Interested in trying Google Chrome on your Mac?

Sadly, a release version of Chrome for the Mac is not yet available; however a development version known as Chromium is available for download but it can be a daunting task keeping it updated since it doesn't include an auto update feature. This in itself could be a bit exciting to Google/Mac fans; however, let's bump it up a notch. Rob Griffiths (yeah...the MacWorld Rob Griffiths) has clicked together an Automator application around a shell script developed by Mac OS X Hints contributor oblahdioblidaa.

The script simply reaches out to the Chromium development site and installs the latest version of Chromium into your Applications folder. Rob recommends running his Automator application regularly since updates are frequent and even shares ways to automate the process. If you want to learn how to create the Automator application yourself, check out his detailed instructions. If you just want to install Chromium, download Rob's Automater application, place it in your Applications folder and start it up. In no time you'll be running the latest Chromium build. Great work Rob!

{UPDATE: I've been playing with Chromium for a bit and “oh my goodness.” The release build is FAST. Easily as fast as Safari 4 and on top of that, it scored 100% on the Acid 3 test. However, there is a down side. Flash is not yet supported, so no YouTube. Things really look good for this new addition to the Mac browser wars.}

Technorati Tags: chrome, chromium, mac, google, browser, docstechnotes

Doc’s Tech Notes Version 3.0

After much gnashing of teeth, trying to bend the Blogger css to my will (In best Jedi voice; “these are not the codes you are looking for”), Doc’s Tech Notes version 3.0 is finally online. This is a design I’ve been fleshing out for some time and I’m pretty happy with the results so far. I have some minor changes and annoyances to iron out, but this far and away is the best version of Doc’s Tech Notes yet.

One of the things I love about the new design is the flexibility I have including images. Be sure to scroll down the page and look for fun images littered about - more to come. I would love to hear your thoughts on the new design, so leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: web, design, docstechnotes, blogger, css

Google Quick Search Box goes legit

The Google Quick Search Team just released Google Quick Search Box 2.0.0.1447 (Iron). This version comes out of the lab and becomes a full fledged Google product. Here's what the team has included/fixed in this official release:

From the Google Quick Search Team:

Thank you for working with QSB and giving us so much encouragement and feedback. We really appreciate it. Please consider joining our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/qsb-mac-discuss . Issues can be filed on our issues list at http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac/issues/list .

• Google website suggestion and Google search suggestions are now on by default. You can still turn them off in the preferences.
• Fixed up some multi display issues that hopefully should help people out who plug their laptops into large displays on a regular basis.
• Issue 49
• Issue 33
• Issue 452: Calculator no longer caches results as shortcuts.
• Issue 443: We now show suggestions even if there aren't other results.
• "Trash" result now ranks itself decently.
• Issue 446: Application UI source now ranks matches. Thanks to Martin Kühl for his help with this one.
• Issue 176: Clicking on dock icon no longer puts result panel box on top of search box.
• Issue 269: Actions no longer block the QSB.
• Issue 455: Quicklook works on SnowLeopard.
• Fixed up all the bad redraw with whitespace issues where clipping and bad window positioning was occurring due to animations being interrupted.
• Issue 46
• Issue 100
• Issue 132
• Issue 4: We now use the user's default chat client instead of always defaulting to iChat.
• Issue 431: Recent Documents now ranks matches better. Thanks to Martin Kühl for his help with this one.
• You can now search for buddies when pivoting on iChat. Buddies also show presence icons beside them.
• Stars and history flags are shown beside bookmarks and websites
• Issue 420: Google Finance searches are now supported (though the presentation should be improved in the future).
• Issue 466: Fixed a crash when pivoting on a term with a colon that is not a properly formed URL, such as 'cherrybump:left'.
• Issue 462: Some supposedly invisible files were being presented as results (i.e. 'Desktop DB') but are now suppressed.
• Issue 61: Added support for copy/paste of results.
• Issue 258: Added partial support for drag of results (not drop yet).
• Issue 311: Made show large type more useful with the dictionary plugin.

My personal favorite new feature is support for dragging results. This makes it easy to drag items out of QSB and on your desktop or into an app. Get your copy here. Read the Official Google Mac Blog for more information. Technorati Tags: google,, qsb,, quicksearchbox,, mac,, apple,, osx,, launcher,, docstechnotes