Chrome to Phone

7/description.html">Google Chrome extension that sends any URL you're currently visiting to your Android device. First install the extension on your PC. Then on your Android device, install the free Chrome to Phone app. Then when you're browsing the Web and want to send a URL to your Android phone, simply click the Chrome to Phone link. It's immediately sendtto your Android phone, and if the phone is on, the link opens in the Android's browser. If the phone is turned off, the link will open in the Android browser the next time you turn it on.

The Chrome to Phone app also keeps a list of all links sent, so that you can later on view the links as well.

You can do more than just send links to Web pages. If you're viewing a map in Google Maps, click the Chrome to Phone icon, and that map to that location will open in your Android Browser. Select a phone number on a Web page and send it, and that phone number opens in the Android dialer app. Select text on a Web page and send it, and that text gets placed onto the Android clipboard.

Chrome to Phone is a great workaround--but it's a workaround, not the ultimate solution. A tool to synchronize bookmarks between Chrome and the Android browser would be better. Until then, though, the free Chrome to Phone is well worth the download.

Note that you'll need Android 2.2 or better on your Android device in order for the Android app to work.

Reprinted with permission from PCWorld.com. Story copyright 2010 PC World Communications. All rights reserved.

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Chrome Cr-48, black MacBook: Separated at birth

, 2010" href="http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20025251-12.html">showed up at our office.

Software aside, after putting it side by side with a black MacBook that Apple shipped in 2007 we had in house, it dawned on us why: the two are practically twins. Not identical, but at least fraternal. The overall look is shockingly similar to Apple's now-extinct machine: from the color to the chiclet keyboard to the hinge, size, trackpad, even to the indentation in the place where you lift the lid. Well, see for yourself. We took some photos of the two machines next to each other for you to peruse.

Now, if you go deeper than a first glance and break out a ruler, you'll see that there are some differences between the two externally. While the hinges look practically the same size, they aren't: 6.5 inches on the MacBook to 6 inches on the Cr-48. And the screen sizes vary slightly: The Chromebook's measures 4.5 inches by 7.5 inches, and the MacBook's 5.25 inches by 8.5 inches.

The trackpads, however, are equal in size--though not in function: in 2007, Apple had not yet introduced its clickable touchpad-as-button, which the Chrome notebook utilizes.

Of course there are some pretty big functional differences too: Google has nixed the disk drive, Ethernet port, and all but one USB port, but does include an SD card slot. The 3-year old Mac notebook also has those pesky caps lock and function keys that Google has eliminated.

But what's inside these two machines is obviously where the key difference lays: Apple has the fully-featured Mac OS X desktop operating system powering its notebook, while Google's test hardware is wrapped around its brand new Web browser-based operating system, Chrome OS.

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