Android for Netbooks?

Android is not just an operating system for mobile phones and it's likely that it will be used for netbooks, ultra-portable laptops which started to become popular last year. Daniel Hartmann managed to install Android on an Asus EEEPC 1000H "with nearly all of the necessary hardware you'd want (including graphics, sound and the wireless card for internet) running". It's also interesting to see that some Android code references Asus Eee 701, the first Asus netbook.

VentureBeat speculates that we could see the first netbooks preloaded with Android in less than a year, but Android could become a general-purpose operating system for any kind of devices. Installing apps for your car or TV is not too far fetched.

This post details how to install Android on a netbook, but you shouldn't try it unless you understand the process.

(Android at Googleplex - photo licensed as CC Attribution by pr1001. More photos.)

Google Viewer for Gmail Attachments

Last month, I mentioned that Gmail links to a new viewer for PDF attachments, powered by Google Docs. It turns out that Google's viewer doesn't work only for PDF files and Google intends to replace the outdated "view as HTML" option with a proper application.

Right now, you can use Google Viewer for PDF, DOC and PPT attachments, but the option is enabled by default only for PDF files. Here's to open Word documents and PowerPoint presentations in Google Viewer:

1. Find an email that includes a DOC or PPT attachment, for example by searching for [has:attachment filename:doc OR filename:ppt].

2. Click on "view as HTML" next to the attachement:


3. Edit the URL by replacing view=att with view=gvatt.


4. Open the page.


You'll be redirected to a page that has the following address:
http://docs.google.com/gview?attid=0.X&thid=THREADID&a=v
(X is the number of the attachment, while THREADID is a value that identifies a Gmail thread).

Google Viewer automatically generates images for each page of your document, you can zoom in/out, there's a basic search feature and you can select text.

Why would you choose this instead of opening the attachment in Google Docs? It loads faster, the document doesn't clutter your Google Docs dashboard and it looks much better. The viewer doesn't inherit any limitation from Google Docs: it includes pagination and it uses the original fonts and layout settings.

Update Vulnerable Programs

Secunia is a respected security service provider that tracks vulnerabilities in more than 20,000 applications and operating systems. To find information about the latest vulnerabilities, you could subscribe to Secunia's mailing lists, but if you want to know whether there are known security issues for the software installed in your computer, install Secunia Personal Security Inspector.

The Windows application scans your computer and it lists the insecure programs, information about vulnerabilities and links to the patches. In most cases, Secunia provides direct links to the latest updates, so they are easy to download and install. To find more information about security problems and to list all the software from your computer that needs to be updated, switch to the advanced interface.


Secunia collected data from 20,000 users of the software and found at least one vulnerability in 98.09% of the cases. "By insecure program it is understood, that there is a newer version of the program available from the vendor that corrects one or more vulnerabilities, but the user has yet to install the secure version. A vulnerability in a program can be exploited by hackers to anything from compromising a PC, to automatically install trojans/viruses, to sniff out private information (passwords, credit cards information, etc)."

Not all applications include auto-update and users have to manually update to the latest versions. Google is one of the companies that thinks it's important to update software without any user intervention, that's why most Google software has an auto-update feature or is integrated with Google Update.

Secunia's software focuses on updates that solve security problems. More comprehensive solutions for updating your software include UpdateStar, FileHippo Update Checker and Appget, but none of them is very reliable.

Upgrading from Internet Explorer 6

"Every so often, people ask me why they should upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, the newest version of the venerable Microsoft web browser. They're happy with Internet Explorer 6—it does what they want it to do and they're comfortable using it. Some are nervous about upgrading because they feel they don't have time to learn a new way of doing things. Others believe that because they only use their computers to check their e‑mail and visit "safe" sites, they don't need to upgrade. (...) For me, the most compelling reason to upgrade is the improved security. The Internet of today is not the Internet of five years ago. There are dangers that simply didn't exist back in 2001, when Internet Explorer 6 was released to the world." (Sandi Hardmeier, Microsoft MVP)

According to HitsLink, Internet Explorer lost about 8% of market share to Firefox and Safari in 2008 and IE6's market share decreased from 32% in January to 20% in December.


There's a big opportunity to provide an alternative to IE6 users and many websites recommend users to update their browsers for a better experience. For example, Gmail showed a message which informed users that Firefox and Chrome load Gmail twice as fast as IE6. "Browsers are getting faster and better at running web applications like Google Mail that use browser technology to its limits. In order to get the best experience possible and make Google Mail run an average of twice as fast, we suggest that you upgrade your browser to one of the fastest Google Mail supported browsers that work on Windows," says a Gmail help page.


Internet Explorer 6 users miss the most important Gmail features launched in 2008: themes and Gmail Labs, while the new version of Gmail has been launched for IE6 in September 2008.

"The newest version of Gmail pushes modern browser technology to the limit, so initially we weren't able to make it available to those of you who use IE6. Because it was released way back in 2001, IE6 wasn't able to handle the complexity of the new code in a way that met our performance and stability goals," explained Gmail's team in September. Microsoft released an updated for IE's JavaScript engine and Google simplified the interface to make it work in Internet Explorer 6.

Google uses this opportunity to promote its browser and it also links to Firefox. Some suggest that Google is "playing favorites" by not including Internet Explorer 7 in the list of alternatives, but JavaScript benchmarks clearly show that Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera (and many other browsers) are much faster than IE. Hand-picking Firefox and Chrome is certainly debatable, but Opera is not fully supported by Gmail and Safari's Windows version is not very good.

As Matt Cutts says, "Chrome has already encouraged lots more people (both browser makers and website owners) to pay attention to things like browser speed, overall user experience, and cross-platform/validated HTML code that works on most browsers". Firefox attracted Internet Explorer by offering better security, maybe it's time to make performance a good reason to switch.

Top 10 reasons to switch from Internet Explorer 6:
1. Switch to a more secure browser.
2. Get a faster browser.
3. Web pages will look better.
4. Use a browser that it's not closely integrated with your operating system.
5. Try a browser that has native support for Ajax.
6. Open less windows by using tabs.
7. Get a search box without installing toolbars.
8. Get anti-phishing protection.
9. Web developers will thank you.
10. If IE6 is no longer a popular browser, developers will spend more time releasing new features.

Bundled with Google Software

I've noticed that many of my favorite Windows applications include the option to download unrelated Google software (mostly Google Toolbar and Google Desktop). Of course, you can easily uncheck the options and bundling Google software is better than installing spyware, but many people install applications by repeatedly clicking "Next" and ignore their boring messages.



If you refuse to install Google Toolbar from an application, shouldn't Google set a flag and stop offering the toolbar in other applications? Bundled software could be related to the application you are installing: IrfanView works well with Picasa, while GomPlayer could integrate a video search feature.

Here's what Google says about bundles:

Many internet users find that over time their computers become loaded with unwanted software - be it adware, spyware or just plain junk. This is because a few applications they installed came bundled with junk, and that junk generated more junk piled higher and deeper. We believe any situation where multiple applications are being installed should be made very clear to users, so that if you were to ask them several months later - "What's this?" - most will know where it came from and why it is there.

Usually there are complex business relationships among the companies participating in a bundle. This can result in well-intentioned companies benefiting from the distribution or revenue generated by software that does not benefit you. Getting paid to distribute, or paying money to be distributed with undesirable software enables more undesirable software. (...) For this reason, we will strive to distribute our software only in bundles where all applications meet the above guidelines, and we think users will benefit if others in our industry do the same.

So if you install an application that bundles Google software, you should know that it respects Google's software principles. Which of your favorite applications bundle Google software and what do you think about this practice?

Google Simplifies the Format for Video Results

After removing the useful option to play videos inline*, Google no longer displays the duration and the rating for universal video results. Here's the same YouTube video in 2007, when Google launched universal search, and today. The only difference between video results and regular web pages is that videos have thumbnails and the options to find similar pages and to see the cached version aren't included.


I'm not sure if the rating of a video is very useful, but the duration, the date when it was uploaded and the number of views might be helpful. Google shows similar information for scientific papers, forums and this approach could be extended to other categories of web pages.

* The option to play videos results without opening a new page is available at Yahoo Search.

Translate Google Maps Reviews

Google Maps has a new option that automatically translates reviews written in a foreign language. This is especially useful if you are planning to visit a different country and most of the reviews are not available in a language that you speak. Here's a list of results for [bistro, paris, france] in the English interface of Google Maps and a search for [pizza ny] in the French Google Maps.


Similar options are available for Picasa Web comments, YouTube captions and many other services, thanks to the easy-to-use API for Google Translate.

It's worth mentioning that Google Translate's homepage has been redesigned and you can now translate text and web pages from the same box. Google Translate includes a new option that swaps the selected languages and the translations for short texts have permalinks.