Web

Fix Gmail's failure to launch in Chrome and other browsers

Google's Chrome browser is noted for being faster and smaller than Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox. That's why it caught me by surprise when Gmail wouldn't load in Chrome but would open without a problem in Firefox and IE.

A quick Web search led to a thread on the Chrome Help forum dating back to March 2009 but updated as recently as this month. Several solutions to the Gmail slowdown were proposed in the thread, but it appears that Google engineers haven't yet figured out why Gmail sometimes balks in Chrome.

The fix … Read more

Get a $220 software bundle for $19, help charity

I've got something special today. A few months back, I approached AppSumo (known for putting together great software and service bundles) about creating a package that would benefit charity.

They agreed, so I got to work rounding up some of my favorite programs, games, Web services, and so on. And I'm happy to share the result: The Windows Holiday Bundle for Charity. It has a combined value of $220, but a sale price of just $19.

For every bundle sold, AppSumo will give a full 40 percent of the proceeds to Charity:Water, which provides clean drinking water … Read more

Delete accounts in Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Windows Live

The Internet makes it so easy to share data that once a bit of information gets planted on a Web server, it's nearly impossible to remove all traces of it. The e-mail, photos, and other data we upload to Web sites will travel far and wide, whether we intend it to or not.

(The dark side of this sharing is shown by the recent Gawker security breach, as reported by CNET's Steven Musil. See below for links to more information on the Gawker data leak.)

When it comes time to remove an account, we can only hope the … Read more

Five air travel apps for the holiday weekend

America will be on the move this Thanksgiving week as millions crowd airports, highways and trains in search of that tasty turkey or Tofurky meal. Though travel rarely stresses me, I know the prospect of braving the tired masses and the TSA pat-downs can be daunting. So to help you navigate from home to holiday, and complete your journey with as little pain as possible, I've pulled a few must-have smartphone apps. Being the aviation nut that I am I'll focus on air travel, but I'd love to hear your titles for braving the roads and rails. And please tell me about your favorite flying apps as well.

FlightTrack Whether you're picking Mom up at LAX or flying to O'Hare as I am, a flight-tracker app is essential. There are quite a few options available in both the iTunes App Store and the Android Market, but FlightTrack by Mobiata is one of my favorites. You get a lot of information in a clean and easily digestible format and the maps are the best I've seen. Cheaper titles are available, but I think FlightTrack is worth the money.

Before a flight departs you'll see the scheduled departure time and any delay information. And once a flight is in the air FlightTrack shows the airspeed, arrival gate, baggage carousel number, present altitude, a shortcut to the airline's phone number, and the local time and temperature of the departure and arrival cities.

Availability: iPhone and Android Price: $4.99

Point Inside Though it's not devoted solely to air travel, Point Inside is the perfect app during a long airport layover or when you're delayed. For most major airports around the country, and a selection in Europe and Asia, it shows maps of everything you'll need, including shops and restaurants, departure gates, baggage claim carousels, ticketing desks, airline lounges, and related services. … Read more

Speed up Firefox 4 with a BarTab tweak

The latest Firefox 4 beta comes with an easy hack to help tab addicts cover the high cost of memory-devouring tabs. Watch how to enable this key function of the BarTab add-on, without installing the add-on itself.

How to remove personal information from Google search

In this video, Natali Morris shows you how to keep your personal life out of Google search results.

Free Firefox add-ons detect Firesheep snooping

Every wireless-network user should know the perils of signing into a Web service over an unencrypted connection. Elinor Mills explains the perils of using open Wi-Fi networks in her InSecurity Complex blog.

The safest approach is to enter user IDs and passwords only when the page's address begins with "https://" and it has a lock icon at the top or bottom of the browser window. Otherwise a network snoop could monitor your actions without your knowledge. Note that the lock icon may have an exclamation mark even though the page address begins with "https:". This … Read more

Tools for rooting out Web plagiarism, copyright violations

Some misguided souls in the Internet publishing world still consider all online material as being in the public domain. A recent example of this cluelessness is the editor of a food journal who stole an article that included a recipe for apple pie and then claimed to be doing the article's author a favor by reprinting it without the author's permission or any remuneration, as described by Helen A.S. Popkin on the MSNBC.com TechnoLog.

(See a related blog by CNET contributor Lance Whitney for more on the story.)

For the record, copyrights do indeed extend to … Read more

Combine and organize your e-mail accounts

I'll wager you've got mail waiting for you right now--probably in several different inboxes.

Gone are the days of having only two e-mail accounts: one from your boss for work and another from your ISP for everything else. Now you're likely to have a Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or other free Webmail account--and maybe two, three, or more such addresses--in addition to or in place of your work and ISP accounts.

You can avoid having to open multiple programs or browser windows to view all your messages by forwarding mail between your active accounts. That way you've … Read more