s lack of fancy webkit features. The closed the ticket and marked it as wontfix.

Google Chrome Finds Local Server

I run a local server in my house called basement since it’s in the basement and has no monitor, keyboard or mouse. My server runs a custom installation of apache, php and mysql and it has a few virtual hosts setup to boot via different ports.

I’ve been using Chrome on the two laptops in the house because I know that no one will use Chrome when using the laptop so I don’t have to sign out of anything. Chrome is in beta after all and not everything will work properly and some features might not even be implemented yet.

In Chrome, the address bar also serves as history search, google search and whatever else they threw in there. When I want to get to my local server basement, I normally type in basement in the address bar in Firefox. In Chrome though, when I type basement, it goes to a google search for basement.

Chrome Pop Down

Chrome Pop Down

But then something really neat happens. Chrome has a pop-down bar appear asking, “Did you mean to go to http://basement/?”

Go Chrome! (In my opinion, Chrome is still better than regular safari on windows.)