gOS – Linux for the rest of us

When I saw this OS in the flesh, I had to have it. gOS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distro that runs in a Cloud environment. The simplest way to describe a Cloud system is that it’s an operating system that runs like a web browser (Google Chrome OS will be Cloud based). This OS is perfect for netbooks because it’s lightweight and relies on an Internet connection, so if you don’t have one, installing it would be totally useless.

I’m running gOS 3.1 Gadgets – and this is what my desktop looks like:

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Tags: google, gOS, linux

Review: HTC Magic

When I got my hands on the HTC Magic (G2), the first thing I noticed was how slim and sleek it was, compared to its predecessor, the HTC Dream (G1). I’m no fan of HTC (hardware or OS) but I think this model is one that is decent enough to use. The phone has 6 buttons (home, menu, back and search and call & end call) and a trackball in the centre. To the left top side of the phone you will find an additional button that adjusts ring volume.

This is the first touch user interface phone I’ve used without a stylus and it didn’t take too long to get used to. The home screen is customizable and allows you to drag and drop icons anywhere on screen. If you swipe your finger across the screen, in both directions, you will see two additional ‘screens’. The one to the left displays your Google calendar and the one to the right, Google search.

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Tags: android, g2, google, htc magic, open source, review, vodacom

realtime Twitter results on Google search

I decided to enable realtime Twitter search results for my Google searches. All news breaks on Twitter, no?

All you have to do is use Firefox and have the Greasemonkey add-on enabled. Get it here – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748.

Then install the Twitter search script – http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/43451

Do a search and ta-da:

The last 5 tweets on your subject searched will be displayed.

Tags: firefox, google, greasemonkey, results, search, twitter