so i guess i have a blog
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008i haven’t posted anything in a long time so it is time for exciting (lame) tech post maybe? i know the ladies love posts about software.
I installed google chrome a few weeks ago an have been using it on and off (mostly off lately)
here are some random thoughts on it so far:
- fast, it loads things faster than Firefox and IE do.
- somewhat buggy - there are some UI elements that don’t work correctly, the dumbest of which (as they are both google products) is some gmail + gtalk stuff, like tabbing between conversations, and the hover window in your contact list.
- No middle click for scrolling is annoying.
- No keyboard shortcut to get to bookmarks is annoying. I’m sure there is one, but i have no way to find out what it is.
- Very little in the way of options. I don’t know how to change default programs for anything (i.e. download videos/mp3s instead of playing them in iTunes)
- random crashes are always fun
- doesn’t seem to follow standards just yet, but it’s still in actual beta (as opposed to “google beta” which is a final product in which they can write off any bugs because it’s still a “beta.” see gmail.)
- no plugin/addon/extension support (yet?)
- no adblock. not a big issue for me, but i know a lot of people hate not having something like that. although it is something of a conflict of interest since google serves lots of ads…
I also got the new iPhone update, 2.1, which fixes a bunch of things that were annoying: -
- a lot less hang-y, especially contacts.
- somewhat less crashy for apps and safari.
- updating Apps keeps their position instead of putting them at the first available empty slot.
- supposedly more accurate signal meter. I still lose signal every once in a while, but it might be better. I don’t really know, it seems mostly the same, but now with more bars!
- battery life is supposedly better, can’t really tell but it might be.
And finally i got a new zune 120gb, and the zune 3.0 software! I really like the new zune software - without a zune pass most of the fixes on the device are minor, but there are some nice things:
- a clock! the zune didn’t have a clock before, now you can turn one on.
- playing podcasts - they added a “Play all” button before, but even if you started playing from a specific episode, it would still play all. Now it is a Play New button, and it works correctly, plus playing a specific episode will only play that one.
- I like the zune pad a lot. sometimes i hit up or down instead of clicking it, but i still think it’s really good.
- Marketplace over wifi from the device is really cool. If i had zune pass it would be even better, but even without it, it’s very good.
- there’s a bug where the zune will look like it’s not playing - the time progress bar doesn’t advance - but it continues to play. I’ve only hit this once, but it was weird, and didn’t go away until i powered off the device by hitting Back + Down for a few seconds.
The software is also much improved, more than the device was.
- more options in the UI, without being more cluttered
- mixview is really nice to see related artists, songs, albums, and influencers/influencees, and friends or users who listen to the same artist.
- artist info is more complete now, they even show tour dates if available.
- marketplace added some nice stuff - picks are suggestions based on yours and your friends’ music, and for zune pass subscribers there are channels which are automatically updating playlists.
- social added more complete info on yourself and your friends, plus it loads way faster, and you get mixview for users as well, although for some reason it shows my brother on my mixview, and he has to my knowledge never used zune software or hardware in his life.
- other stuff but i am going to bed now :)