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We are not yet out of Microsoft’s PDC’09 hangover and there are some exciting news coming by from GooglePlex, Silicon Valley. Google organized a tech press meet to reveal the first impressions of Google Chrome OS that’s scheduled to arrive later next year. However, looking at the swiftness in the development, it’s more likely that Google is all set to surprise us.

Sticking to its early remarks on Chrome OS, Google declared that the three major things that they want to incorporate are speed, simplicity and security. Taking the side of cloud computing, Google Chrome OS is expected to be just a browser that’s easy to use with zero maintenance as it’s all about Web applications.

The following screenshots are courtesy Sam Diaz of ZDNet (modified to get along with the description) who was at the Googleplex when the demonstrations were going on. From the screenshots, Chrome OS looks just like Chrome browser but hey, this is just a first glimpse of the foetus. It’s definitely more likely that the UI does a make over.

It shows tabs of the ‘browser’ where you can find the apps. The most stressed feature being speed, the extremely lightweight ‘panels’ will replace what we commonly refer to as ‘windows’. And so, there is ‘panel’ for everything – notepad, music player, etc. Next up, is the Chrome button, that serves the task of ‘start menu’ where all the apps dwell.

Apparently, one can customize it according to their own preferences like opening multiple windows, stack up favorite tabs, etc.

The Engineering Director Matt Papakipos seems very keen on the speed factor when he revealed that all devices were based on solid state storage and the out-of-RAM boot being the reason for a hyper quick boot. You can check out the extended article here.

What is Google Chrome OS?

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Google is known for continuously optimising the already simple services from time to time. First it was the image search, then the web search, now comes Google Translate. Google recently introduced some really useful features to Google Translate like real-time translation of the entered text into 51 languages that represent over 98% of internet users and the ability to play the sound-clip of the translation. The features of the revamped Google Translate can better be explained using a 3 pointer.

Real time translation: You can now translate between 2550 language pairs instantly as you type. No need to click the ‘Translate’ button. This really helps forming a sentence in other languages rather quickly. Moreover, it’s like a boon to the learners as it helps you understand the exact translation of every word as you type them.

Text-to-Speech feature: The new text to speech feature helps you pronounce the translated text. However, this feature currently works for English language only. Just click the ‘speaker icon’ to listen to the translation.

Romanization feature: Problem arises when you want to read text that’s written in a script you don’t know. For example, how do you read something that’s written in a Devnagri or Han script when you know only Roman script? That’s where ‘Romanization’ feature comes in. For all non-Roman languages (except Arabic, Hebrew and Persian), you can read the phonetically translated text in English.

Dictionary: Google Translate also offers a detailed dictionary too to assist you further.

Here’s a quick demo from Google Blog showing the new features of Google Translate:

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There are many services out there on the web which are just ‘a violet by a mossy stone’. Hidden from the world, yet very useful. Google Pack is one such service where you can download software in, well you guessed it, packs. Though currently in beta, things are pretty neat.

What’s Google Pack?

It is a bunch of very useful software (especially for Windows 7 users) that includes a salad mixture of utilities like – Google Chrome browser, Firefox, Google Earth, Spyware Doctor, Picasa, Skype, Adobe Reader, Google Desktop, Google Talk, Google Apps like Calendar, Docs etc and Real Player – All packed in one suite called Google Pack.

So if you are too lazy to download all these utilities one by one, here is a blessing for you. Just head over to pack.google.com and select the programs you wish to download and click ‘Download now’.

Features of Google Pack:

As Google states it: Google pack is a bunch of free and ready-to-use software selected by Google. Adding to that, it saves time to download software from a one stop shop. Almost all software provided in the Google Pack are must-have for a Windows 7 user.

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I haven’t used offline mail clients to an extent that I could actually write a post about them. I never felt the need to have one because I am always connected to the internet and Gmail does the best job for me. Such was a scenario until yesterday when I had to use Outlook. While using it I felt the need to sync my Gmail contacts with Outlook and one of my friend suggested a really helpful piece of software that does this precise job – Go Contact Sync.

Go Contact Sync is a perfect synchronization tool to manage contacts between Gmail and Outlook. It’s a free, open-source tool that supports contact categories and their photos so that your address-book (contacts) look exactly the same on both. Finally I can get rid of entering the contact details again and again.

Features:

» Smooth synching of contacts between Gmail and Outlook.

» Multiple sync options, categories and contact photos are supported.

» Automatic synchronization feature.

» Choose one-way or two-way sync according to your preference.

You can also use Go Contact Sync to backup your contacts too.

Download Go Contact Sync / 1.1MB

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Have you ever subscribed to a mailing list or commented on a website/blog and check-marked ‘Notify me of follow up comments’ and are now fed up with the thread that always shows up as ‘Unread’? It becomes more irritating when you find the updated conversation has nothing to do with you. But you still want to continue subscribing it because you hope something might just interest you in future. If you are using Gmail, there are two ways to spare yourself the annoyance.

Method #1 – Using ‘mute’ feature

If you find a mailing list conversation irrelevant, you just need to ‘mute’ it and all the future conversations will stay out of your inbox. To mute a conversation, simply select it and click ‘More actions’ > ‘Mute’.

However, muted conversations are simply ‘off’ your inbox and not ‘Read’ mails. They will remain as ‘Unread’ mails and you can search for muted conversations by typing 'is:muted' in the search box.

To unmute the conversation, select the muted conversation and click ‘Move to inbox’.

Method #2 – Using Filters

You can manage such friendly spam with ‘Filters’ too. This will require you to have a bit of common sense.

1) First, select the conversation and click ‘More actions’ > ‘Filter messages like these’.

2) The ‘Filter options’ panel will be displayed on top. By default, the email address of the sender is already entered in the ‘From’ field. You can tweak the filter by using a ‘unique’ word from the subject line of the conversation and entering it into the ‘Subject’ field. Click ‘Next step»’ button.

3) Now, checkmark ‘Mark as read’ and ‘Also apply filter to xx conversations below’ options and click ‘Create filter’.

Once you make a filter, all the future additions to the conversations won’t light up as ‘Unread’ mail. It will still remain in your inbox but will less annoy you.

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Google Docs, an online word processor, spreadsheets, presentations and forms creator just keeps getting better. The guys at Google Docs are frequently putting in new features may be because a similar service called Office Web Apps have been initiated by Microsoft.

Google Docs have added a new feature using which you can export your documents into a ZIP archive and download it on your computer for offline use. Till now, a 3rd party utility called GDoc Backup was used for the purpose. But now with the introduction of the ‘Export as ZIP Archive’ feature, you won’t be needing any 3rd party applications.

Here’s how you do it:

1) Login to Google Docs and select all files you want to download as ZIP archive.

2) In the menu above, click ‘More actions’ > ‘Export’

3) A new frame window will appear. If you notice it properly, there are options for file conversion before downloading. If you don’t want to convert files then simply click ‘Continue’.

4) After it finishes making the ZIP archive, you will be able to download it on your computer.

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Google Chrome has paved its way to become one of the finest browsers due to its remarkably sleek and light interface. But as with all applications, Google Chrome is prone to crashes and unexpected shutdowns. Chances are, you may not only loose your current session but also the bookmarks, profile settings and history. To avoid such implications, there is a small application called Google Chrome Backup which easily backs up your profile settings and can be summoned in case of a crash. Google Chrome Backup lets you create, manage and restore Google Chrome profiles which holds data like bookmarks and history. This application also supports Chromium.

Screenshots: parhelia-tools.com

The GUI is very intuitive to use. Just a few clicks and you are all sorted. Although this software is free to use, you can avail features like ‘Bookmarks Manager’ if you register.

Download Google Chrome Backup

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