Google has launched beta versions of its Chrome web browser for Mac OS X and Linux. Although the software is far from a finished “1.0” release, the beta launch does mark a new era of official platform support for Google’s browser, and may help spur browser and extension development as it taps into a wider user community. Google’s Chrome browser focuses on speed, and brings features like the Omnibox (which acts as both a search and address bar) to both platforms.
On the Mac, Google Chrome supports only Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” or newer on Intel-based Macs: folks with older PowerPC-based systems won’t get to play. However, Google has worked to make the Mac version of Chrome more than a mere port, support Mac OS X technology like the system-wide Keychain. However, the Mac version is lacking a few other features, including bookmark and cookie management, as well as bookmark synchronization. Google says the emphasis was on getting Chrome solid and performing, rather than focusing on breadth of features for the beta release.
On the Linux side, Chrome integrates all with native GTK themes and handles updates through the standard system package manager, so Chrome plays well with other applications.
Chrome for both Windows and Linux supports Extensions, which add additional functionality onto Chrome that can run in its own process without destabilizing the browser. Google says extensions are coming to Mac OS X, but aren’t yet “beta quality.”
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.