Stable Version of Chrome 12 Released

The stable version of Google chrome 12 has been released with several improvements made on in security, privacy and graphics capabilities.

The downloaded files are checked for malware and Google claims it has been designed the feature in such a way that it doesn’t have to know which URLs you visited or which files you downloaded to be able to detect malicious files.

You can now also fine tune the data that websites store on your computer, including Flash Player’s Local Shared Objects (also known as Flash cookies), directly from Chrome.

On the graphics front, Chrome 12 includes support for hardware-accelerated 3D CSS, which enables some nifty effects such as rotating and scaling videos. Try this Chrome Experiment to see some of the new features in action.

Some minor improvements has also been made in Chrome 12 such as improved interface for setting a homepage and Chrome Apps can be downloaded directly from the address bar.

Existing Chrome users will automatically be upgraded in couple of days

Android 3.1 for tablets delayed by Google

For all the Android fans here is some bad news.Google has decided not launch tablet version of Android 3.1 till August. The worse thing is that the tablets that were supposed to ship with Android 3.1 – Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 – have been delayed until then too.

However this has been a rumor but this is confirmed by trusted sources.Google first screwed Samsung with the launch Galaxy S smartphone last June. At the time the search giant was very worried that it’s major Android partners were replacing Google’s location technology with the solution provided by a small location service provider called Skyhook. Google first learned about it in April, when Motorola decided to ship it’s next Droid with Skyhook solution. Google then refused to certify Motorola’s Droid 2 as Android compatible device until Motorola removed Skyhook’s location technology. Motorola complied, delaying it’s Droid 2 launch and then shipping it with Google’s location solution which they perceived to be inferior to Skyhook’s. Only to learn that Google allowed Samsung to start shipping it’s Galaxy S handset with the same Skyhook technology that Google now said is not Android compatible.

When Motorola complained, Google ordered Samsung to halt all the shipments of Galaxy S with Skyhook’s tech. Even with tens of thousand’s of Galaxies already sold or on the way to carrier customers. And Samsung had no other choice but to comply, stop all Galaxy S shipments and hastily replace Skyhook with Google’s location provider. Remember all the GPS/location problems Galaxy S had last summer? Yep – most likely it was about that.

Here we go again. With the pre-order options and promised mid-June shipping dates popping up around the world, I’d say thousands of Samsung Galaxy Tabs are en route to the carriers and distributors. And now they will have to sit in the warehouses for a couple of months, until Google fixes whatever last minute bug they found in Android 3.1.

In the meantime, potential customers will keep snapping HTC Flyers, Motorola Xooms and Asus transformers with even buggier Android 3.0 OS.

This news is shared from Unwiredview 

Netbook Prices to Come Down

A new Atom Processor has been introduced by Intel which is expected to bring down the prices of Netbooks. The netbooks will come under $200 but with a performance penalty.


The single-core Atom N435 runs at 1.33GHz and includes 512KB of cache, making it the slowest of second-generation N-series processors that go into most netbooks today. The next fastest chips are the Atom N450 and N455 chips, which run at 1.66GHz.

Asus is using the new Atom N435 in its latest Eee PC X101, which is priced starting at $199. The laptop is being shown at the Computex trade show being held in Taipei.

Netbooks are generally priced above $250. New netbooks using the N435 will provide "new levels of affordability for emerging markets," said Suzy Ramirez, an Intel spokeswoman, in an e-mail.

The new chip has given a boost to Intel's Meego OS and AppUp application store, as a number of netbooks with the new chip have been announced with the Linux-based operating system. Acer's Aspire One Happy 2, Samsung's N100 and Lenovo's IdeaPad S100, all running the N435 and Meego, are being shown at Computex.

Lower prices could also help draw renewed interest in netbooks, which are small and low-powered laptops for basic word processing and Internet surfing. After a phenomenal take-off in 2008, netbook shipments have stumbled in the last year, partly due to a growing interest in tablets.

This information is shared from PC World.