The browser released by Google a hundred days ago, that has attracted over ten million users throughout the world, is about to come out of beta and is ready for full release.
Throughout the beta test users were encouraged to report any bugs, while the developers worked on fixing the known ones until they reached a point where the browser is as stable and usable as it is likely to ever be.
Warning: Recent Apple Software updates may ‘brick’ your iPhone if you carry jailbreak it or unlock the handset from Apple’s preferred network provider.
The Apple iPhone was designed to be a closed system with Apple preventing any third-party applications, games or utilities being added to it.
However because the operating system is based on Unix industrious programmers have already found various methods of bypassing Apple’s ‘barriers’ and allowing people to add new software to their iPhones.
At first this meant a lot of rather scary programming processes with names like ‘jailbreak’ which were enough to have the typical iPhone user running for the hills while cradling their iPod protectively.
But in recent weeks many of these indimidating command line routines have matured into simple, easy-to-install programs that safely open your iPhone to new features such as IM, RSS readers, games and more.
One of the best of these is called AppTapp and it’s now available for both Windows and Mac computers – although inevitably it’s easier to install on Macs.
Amajor downside with online Office programs (like Google Docs) is that they require an Internet connection – that means if you are on an airplane, a cab or some remote village that has no Internet, you may not be able to create/ edit or print your documents, spreadsheets and presentations that are stored online.If this “always on” factor forcing you to stay away from any of these online office suites, some good news – the very impressive online word processor in Zoho Office suite is now available for both online and offline use through Google Gears.
To use Zoho Writer in offline mode, just install Google Gears and restart your web browser. Then login to your Zoho account and click the link at the top that says “Go Offline.”
Google Gears browser extension is available for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.
This will download all the recent documents from your Zoho online account to the hard drive. Now when you unplug the Internet cable and go offline, you will still be able to edit and save your documents inside the web browser just like you could do in online mode.
And the next time you connect to the Internet, all the changes made to documents locally will automatically be synchronized with the online copy so there are no discrepancies and you always have one version to work with.
The offline mode in Zoho Office will also prove useful in places where Wi-Fi is expensive like in the hotel rooms or the airport lounge – just connect to the internet, download the documents locally and then go offline to make those last-minute edits.
The offline feature is currently only available for Zoho Office but one can safely assume that the Google Docs team is also working on adding a similar feature to their product.
[via labnol.org]