Hasta La Gadget!

HP recently made available the source code for webOS Community Edition, and you can say that developers have dived into the operating system with a buzz, modifying it according to their whim, fancy and ability. Well, what are the results of their labor? One of the initial hacks hail from from Dave Freeman, who was a developer at HP Palm. He successfully enabled the user to switch between currently running apps by swiping from the side of the screen. Normally, this move is done by swiping up from the bottom of the screen so that a set of “cards” are brought up, and then you make the switch through scrolling it. Freeman’s software frees (namesake, I see what you did there) the user from doing so, resulting in one less step. This was made possibly be modifying the LunaSysMgr binary.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HP webOS Community Edition released, webOS 3.0.5: More source code to be released by HP,

Following the official debut of the Google Chrome browser in the iOS platform today, it appears that the app is now hitting the charts by becoming the number one free app in the App Store. This is interesting considering the fact that the app has just been officially released in iOS a few hours ago. At the Google I/O developer conference today,  Vice President of Chrome Brian Rakowski demonstrated Chrome using an iPhone and a MacBook.

Chrome is currently available for iOS 4.3 or higher devices and it supports Chrome sync, a nifty feature that lets users synchronize tabs, bookmarks and log-in credentials across multiple devices. In December last year, we reported that Chrome is already the most popular browser in the world. Our report was based from a research data gathered by the web analytics firm StatCounter.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Chrome blamed for MacBook crashes, Google confirms issue, Google introduces Chrome browser for the iPhone and iPad,

Whether it’s so ugly it’s beautiful or just plain beautiful is hard to pin down, but the GreatWhite SHK979C chassis looks like an alien torture probe. Luckily, it’s just a fantastically designed, super-frosty enclosure for your gaming setup. More »

As part of the continued effort from Bing Maps to provide more and better data to its users, Bing Map has announced that it is adding 2700 venues worldwide to its service. The additional data comes from the partnership that Microsoft is doing with Nokia in the mapping area.

If you have not used it before, Bing Venue Maps provides indoor maps for large buildings such as malls. Indoor map information contains store location, but also ATM, restrooms and other things that people may search for in such places.

Of course, 2700 additional venues worldwide isn’t much and chances are that you are not going to use this right away. But just like maps in the early days, this effort will increasingly become more complete, and therefore useful. By then, we can hope that indoor-location will be available on handset, which is what we’re really excited about. If you want to check at venues, just head to the Bing Venue Maps site and note that this is also available to Windows Phone 7.5 users.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Windows Phone Maps Traffic, Now Powered by Nokia, Google files complaint against Microsoft and Nokia over “mobile patent abuse” in the EU,

Chromebook laptop

It was a year ago, also at Google I/O, which saw the first generation of Chromebooks released in the mass consumer market, where the entire idea was to help seed the market and receive relevant feedback from a bunch of developers. With a new update being released for the operating system once every six weeks, Chromebooks might be the next big thing on your shopping wish list, perhaps? However, there is a new Chromebook announced today which is said to be far faster than before, sporting a new app-centric interface that makes it resemble a far more traditional operating system – reducing the learning curve too, I guess. The new Chromebooks (see our preview) are going to be available in 100 Best Buy retial locations throughout the US, and if you happen to live across the pond, you can pick up your Chromebook from Dixon’s.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook Review, Newer Chromebooks have 5 second boot up time,