scott.hodson.blog

I’m pretty impressed with the new Google Chrome browser. While it seems to perform fast, like Safari (also based on WebKit), my favorite feature so far is the “View Source” UI. Hitting Ctrl-U (same hotkey as Firefox) to view a page’s HTML source brings in up in a separate tab (not a separate window or Notepad (blech IE)) and included really nice color-coded HTML, validates, and external resources (CSS, images, JS files, etc) are hyperlinked so you can click on them to view them.

Also, I like how the integrated search works. You can press Ctrl-K (same hotkey as Firefox) or you can just press “?” in the address bar and enter your search terms and it will perform a search on your default search engine.

The mutli-process architecture is also very impressive and takes the approach of an operating system, making the browser more stable with multiple tabs, each running plugins or other embedded content simultaneously running in its own process outside of the browser.

As the rollout of the 3G iPhone continues its wide distribution, it seems people can’t get enough of the apps on the iTunes AppStore. Many of the apps are free, and most of those that are not free cost less than $5. These small-priced apps are interesting, because at that price-point they are akin to ringtones, which people have spent billions of dollars on over the years. This offers an exciting opportunity to developers to sell very low-priced apps that can sell in huge volumes. And because the distribution of the apps are centralized (iTunes) and they can install over-the-air without being connected to a Mac or PC there is much less friction for buyers to get their hands on these. I think the iPhone and iPod Touch platform is a very exciting opportunity for small, independent developers.