chrome Beta 3.0

Google Chrome Beta 3.0 Updates

There's a brand new Beta for Google Chrome which comes with the following updates:

1.) The Beta release shows 30% improvement over the current stable channel release

2.) Improvements in the most loved and most used features of Google Chrome:
New Tab page

Omnibox

3.) Added style with colors, patterns and images

4.) HTML 5 capabilities

We shall see an overview of the above features in the following section.

Customize the new Tab page:

We can rearrange the most visited website thumbnails on the New Tab page by clicking and dragging the thumbnails. These website thumbnails can be pinned to a particular spot so that they don't disappear even if our browsing habits change. The notable feature is that you can hide parts of the page if you don't want to see them using the layout buttons on the top right of the New Tab page.

It is the most important part of Google Chrome that helps us to get to the websites we are looking for with few simple keystrokes. The presentation of the drop-down menu has been optimized and little icons are added to distinguish between suggested sites, searches, bookmarks and sites from our browsing history.

The address bar doubles as a search box, when you type the search term in the box and press Enter to see the results in the default search engine. The address bar can also be used to search sites that we have previously visited. You have to press the Tab key on your keyboard to convert the address bar in to a search box.
Then type the search term and press enter to see immediately the search results on the page.

Tweak the Chrome of Google Chrome
You can also change the theme of the browser by visiting the Themes Gallery.

Experience HTML 5 capabilities:
HTML 5 capabilities including video tag and web workers are being built into the beta release.
Speed, Speed and more Speed:
Google Chrome has become more faster with prioritizing the requests for the new page including fetching text, images, and video content. The request for the new page is prioritized ahead of the older pages.

Dealing with Drop Down Menus

Don't you get tired of scrolling through long drop down box lists?
Let's say you're filling out an online registration form that asks for your country. If you live in Australia, you're all set since your country is towards the top. But what if you live here in the US? In some cases we have to scroll through tons of countries (many of which we've never heard of) to get to the entry for "United States."

Well, here's a quicker way. When you get to the box, click the first letter of the item you're hunting for. You'll find that items beginning with that letter start popping up in the drop box. So, when you get to the box, just hit the letter "U" until "United States" comes up. This works with states too! Type "O" and Ohio pops right up!

Control That Cursor

In today’s world, most of us are using a Microsoft Windows operating system. When compared to the other operating systems that are currently available, it seems like the best choice. Similarly, the usage of the mouse is more in Windows than in any other operating system.

If your mouse happens to stop working for a day or two, you would have a really tough time trying to get your work done on your computer. You would have to spend most of your time working with your keyboard, trying to recollect all the shortcut keys and the combination keys to use and all of this would have to be done from your memory. How about something a bit better? Instead, if we have the option of moving and clicking the pointer (cursor) by using the keyboard, wouldn't that be so much easier? Yes, I do believe so!

Windows does have a facility to use on a keyboard that allows you to move the pointer in the absence of a mouse. Interested? Well, then let's see how we can enable this feature and use it.

To enable this feature:

1.) Go to Control Panel.

2.) Select Accessibility option.

3.) From the dialogue box, click on the Mouse tab.

4.) Tick the checkbox of Use Mouse Key.

5.) Click OK to close the Accessibility Options window.

Note: You can also press Left Alt key + Left Shift Key + Num Lock together to open the MouseKeys dialogue box. Then press Enter to keep MouseKeys ON. Press Cancel to keep MouseKeys OFF.
We can also see a small mouse icon on the task bar (when the MouseKeys option is enabled)

Also, make sure your Num Lock key is ON. We can use the numeric pad (the number pad on the right hand side of your keyboard) as MouseKeys, but only if the Num Lock is ON.

So, now you may be wondering which keys you can use to actually move the mouse pointer, right?

Okay, well, we have enabled the MouseKeys feature and have also made sure that the Num Lock is ON. So, now on the numeric keypad, you are going to use the keys:

2, 4, 6 and 8 to move the cursor on the screen toward Down, Left, Right and Up.

To left click (single), press 5.

To right click (single), press – (minus).

To double click (left), press + (plus).

To increase the speed of the pointer movement, double click the mouse icon on the taskbar and select the Settings button from the dialogue box. Now you can increase the speed of the pointer by selecting the Pointer Speed option.

Also, Click to check the box that says, "Hold down Ctrl to speed up and Shift to slow down." Now, if you press the Ctrl key while holding the arrow key, the pointer speed will increase and if you hold the Shift key while holding the arrow key, the pointer speed will decrease.

Note: If you want to use the numbers from the numeric keypad while using the MouseKeys, select the OFF radio button from Use MouseKeys when Num Lock is the option. If you select ON again, the numeric keypad will be used as MouseKeys.
So, from now on, even if your mouse goes bad, you still have options to move the cursor!

Place Spotting
Place Spotting is a super fun map identification quiz. You’re shown an aerial/satellite photograph of a location then you have to use the map below to find where the location is in the world.

To the right of the image you’re hunting for you’ll see a list of clues to help you narrow your search down.

On the map below you can use your mouse to drag the map around, and then use the zoom in buttons in the top left to zoom in on the location. The location has to match the image exactly down to the latitude and longitude coordinates.

When you have a match the Not Solved box to the right of the map turns green and tells you what number your solution was.

This is hard! I love the challenge, but to make it easier I recommend you open up a translator some of the clues are in German, and it never hurts to Wikipedia clues to help you get in the right location.
Good luck and enjoy! I’m off to solve more maps!
http://www.placespotting.com/

Firefox Session Restore

Have you ever heard of the Session Restore feature in Firefox? If you're an avid user of Mozilla's browsing beauty, it's likely you're already using this feature, but just in case you don't know what it is, I'm here today to fill you in!

The Session Restore feature basically restores a browsing session for you if Firefox happens to crash or your computer shuts down unexpectedly. For example, you're working along in Firefox and you have close to 10 tabs open at once. Then all the sudden, it starts storming outside and your power goes out. When everything settles down and you turn your computer back on, you can open Firefox again and it will ask you if you want to restore your previous session or not. You can then either go back to what you were doing or start a brand new session. How cool is that?!

To set up the Session Restore feature for your Firefox browser, simply go to Tools, Options and under the Main tab, look for the first section that says "When Firefox starts." Use the drop down menu and select "Show my windows and tabs from last time." Click OK and you'll be all set. You never have to worry about losing one of your browsing sessions again

What is Bluetooth?
It's a short-range wireless technology that simplifies communication between internet devices like mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and computers. Bluetooth's has a range of about 30 feet and allows you to do away with messy cables.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a cabal of over 3000 manufacturers, oversees the standards and security of the technology. It gets its unusual name in honor of Harald Bluetooth, king of Denmark in the mid-tenth century for no other reason than to recognize the contribution of Baltic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland) to the communications industry.

If you look around you'll find a ton of devices that use Bluetooth. Everything from wireless printers, wireless keyboards, even home appliances (I still don't know why my computer and washing machine need to communicate).

Bluetooth enabled mobile phones have recently been under attack by hackers who gain access to information being stored on the phone. This is often called bluesnarfing or bluebugging. In order to carry out a bluejacking, the sending and receiving devices must be within 10 meters of one another. If you use enabled devices, the Official Bluetooth website has a Q and A page explaining how to protect yourself—it's worth reading...
Check it out here.

Program Arrangements

who want to change the order of the programs in their Programs menu (Start button, Programs). You'll be glad to know it's easy as drag and drop

Here's how:
1. Click the Start button, Programs.
2. Once you're in the programs menu, click and hold the icon next to the item you would like to move.
3. While holding the mouse button down, move the item up or down the menu. You'll see a black line showing where you can drop the item as you move it.

Do the program shuffle!



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