Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

This year Google went for a Gossip-Girl inspired XOXO, V-day logo:

I think it’s a very striking color of red, but not very romantic logo.

Google Chrome, Google’s new web browser is out, and you can download it! Gizmodo earlier posted some screenshots (as did TechCrunch and Walter Mossberg), but I thought I should post a few of my own captures of the fast, new browser in action.

The first screen you see shows your recent history and a bookmarks bar

The about:memory page shows memory usage of Google Chrome, and any other browser you might have open (Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari). It’s a nice, sneaky feature that makes you feel better about how Chrome manages system resources.

Google Chrome stole Firefox’s Awesome bar. In fact, the Google “do anything” bar is less usable than Firefox’s, and uglier to boot.

As Reisigner noted, Chrome is faster than other browsers. It shows this off with its own task manager.

Chrome seamlessly imports bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history from Firefox

For those afraid Google might do some evil, and watch what you’re surfing on the internet, Matt Cuts in Preventing paranoia: when does Google Chrome talk to Google.com? writes about how Chrome will contact Google:

I knew that as soon as Google Chrome launched, some readers would ask tough questions about privacy and how/when Google Chrome communicates with google.com. So I decided to tackle this issue head-on. I talked to the Chrome team to find out if there’s anything to worry about. The short answer is no. For the long answer, read on.

So, Chrome is a gorgeous, fast, simple, and secure browser. Why not use it? No more crashing, lightning-fast page loading and rendering, faster javascript, a standards-compliant renderer, nice import features… there’s really no reason not to switch.

If you recently unlocked your iPhone 3G and found after going through the whole WinPWN / Cydia process that T-Mobile Edge settings only work for Mail, but not for Google Maps, or other important services, you’re not alone. It’s also quite easy to fix, and continues to work with location services and other apps from the AppStore.

1) Install SSH

Assuming you have Cydia, you should install the OpenSSH package onto your iPhone. Just scroll down to OpenSSH, and hit install:

2) Download WinSCP, connect to iPhone

You can download the latest version of WinSCP and install it. Then it will prompt you to connect to your iPhone, which you should have running on your local Wifi. Note that the default username and password for the 3G iPhone will be root/alpine. If you don’t know the IP address you can either guess in the 192.168.0/1.* range, or just logon to your router and see.

3) Verify / Update Proxy.pac

Use the file browser to verify that a file called ./private/var/preferences/proxy.pac exists, and contains the following:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
if (isInNet(myIpAddress(), “10.0.0.0″, “255.0.0.0″))
return “PROXY 216.155.165.50:8080″;
else
return “DIRECT”;
}

You could just run these commands:

Kiwiii:/ root# find -name proxy.pac
./private/var/preferences/proxy.pac
Kiwiii:/ root# md5sum ./private/var/preferences/proxy.pac
8c9a4f4b1692cd3519ce7bcf180c66a4 ./private/var/preferences/proxy.pac
Kiwiii:/ root#

4) Verify preferences.plist

Next you need to hunt for /private/var/preferences/systemconfiguration/preferences.plist, and make sure it contains this section:

<key>Proxies</key>
<dict>
<key>ProxyAutoConfigEnable</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>ProxyAutoConfigURLString</key>
<string>file:///private/var/preferences/proxy.pac</string>
</dict>

You should put it on the same level and after the Interface key/dict pair for the network interface which contains your WAP settings, which for T-Mobile’s $5.99 T-Zones are just the WAP APN wap.voicestream.com with no username or password. Save the file, restart your iPhone, and you’re set!

Yep, it found me! Yay! Google maps is working!