More things I’ve written: Cyborgs and Chrome

Will humans of the future have extra ears? Probably not, but cyborg technology is still fascinating.

Sadly the “bionic arms race” owes much to a very real arms race. In 2005, the US military announced a multi-million dollar investment in prosthetic technology after a surge in the number of US soldiers losing limbs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Improvements in body armour technology mean that attacks that just a few years ago would be fatal are now survivable – but the armour doesn’t protect limbs.

Inevitably the military isn’t just interested in rehabilitating injured soldiers. It’s rather keen on enhancing soldiers’ effectiveness in battle, too, which is why it’s testing exoskeletons.

And Google Chrome 2 is out of beta. Time for another car comparison.

Firefox is a gadget-stuffed MPV, Chrome is a stripped-down sports car and IE8 is a Honda Legend: it’s built well enough, but it’s hopelessly outgunned by smarter and more stylish rivals.

Free costs money. Who’s going to pay for it? Er, you

Me, on Techradar:

We’re so used to the idea that everything online should be free that we don’t even think about it.

Of course the iPlayer should give us HD video for free. Of course Spotify should stream music for free. Websites? Free. News? Free. Video? Free. Software? Free.

There’s only one problem. Free costs money, and there isn’t enough of it.

Revealed: the world’s best browser

It doesn’t exist. So I’ve invented it!

Your web browser is probably the most important thing on your computer – and you almost certainly spend more time with it than you do with family or friends.

It’s no wonder, then, that browser battles cause so much controversy. Some browsers don’t render sites properly, others don’t include useful features, and yet more won’t let you tweak them to suit yourself.

That’s why we’ve decided to create a manifesto for our own. TechRadar doesn’t build browsers, but we think you’ll agree: if we did, it’d probably be the best browser in the world.

Windows 7 Starter Edition: no, no, no

Techradar:

Starter Edition is essentially Windows 7 with a completely arbitrary three-application limit. This restriction is “designed to ensure that users get the best possible performance” from their netbook. That’s kind, isn’t it? Why not go the whole hog and slap the Windows 7 logo on MS-DOS? That’d go like lightning!

Techradar: Chrome 2 and iPhone 3

There’s a new beta of Chrome 2. It’s fast, but there are still a few things missing.

Also: iPhone 3.0 – it’s all about the apps.

It helps if you remember that the iPhone isn’t really a phone. It’s a portable computer that just happens to make phone calls, an operating system that’s going to be available on 30 million devices.

What’s important isn’t what Apple is adding for end users, but what it’s giving developers. With version 3.0, they’ve just been given a whole bunch of new toys to play with

Techradar: Browsers, browsers, browsers

A whole bunch of browser-related things up on Techradar today. First of all: Come in Internet Explorer, your time is up:

Imagine if the browser wars were a horse race. Safari’s owner is a bit up himself, but the horse is young, sleek and hungry. Chrome is probably still a little bit too young, but he’s fast and full of potential. Firefox turns up late as always, but it’s the bookies’ and the public’s favourite. And Internet Explorer is a donkey.

It’s the result of two lots of tests, one of which compared Safari, Firefox, Chrome and IE on a reasonably well-specced PC, and one which looked at Netbooks (sorry, I meant to update the link days ago). Internet Explorer did badly in both of them:

If browsers were cars, it seems that Safari would be a Bugatti Veyron while Internet Explorer would be a knackered old Austin Allegro. Towing a caravan. On fire.

Techradar: YouTube versus PRS, and banishing software irritants

It’s Tuesday! First up: why the YouTube/PRS spat is bad news for musicians.

Ultimately, though, the spat is like watching two bald men fighting over a comb. On one side we have a multi-billion dollar corporation demanding that musicians pay the price for its inability to find a properly profitable business model; on the other we have a rights agency that appears to be stuck in a pre-internet age and can’t or won’t accept that online streaming simply doesn’t bring in the same amount of money as traditional broadcasting.

Also, 7 annoying apps you don’t have to put up with.

Printing, as Eddie Izzard once ranted, shouldn’t be hard. Control-P-Print! So why do printer manufacturers insist on installing applications for every conceivable task, such as programs that enable you to add gaudy picture frames?

Long-term readers will immediately spot that one of the nasties, Snap Shots, was briefly on this blog. I was young then, and crazy.

Is the Safari 4 beta any good?

Yes. Yes, it is. Guess where the link goes? That’s right! Techradar!

Overall, we like Safari 4 a lot. We’re not convinced we’ll actually use Top Sites or the visual History Search, but flashy gimmicks aside it’s a fast and pleasant way to do stuff online.

Windows 7 versions: come on, it’s not that complicated

Me, on Techradar: OMG! 132 versions of Windows 7!

We’re the first to mock Microsoft when the firm deserves it, but the Windows 7 line-up simply isn’t as complicated as some reports would have you believe. For the majority of us there will be two choices, just as there were with Windows XP. Home user? Windows 7 Home Premium. Home worker or small business? Windows 7 Professional.

Also on the site: Become an App Store millionaire: how three iPhone developers made it big.

“Look at it this way: most people show up to work, or school, or whatever, and they are eager to show their friends what cool new things they’ve got on their iPhone. Of the 50 apps they may have on their iPhone, they may only get a chance to show five of them to their friends. If your app is one of those five, and it can prove its worth in ten to fifteen seconds, then you’ve got yourself a successful app.” [Steve Demeter, developer of Trism]

WordPress 2.7: “Free software doesn’t get much better than this”

I’ve been playing with WordPress 2.7 for a wee while now, and my first impressions are up on Techradar:

Moving from 2.6 to 2.7 is no mere point upgrade: it’s more like moving from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. For beginners, it’s easier than before; for existing WordPress users it’s more flexible and considerably less annoying.