In fact, tethering has often come to my rescue where most other ways to connect to the Internet have failed. I blame it on the lack of their availability and/or price. Hence I aptly demand tethering from every phone I own or use. But my latest  phone, a Dell Venue Pro (powered by Windows Phone 7), does not support tethering out of the box.

Googling reveals a hack which is repeated across the Web. But the hack never worked on my Dell Venue Pro. The issue was, the hack instructs switching to Composite mode via an option called Service Center. But on my phone I could not spot the Service Center. I suspect it could be that Dell chose to hide the Service Center option in its phones sold in India. Fortunately, I found a trick which reveals the Service Center.  Thanks to these couple of hacks, I now enjoy USB tethering with my Dell Venue Pro, on my laptop running Windows 7 64bit. Following is how I tethered my Dell Venue Pro bought in India.

1. Follow the instructions found here (original link) or here (better explained).
2. As explained above, if you don’t see the Service Center under EM, refer to this interesting trick.
3. Following are the Extra Initialization Command, for a few phone service providers in India, that I tried out. The dial-up number *99*# and a blank username and password worked for me for all these service providers.
   • Vodafone:
     AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”portalnmms”
     or
     AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”blackberry.net”
   • Airtel:
     AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”airtelgprs.com”
   • MTNL 3G:
     AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”gprsmtnldel”
     

I have not included the entire step-by-step instructions to tether a Dell Venue Pro because I want to give full credit to the original websites that posted the much-needed hacks. Having said that, in case you have any queries you can always shoot a comment at me

Note: If you want to sync with Zune Software, you will have to turn off Composite mode and switch back to Zune mode. This can be done by going to the Service Center (as explained in the links above) and clicking on the Zune button.

Happy Tethering!!!

Kindle (Global Wireless) Image source: Wikipedia.org

Subsequently, I placed an order on behalf of my friend and the Kindle was shipped to New Delhi, India to my residence in about 2 days. I got to setup, configure and play with this nifty device, before I could hand it over to my friend.

I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience of the ordering, shipping, and how well Kindle behaves in India. Instead of writing the entire experience chronologically, I jot it down as FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).

1. Where did you order the Kindle from?
   Amazon.com
2. Which version of Kindle did you order? Kindle 1, Kindle 2, Kindle DX or Kindle Global Wireless … ?
   The officially available and latest models are called Kindle (Global Wireless) and Kindle DX (Global Wireless). I bought Kindle (Global Wireless).
3. What does Global Wireless mean?
   With Global Wireless versions, you can browse/search through the Amazon Book Store and Wikipedia through a free Internet connection. This connection (which uses the mobile phone network) is pre-paid by Amazon and you do not have to pay any bills for the aforementioned browsing/searching.
4. Why did you buy Kindle and not Kindle DX ?
   Kindle DX is almost double the price of Kindle
   
5. What is the total cost of Kindle?
   $378.57 (USD)
6. Why do I have to pay so much ?
   This cost includes the shipping and the duty. Following is the bifurcation :
   Cost of the device: $259.00
   Import Duty: $98.59
   Shipping and Handling: $20.98
7. Can I reduce the cost by opting for an alternate shipping option, even if it takes longer to ship ?
   No, alternate shipping option is offered for shipping to India.
8. Is there any hidden cost ?
   No.
9. What is the mode of payment ?
   Credit/Debit Card
10. Can I pay through Paypal ?
    No.
11. How much time does it take to ship the Kindle to India ?
    2 days
    Note: I ordered the Kindle on 18th January at 21:00 IST  and got it on 21st January, around 11:00 IST. It was a Monday evening when I ordered and got the Kindle on Thursday morning. Note that the device was shipping during business days. If holidays or weekends fall in between, the shipping may be delayed.
12. Will  I be notified about the order and the shipping status ?
    You will get notified by two  E-mails sent from auto-confirm at amazon dot com and Amazon.com (ship-confirm at amazon dot com). The first E-mail is sent after a successful order with the order details. The second E-mail is sent as soon as the Kindle is dispatched for shipping and includes the tracking number to track the device in transit.
13. How much time does it take to dispatch the Kindle for shipping after a successful order ?
    Less than 24 hours.
14. How can I track my shipping ?
    You can track the device by logging into your Amazon account – which you used to order the Kindle.
15. What are the contents of the box that gets delivered
    The Kindle device, a getting started manual, a USB cable and a power adapter – U.S. or United States style, two pin plug.
16. How do I charge the Kindle?
    The USB cable can be plugged into the power socket for charging through AC power. For this you will need a U.S. to India power plug converter. Else you can charge the Kindle using your laptop/PC, using the USB cable.
17. The wireless connection works without any configuration?
    Yes. But for the very first time, when I tried searching through the Amazon Store, the Kindle complained about “no connection” and suggested to reboot. After a reboot the connection was up. Ever since. the connection has always been on and working.
18. Can I browse the Web using Kindle?
    No. Kindle does have a built-in Web browser which is suppose to work well for text-only or low-graphics Websites. But when I try to browse to a Website, the browser shows an error saying “Due to local restrictions, web browsing is not available for all countries”.   
19. Can I Google using Kindle?
    No. The search fails with the message saying “Due to local restrictions, web browsing is not available for all countries”. Only Wikipedia and Amazon Store search works, over the wireless network (refer to FAQ 3)
20. Does Kindle support PDFs?
    This question is not specific to India but to the device. Yet the answer is yes, Kindle supports PDF. But you cannot zoom or enlarge the text/font size of a PDF document. This makes some PDFs unreadable on Kindle.
21. Can I transfer my own documents or books to the Kindle?
    This question is not specific to India but to the device. Yes, you can transfer any Kindle supported documents on the device. I have myself transferred and read .pdf, .txt, and .mobi formats on the Kindle.
22. Can I transfer and read pirated E-Books, downloaded via Torrents, on the Kindle?
    Sorry, this blog is not a place to ask this question.
23. I have heard that not all books are available for Indian users
    I have heard that too. Will keep this post updated when I comes across such titles.
24. Instead of Kindle, why you did not recommend an Apple iPad to your friend?
    The launch of iPad was uncertain. As of this writing, its launch and pricing in India is not known. Also iPad is a multi-purpose and bulkier device.

Hope this FAQ helps my countrymen in going ahead and bringing home an Amazing Kindle!

Disclaimer: The above FAQ is strictly based on my personal buying and usage experience. Any or all information may be different in your case.

Update (March 30, 2010): Received an E-mail from Amazon today, informing about a refund of $36.93 on the export charges. No doubt, it means refund against the import duty. This reduces the total cost of the Kindle to $341.64 ($378.57−$36.93). The E-mail says that the refund has been processed and it may take about 10 business days for it to reflect in the Credit Card statement. Note that, this E-mail on the refund is received after about 2 months since the Kindle was shipped (refer to FAQ 11).

Each time, I upgrade my phone, I wipe off its data. This is because I took the upgrades as an opportunity to wipe off applications which I install, but do not use or use occasionally. But, following is the list of Android applications which I crave to install after each wipe off. These applications are my must-haves on my Android phone.

1. android-wifi-tether
A computer or PC/Laptop can be connected to a phone via USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to use the phone’s Internet connection – typically GPRS/EDGE/3G. This kind of connection sharing (with the phone) is called tethering. ADP1 does not ship with tethering capabilities. But thanks to the android-wifi-tether app which can be found here. Don’t go by the “Wifi” in the app’s name. It supports tethering through Bluetooth too. I have used tethering via Wifi, till I switched to CyanogenMod (see below). Once installed, it turns your phone into a Wi-Fi ad-hoc point! Think about it as a Wireless Access Point. Therefore, no hassle of downloading drivers to connect to it from a laptop.

android-wifi-tether app for phone's Internet connection sharing via Wifi/Bluetooth

Features:

• Tethering through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• Access control based on MAC address. Notification, about connecting clients, on the phone’s notification bar – with sound.
• 128-bit WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

Pros:

• Behaves as a Wi-Fi ad-hoc point. This means, typically, no configuration/driver hassles on a PC/Laptop.
• MAC address based access control.
• Lots of configuration options for Wi-Fi, like SSID, channel, IP range etc.

Cons:

• Requires ROM update (a kernel update)

Go to Settings>Wireless controls and check Internet tethering. Works with CyanogenMod Android ROMs

I no longer use android-wifi-tether – after flashing my phone with  CyanogenMod. With Cyanogen ROMs, the capability to tether via USB is built-in. USB tethering works both on Linux and Windows – I have it working on Fedora 12 Linux and Windows 7. android-wifi-tether works with the CyanogenMod (version 4.2.13, as of this wiring) without requiring the kernel update. But you will need to download and install the app from here. With android-wifi-tether and CyanogenMod, you may like to enjoy the flexibility of tethering through USB, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth! Though, I’m my happy self with USB tethering.

2. BlueRSS
Once I discovered this free RSS reader named BlueRSS, from the Android Market, I never felt the need to look for an alternative. Lots of features, yet fast and responsive. This is what sets this app apart, for my daily routine, to check out the tech world through RSS feeds. I’m using version 3.0.1 of BlueRSS, as of this writing.

BlueRSS: A fast and feature rich RSS reader for Android phones

Features:

• Discover RSS feeds on Websites or using keywords
• Exports feeds to OPML, opens GMail (or the default mail client) with the OPML file attached, to send.
• Automatic background update
• Ability to refresh all feeds as well as individual feeds
• Add feed items to Favourites
• Full screen mode

Pros:

• Fast and responsive. Don’t remember if I ever had to “Force Close” it
• Import from Google reader

Cons:

• No feed categories
• The feed item’s description/summary does not open in landscape mode.

3. Twidroid (free version)
This app does not require an introduction to Android users. It is undoubtedly the best Twitter client for Android. I started with using Twidroid as the Twitter client on my Android phone. I switched to numerous other Twitter apps to check out the alternatives. I tried Swift, Seesmic, Twidgit and TwitterRide (now called TweetsRide). But I kept coming back to Twidroid and have settled down to it. Twidroid is available from the Android Market and I’m using version 3.0.9.

Twidroid: The feature-rich Twitter client for Andorid

Features

• Supports Twitter lists and the new Retweet feature (or API) of Twitter
• Ability to upload photos
• Twitter Trends, Search and Favorites
• Built it browser to open URLs
• Options to choose a preferred URL shortening service and image upload service
• Built-in profile browser with option to follow/unfollow
• Autocomplete of Twitter usernames while Reply-ing or Direct Message
• Share Tweets via Email, SMS and Bluetooth
• Stores data on the SD card

Pros

• Fast and responsive UI
• One touch access to most functions like Reply, Direct Message and Retweet
• New tweets notification, with the Tweets’ text, in the Notification bar of the phone.
• Automatically shortens the URLs
• Remembers the scroll position with an option to jump to the latest Tweet
• Frequent new releases.

Cons

• Features like widgets, video and multiple accounts available only in the Pro version

4. Nav4All
I have been living in New Delhi, India for 31 years. But Connaught Place a.k.a. CP is a place where I always lose my way to the destination and back home. Thanks to the large number of roundabouts. I recall driving for more than a hour in CP to figure out my way. That’s when I desperately started looking for a navigation app for my GPS capable Android phone. Nav4All is what I got and what I use. It works great for the Delhi roads. Nav4All is available in the Android Market and I’m using version 9.0.25. To be true, I haven’t used all its features. Yet following is the jot down of the features that I see on the application’s screen:

Nav4All: A simple and free app that works for turn-by-turn voice based navigation

Features

• A huge list of countries
• Option of large number of voices (for turn-by-turn navigation)
• Can pick addresses from the phone’s contacts
• View route to destination with turn by turn textual instructions and on the map
• Details like distance, driving speed and journey time
• “Start follow me” feature to trace your current route
• Alternate routes

Pros

• Free
• Precise, numbered, exit points on roundabouts
• Works in New Delhi, India
• Narrows down to the building name!

Cons

• Bad user interface, looks like wireframes
• Buggy with the hardware keyboard of ADP1
• Address search asks for too many details
• Not so good looking map

I haven’t been able to use the address search for Nav4All. It asks for too many details – upto the house number. The best way I use Nav4All is to record the destination coordinates – when I somehow reach the destination for the first time. On the contrary, Nav4All amazed me by telling the name of a client’s office building – located in the midest of a large number of houses.

Note that the Nav4All website hints that the app will remain free until 1st Jan 2010. But I have been using it for free, on my Android phone, till now. Hope it continues to remain free.

5. Car Mode
How many times it has happened, that, while driving you get a phone call. You, then, struggle to put the phone on the speaker phone mode. Car Mode is a nifty app which when clicked, places itself on the phone’s notification bar. Subsequently, it automatically enables the speaker phone for subsequent calls. Car Mode can be disabled by clicking on its icon on the notification bar. It can be downloaded from the Android Market. I’m using version 1.2.0 of this app.

Pros

• A simple and free app which works!

Cons

• It’s encourages to attend phone calls which driving

That’s all folks. Five must have Android apps that I live with. Note that this list does not include the built-in apps – like GMail, Calendar, Contacts, etc – else GMail will Gmail Push (instant push E-mail) is my most used app. Will keep this blog post updated with any future must-have apps which I get used to.

Update (February 2, 2010): I said above that Nav4All may become paid, but the latest update is worse. Got an E-mail announcing that  Nav4All will be discontinued.  Following is the exact copy of the E-mail as sent by CEO of Nav4All:

Subject: Nav4All navigation shut down by Navteq

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 28-01-2010 16:30 GMT+1

Subject: Nav4All navigation shut down by Navteq

Letter to 27,625,631 Nav4All navigation customers

Dear Customers,

It is with the deepest regret that we hereby notify you that the
global navigation of Nav4All and the Tracking & Tracing will go
offline in 3 days. The reason for the same is that the data licence
agreement with Navteq (a 100% Nokia subsidiary) was not extended, in
a totally unexpected manner. It is not possible to implement data
from another supplier in our Nav4All systems within the short term.
The Nav4All navigation system was developed for Navteq data. Nav4All
has therefore been constrained to stop.

We greatly regret the fact that we have to suspend the operation of
our service. With your help, we have developed Nav4All into a global
product with 27.5 million users in 56 languages, in 5 years. This has
made Nav4All the largest navigation supplier. This large number of
users also has to do with the fact that Nav4All works on hundreds of
different mobile telephones of many makes such as Blackberry, Sony
Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, Android, HTC, Nokia, LG, Iphone, Ipod
etc.

After 5 years of testing and market development, we witnessed rapid -
in fact, exponential - growth during the last two years. That growth
was reported in the licence reports to Navteq. In mid-December 2009,
the global coverage was extended to include the Philippines, Morocco
and Kenya.

Please contact the Nav4All support desk in case you have any
questions: www.nav4all.com/support. If there is any further
information from Nav4All concerning the subject of this letter, the
same will be published on our website: www.nav4all.com. For reasons
of privacy, Nav4All does not have the email addresses of all its
customers, and we therefore request you to forward this email to the
maximum extent possible, in order to ensure that everyone is
informed.

Kind Regards,

Hennie J.M. Groot Koerkamp (CEO)

Nav4All BV

Keizersgracht 62-64

1015 CS Amsterdam NL

I thought it would be a good idea to share the ordering and shipping experience with others – especially those who are wanting to get hold of an ADP1 in India. Instead of writing the entire experience chronologically, I thought I would  jot it as a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). Following were a few questions that bothered me while ordering the phone, while the phone was being shipped and when I got to unbox it:

Frequently Asked Questions on shipping Android Dev Phone 1 to India

1. What is the total cost ?
   $571.71 (USD)
2. Why do I have to pay so much ?
   This cost includes the shipping and the duty. Following is the bifurcation :
   Cost of the device: $399.00
   Tax/Duties: $125.21
   Shipping and Handling: $47.50
3. Can I reduce the cost by opting for an alternate shipping option, even if it takes longer to ship ?
   No alternate shipping option is offered for shipping to India.
4. Does the shipping option offer tracking ?
   Yes. See FAQ 12
5. Is there any hidden cost ?
   No.
   Note But you must know that to buy the phone you will need to register at Android Market for which you will have to pay around $25. Refer to my post “Was about to buy an Android“
6. What is the mode of payment ?
   Credit Card
7. Can I pay through Paypal ?
   No.
   Note: I too wanted to pay through Paypal since I had some balance there. But could not find an option
8. How much time does it take to ship the phone to India ?
   3 days
   Note: I ordered the phone on 16th March and got it on 18th. It was a Monday evening when I ordered and got the phone on Thursday afternoon. Note that the phone was shipping during business days. If holidays or weekends fall in between, the shipping may be delayed.
9. Will  I be notified about the order and the shipping status ?
   You will get notified by two  E-mails sent from noreply at brightstarcorp dot com. The first E-mail is sent after a successful order with the order details. The second E-mail is sent as soon as the phone is dispatched for shipping and includes the tracking number to track the device in transit.
10. How much time does it to dispatch the phone for shipping after a successful order ?
    About 24 hours
11. Whom/how do I contact for queries on shipping etc. ?
    Send an E-mail to “android at brightstarcorp dot com”
    Note: I sent an E-mail asking how can I track the order and got a reply in less than 8 hours
12. How can I track my shipping ?
    Go to the URL http://www.ups.com/WebTracking/track?loc=en_US, type in the tracking number and click on track.
13. How do I find the “tacking number”?
    Refer to one of the following:
    • Refer to the second E-mail sent from “noreply at brightstarcorp dot com” with the subject as “Your Order Has Been Shipped”.
    • Login to Android Market and goto the URL http://android.brightstarcorp.com/trackorder.php
      
14. I got my phone but I’m not able to find the microSD card
    It comes inserted in the phone
15. I got my phone but I’m not able to find any stylus to use the touch screen
    The package does not include a stylus. Android is meant to be operated using fingers, just like iPhone. For best results use your thumbs.

Hope this helps my countrymen in going ahead and bringing home one the most wonderful phones – The Android Dev Phone 1.

Disclaimer: The above FAQ is strickly my personal buying experince and any or all information may be different in your case.

Photo of Android Dev Phone 1 from Android Market

Note that the Dev Phone is meant for developers which just means there will be no support by any company (which includes Google, T-Mobile or HTC). Still it costs as much as a consumer phone (as mentioned later).

I instantly decided to go for it. Took the first step which was to register at the Android Market place by paying $25 (Rs. 1237 approx.).

After registering, on my home page (@ Android Market), I spotted an enticing link saying:

As a registered developer, you can purchase an unlocked phone. Buy Now>>

The cost of the phone is $399 (Rs. 19,750 approx.). So far I assumed that I will be paying 1237 (for registration) + 19750 = Rs. 21,000 (approx.) for the phone. Not “so” bad. My current Windows Mobile phone costed me about Rs. 27,000.

First Stumbling Block – “Buy Now” did not work:
Clicking on “Buy Now” loaded up the same page (home page) again and again. Googled around for sometime to see if there is something specific to Firefox or India (I obviously specified my location as India). The news item said clearly that the phone can be shipped to India too.

Fortunately, when I tried again, after a couple of minutes, I was greeted by the phone’s page.

Second Stumbling Block – No GPS ?:
The buy now link which showed me the page on “Android Dev Phone 1″ mentioned the following specs of the phone:

• Touch screen
• Trackball
• 3.2 Megapixel camera with auto focus
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth v2.0
  • Handsfree profile v1.5
  • Headset profile v1.0
• 3G WCDMA (1700/2100 MHz)
• Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• QWERTY slider keyboard
• Includes 1GB MicroSD card (Can be replaced with up to 16GB card)
• Included in the box
  • HTC Android Dev Phone 1
  • USB Cable
  • AC Adapter (with US plug)
  • Stereo Hands-Free Headset
  • Battery
  • Getting Starting Guide
  • 1G Micro SD Card (inserted into Device)

Note the missing GPS. Googled again and read that the Dev Phone 1 is the same hardware as T-Mobile G1, which has built-in GPS. So I half heartedly assumed that the Dev Phone will have GPS and the page would have not mentioned it by mistake.

Third and last Stumbling Block – Shipping @ $224.60!
Yes, the sheer shipping cost of the phone was $224 (Rs. 11,100 approx). This means to grab the phone I will end up spending 1237 (for registration) + 19750 (phone’s cost) + 11000 (shipping) = Rs. 32,000 (approx.). That’s where I gave it up – buying a 32K phone with no support and maybe no GPS.

Anyone on their way back from US ?

Besides being network unlocked, I was excited to read: “Hardware unlocked – Rebuild the Android operating system, and load it onto the device”. This means I can customize – may be logos, boot up screen, text (here and there) of the core operating system, build it and load it on the phone. But this excitement MAY NOT ( still thinking ) be worth @ 32K.

Update (Mar 19, 2009): It took me 3 months to decide to go for it because now I have bricked my Windows Mobile phone (I-Mate 8502). Called up home and found that Android Dev Phone 1 has arrived! I ordered the phone on March 16, 2009 (at about 2130 hrs IST) and got it today (March 19). That is, it shipped within 3 days of the order, to New Delhi, India. I paid $571.71 (inclusive of everything) for this phone, which is yet to be unpacked. Hoping to undress (only the packaging ) it tonight. More on this deserves a new blog post.

1. Easy installation
2. Sleek top menu bars give more real estate to the web pages
3. Shows thumbnails of most visited pages as the default page
4. Less configuration options
5. Robust Incognito window (porn mode)

Cons (so far)

1. Not available for Linux
2. No built-in RSS reader
3. Limited configuration options
4. MS Silverlight based applications do not work
5. Cannot leverage the plethora of Firefox plugins

After lots of news and attention since yesterday, Google’s very own web browser called Chrome is finally available for download now, but only for Windows.

To start with, since I’m on Linux (Fedora 9), the download page http://www.google.com/chrome, did not show me a download link but instead prompted me to subscribe (with my E-mail) to get alerted when Chrome is available for Linux.

I subscribed to the alert and then quickly launched Win XP SP2 in VirtualBox (a VMWare or Virtual PC like virtual machine) from my Fedora 9 laptop. Went to the download page and, this time, was greeted by a download link for WinXP/Vista. Downloaded the installer (about 400KB in size). The installer when run, in turn, downloaded the browser (took about 3-4 minutes on a 2Mbps link). Following is the first look of Chrome when it got launched (automatically) after the installation:

The first launch

I should have been in the first or in one the first batches of people to download (started downloading @ 00:55 hrs IST) and run Chrome. I was regularly hitting the site when suddenly the Chrome’s page (earlier was a 404 message page) showed up Writing this line from within Chrome . Will explore and write more about this new kid in town. So do visit back! Okay, Im continuing to write about it now:

Quick Notes

• Installation, no questions asked: During Chrome’s installation, no questions were asked on where to install, what to install, what to import and what not to. The only prompt I got was when Chrome could not import Firefox’s bookmarks because Firefox was open. It imported Internet Explorer 6′s and Firefox 3′s bookmarks.
• No “default browser” nagging: Thankfully (very thankfully indeed) Chrome does not nag to make it a default browser, not even once. If you indeed want to make it the default, you can click on the “Customize and control Google Chrome” icon on the top right and then click on Options. There you will find a button to make it the default.
• Tabs are Windows:Chrome, as a norm these days, has tabbed browsing. But what is interesting is the location bar, back, forward buttons, bookmarks, tools/options menu and everything else is below (or inside the tab), as oppose to being above or outside the tab. The latter is what we see in IE and Firefox. This gave the impression that the tabs are like independent but “placed together” windows. It is a kinda  MDI (Multiple Document Interface  application.
• Non intrusive “remember password” prompt: To continue writing this post from Chrome, I logged into my Blog and Chrome displayed the remember password prompt on the top without stopping the loading of the blog admin page (the page after login). That is, it did not pop-up a box saying “do you want to remember the password or not” and did not wait for me to say yes or no to continue loading the admin page. This feature is already showcased by and present in Firefox 3.
• A Beta with an uninstaller: It was glad to see the beta with an uninstaller. Sometimes beta applications do not ship with an uninstaller but Chrome does. Though I’m in no mood to execute the uninstaller
• Installation Location and size: No, Chrome does not install in Program Files. It installs in C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome, where <user> is the Windows login name of the user who is installing the application. This means that Chrome installed by one user will not be available to any other user of that system. I think this is rather a thought of location for a beta application. Perhaps the final version will install in Program FIles(by Administrator) and be available to all users. The installation size (basically the size of the folder) was about 46MB! I’m assuming that it did not install files elsewhere.
• Placement in quick launch menu: This is an interesting one. Chrome’s shortcut was placed on the quick launch bar – the first icon from the Start Menu. As far as I remember new shortcuts are placed towards the end of the quick launch menu (unless you move it) . Hmm has Google done some trick here ? As said above, I installed Chrome on WinXP SP2
• Built-in Spell Check: Chrome has built-in spell checker, just like Firefox. The spell checker underlines (in red) any misspellings in the typed in text in textareas (rectangular text boxes) on any webpage.
• NO RSS ???: Chrome could not detect RSS feeds in websites. Forget that, it could not even display RSS feeds in a formatted way like IE 7 or Firefox 3. It just throws the entire, unformatted text between the RSS tags. There should be a good enough reason for this. I can only think of its beta status.

So after writing this much (as above) I went to sleep (@ 05:00 hrs IST) so that I can browse with Chrome on a fresh new day.

Started my day at around 11:00 IST and started browsing through Chrome while in bed. Now sitting at my office and what I saw and seeing, is what I’m writing:

Chrome’s default page

The default page, when Chome is launched or a new tab/window is opened, is now changed to look as follows:

Default page after some browsing

That is, the default page changed to show me the most visited sites using Chrome. Visiting my favouite website is just one click away! Makes all the sense. One may tend to visit his favourite/most visted site when he launches the browser.

But the issue is, if I want to avoid one or more of my “most visited” site from showing up, I can’t. The only option is to delete the entire browsing history. Take this scenario as an example. I’m amy be giving a presentation, I launch Chrome and everyone sees a porn site as one of my most visited sites on the projector’s screen . I would like to delete just the porn site from the most visited list. While there is a way to avoid the recording of  browsing history (which I will write about a little later), but on a day to day basis one may forget to use it.

Coming back, so the default page is the recently visited sites. But there is an option in the “Customize and control Google Chrome” menu (lets call it the Tools menu hereafter), to enter the URL and make a webpage as default. You can find this at Tools>Options>Basics (tab)>Home Page>Open this page. This webpage then shows up when you launch or re-launch Chrome. But when you open a new tab or window, Chrome still shows the most visited sites. But if you check the checkbox which says “Show home button on the toolbar”. This shows a Home button (like in Firefox). Clicking on this button will open the default page that you have set.

Next as a developer, I thought occured to me. What about all those links on websites which say “make this site your default page”. Will they work ? Went to in.yahoo.com which has the link (on top left) to “Make Yahoo! India your homepage”. Clicking on this link showed!:

When I clicked to make Yahoo my home page

Instructions for Firefox!. It asked me to drag the link to the home button – but the Chrome’s Home button did not accept a drop of a link. This brings us to two questions:

1. Is a JavaScript function or some other method required for Chrome to make a website the default page ?
2. Why is Yahoo detecting Chrome as Firefox ?

Answering the first question, I feel it is not required. It makes sense that your most visited pages compose your default page.This means the websites should detect out Chrome and hide such links to set the default page.

And Yahoo is detecting Chrome as Firefox because Chrome identifies itself (via the useragent string) as a Mozilla browser. Following is the useragent string for Chrome:

“Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13″

Plugins

Installation of Flash plugin is easy and does not require a manual downloading. Once installed, for the first time, the page which demanded Flash plugin automatically refreshes to show the Flash objects or movies

Trying to browse some Silverlight apps at www.silverlight.net prompted to download and install the SilverLight plugin. The plugin installation refused to install at the first go saying that the browser or the operating system (Win XP in my case) may be incompatible. Manually clicking on, to download the Windows version, installed SilverLight 2.0 Beta 2. Henceforth, upon trying to browse SilverLight applications, showed some glimpse of the SilverLight 1.0 and 2.0 applications which were very slow and unresponsive. To summarize MS SilverLight does not seem to work with Chrome. But there should have been a clear alert by Chrome stating the same, rather than users expecting for something to happen, after seeing a glimpse of something happening and waiting for it to happen (forever).

Also just, indeed just, tried my luck by trying to install a Firefox addon (namely Sage-Too) but didn’t work. No complains though, after all Chrome is not based on the Gecko engine (which Firefox uses). Chrome uses WebKit

For Java applets, if you have installed Java Runtime Environment on Windows, Chrome shows the applets.

Porn mode a.k.a. Incognito

Like IE 8′s (Internet Explorer 8)  in-private browsing (also popular as Porn mode), Chrome features Incognito window. It can be launched from the “Control the current page”>New incognito window menu (the icon before the Tools icon).

The Incognito WIndow

It launches a distinct window with an detective wearing goggles icon on the top right – giving you a go ahead to do something goofy. As you can read in the Incognito window, this window will delete any cookies or browsing history. It still stores cookies while you are browsing. So this means it will not hamper a continuous browsing session if Cookies play a role (if any) in it. That is: your browsing experience will be as usual as before. But features like “remember me” against login boxes on websites will be useless because ‘remember me” typically remembers your login and password via Cookies. But these Cookies are destroyed when you close the Incognito window.

Since Chrome claimed that the Cookies etc. gets destroyed when the Incognito window is closed, I tried to trick it as follows. I launched the Incognito window and browsed to a site with login and remember me. Checked “remember me” and then logged in. So at this point, the Cookie would have got stored on the hard disk. Next instead of closing the Incognito window, I just closed my virtual machine, simulating an abnormal shutdown. When I booted in back, and went to the login site in the Incognito window, it did not fill up the username and password. So i could not trick the Incognito window . Chrome must be performaing a clean up on start up too.

The interesting bit is, in the Incognito window, the URLs get auto completed with the URLs you have typed in the non-Incognito window. But if you have used, for example, the remember me on a Website, the password is still not remembered in the Incognito window. So it is kinda, while the Incognito window can pick up the browsing history from the normal window, it does not pick up the Cookies. Is this an unconscious miss out or a deliberate distinction ?

–Will continue to write more, watch out!—-

Please note that I could see Google Suggest working at www.google.com and not at www.google.co.in (as of this writing). May be it will come to the latter a little later.

If you are browsing from India and you type in www.google.com you are redirected to www.google.co.in. To go to www.google.com click on the link “Go to Google.com” (found on the bottom right, below the search text box).

Once you are at google.com, try typing “open s” technology and you would get suggestions like “open source”, “open source software”, “open suse” etc. along with the number of Google search results these keywords may yield. Saves you from typing and misspells!

Google Suggest gives a type ahead suggestion for known (or well known keywords) along with the search results. That is, typing in shekhar Suggests “shekhar kapur” (famous movie director), “shekhar suman” (TV celebrity) and others but does not Suggest “shekhar govindarajan” (grrrrrr).

Google Suggest (though not at google.co.in) is live @:

• www.google.co.jp
• www.google.fr

Other titbits

• As of this writing. Google Suggest is also not implemented at http://www.google.com.pk/ (Google Pakistan). Its not available for Google Australia and Google UK too, so definitely not a third world treatment.
• The Google Suggest only works on the first page (e.g. www.google.com). When you search again using the search box on search results page, its the same old, “non type-ahead typing-in”. I wonder why?  I’m used to firing a completely different search/keywords based on the results fetched from the first (or subsequent) searches. Perhaps, a type ahead search could be nuisance if implemented across? But let the user decide this via options/preferences (see below)
• Noticed a new option named “Query Suggestions” in Preferences (link on the right side to the search box). This can be used to turn the Google Suggest on or off. But this again works only for the first page (as said above).

condom-a-cappella

I must admit that the post title is just meant to be catchy. The ringtone was launched, day before, by a campaign funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates is ex CEO and founder of Microsoft. That’s the one and only connection with Microsoft

http://www.condomcondom.org/ is the website of this campaign. The ringtone can be downloaded from this site too.

The website is meant for Indian masses and aims to create awareness about HIV and AIDS, But note that the website is Flash based and slow to download. Most people in India use slow (slower than broadband) Internet connections, many are on dialups and Flash is not installed by default. Could have been a normal, fast loading, HTML site.

Nevertheless the ringtone idea seems to be a killer idea to spread awareness and kill the condom taboo. The mobile penetration is ever increasing in India. People esp. youngsters always want to do something new with their mobile – which includes setting up an interesting new ringtone.