The Dastardly Report

How to: YouTube 3D

2010-03-08T07:49:00.001-05:00

Making a 3D home video, like the ones I recently made, isn't as hard as you might think. YouTube's excellent 3D processing system does all the heavy lifting, meaning all you have to do is simple editing.

Humans have two eyes, which is what allows us to see 3D in real life. Our eyes are 2-3 inches apart and both facing the same direction. So filming in 3D requires using two cameras with the lenses 2-3 inches apart recording simultaneously. Then, one of the various 3D technologies is used to separate the resulting video and show each of your eyes a different image.

The simplest of these is the age-old red/blue pair of glasses. One eye only sees the red image, and one eye only sees blue, producing the 3D effect. For big budget movies in the theater, a more advanced type of 3D is used called circular polarized. This produces a full color 3D effect, but requires a special screen and a very expensive projector.
Anyway, to make your own 3D home video, all you need is a pair of cameras, and basic video editing skills. First, find a way to mount your two cameras so they stay perfectly in line and level with each other. This article details how to build a cheap mount for two cameras. I built one using two 60¢ wooden yardsticks from Home Depot.

Once you have your cameras mounted together, simply start recording with both cameras, and have fun recording your video. After you're finished recording, import the video into your editing software as always, being sure to label which video came from the right and left cameras.

Now for the tricky part. First, you have to sync the two videos so they're playing perfectly together. Then, combine the two video sources into a single frame, distorting them sideways to do so. The video from the right camera goes on the left, and the video from the left camera goes on the right:

(Taken from YouTube's 3D help page)

So what you end up with is a a single frame with two vertically squished videos on either side. It will look pretty strange in your video editor, but the final product should look like this:

(additionally, if you cross your eyes a little, the image above will appear 3D)

Then you simply upload your video to YouTube as normal, and add yt3d:enable=true to the tags. Make sure you put that in the tags, not the title. (Also, if you mix up your left and right videos, you can add the tag yt3d:swap=true and it will swap your right and left videos for you. The enable tag tells YouTube that your content is 3D ready and it does all the work of combining the videos and giving you the drop down for selecting which type of 3D glasses you have, etc.

And that's all there is to it! The hardest part is building a mount for your two cameras. Once you have that, it's basic editing and uploading, just with a few extra steps. If you have access to two identical (or at least similar) cameras, I highly recommend giving it a try. It's a really simple way to create a very impressive effect. I've only made two 3D videos so far, but more are in the works, so keep checking my 3D playlist for a list of the videos I've made.

3D is definitely here to stay and I fully intend to continue perfecting my technique. If anyone wants more help or advice on making 3D videos for YouTube, feel free to ask, I'd be happy to help.

Filming in 3D!

2010-02-26T17:23:00.002-05:00

I've been dabbling in 3D video production recently. I got the original idea from this post on Engadget, and decided to try it. I used the two cameras I already had, and after a quick trip to Home Depot, built a custom bracket using wooden yardsticks and some bolts. Total cost: $3. The basic idea of 3D filming isn't complicated at all. We see 3D in real life because we have two eyes, which are 2-3 inches apart, letting each eye see an ever-so-slightly different view of the world. Our brains overlap these two images and that slight difference lets us perceive distance.

So to shoot a video in 3D, all you need are two cameras with the lenses 2-3 inches apart, recording at the same time. The cameras should both be bolted down so they are always pointing at the same thing. Once you have your video footage from both cameras, all you have to do is overlap the two camera angles. There are lots of video editing programs that can handle this type of editing, but the easiest way to do it is by using YouTube.

Look for a more detailed how-to post later. I'll go over exactly how to shoot, edit, and upload a 3D video using YouTube. For now, grab your 3D glasses (either red/cyan, amber/blue, or magenta/green) and check out the two 3D videos I've already made: Amber Crawling in 3D and A 3D visit to the park. I highly recommend watching fullscreen for the best effect. :-)

Tech nostalgia, part 3: Looking ahead

2010-02-26T15:39:00.000-05:00

(photo by Powerhouse Museum)

One of the things that's abundantly clear when looking back at the history of tech, is that things progress incredibly quickly. A mere 10 years ago, The Palm III was the new device to have, and today we laugh it off as an ancient relic. So what might the tech world look like in another 10 years when Amber is old enough to be a part of it? I don't want to speculate on what specific phones, devices, or hardware might be like because that's fairly impossible. Instead, I'll briefly look at three very general aspects of what daily life might look like.

Bandwidth
Much the same way that data storage prices have gone down so much recently, I think it's likely that the notion of measuring bandwidth will be a foreign concept in 10 years. Amber's generation probably won't even think about terms like "buffering," or "downloading" since bandwidth will be so abundant and so fast that we'll stop caring about it.

Language
The automated translation from one language to another has made unbelievable improvements over the last decade. And it's only getting better. Companies like Google have said that within a few years we'll see automated voice-to-voice translation, meaning you speak in English, for example, and the person on the other end hears Spanish. By the time Amber is in highschool, spending huge amounts of time learning a foreign language may be a thing of the past.

Energy
With the recent Bloom Energy announcement and other related energy advances, it's clear that alternate forms of energy are on everyone's mind. Home solar systems are dropping in price and even average consumers are looking into ways to reduce their energy bills. Additionally, as our portable devices get smaller and more powerful, we're going to need newer battery tech to make them work. So while I obviously don't know what exactly is in store, I think it's safe to say that energy is a subject that is only going to get more popular in the coming years. It's exciting to think about what might be powering our home when Amber is 10, or what kind of battery might be in her first cellphone.

Conclusion
There are, of course, lots of other topics I could discuss, but these three are the ones that I find most interesting. It's somewhat shocking to consider how far these three areas alone have come in the last 10 years. The next 10 promise to be even more exciting.

Tech nostalgia, part 2: Mobile gadgets

2010-02-21T09:47:00.013-05:00

Mobile devices and portable computing have always been a favorite of mine. My first laptop was a 486 100MHz Windows 95 machine with a screen that had to be propped on something since the hinges were broken. My first PDA was the previously mentioned Casio PV-400.

I've carried a PDA or smartphone for almost as long as I can remember, and the devices themselves have evolved considerably over the years, and since this is my favorite area of the tech market, I want to take a look back at the varioius devices I've had and what was good and bad about each of them.

Casio PV-400
This was my first mobile device. My virgin experience, and the one that got me hooked for life. There wasn't much to like about this little guy, and yet I loved it. It had a measly 4MB of memory and did only the most basic tasks like calendar, contacts, note taking, expense tracking, etc. But it did sync with Outlook and it was small enough to carry around. The green backlight and monochrome display were the norm for even more expensive devices at the time. It had no wireless access at all, and took normal AAA batteries. To this day, I'm not sure what I liked so much about it, but I still remember it fondly.

Palm IIIe
A solid upgrade from the Casio, the IIIe was my first real PDA. It had the same syncing with Outlook (Hotsync, baby), but added email, the killer feature. You could compose a message on the device and when you snapped it into the cradle, it would send. At the time, that was seriously amazing. This was also my introduction to Palm's Graffiti text entry system...a method that I think still has some advantages over the virtual touch keyboards of today.

Oh, and don't forget beaming. Palms were famous for their ability to "beam" information from one Palm to another using infrared. Anyone remember standing and lining your Palm up with someone else's so you could beam a phone number or calendar entry? Those were the days.

Palm m505
I can honestly say that I still miss my m505 every so often. It was one of the thinnest, coolest devices I've owned. It had a hard, leather cover, so no case was needed, it had a color screen (crazy awesome at the time), and it was made of metal. It also had an SD card slot, which was pretty incredible considering how thin it was. Not much else was different from the IIIe, but I loved it and recommended it to several people. Honestly, just looking at that picture makes me want to buy another one.

HP iPAQ 3630
This was when I abandoned the Palm platform. I had been a die-hard Palm fan up until this point, vocally dissing Pocket PCs. But the opportunity came up to buy one at a really good price, so I took the plunge...and never looked back. This device was incredibly powerful (for the time) and I loved it. After that, I was hooked on Pocket PCs and owned quite a few more.

HP iPAQ 2210
This little guy was pretty incredible. It had Bluetooth, an SD card slot, and a CompactFlash card slot, all in a nicely thin frame with rubber grips on the side. I used this little guy for everything and even had the foldable keyboard that I carried around with me. Awesome for doing short bits of writing in the car or between college classes. By far one of my favorites as far as physical design goes.

Dell Axim X5
The X5 was noticibly larger than the 2210, but its features made up for it. To start, it had a 400MHz processor. Not impressive by today's standards, but at the time, it was one of the fastest on the market. The thing was fast, too. Never lagging no matter what I asked it to do. And it was built like a tank, incredibly solid with rubber grips. I got the aluminum carrying case for it, which made it all but indestructible. I owned this one for a while and it served me quite well. But ultimately I wanted something more connected. A real smartphone.

AnexTEK sp230
This was the first integrated device I ever owned. A Pocket PC Phone Edition device. All the features of the previous Pocket PCs, but with the added awesomeness of phone and Internet services. It had a fairly funky physical design, but it was pretty incredible from a functionality standpoint. It lacked Bluetooth, but I never used a headset anyway, so I didn't miss that. That flip-up dialer was removable, and I eventually did remove it...just too cumbersome. But this was the device that got me forever hooked on smartphones. The always-on Internet, instant email, it was just too good to give up.

imate
Let me just say this up front: I still miss my imate. It was without a doubt one of the best devices I've ever owned. Which is a good thing, considering I spent over $600 for it. It was thin, had a camera (my first smartphone with a camera), and was just one of the most attractive devices I've seen, even today. This was also back in the day when T-Mobile's free Internet trick still worked (wap.voicestream.com anyone?) I had the imate for quite a while and it served me very well. It was the first device that let me take pictures and then email them to friends and family immediately. They all, of course, thought that was just incredible. :-)

Blackberry Pearl
I went through a very dark time between owning the imate and getting the Pearl. Money was very tight and I had to sell my imate to make ends meet. I had two dumbphones in the meantime that were akin to torture. Luckily, that didn't last very long. The Pearl was and still is an amazing piece of hardware. Incredibly small, push email (a new feature for me), and a physical keyboard. Having the keyboard really won me over and revolutionized my ability to write long emails. You can read my review of the Pearl here.

T-Mobile G1
And now we've come back to the present. The G1 is a dated device now (read my review here), but it's still orders of magnitude more powerful than the older devices on this list. The iPhone and Android truly showed us what smartphones can be. With all the other devices on this list, the functionality doesn't change much as the device ages. But with modern smartphones, we've gotten used to new apps completely changing the device and making it more useful by the day. Add browsing at 3G (soon 4G) speeds, and it's clear how much modern smartphones have over their ancestors. And, to think, the Palm IIIe on my list was released in 1999. Barely over 10 years and look how far we've come. I got my first PDA when I was around 12...what kind of device will Amber be carrying when she's 10 or 12?

So, that's a short look back at the various devices I've owned over the years. My friends all thought I was crazy for upgrading and switching devices so often. The Pearl and the G1 are the two devices I owned the longest, because I was tied into 2-year contracts with both of them. Mobile tech has long been my favorite segment of the gadget market, and when my G1 contract is up, you can bet I'll be standing in line to buy something new. :-)

Tech nostalgia, part 1: Looking back

2010-02-19T08:37:00.001-05:00

photo by MingPo

Earlier this week, I let Amber play with the laptop for a little while. She loved it and was so excited to bang on the keyboard and watching her got me thinking...what will the tech landscape look like when she's old enough to notice? I wrote a short story when I was 12 using Creative Writer and Windows 95. That was only 15 years ago. By the time Amber is 10, what will the tech world look like?

Some of the things that I remember thinking were so amazing seem ancient now. Let's take a look at some of my nostalgic tech memories. In Part 3, I'll make a few observations about what the world might be like in 10 years.

Always On
I have always been a mobile device fan. I got my first PDA, a Casio PV-400, when I was 12 or 13. Since then, I've had a laundry list of devices, culminating in the G1 I have now. With my old devices, like Palms and Pocket PCs, the defining factor was the sync. I'd get home, snap it into the cradle, and the magic would happen. I remember being so excited about the idea of synced emails. I could write an email on the device, and then when I got home and hit the cradle, it would sync and send. In today's world, that's unheard of and the concept of email being anything but immediate is laughable.

Applications in the Cloud
Way back when, I remember reading an article that said we'd have online applications in the future. The author said that, someday, we'd no longer visit a store to buy boxes and discs, but instead we'd visit a website for our application needs. I vividly remember thinking, "yeah right, like that'll ever happen." But today, that's becoming the norm. Aside from specialty applications like photo and video editing, all my work is done online.

Unlimited Storage
While hard drives certainly haven't become free, the notion of constantly monitoring your available storage has all but vanished. I remember it, though. Always needing to delete things to free up space, not being able to save large files, etc. Even email had very limited storage when I first started using it.

Home Phone
I honestly wonder what Amber will think when she first experiences a phone that's tethered to the wall. Or a phone that's shared by more than one person. Phone numbers are quickly becoming individual identifiers with a number following a person, not a location. Then there's the extra features that have become the norm, like caller ID. I even remember answering machines with those annoying little tapes inside.

Instant Preview
I vividly remember the days of analog pictures and video. Having to wait for pictures to be developed, not knowing if the shot looked good right away, etc. And with home video, you had to deal with tapes...rewinding, scrubbing, etc. Less than ideal. Today, though, it's all immediate. Even very young children know this. Next time you're at a party with 2 or 3 year olds, notice what happens when you take their picture. They immediately say, "let me see it!" The notion of not being able to see the picture immediately doesn't even enter their minds.

Conclusion
So that's a quick sampling of the various technology advances that have occurred in my lifetime. When I look back at what the tech world was like 10 years ago, I'm consistently surprised by how far things have come. A lot of what we have today wasn't even on the radar 10 years ago, so how can we make accurate predictions about the next 10 years? What gadgets will Amber be carrying when she's 10? I'll attempt to cover that in Part 3. :-)

The Puma Phone

2010-02-18T08:53:00.006-05:00

At Mobile World Congress this week, Puma announced their new phone made by Sagem. The device is a full-touchscreen phone with all the tech specs we've come to expect, like Bluetooth, GPS, camera, etc.

It also has an integrated solar panel on the back, allowing you to recharge the battery using sunlight. The company claims you can get 2 hours of music listening out of 1 hour in the sun. Not bad! There's even an application for seeing how many phone calls, messages, etc. have been sun-powered.

What's really unique about this phone, though, is the fact that it truly does its own thing. It's not trying to imitate the iPhone, or Android, or really any other device out there. Everything from the solar panel itself, to the OS the phone runs is completely unique. The company put an incredible amount of time into even the little things. For example, the settings are accessed by "peeling" the homescreen upwards. And the screen brightness is adjusted by using your finger to slide a cloud picture either more or less over a sun picture. It doesn't mean much, but it shows how much thought was put into this thing.

The phone has tons of sports features, obviously. There are built in sports apps for running, biking, walking, etc. And it keeps track of all your various sporting activities. It even ships with an armband for running.

By all accounts, this is a simple feature phone. It has a webkit based browser, but doesn't seem to support third party apps, dock accessories, or anything like that. But that's just the thing...it doesn't pretend to be a smartphone...and that's okay. The Puma Phone is really in its own category and the design works.

It's coming to Europe this spring, no word on whether it'll ever be available elsewhere.

Read more about the Puma Phone here, here, and here.

Google Buzz: first impressions

2010-02-12T16:33:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week, Google announced their latest creation, Buzz. It promises to be a new way to follow what your friends are doing around the web, as well as a way to easily share links, photos, etc. with the world. Buzz is integrated right into Gmail, meaning that everyone with a Gmail account already has access to Buzz.

Buzz has been met with mixed reception from users and tech pundits for various reasons. Some criticize it simply another social inbox to check, while others lament the privacy concerns, while still others feel it is Google trying to weasel into one more area of our communication. I understand all of these concerns, and they're all valid to a point. However, I am giving Buzz a fair chance and am actually starting to enjoy it.

Buzz provides a social connection right within Gmail. It allows you to see updates from your Gmail contacts using whatever method they've selected. Users can connect their other online accounts (Twitter, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, etc) to Buzz so that whenever they update one of those sites, Buzz updates as well. You can read all Buzz's features here.

There's also a very strong mobile side to Buzz, and this is where I think it's power really shows. Google went to great lengths to create a very full featured mobile experience. Users can post updates, pictures etc. all from the mobile Buzz website, as well as post location tagged updates from the mobile version of Google Maps. There's even a Buzz layer in mobile maps that lets you see all the Buzz updates nearby. Read about all the mobile features here.

So what do I think? I think Buzz provides something unique. Yes, it has similar features to Facebook and Twitter, but it also trumps them in other ways. It beats Twitter by eliminating the character count, providing rich link and photo sharing and the very strong location based mobile updates. It beats Facebook by being open, promising to provide APIs, and being easily accessible directly within Gmail.

It's more than simple sidebar widgets that let you view Twitter or Flickr updates. It's a social sharing inbox and I think it has a definite place on the web. I've already seen the benefit of it. I have a few friends who are not Twitter users and therefore do not see my tweets. But they use Gmail and now Buzz, so they were able to see and comment on my Twitter posts without needing a Twitter account.

Another big plus for Buzz is that nobody needs to sign up for it. If you have Gmail, you have Buzz. The number of people using it is already very high and as such, I'm seeing a valuable update stream from my contacts already, only two days after launch.

Is Buzz perfect? No, there are definite shortcomings, like the potential privacy concerns (all of which can be allayed by simply selecting the privacy settings you want). ~~The biggest downside for me is that the mobile version of Buzz is totally HTML5 based, meaning all Android 1.6 devices are completely incompatible. This~~ ~~represents over 70%~~ ~~of existing Android devices and it's a huge problem. This might warrant another blog post in the future.~~ UPDATE: The mobile Buzz site is now compatible with Android 1.6 and 1.5 by using Gears. It still warns that the site may not fully work, but it's great to see Google extend compatibility to older devices!

All in all, I like Buzz and I think it's going to get more and more useful down the road. If you're already a Gmail user, I encourage you to check it out.

Pro tip: Google real-time search

2010-02-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick little tip that you may not have known about. Google has a real-time search feature that lets you watch what people are saying on a given topic live. It is an excellent resource, especially for live events. During large sporting events, award shows, international news, etc., it can often be very helpful to read what the world is saying in real-time. Real-time results will sometimes show up in a standard search, but you can also do a specific search for only real-time results. Here's how to use it:

Do a standard Google search for whatever term you're looking for (this even works with Twitter hashtags).

When the results appear, click Show Options...

In the options that appear on the left side, click Updates.

You are now viewing a live, real-time search feed showing results from whatever you searched for. This results page will auto update live, no refresh needed. Here are some example searches to check out (Super Bowl, Snow, Olympics)It's really cool and I highly recommend taking advantage of it. It's actually a lot of fun to read what the world is saying about an event or show. Some upcoming events that real-time search will be useful for are the winter Olympics and the Academy Awards. Definitely check it out if you have time. :-)

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TV around the house

2010-01-25T17:30:00.003-05:00

When we set up our new home office arrangement, one of the things I was most excited about setting up was distributed TV. Our Media Center system is in the living room and does all of the recording. It's hooked up to the big antenna outside and has the horsepower to handle multiple HD recordings.

But we don't always want to watch TV in the living room, so once we had two desks set up in a permanent location (as opposed to using laptops on the couch), one of the first things I did was set up some TV sharing. I had an extra antenna laying around which I hung on the window. The line then runs into a splitter and then into the two extra USB tuners I had.

Both of our computers are running Windows 7, so setting up the TV tuner was quick and easy. So now both computers could watch live TV. The next step was to share the recorded TV and movie libraries. After some brief network troubleshooting (lots of running back and forth between computers), all was up and running.

So now, assuming the main Media Center system is turned on, we can watch all of our previously recorded TV and movies. Even as I write this, I'm watching an old episode of Wipeout. :-)

It's a good thing I set this all up, too...it's already come in handy for baby distracting. Just the other night, actually, Amber simply refused to go to sleep, so I sat with her at my desk. I was able to surf the 'Net while Amber sat calmly watching Poker After Dark on my second monitor. Not my first choice of late night activities, but hey, it's better than having a crying baby. Oy.

Anyway, if you are already using Media Center for your TV recording and/or movie watching, I highly recommend taking advantage of network library sharing. Even if you don't want to set up live TV watching in another room, the network sharing has been awesome. It has liberated our TV, so to speak. I highly recommend it.

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Rant: Buy a Bluetooth headset. Please.

2010-01-24T15:47:00.000-05:00

I'll keep this short and to the point: Bluetooth headsets are sickeningly cheap. Please, please buy one and use it when you drive. Yesterday, I was almost killed three separate times by other drivers. One was a guy who almost changed lanes right into me, one was a woman who almost rear-ended me, and one was a guy who slammed on his brakes in front of me to make a left turn from the right lane. All three of these drivers were talking on cellphones.

There are literally hundreds of these drivers on the road and since they refuse to stop talking while driving (despite mountains of research saying driving while on the phone is unbelievably dangerous), then maybe at least they can use a headset.

Yes, I know that there is also research saying that using a headset is very little, if any, safer than holding a phone to your ear, but it's better than nothing. I honestly don't understand why people refuse to use headsets, especially considering they're so cheap. ($8.50, $9.00, $10.00, etc.)

So, that's all I really have to say. Please buy one, use it, and stop trying to crash into me while I'm driving.

Our new home office setup

2010-01-20T12:56:00.005-05:00

cross-posted on RyanAndShelsy.com

When we first moved into our apartment in Florida, we set up one of the bedrooms for my office, complete with computer desk and workbench. It was a good setup, but it left a little to be desired. So, several months ago, we got small couch to put in there, so Shelsy and the baby would have somewhere to sit. That worked well, but it still wasn't perfect. The biggest problem is that whenever Shels wanted to work on her computer, it required bringing in the laptop, plugging it in, then sitting with it on the couch. It worked, but it was far from ideal.

We discussed ways to rearrange the room to give Shelsy her own desk, but we couldn't come up with any good ways to make it work. Then inspiration struck. Taking design cues from one of Lifehacker's featured workspaces (more pictures here), we set out to make a dual-desk room.
We bought a second desk from Ikea, moved my workbench into the middle of the room, and made my old desk the workbench. The result is that my old desk is where the workbench was, and we now have two identical desks, back-to-back in the middle of the room. We moved them against the window and set up the computers facing outwards.

The couch got moved to the side so it faces into the room. And, viola! A dual desk office. As an added bonus, I tucked all the various cords and wires behind a cardboard shield attached to the desk legs. This, combined with a string of rope-lighting beneath the desk creates an awesome, confined, and safe play area for Amber to crawl around in while Shelsy and I work at our desks. We put some toys down there for Amber and she generally has a grand ol' time exploring. The subwoofer for our speakers is down there and she loves messing with the bass and treble knobs. :-)

The setup works surprisingly well and has been a major productivity boost. I definitely recommend this setup for anyone looking for a dual desk setup.

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Use Feedburner to improve your blog

2010-01-18T07:34:00.003-05:00

Over the past several years, a number of my friends have gotten married, moved across the country, or both. As such, they have all been starting blogs to share details about how their lives are going. Blogs are nothing new, of course, but most people are still using their blog the way they did several years ago. The tools and features have improved dramatically, and yet the majority of blogs still hearken back to the days of Xanga. Most people change the background color, or pick a design theme and leave it at that. Very few do anything more, even though the tools are there.

Most blog owners probably have no idea how many people actually read their posts. We assume that a few people probably visit the site itself on a regular basis, that some people read it from the links we share, and that maybe a few people read the RSS feed. (Though, if I had to guess, I'd say that most blog owners don't even know what RSS is).

The truth is that more people subscribe and read via RSS than we think. We spend a considerable amount of time customizing the visual appeal of the site itself, and yet often give very little thought to our loyal readers who subscribe to the feed.

You already know my thoughts on RSS as well as how it works. Feedburner is a tool that takes the basic functionality of your blog's feed and adds an almost overwhelming amount of extra features and power. It gives you the ability to customize your feed as extensively as you customize your blog itself. Let's look at some of Feedburner's best features.

Portability
Feedburner takes your standard blog feed and redirects it. This means that visitors to your site never see your original site feed. This allows you to change your blog service at any time without disrupting your feed. If you switch from Wordpress to Blogger, for example, your original site feed will change, but Feedburner will simply redirect your new feed to all your existing readers, meaning they won't have to change a thing.

Embed Extra Information
If you use a feed reader yourself, you've undoubtedly seen feeds with extra links at the bottom of each post. Things like comments, Facebook post links, Delicious share links, email links, etc. This is hugely helpful for your readers, and Feedburner easily lets you add all this to your feed.

Feed Count
With your standard blog feed, you have no way of knowing how many people are subscribing. Feedburner gives you a detailed count of your readers, and even lets you add a little counter widget to your blog sidebar. If you're reading this on The Dastardly Report site itself, you'll see the Feedburner count widget on the right side. For those who like detailed statistics, you can visit your Feedburner account to see very detailed graphs and info on browser use, feed reader use, etc.

Post to Twitter
This is a feature I just discovered. Feedburner can automatically post updates from your feed to Twitter (with more social networks likely coming soon). This works very similar to the way Twitterfeed.com works, but it's likely more reliable. Twitterfeed is a nice service, but it adds another link to the chain, and (at least in my experience), it's been down way too frequently. It's much easier to add sharing settings from right within Feedburner.

That's just a brief overview of some of Feedburner's coolest features. There are dozens more, including podcast settings, advertising settings, compatibility settings, email and subscription settings, etc. It really gives you the ability to customize your feed in ways that best serve your loyal readers. For anyone who is serious about their blog and wants it to be as good as it can be, Feedburner is a really invaluable tool.

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Switching back to Pinnacle

2010-01-14T09:03:00.000-05:00

I love video editing. It's something I've been interested in for a long time now, and I've always sought to further educate myself in the field and improve both my skills and equipment. That's why I got a Mac a few years ago. I figured that since Final Cut is one of the most widely used editing programs in the industry, that I would be wise to learn how to use it. So I spent the better part of two years trying to learn Final Cut as throughly as possible and spending all my time using OS X.

It recently occurred to me, though, how much I've been avoiding it. Over the past several months, I've been doing less and less editing and avoiding editing the backlog of videos I have. When I stop and think about it, it's not editing I'm avoiding...it's Final Cut. Not to say that Final Cut is bad or anything, because it's certainly not. It's an incredibly powerful piece of software and one that I'm glad I learned how to use.

But it's not for me. Back when I used Pinnacle Studio (I started with version 7, that's how long ago it was), I was both more productive and more excited about editing. Granted, Pinnacle is far less powerful and featured than Final Cut, but there are certain things about it that are just...better. For example, Pinnacle's text and 3D graphics abilities completely trounce Final Cut and LiveType. On the whole, it's just a far better experience.

For really advanced projects (like 4 or 5 camera shoots that require major color correcting, blur correction, etc), Final Cut is definitely the way to go. But for literally 99 percent of the editing that I do, Pinnacle is not only sufficient, it's superior.

Woot has an excellent deal on the newer version of Pinnacle Studio today and I am this close to buying it. It would allow me to get back into editing on a regular basis and it would mean no more constant switching back and forth between OSX and Windows. That alone might be worth it. :-)

So if I do end up getting it, you can expect considerably more videos from me, many of which will likely appear right here on The Dastardly Report. So stay tuned...we'll see if this ends up working out...

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Google ceasing operations in China?

2010-01-13T08:23:00.000-05:00

The Internet is all abuzz over the news that Google may be completely pulling out of China. The news came yesterday, and was quite a surprise. On their official blog, Google detailed the story of why this has all happened. In a nutshell, they detected attacks on their servers in China and investigated. Server attacks are, of course, nothing out of the ordinary for large websites, but apparently this attack was different.

Google was able to learn that the attacks were targeted at human rights activists within China. Their blog post goes into far greater detail, and I encourage you to read it.

Suffice it to say that this seems to be the last straw in what was an already tense situation. In order to operate within China, Google, of course, has to sensor their search results (you can see this yourself by viewing image results for "Tiananmen" on Google.cn and Google.com).

So with all this recent attack drama, Google has said that they are seriously evaluating their role in China and "...we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results..."

As Google openly acknowledges on their blog, their unwillingness to censor will very likely result in shutting down Google.cn and closing their offices there. This isn't a major loss to China, as Google's market share there is less than 20%. But it brings the issue of censorship back into the public spotlight. Hillary Clinton has already weighed in on it and most of the major news networks have already reported on the story.

Hopefully, if nothing else, this sets a precedent and other companies follow suit. China certainly isn't going to stop censoring anytime soon. But Google has just enough clout and political presence in the United States that it could at least help to catalyze international pressure on the issue.

This is certainly a huge announcement and a major move on Google's part. We'll be hearing more about it in the coming weeks and months as the story unfolds.

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Disqus comments

2010-01-12T08:54:00.000-05:00

After more than 350 posts here at The Dastardly Report, I have finally moved to a more robust comment system. Blogger's default comment system leaves a lot to be desired (though it did get much better back in 2008) and it's not nearly as intuitive as comments on most other platforms across the Internet.

Disqus not only has a much cleaner and easier to use commenting interface, it also brings a slew of extra features. You can now log in via Facebook, Twitter, or your Disqus account. If you have an account at Disqus, you can track your comments across all sites that use Disqus and your profile stays the same no matter what site you're commenting on.

A number of popular websites use Disqus, including Mashable, PaidContent, and AllThingsD.

So this change will allow for easier commenting, and may even drive some new traffic my way. If you read this via a feed reader, the comment count at the bottom should continue to stay correct. This is somewhat of a work in progress, so bear with me as I make these changes.

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Social sharing, RSS, and the news

2010-01-11T08:55:00.001-05:00

The Internet is a pretty big place and can often be difficult to understand, especially for those who are less tech savvy. There are dozens of technologies out there that are extremely powerful and extremely useful, but are fairly confusing for the average person to understand. As such, technologies like this often have a much slower adoption rate and may never gain mass popularity.

RSS is a great example of this. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it provides a way for websites to alert other services when information is updated. Users can set up feed readers where they only have to visit one site to read all the newest content from their favorite websites. Personally, I have nearly 150 different websites that I read through a feed reader, including mainstream sites, photo updates, and even friends' blogs. If I had to individually visit all 150 of those sites every day to look for new content, I'd obviously be overwhelmed and never read most of them.

When a website (like The Dastardly Report) puts up a new post, that post is also sent to the site feed, which allows all kinds of other services to see the new post and do various things with it. One way is to display it in a feed reader for other people to read, but RSS also allows websites to talk to each other more easily.

For example, when a new post is added to Overheard On The Scanner (shameless plug), the new post gets sent to the RSS feed. Another service, called Twitterfeed then sees the updated feed and pushes the new post to Twitter and Facebook.

So, you can see how powerful and useful RSS can be. But it's confusing and overwhelming at the same time. For the average user, maintaining a feed reader can seem like a chore and feel like just another inbox that they need to maintain, despite the benefit of being able to keep up with more websites.

However, many people are already dooming RSS to obsolescence. On a recent episode of Twig, host Leo Laporte (a very well known and respected figure in tech), proclaimed, "RSS is dead." He went on to say that he now relies on Twitter, Facebook, and the like to find out what stories are worth reading. So, he just reads the links that people share on social sites, relying on the wisdom of the crowd to determine which stories are worth reading.

This isn't necessarily a bad idea. There are entire websites devoted to this very notion. Twittersphere.com is a popular site that collects and displays the most frequently shared links of the moment. It's certainly a great way to stay up to the minute about what stories are important to the world and I definitely encourage checking it out.

But for me, it could never replace RSS. I guess it depends on what kind of news reader you are. For someone who simply wants to casually stay up to date on the big stories, then social link sharing will work fine. But for someone like me who wants to keep up with as much news as possible on a given topic, then RSS is vastly superior. There have been numerous times where Leo will say, "no, I haven't heard of that story" on a Twig episode...but it will be about a story that I read days ago. It just proves that RSS is the superior method of consuming information if your goal is to read as much as possible.

So, all that to say that RSS is far from dead. And, to be honest, I'm very surprised someone like Leo would so boldly make a declaration like that. Without RSS, a huge number of the technologies that the web relies on wouldn't work. And avid news readers like me wouldn't be able to keep up with new stories without it. So it may not be a mainstream tech, but it's certainly not dead.

I rely on RSS for my news reading. If you've never checked it out, I suggest Google Reader as your feed reading service. And be sure to subscribe to The Dastardly Report by clicking on the RSS icon at the top.

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TV news gets too much wrong

2010-01-10T16:04:00.002-05:00

photo by Paul McGuire

This is just a short rant...I'll try not to get too angry. But I have to ask...why is it so dificult for TV news stations to focus on accuracy as opposed to sensationalism? No, you don't have to answer because, sadly, I know the answer. The reason is that they're trying to draw in viewers. Much the same way certain websites will write headlines specifically to encourage clicks, TV news creates sensationalist stories out of otherwise boring or normal news.

For example, the Early Show recently ran a story about the new updates to Ford Sync, the super awesome hands free system where the driver can do everything from playing music, to making phone calls, to getting directions all by voice command. The tease went something like, "A new system brings gadgets into the driver's seat and can be even more distracting than texting! Coming up next!"

Then the story ran and the reporter went into great detail about all the screens, audio alerts, and capabilities of the system, all the while making sure to say how dangerous it is to be doing this stuff while driving. But at the very end (literally the last words out of her mouth) were, "We should point out none of the interactive features will work while the car is in motion."

So they really ran the story for no reason other than to grab viewers, scare them into watching the story, create negative press for Ford, then say that the story is moot anyway. Ridiculous! And yet average viewers won't know the difference.

TV news shows are so famous for getting tech stories wrong that it really makes me wonder about all of the other stories they do. I know enough about the tech stuff to know that the stories are innacurate, but stories about travel, medicine, cooking, or other subjects that I don't have as much personal knowledge of...how do I know if they're accurate or not?

The moral of the story is...you can't trust the system. No, seriously. Never take anyone (or any TV show) at their word. Always double check the facts, especially before acting on them.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now. :-)

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The Skiff Reader, the Alex Reader, etc.

2010-01-08T10:56:00.003-05:00

UPDATED, see bottom of post
After 3D, the next big push at CES this year is definitely ebook readers. It seems like everyone wants to get in on the game that Amazon has so expertly profited from. And why not? Amazon sold more Kindles this holiday than any other item. That's pretty darn impressive.

The market had previously been dominated by Sony and Amazon, with a recent entry by Barnes & Noble. So now, dozens of other manufacturers are interested in getting into the game and it's even getting attention from major players. I'm not going to cover all of them here, just two of the more notable ones. If you're interested in reading about all the newly announced ebook readers, head over here.

The Skiff Reader
This is the official Hearst ebook reader that they likely hope to use to increase newspaper and magazine subscriptions. The ebook is powered by Sprint's wireless network and will even be sold in Sprint stores. The reader itself is huge, with an 8.5 by 11 inch screen (the size of a sheet of paper), is only 1/4 inch thick, features a full touchscreen that is made of a new type of plastic that promises to be scratch proof and shatterproof.

Some have speculated that Hearst and Sprint might subsidize the price of the Skiff for people who subscribe to magazines and/or newspapers. This is definitely a possibility and I'm curious to see how it plays out. Early reviews of the Skiff are positive and depending on how it's sold and priced, this could be a big player in the ebook reader space. Read more about the Skiff here, here, and here.

The Spring Design Alex Reader
You may have heard of this reader already, what with all the controversy and legal battles with Barnes & Noble. The Alex is the perfect reader for geeks who know about hardware, but may not appeal to the mainstream user. It features two screens, similar to the Nook. The upper screen is e-ink for book reading, while the lower screen is a touchscreen running full Android.

It can browser the web, download apps...everything a standard Android phone can do. Anything that you view on the lower screen can then be "printed" up to the upper screen for easy viewing. There's a Google Books application that lets you browse through free books and then read them on the upper screen. You can even view webpages on the upper screen.

All around, this is a really unique ebook reader that has a ton of extra features added for good measure. Spring Design just announced a partnership with Borders, too, so the Alex will now compete directly with the Nook. Read more about the Alex here, here, and here.

My Opinion on Ebook Readers in General
The ebook reader market is exploding and it's easy to see why. It's a device with a large screen, very easy on the eyes, and can carry thousands of books. Book reading on a phone, even one with a large screen like the Droid or iPhone, just isn't a good experience both due to eye strain from the LCD screen, and the fact that the screen is too small to comfortably read a long novel.

Ebook readers are appealing for the same reason the iPod was so appealing when it was released...a single device that comfortably and easily stores all of your content. However, like we see happening with the iPod, I think ebook readers as we know them today have a limited lifespan. They seem more of an interim device to me. Some companies are already showing off coler e-ink displays, and tablets are all the rage this year, especially with rumors that Apple may launch a tablet soon.

So it's only a matter of time before we start seeing true multi-tasking devices. Thin tablets that have hybrid e-ink, OLED screens, for example, that can comfortably browse the web, then switch to easy-on-the-eyes book reading. The current crop of ebook readers, in my opinion, will be very short lived. I predict that within 2 or 3 short years the Kindle of today will be long forgotten and replaced by devices that are drastically more functional.

...but I still want a Skiff or Alex. :-)

UPDATE: Gizmodo wrote an excellent article today about an alternate to e-ink and the future of devices like this.
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3D TV is here and it's here to stay

2010-01-07T08:56:00.000-05:00

This year at CES, 3D TV is all the rage. It's been discussed for months (and years), but this is the first year that all the major TV manufacturers are announcing retail TVs that support 3D. In addition, the Blu-ray 3D specifications have recently been finalized and they even unveiled their new logo this week.

Opinion on 3D seems to be very firmly split into two camps: those who are excited about it, and those who dismiss it as a gimmick that will fade just as quickly as it appeared. Almost universally, those who have seen the tech in person are super excited about it, especially for things like movies and sports. I have never personally seen it (unfortunately), but I firmly believe that 3D is the next big thing in the TV market and that it will very quickly rise in popularity.

In the theaters, 3D has been a major success, with most of the big movie studios announcing new 3D movies left and right. Dreamworks and Pixar have both stated that every single movie from here on out will be 3D. So clearly the movie-viewing public is very interested in 3D and has demonstrated a willingness to pay a premium to get it.

The obvious downside to 3D is that it requires glasses. In order to see 3 dimensions, each of your eyes needs to see a slightly different image. This is why we see 3D in real life...with our eyes being a couple inches apart, each eye sees a slightly different angle, allowing your brain to put them together into a 3D image. But with flat TVs, it's impossible to see two different images without glasses. Gizmodo put together an excellent article on how various 3D technologies work. I highly recommend it.

So, in order to get 3D in your home, you'll need a compatible TV and you'll need to wear glasses. This upsets a lot of people for some reason. Anyone who's seen a 3D movie in the theater has dealt with the glasses. Sure some people may not like them, but clearly most people do. People always point to the nerd factor when wearing glasses. My opinion? If you're too embarrassed to wear 3D glasses in your own home, then you have bigger problems to worry about.

Especially with prices for new 3D TVs not being any more than standard HDTVs (and in some cases less), I think consumers will be very interested in it and the TVs will sell very well. Blu-ray still hasn't achieved the market penetration that the movie studios want it to, either. The introduction of 3D could be the boost that they need.

In addition to 3D movies, a number of announcements have been made at CES regarding 3D TV channels. DirecTV announced 3 new channels coming in June that will be 100 percent 3D.

So clearly the manufacturers are very interested in 3D...the consumers are willing to pay for it...and the content providers are willing to produce it. Personally, this sounds like the perfect storm for mass market adoption to me. My official prediction is that 3D, far from being a fad, will take off and be a huge hit.

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Nexus One and the future of Android

2010-01-06T08:18:00.001-05:00

Google held their much anticipated Android event yesterday where they officially announced the Nexus One. The device itself had been rumored, leaked, previewed, and pictured for weeks, but yesterday it finally became official.

Numerous sites have already written extensive and excellent reviews of the device (here and here), as well as expert coverage of the event yesterday (here and here), so I won't recap any of that.

My quick impressions of the device? It's a solid Android phone that really moves the platform forward and is a great sign of things to come. The screen is nice and bright (but will look terrible in the sun); the phone is super thin (but doesn't have a real keyboard); it's really fast (but not that much faster than the Droid). In every respect, it's pretty much just a really nice Android phone. It's not the "end all, be all" Android phone as was rumored.

Everyone had hoped that Google and T-Mobile would change things up a little and sell it either way cheaper than other phones, or with a cheap plan, or something like that...something that would shake up the wireless industry. But alas, they didn't. And they in fact are screwing existing T-Mobile customers who may want to upgrade by forcing them into new plans. So...pretty much life as usual with the sucky United States wireless industry.

But there is a glimmer of hope in the way the phone is being sold. Google is launching their own Android storefront at google.com/phone that will eventually be a place where users can shop for, research, and buy a variety of Android devices for a variety of carriers. That's a drastic departure from the way phones have been sold in years past and once the selection features more than one phone, that could be the shake up we were all hoping for.

At present, however, there's very little revolutionary about the Nexus One itself, and the way it's being sold caters entirely to new customers, perpetuating the old cell phone company mantra of "new customers first, existing customers never."

It's disappointing really, but it holds hope of things to come. Part of that hope lies in Android 2.1, which is the newest version of Android that is running on the Nexus One. Google has said that as many existing devices as possible will be updated to 2.1, but they weren't specific about exactly which ones. Those of us with G1s, of course, are holding onto the lone hope that we aren't left out.

Android 2.1 is not a drastic departure from previous Android versions, but it includes a large number of visual improvements, which clearly indicates Google's continued dedication to Android and to making it both a functional and beautiful entry into the smartphone space.

Overall, yesterday's event was extremely disappointing for me. But there are lots of new phones on the horizon, and I still have 10 months left on my contract, so I'll be waiting it out to see what happens. :-)

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CES Week!

2010-01-05T08:31:00.000-05:00

Today marks the beginning of CES, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Tech and gadget companies from around the world will be announcing and showing off all kinds of new products and services this week. Unfortunately, I don't have the lucky privilege of actually attending, so all the info I attain will be gleaned from other sites. Dozens of various tech blogs will be doing live coverage of the various events. If you're interested in reading all the new stuff that happens this week, I suggest reading Engadget, Gizmodo, and/or Gdgt.

Someday, I ~~hope~~ vow to attend CES myself as a professional tech blogger. I love trade shows and the whole showfloor atmosphere. But for this year, at least, I will simply be reading.

I intend to write specific blog posts here about some of the more major announcements, including the Nexus One, 3D TV, Android in general, the Skiff ebook reader, etc. So stay tuned for those posts in the coming days. I'm also working on an opinion piece about RSS and news reading, so watch for that next week.

The Dastardly Report is back and you can expect regular posts from here on out. :-)

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Gmail Labs features you should be using

2009-12-31T08:48:00.002-05:00

Gmail has been around for nearly 6 years and is one of the most popular web-based email clients. It already offers some unique features that similar mail services don't, but most people probably aren't aware that Gmail is capable of even more.

As with many of their products, Google has given Gmail a "labs" page, where users can turn on and off experimental extras that add some pretty cool features.

To access the labs page, click on Settings at the top of your Gmail page, then click Labs across the top colored bar. There are dozens of labs features you can turn on if you want to, and I highly encourage you to read about each one. There are too many to go over them all, so I'm just going to discuss a few of my favorites.

Previews in Mail
The top six features in the list are all very similar...they let you turn on previews of specific content directly within the email message. Things like Google Docs, Yelp, YouTube, Flickr, etc. So if someone emails you a YouTube link, or a document, or a Flickr picture, you can view it right within the email message. Very cool.

Forgotten Attachment Detector
This is my favorite. When this is enabled, Gmail watches what you type and if it thinks you're intending to attach a file, but you don't actually attach anything, it asks "did you mean to attach something?" before you send. I'd say it's about 90 percent accurate, only asking me if I meant an attachment when I really didn't once or twice. Highly recommended.

Text Messaging in Chat
This is a neat little feature that I have yet to actually use. It allows you to send and receive text messages from people in your chat list (assuming, of course, you have a phone number for them in your contacts). But if they go offline and you really needed to finish that conversation, you can quickly switch to SMS mode and send them a text.

Undo Send
This is one of those "duh!" ideas that I don't know how I lived with before. When enabled, it holds every message for 5 seconds after you click send and displays an Undo button. Five seconds isn't enough to interrupt an email conversation, but it is enough for you to catch a quick mistake. If you accidentally hit send, or forgot to paste in that link, you can quickly hit Undo to stop it from being sent.

Don't Forget Bob
This is a simple little insurance feature that pays attention to who you frequently email. For example, if you are constantly emailing your friends Bob, Jack and Fred, but then accidentally forget to include Bob on one of the emails, it will ask, "did you mean to include Bob?" Kinda nifty.

Got the Wrong Bob?
Very similar to Don't Forget Bob, this feature also watches who you frequently write to. As with the example above, if, instead of forgetting to include Bob, you accidentally select the wrong Bob from your address book, this feature will ask, "did you mean Bob Smith?" This one actually saved me once, so I can personally attest to its helpfulness.

Green Robot
And lastly, we have a little feature that I can see becoming extremely helpful down the road. If one of your chat buddies is chatting from their Android phone, their icon will change from a green circle to a green Android robot. Really useful for knowing if someone is at a computer or on their phone. If Gmail expands this feature in the future to include iPhones, BlackBerrys, etc. it could become super awesome.

So there you have it, my short list of favorite Gmail Labs features. I definitely think everyone who uses Gmail should browse through the full selection of Labs features, since you may find some that you love. More are being added all the time, too.

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Chrome Extensions!

2009-12-09T07:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the day Google flipped the switch to officially enable extensions in Chrome. You can now browse a surprisingly large selection of extensions and install them in your Chrome browser, assuming you're using either the beta or dev version. There isn't much more to say on the matter, so let's take a quick look at some of my favorite extensions so far:

Gmail Checker - shows unread count, provides a preview of messages, and even lets you delete, archive, etc. right from the preview.
Google Voice Checker - provides unread count for Google Voice
Google Wave Notifier- provides unread count for Google Wave
Sidewiki - finally the cool, social sidewiki service for Firefox comes to Chrome, read about it here.
bit.ly - a super simple extension that immediately shortens whatever page you're on using bit.ly
Google Quick Scroll - really interesting search helper extension that shows up when you need it.
RSS Subscription - adds a button in the omnibar whenever an RSS feed is detected on a site, allowing you to subscribe using your favorite feed reader.

Those are the ones that I use, but there are tons more, including mouse gestures, Aviary, Picnik, ad blocking, twitter, facebook, etc. And more are being added every day. Definitely check it out if you're a Chrome user (and if you're not, you should be). :-)

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Get the most out of Chrome

2009-12-05T07:12:00.004-05:00

So now you've got Chrome installed and you're using it as your primary browser. There are a few little tricks you can use to make it function even better. I'm going to share a few of them with you here:

Upgrade to the Dev Channel
Chrome comes in three flavors: the public version, the beta version, and the developer version. Any updates to the browser are first deployed to the dev version, then trickle down to beta, then once they've been throughly tested, they make it to the public build. When you simply download Chrome from the main download site, you're getting the standard, public version. If you want the beta or developer versions, you have to hunt them down.

I've been using the dev version for months and haven't had a single problem. Theoretically, the dev version is more likely to crash, since it's being used to test experimental new features, but it has never crashed for me...not even once.

But the experimental features you get with the dev version are totally, totally worth it. Most of the stuff I'm going to talk about below requires the dev version, so your first step is to click here and upgrade.

Pin Some Tabs
This feature is really small and seemingly insignificant, but it can be surprisingly helpful when you have a large number of tabs open. Simply right click on any open tab and click Pin Tab. The tab will shrink down and zoom to the left. You can pin as many tabs as you want. It really helps save space and keep your tabs uncluttered:

Make Bookmark Bar Buttons
This little trick will actually work in most modern browsers, not just Chrome. Drag an item to your bookmark bar, then right click on it, and go to Edit. Hit backspace so that the Name box is empty. Click OK. Now you have a tiny little icon for your bookmark, again saving space and decluttering in the process:

Install Some Extensions!
I saved the best for last. Chrome's official extension gallery is coming soon, and for now, only the dev version supports installing extensions at all. But there are some really cool ones that you should definitely check out. ~~Until Chrome's official gallery is up and running, the best place to find them is ChromeExtensions.org.~~ UPDATE:Chrome's extension gallery is now live!

Some of my favorite extensions are Gmail Checker, Wave Checker, bit.ly Shorten URL and RSS Subscriber. If you're a Facebook fan or Twitter fan, there are some nice Facebook extensions and Twitter extensions, too.

Conclusion
Chrome is an incredibly fast browser that is really starting to gain traction in the browser market. I highly recommend it, and these little tips can help to make it an even better experience for you.

P.S. If you're as crazy about Internet speed as I am, you should also check out Google Public DNS. Perhaps I'll write a post about that in the future. :-)

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Why you should be using Chrome as your browser

2009-11-30T07:31:00.001-05:00

Google's Chrome browser has been available since September 2008, and yet the majority of people still don't even know it exists. In fact, most people don't even know what a browser even is.

If you don't know what a browser is, or what browser you're using, then it's most likely Internet Explorer, or maybe Firefox. If you don't pay attention to what browser you're using, then you're missing out. It would be like driving a broken, beat up old car with flat tires when a brand new sports car is freely available, but saying, "nah, the old car works fine for me."

Just as the vehicle you chose to get from point A to point B makes a big difference to you trip, the browser you use to get online makes a big difference to your experience.

There are a number of different browsers available, but the vast majority of people simply use whatever browser came with their computer. For Mac users, this is Safari, and for PC users, it's Internet Explorer. Another popular browser that you've probably heard about is Firefox, the open source browser from Mozilla. Next, there's Opera, a considerably less popular and less known browser, and lastly we have Chrome from Google. All are completely free and each has their own claim to fame.

Chrome is just as, if not more secure than other browsers, so we won't go over security. Chrome's killer feature is that it's just crazy fast.

Speed
Even on older computers, Chrome simply flies. Here's a simple javascript test, demonstrating how many things the browser can be working on at the same time when loading a javascript heavy page, such as Gmail. (higher is better in this chart)

As you can see, Chrome severely beats both Internet Explorer and Firefox, while Safari is only slightly slower. Chrome also beats other browsers in startup speed. From the time you click the icon to start the program, Chrome is several full seconds faster than Firefox. This might not sound like much, but especially on an older computer, the lag can be very noticible and Chrome does away with it.

Here's a test you can run yourself, the Javascript V8 test. It measures javascript performance, higher numbers are better. On my machine, Internet Explorer 8 scored 83, Firefox scored 327, and Chrome scored 2779.
(read more about Chrome speed here)

Extra features:
Chrome also has a number if small extra features that just make sense. For example, you can pin tabs that you use frequently to save space:

You can also sync bookmarks between computers, install extensions and themes, etc. In the coming days, I'll write another post on how to super-charge your Chrome setup.

Conclusion
I used to be a major Firefox fanboy, proclaiming it to friends and even wearing a Firefox shirt. But lately Firefox has fallen from its throne. It's become slow, bloated, annoying and just generally disappointing. I know a number of former Firefox fans who have dumped it completely in favor of Chrome. I'm one of them and I highly recommend it.

If you would like to give Chrome a try, you can download it here. If you have any questions about setting it up, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. Read about all of Chrome's features here.

And in a couple of days, watch for a post here about how to get the most out of Chrome.

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