Chrome becomes #3 most popular browser!
As a web developer I have to know which browsers people are going to use when they visit my sites. However, it also means that I've tried nearly every browser out there and can safely say that Chrome by Google gets my vote as being the best. Apparently it is beginning to catch on with mainstream America too.
According to Net Applications Google Chrome just passed Apple's Safari browser to take the #3 spot in the browser share market. Still a long ways from taking the #2 spot from Mozilla's Firefox (24.23% share), and even farther from the long-time leader Microsoft Internet Exploder (61.58% share), Chrome is the ONLY browser of the big five to have gained market share.
Ditch IE for Chrome
While it may have only risen 0.39% last month with the general public, Mashable.com, a technology and social media blog, reports that use among its users rose from 12.68% to 14.8% (a gain of 2.12%). What does this tell us? Well, taking the fact that most of Mashable's readers are techies, leads us to assume that more and more tech savvy users are finding and using Chrome. Which, I believe, means that the general population is not far behind.
If you haven't given Chrome a shot, and I mean use it...don't just install it, then you're doing yourself an injustice. Chrome starts faster, loads pages faster, runs javascript applications faster, and makes search easier than any other browser out there. It's also, in my opinion, the best looking browser out there with its new themes and clean layout. Add to this the many available extensions that you can install into the browser and it all of a sudden becomes almost as useful as Firefox without cluttering up the interface or slowing down performance. Here are a few more of Google's reasons for why you should be running Chrome.
Sprint EVO 4G Superphone
The Nexus One is already a worthy competitor for the iPhone, but the Sprint Evo 4G may prove to be the first phone that is BETTER than the iPhone. Both Engadget and Gizmodo agree that the Evo will combine the best hardware on the market with the new Android 2.1 OS to deliver one of the best, if not the best, phone available.
Specs (according to Engadget)
The handset is centered around a 480 x 800 4.3-inch TFT LCD, with a Snapdragon QSD8650 1GHz processor under the hood (the CDMA version of the QSD8250 in the HD2 and Nexus One), and even a helpful 1GB of built-in memory and 512MB of RAM -- hello app storage! Even the battery is bigger than the HD2, and the camera is an 8 megapixel monstrosity with flash, that's capable of 720p video, and is augmented by a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for good measure. The phone features HDMI out (though you'll need an adapter for turning it into a TV-familiar HDMI plug), 802.11b/g WiFi, and an 8GB microSD card. There's that still-rare Android 2.1 underneath an updated version of HTC's Sense UI. But... despite all these wild features, what actually sets the EVO 4G apart is the fact that it's Sprint's first 4G phone. The handset runs a combo of EV-DO Rev. A and WiMAX, with calls still being made over CDMA and the EV-DO / WiMAX options for data.
CLEAR, the 4G Wi-Max provider the phone would use, currently serves 34 million people in 27 cities, but has plans to expand its 4G network to serve 130 million people in 34 major cities by the end of the year. The best part of this device may have nothing to do with the device itself, but could be the software that it ships with that turns it into a wireless 4G hotspot for up to 8 devices.
Sprint still has not announced an exact date for its release, but if you're as interested in the EVO as I am, you can sign up to be notified when it is released on Sprint's EVO site.
For more information, pictures and a 3D demo of the phone check out Engadget, Gizmodo, Daily Finance and the Sprint EVO site.
