Stories by Howard Wen

Tips and tricks for upgrading your Android phone

The biggest problem with the Android platform has been how slowly many phone makers release the latest version of the OS for their older models. It's also not unusual for them to never do so. (A company may not want to spend resources on phones they no longer sell; or, they and the carrier for a particular model may not agree on when to provide an update.)

Confessions of a Chromebook addict

Last December, Google started shipping the Cr-48 -- a lightweight notebook running Chrome OS -- to select people across the U.S. This pilot program was meant to test the experimental "Chromebook" platform under real-world use, helping Google work out any kinks. About 60,000 Cr-48's were given away by the company. Acer and Samsung released their own Chromebook models for sale to the public on June 15.

7 free Siri alternatives for Android

Here are seven Android personal assistants that you can chat up to do your bidding.

5 office suites for Android phones

If you're stuck in a long line, in a waiting room or on the train with time to kill, you can do something more productive on your smartphone besides going through your social-networking sites or catapulting cartoon birds. Why not catch up on office work?

8 cool Google Labs projects spared the axe

Here are the ones that we think are worthy of your attention.

Top 9 Firefox fixes

The Mozilla development team released Firefox 6 on Aug. 11, then announced a rapid release schedule that led to the release of Version 7.0 last week, with Versions 8 and 9 coming soon. That's a lot of upgrades, but here's a countdown of the improvements that we think are the most important.

10 ways to enhance Google+

Here are 10 extensions that provide useful, interesting improvements to the search giant’s social-networking site.

Screen queens: 7 dual-screen devices you can buy now (or hopefully soon)

Are two screens better than one? In recent years, device makers have been exploring this question with mixed results.

How to turn Chrome into gold

Though Google is pitching it as an operating system for netbooks and lightweight notebooks, Chrome OS is essentially the Chrome Web browser bolted on top of a bare minimum version of Linux. The following extensions can improve the user experience of Chrome (OS or browser) to give you some of the functionality found in a traditional operating system.

In depth: Google's Cr-48 Chrome notebook

My holiday gift giving season started early Thursday morning when the UPS guy pounded on my door and handed me a package. Inside was a notebook -- Google's much-discussed cloud-based Cr-48 Chrome OS laptop, which was announced by the company on Tuesday.

Acrobat and its alternatives: 4 ways to edit PDFs

There is certainly no lack of tools -- ones that are good and free -- to help you create PDF documents. But what if you have a job where you need to make new PDFs and your sources are already-created PDF documents? Or if you need to update your company's finished PDFs? The choice of applications that actually allow you to change a PDF after it was created is more limited.

8 cool features of Chrome 8 beta

The version 8 beta release of Google's Web browser has several new and interesting features.

11 things you need to know about Google Chrome variations

Google recently released a version of its Chrome Web browser code named the Canary Build. It uses an all-yellow variant of the regular Chrome icon, but there may be confusion as to what actually distinguishes it from the other, official releases of Google's browser.

Web multimedia: 6 reasons why Flash isn't going away

Apple's well-publicized refusal to allow Adobe's Flash technology to be installed on its iOS mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPad, has led to speculation that Flash's days may be numbered as the king of online multimedia delivery. "Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of Web content," Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously stated in an open letter titled "Thoughts on Flash."

Nine real iPad alternatives

Even since Apple released its "magical and revolutionary" iPad, other vendors have been scrambling to deliver products that go Apple one better.