I had already burned out on Internet Explorer and gone to Firefox, which I was never completely happy with. It seemed like a better version of Internet Explorer: it rendered pages better and was definitely faster, but many aspects of it were the same, namely the enormous amount of pixel real estate it took at the top of the screen.

That was the primary thing that brought me to Chrome: There was no application title bar at the top of the screen, which immediately made the whole experience seem cleaner and roomier. Next, the most important elements, the tabs, were at the top. I’m much more interested in what page I’m on than the words File, Edit, etc, which I rarely use. Those top links are straight out of the old days: Firefox copied them over seemingly without questioning if they should be there or not. Chrome did much better by reorganizing them and combining them into one drop button on the right hand side of the screen.

I also liked how each tab was touted as it’s own process, meaning that if one tab crashed, it wouldn’t bring down the whole browser. I’ll talk about that a bit more in a minute.

Looking back over the last 2ish years, there are some things about Chrome that really bother me. They’re big issues and I’m surprised they havn’t been fixed yet.

1. It is a myth that one crashed tab doesn’t bring down the whole browser, separate process or not.
   Google Chrome crashes on me at least once every other day. Funny enough, this crash is often caused by Google’s Gmail: either the attach file function or the chat sidebar widget. When it happens, I get a popup that Flash Shockwave has crashed, and it knocks out Flash functions in all tabs along with sometimes crashing the entire browser.  Other times, the entire browser just crashes with little explanation as to why. I can’t remember a time when a tab froze and I was able to close it while continuing with the rest.
2. Chrome often fails to load images or the entire stylesheet, and I have to hit refresh two or three times for them to work.
3. Chrome doesn’t seem to recognize RSS feeds.
   I’m really tired of seeing images like these:
   
   Is it too much to ask that Chrome recognize them, as other browsers do? I know Google doesn’t really like RSS that much, even though they have a decent reader app, and RSS’s future isn’t quite clear, but this is just sloppy.
4. Chrome is extremely forgetful when it comes to remembering passwords that you check “Remember” on.
   Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but Chrome seems to be the most forgetful browser I’ve ever used. Some websites I continually find myself checking “Remember Me.” It’s gotten to the point that I automatically open certain websites in Firefox or Internet Explorer because I know those browsers will remember the password.

I like Chrome, though I wonder how long I’ll be able to continue tolerating these issues. Did I miss anything?

Update: Here is a screenshot of the Gmail “Attach File” bug crashing Chrome in Windows 7 (not just 1 tab, the whole thing).

The “Template will kill design” argument is old and laughable. Most companies, organizations and corporations, when they aren’t failing or going out of business, have money to spend. When you have $100,000, or even $10,000, to spend on marketing, you spend it on something custom and exciting… Not a $49 template. Those cheap templates are used primarily by “I’ve got an idea for a business!” people that aren’t really committed to their ideas.

I also keep trying to push the idea that it isn’t about “Web Design.” A designer who refers to herself as a Web Designer is like a Graphic Designer that refers to himself as a Brochure Designer. The World Wide Web is one application that utilizes the Internet. Those that call themselves Web Designers should be able to design almost any type of interface for almost any digital medium.

In fact, I don’t even like Graphic Designer. I prefer to call myself a Designer. What do you need? I’ll design it: Logo, Website, iPhone app interface, board game, Xbox 360 game interface, Poster, CD, book.. anything. We are living in a world where Everything is Designed. Everything.

Regardless of the specific application, the need for all things to be designed is only going to increase. The key to being a designer in this world is just that: be a Designer. If you apply yourself to one application you will rise and fade along with it.

Flip through those.. that is what an America with no welfare and social programs would look like.

Apple was graced this week by the euphemism of the year: “Curated Computing.” This is the idea that new technology, specifically applications for iPhones/iPods/iPads have been curated by intelligent, quality-aware judges that decide what we are able to see and use.

Curation is a positive term. It implies that there is an incredible amount of Rough in this world, and we trust certain experts to find and show us the Diamonds.

One of my favorite things in life is going to art museums. To me, they are an absolute thrill. Art Museums are some of the most curated places on Earth: many pieces are submitted, but only the best are displayed. As I posted earlier, I’m absolutely fine with curation, as long as I am not locked in the museum.

And that’s the key failing here. Check out or no, you can never leave. And there are many, many things in this world that are worth seeing, even if they weren’t accepted by the curators.

Steve: Your apps are incredible, and the app store is great (Yes, iTunes needs a major overhaul, but that’s like the museum in my metaphor being in bad need of renovation.. the art itself is second to none). But what if I want to leave the museum, hop on the internet, and look at that virtually unknown artist’s new collage projects? What if I want to view the art of that outsider who’s work is too subversive or shocking to be displayed in the museum? In this system, it’s impossible. Steve, you have built a great system here, and it should stand strong, based on marketing and business strategy alone, without you needing to lock your clientèle in the museum until death does them part.

If they go out and find apps that slow down their system, or cause it to crash, or drain the battery more quickly than you would like, so be it. Those outsider Apps aren’t Apple Quality Checked, and the user knows going in what could happen.

I would like to finish here by saying: “A user being able to install whatever they want on the hardware that they own is the way of the future.” But it isn’t.. It’s been that way for many, many years. Innovation is everywhere, but innovation is not oppression, shackling your devices with (golden) chains. The more you do it, the more strength you give to open platforms, like Android, which as of this quarter is more prevalent than your system. Worse than that, you’re gradually, one by one, losing the respect of people like myself that used to swear by your products but have now been driven away.

As Google crawled and archived billions of documents and Web pages, it analyzed what words were close to each other. “Hot dog” would be found in searches that also contained “bread” and “mustard” and “baseball games” — not poached pooches. That helped the algorithm understand what “hot dog” — and millions of other terms — meant. “Today, if you type ‘Ghandi bio,’ we know that bio means biography,” Singhal says. “And if you type ‘bio warfare,’ it means biological. –From Wired

Michael: Is this your position:absolute ?
3 minutes ago ·

Me: Yes, this position IS absolute. It is not a position: relative. And it will NOT float: left or float: right.

Michael: Your points are clear:both of them.

After much research, I found that a certain Mr. Lawrence Brownington of Henley-on-Thames, which is in South Oxfordshire, England, poached 2 eggs and served them with buttered toast and coffee in my original universe on July 12, 1996.

In this universe, he poached 2 eggs but served them with unbuttered toast and coffee on that morning. Whenever I switched, I hadn’t noticed any significant differences between the two worlds. But now that it has been around a decade, those differences may be more apparent. I wouldn’t know: I haven’t been back.

By taking a major web technology, and completely deleting it from their device, Apple has made the iPad worthless.

It shouldn’t have an Mp3 player Operating System hacked/ported to what should be a computing platform.

It should not sync with iTunes. It should run iTunes. You should sync your iPhone or iPod to your iPad, not iPad to your computer. What if you want it to be your computer?

And, of course, multi-tasking. Give me a break: You can make an OS that runs circles around Windows for decades and you can’t bother your programmers to add 1 more item to their task lisk? Maybe they can’t multi-task either.

Apple, you say that you make products the way they should be made, not the way the mob wants them. And I’ve always liked that about you. So I’m gonna use the same philosophy: I don’t care how many hipsters, fanboys, coffee shoppers and scene geeks go out and buy this thing: Your new product missed the mark.

And so does your censorship of web technology. It is a slap in the face of all the designers, developers and creatives that have evangelized your products since your darkest days. You can’t just take a major component of the Internet, whether it’s HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, XML, etc, etc, or Flash, and completely remove it from your device.

Go back to your cubicles, create an iPad Pro (or whatever you want to call it, something better than “Pad”), price it $100 higher, put OSX or OSX-lite on it, the Real Safari with the Real Internet, and act like this upgraded version was going to be your flagship the whole time.

“Some do, the ones that aren’t sick of everything being locked into proprietary systems that can’t be altered, uncustomizable machines, frequent Photoshop crashes, MP3 players that only work with one piece of software, auto-assigned file formats on audio/video files that need special software to crack, inflated prices, common logic board meltdowns, charging customers to recover data from failed hard drives, suing everyone who has an Apple in their logo (I guess Apple OWNS Apples), a history of building the worst mouses the world has ever known (one button?), iTunes SUCKS.. and there’s no way around it, iTunes locks up my computer every time I plug an iPhone or iPod into it, stupidly expensive peripherals…

Let’s talk about the amount of RAM on a luxury computer: A luxury computer should not have 2 gigs of RAM. My PC from 2006 has 2 gigs of RAM. 4 should be the standard for an economy Apple. The $1500 to $2000 Apples should have 8.

Along with phones that have no desktop or desktop widgets, no multitasking, no copying pasting for 2 years, censored apps without clear censorship rules, CENSORED APPS, no clear reasoning given to App makers whose programs were removed, or action steps to get them re-approved, no official ‘underground’ unapproved app store, proprietary USB connectors (that are, of course, stupidly expensive), screwing artists and record companies by keeping most of the money from online sales of music, iPods and iPhones that can transfer music up from a computer but not down to a computer, no Flash on iPhones (No Flash on iPhones? Have you guys heard of the Internet?)

A general inability to understand that when I buy a little piece of hardware, i OWN it. They can’t reach out through the internet or cell networks and try to destroy it. I can do whatever I want with my property.

And I’m also running Vista right now. It’s not that bad. It crashes a lot less than Mac, especially running Photoshop.. which has a tendency to just “disappear” on Macs.

I’m hoping Google will stop worrying about turning their browser (Chrome) into an OS and take an OS that is evolving well (Android) and do something good with that.

Jesse Not used to being up so late huh? Welcome back amongst us. The creatures of the night.
6 minutes ago

Dominic yeah no joke.. i’ve run out of things to do, now im organizing files.
5 minutes ago

Jesse At least it’s something productive. When you spend the amount of life we do immersed in digital frameworks, keeping a clean file structure is just as important as a clean home.
3 minutes ago

Dominic lol true.
3 minutes ago