With the release of Google Chrome (beta) this week to the masses, Google reaches into the browser market, hoping to pull out a healthy handful of early adapters. I’m always willing to try something new, especially when it’s free. So of course I headed on over to the Google Chrome homepage and clicked the big blue download button. The install failed miserably on not only my computer at work, but also one of my employee’s computers (both XP). After a few minutes on my laptop at home, I have a successful Chrome install and some initial opinions.

What is Google Chrome?
Google has their own description of Chrome:

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

If you want some more in depth information about it, you can always check out the videos and other accompanying material or you could read the 38 page book if you have a free hour or two. In short, Chrome is the newest browser to jump into an already competitive market feet first.

Why should I care?
For most people, the answer to this question is pretty clear. You should care because you spend 95% of your internet time in a web browser. While you may be content with Firefox or Internet Explorer, a browser is really only as good as its competition forces it to be. For proof of that, you need look no further than Google Chrome. Any company would have to be stupid to come to the table with anything less when trying to take on the big dogs.

A new Development Market?
Developers like me have a whole additional perspective on the matter. Firefox opened the door for a slew of plug-ins and add-ons created by average Joes like me. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a company like Google is apt to follow suit and with a fresh market, the possibilities are endless.

New browser, new features
So what if you released your own browser. I could do that. People are used to their own browser and you’re going to have to step it up if you want to shift their loyalty in your direction. The company that weened us from Yahoo searches knows this all too well and they’ve come prepared. Although Chrome is still just in beta, it offers up plenty already. For starters, it just looks smooth. One of the first things I noticed (even when it didn’t work right on my office computer) was the interface. It’s clean and it’s minimal. The menu bar is completely gone as is the status bar you would find at the bottom of other browsers. When the status updates (like when you mouse over a link and it shows you the URL it links to), the update shows just briefly over the bottom-most content and then fades back out. It seems a lot faster, too. Between my own site, Flickr, Google Maps, and everywhere else, things just seem to load fast and run smoothly. Another area I looked for improvement over FF and IE is memory consumption. Currently, with just this tab I’m writing in and a Flickr tab, Chrome is eating about 60MB of my memory. Firefox needs about 38MB for the same two tabs, and IE used about 31MB. Not very impressive fro Chrome. Others have reported impressive memory savings with Chrome, so your mileage may vary.

One new feature I was instantly impressed with was the home page. While the glimmer may eventually wear off and it’s not exactly world-changing, I liked that Google thought outside the box to make my browsing experience just a bit more convenient. The default home page comes equipped with a memory of your most visited pages, a search box, most recent bookmarks and most recently closed tabs. There are about 7 sites that I visit constantly, and even with auto-completion of URLs in other browsers, this is a huge time saver. For those worried about the privacy implications of all this, Google has already answered your concerns with their “incogneto window”, which is nothing more than a new browser window that ignores history and cache and all those things that can get you in trouble when you’re visiting sites you shouldn’t be.

Still offering fresh ideas, Chrome opens your history and downloads in a new tab and lets you search them. Again, auto-complete is nice, but as you can see above, Chrome lets you search the actual content of your history and returns a list complete with a partial text preview and thumbnails. Don’t forget downloads. If you want quick access to that file you downloaded, just look through the list or search for it.

Should I switch?
Don’t uninstall your default browser just yet. Google made a big first impression, but it’s still Beta. That said, you should definitely download it and play around. When the first stable release comes, you’ll already be comfortable with the interface. There’s still a few smaller features that Chrome lacks and a developer-supported library of add-ons is a must, however. When these things are addressed, I could see myself sending FireFox an “it’s not you… it’s Chrome” letter.

What about you? Have you tried Chrome? Any plans to? What are your thoughts?

JoeTech.com is once again in need of talented writers with a love of technology. While I love to write new articles, I often get very busy and can go a few days without a post. I also want to continue to add new and fresh perspectives to keep things interesting.

Topics I would like to see articles about include :
* Gadgets
* Computers
* Web /internet technology
* Tech news
* Reviews (must be cool and not your own blog, please)
* Tech-related videos and images are sometimes OK.

As is always the case with guest blogging, please take a look at existing articles to get a feel for the style and what I’m looking for. For each article I accept, I will throw $5 into a prize pool. At the end of every month, I’ll choose a winner and that winner will get the cash. If I get enough writers, I may add in some bonus prize money.

That’s it. You could make one post and wind up with $100 or more, depending on how many posts there are total. On top of that, you’ll get a PR5 link back to your blog.

To jump in, you just need to register. Once registered, you can start writing. I will review each article and publish each one as long as there is not a problem with it.

If you need images for your post, let me know what you need and I’ll take care of it. Monthly winners will be paid via PayPal and I may choose to bring a writer or two on permanently in the near future.

Sponsored Post:

I have been slacking on site reviews for a couple reasons. Primarily, a lot of the reviews people want me to do for free aren’t related to technology or the web at all. Then there’s the paid reviews. $100 sounds nice, but not to review something you don’t care about. It’s not fair to you or to the person paying for the review. StylishDesign.com, on the other hand, is about what I have a passion for, so I present to you my first site review in a while.
(added note for clarification: $100 was not the price of this review. $100 was the amount offered by another company that I turned down.)

What is Stylish Design?
In this context, it’s a web site about the many ingredients that go into making web content. The About page still contains WordPress’ default example page content, but here’s the gist of the site, according to the homepage:

Stylishdesign.com is a blog about web designing and other stuff related to web design. On this blog you’ll find a lot of information about search engine optimization, web directories, different tools/softwares, CSS, website templates and so on.

Usability and Aesthetics
One thing I don’t like about a site is when it’s way too cluttered up and too hard to read the content. At the end of the day, the quality of your content is just barely more important than the usability of your site. SytlishDesign doesn’t have a super fancy site design. Instead, they have a very clean and still aesthetically pleasing design that makes reading SD articles what it should be: easy. The latest article is prominently featured at the top of the page and additional articles with preview snippets are below it. For a new site, it looks very professional, and that can make all the difference between success and failure.

Content is King
That is the saying, isn’t it? Stylish Design is still a pretty new blog, but they have already formed a content pattern. It seems that Robert is much more in tune with the server side of the web equation, writing articles about serving up static web pages, HTTP Request headers (very important to know about when developing dynamic sites), and my personal favorite, functions and codes.

While I still see a CSS article void that I imagine will be filled soon enough, there is at least one article that touches on SEO, as well. It talks about how submitting content to article directories can be good for traffic. Design is pretty negotiable and programming is straight-forward, but SEO is a tricky beast and I am anxious to see more articles from them in that arena.

Last week, a link to this video came across my Twitter. The claim was that there is a cigarette that is “mostly harmless”. Having smoked for several years (and having quit to be more healthy), I became intrigued pretty quickly. After watching the video, I emailed the marketing department, and Jim (the guy “not smoking” in the video) responded. As it turns out, NJOY is headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ. Today, I had a chance to tour their offices, try the product, and sit down with Jim for some details on how it all works. If you decide to buy anything from NJOY, be sure to save 10% on your purchase with the coupon code, “Joe10“.

After watching the video, I had a few questions.

What is NJOY?
The short answer is that it is a non-burning, smokeless, (mostly) odorless electronic cigarette. By definition, it’s not even a cigarette. It’s really an electronic device that emits a nicotine vapor that is inhaled. There’s no flames, smoke, second-hand risk (that I am aware of) or any of the typical characteristics of a cigarette that annoy non-smokers. It’s more like a social improvement on the use of nicotine.

Can I really smoke it on a plane?
Legally, yes. When I met with Jim, he was happy to show me some helpful documentation. Included in this was a letter from the Transportation Security Administration, stating that because the device is not a tobacco product, the laws that prohibit smoking on a plane don’t apply. As a matter of fact, since it doesn’t produce smoke, it is legal to use anywhere smoking is otherwise banned. This would have been really handy when I was living in Detroit and had to brave the zero degree winter weather for my nicotine fix at work.

Does it cause cancer?
Smoking is bad, and NJOY seems to avoid the whole tar and carcinogens issue completely by providing a cigarette that produces neither. The main reason I quit smoking is because of the risk of cancer. I liked smoking, but I eventually got to a point where I decided that I was too old and too smart to continue spending money to risk getting cancer. While NJOY contains the nicotine that smokers crave, it doesn’t create the tar, it’s actually healthier than smoking traditional cigarettes. It does still feel like a cigarette, though. This is probably what I liked most about it.

It must be expensive, right?
The second motivator for me giving up cigarettes was the rising cost. I smoked about a half pack per day at almost $6 per pack. To put it into perspective, quitting smoking pretty much pays for my dedicated server at $100 per month. Had I known about NJOY, I would probably still be “smoking”, only without the health risks and at about half the cost. An NJOY cartridge provides about the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes, but only costs about $5. If you’re having a hard time quitting, switching to NJOY could be an alternative that will at least save you money.

Is there a smell?
I asked Jim about the odor. As a smoker, I hadn’t noticed it much, but as a non-smoker, the smoke odor that sticks to a smoker is pretty noticeable. I couldn’t smell it at all. While I puffed away at the cigarette model, Jim took a big drag from the cigar model and I leaned in to smell the vapor he exhaled. I had to try pretty hard to get the odor. The strawberry cigarette model smelled a bit like strawberries.

How does it work?
This is the part that has me so excited. I still don’t understand it 100 percent, but the basics are pretty clear. The cigarette comes in three pieces. There’s the battery (the “cherry” half of the cigarette), the actual vaporizing component that contains the microelectronics in the middle, and the “replaceable cartridge containing water, propylene glycol, nicotine, a scent that emulates a tobacco flavor and a membrane to suspend the ingredients” that makes up the “butt” end you inhale through.

When you take a drag, the vaporization process is triggered, vaporizing and heating the nicotine and flavor scent. This warm vapor is what you are inhaling, making it feel like a drag from a real cigarette and providing you with the tiny dose of nicotine. When you exhale, you expel the vapor, but if you are trying to not look like you are smoking for some reason, you can just hold it in. The thing I like about this process is that you can just take a drag and then not have another until you want it. Any smoker who has been interrupted during a smoke and saved that half cigarette for later knows the benefit I’m talking about.

The investment
I look at this like having a printer at home. You’ll save money printing things yourself at home, but you need to first invest in the printer. This isn’t much different. They’ve got a starter kit that comes with all the goodies you would need to get started. Then you just buy the cartridges. The starter kit is $110 ($99 with the coupon), which sounds expensive at first, but if you smoke a pack a day, you would make up that cost after just over a month of smoking. After that, you’d be saving money.

Is it for me?
For me, maybe not. I’ve quit smoking, so for me it would re-introduce the nicotine and probably start my habit back up. My brother, on the other hand would love this. He’s still a smoker and could definitely benefit from the savings and the convenience. The starter kit may actually be his next birthday gift. As for you, it really depends on where you are today. If you’re not a smoker, there’s not much reason to start, but if you’re already smoking, it makes sense to reduce the health risks and cost and be able to have that cigarette when you need it, regardless of location.

At the end of the day, I found that I really liked the product. Jim filled me in on some new things they’ve got in the works, too. I promised to not say what they are, but if the product interests you, subscribe to their updates (bottom of the site) to get informed. They’re working on some pretty cool stuff.

Did you ever watch Mr. Wizard’s World? I did… I watched all the time, so this weekend was a real treat. About a week ago, a company called Tech Lasers asked if I would be interested in a laser from their product line to review. I’m much more computer geek than I am science geek, but I’m also much more science geek than most people, so I wasn’t about to say no. The following came in the mail:

Better safe than blind
To be honest, I haven’t really done much with lasers at all, so I had not expected the protective glasses. Wearing them was just foreign to me, but I’m a fan of being able to see, and getting a laser beam in my eye might ruin that for me. Besides, Tech Lasers thought well enough to provide them and they know their stuff, so I’ll heed the warnings in the instruction booklet and wear them. By the way, NOW I know they were crooked. Put yours on straight and you won’t look as goofy. Even though this is a much more powerful laser than the typical ones you might use to play with your cat, always keep the same principal in mind and never look directly into one.

About Tech Lasers
Tech Lasers is a company based in Hong Kong, and although they seem to be the new kids on the block, they definitely don’t look like it. I’ll let them speak for themselves for a moment:

We strive to provide our customers with a variety of high powered laser pointers to choose from. While Tech Lasers currently offer green, blue, yellow and infrared lasers, our laser specialists and merchandizing staff are working to develop and source more.? This is only the beginning of what is to come.

A really cool laser pointer
The laser appears to be the 15mW version from the Infiniti line. It’s hard to say for sure, as it doesn’t appear to be labeled. It does say that it’s “<125mW". I suppose that's a downside of their lasers and I hope that either I am mistaken or they eventually add some kind of means of identification to the Infiniti products.

That small detail aside, this 532nm wavelength (green) laser pointer is about the size of your standard Radio Shack laser pointer, only the button is a little easier to hold down for a long period of time. I have cats, so I can say this with certainty. Of course, this one has a larger price at about $90, but the differences between this laser product and your average laser pointer answer for the price gap. Tech Lasers also included a price comparison chart between them and the “Viper” series from Dragon Laser, which looks like an exact duplicate of my new Infiniti laser pointer for about ten bucks more. To be fair, I searched for a similar product from other companies. I found other companies selling what looked like the same product for usually $10 more than Tech Lasers. The prices Tech Lasers offer look better and better with the higher mW products.

I didn’t have a black balloon to try and pop, but that’s not very practical for most of us, anyway. It’s neat, but just not something you need very often. The web site points to these lasers a great tools for backyard astronomers. I’ve been getting a bit more into astronomy myself this past year, so I thought I’d try pointing to some stars with my Infiniti. I waited until it was nice and dark and headed outside with my laser. I checked for aircraft and there were none in sight, so I pointed it to a group of stars and pressed the button. I was a little shocked, at first. The laser beam went as far into the sky as I can see and I easily lined it up with a star. Because my wife likes to view the stars with me, I brought her out to see. Within a minute, she had control of the laser and was pointing to stars. I tried to take photos that just didn’t turn out too well (but they’re on Flickr, regardless), so here’s a quick video clip of the laser in action (indoors).

Before it arrived, I had planned on giving away my new Tech Lasers Infiniti, but after pointing it to the sky, I think I’ll keep it to use for my star gazing. If you want something to keep your cats busy, head to Radio Shack, but if you want a real laser, head to TechLasers.com.