The operating system itself is Linux based. Bout 256Mb big I believe. And is stored on an on-board chip, unless of course you happen to have Express Gate SSD which comes on a 512mb – 768mb flash add in. The OS lets you boot up into the Internet, Skype, Instant Messenger, Photo Viewer and depending on which motherboard you have you get music playback to.

The main reason I’m reviewing V1.4.4 (Asus P5QL-E version) is because it was gob-smackingly wonderful. The 300mb file (which Asus let me have a 20Kbp/s, cheers for that) intrigued me as usually the new update were pushing 70 – 100Mb. So I downloaded it and expected to see no visual improvement so I didn’t rush to restart my PC to have a gander. But after I finally did I was gob-smacked, the new layout is not far off vista’s cleanness, and is much better layed out than the previous versions. I’ve also noticed a slight improvement in load times, Firefox (splashtop browser as its called) loaded a lot faster than it used to as did the photo viewer but I was a bit disappointed to see the messenger side of things a bit worse off, Skype taking slightly longer to sign in as the messenger program (which does like to throw up contacts missing errors every now and then).

But overall I have to say the new major update has made me think of not bothering to boot into vista as I don’t really need to now unless I want to play a game. The only thing stopping me from doing this is the lack of music and video playback (oh and maybe a torrent app) but because I payed £63 for this motherboard I’m not expecting the best, I suppose you get what you pay for. Most of Asus new motherboards which display the Ai lifestyle sticker or which have the P43 chipsets (and upwards) include it now, apart from the gaming series motherboards, which is a shame as it’s a fantastic feature.

All in all Asus have shown real initiative in making the time to put this in. This is mostly aimed at people who are in a rush and don’t wish to wait a long time for XP/Vista to boot just so they can read their emails or make last minute plans over Skype/MSN. One thing that I am a little disappointed about is that at the moment there is no version for PC’s running the Windows 7 Beta/RC even though its in its very early stages most companies have seemed to make at least some effort in porting drivers over to it and Asus should to as it seems to be the “Leader in hardware”

For those interested I’ve taken some pictures of Express Gate.

Hope you enjoyed my review and stay tuned for the next one.

A little note, if you want to install this onto windows 7 then put the installer into compatibility mode for Vista SP2.

Also you may like to know that MSI have made something similar called WINKI, stupid name I know but if it’s like Express Gate then you’d put up with it.

Have you spotted any additional features that are missing? Please post any feedback below.

Interviewed by the New York Times, Sundar Pichai (vice president of product management), said “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS”. The operating system software is to be released later this year, and will be free to download. Although it is geared for powering small netbooks, Google believes that Chrome OS will also run on full-sized PC’s.

And no, the Chrome OS is not going to be a simple rebranding of Google’s Android mobile OS, as Pichai stated, “Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.”

Google official blog post also goes on to give a brief outline of the Chrome’s OS’ goals:

We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Tech analysts have been speculating for a while about Google releasing their own operating system. Now that this idea is coming into fruition, Google has a lot of competition to deal with. Windows is the current heavyweight in the OS market, while Mac OS X and Linux are constantly stealing more market share. However, this is Google we are talking about and also it is important to remember that nost netbooks are currently running Windows XP ( which is 8 years ol and runs on Pentium IIIs and Pentium 4s). Chrome OS, however, is also suitable for netbooks and will run on x86 architecture chips and ARM chips, which are more common in netbooks.

Windows 7 is also considered to be potentially useful for notbooks, and will be released later this year (maybe Google will release Chrome OS’ open source code at the same time?) . This means that we are in for an interesting battle between Chrome OS and Windows 7 here.

What are your views on the announcement of Google Chrome OS? Is it a potential Windows-killer? And what do you think Microsoft’s response will be? Please feel free to comment below.

Spotlight

The Spotlight search is often the favourite feature for Mac users, and it is now available on the iPhone. Has it lost any of its functionality and speed? No. A simple swipe to the left on the main screen will bring up the search bar at the top. Typing the initial words of your query will bring up a flurry of results, which cancel out as you get more specific. The results are linked to the file, so for example, if you click on a video clip in the results, it will start playing. Therefore, the Spotlight seems to be an awesome addition.The Spotlight will be unable to search through a lot of your content, including third-party apps, Maps, SMS. However, in this case pros easily outweigh cons.

Mail

iPhone 3.0 now allows you to search your email over IMAP, which basically means you don’t have to open Gmail in Safari, to search for a keyword in Gmail. However, it can lag a bit over 3G, but it is still functional.

Find my iPhone

This may be a Godsend if you are the forgetful type (like me). This feature is expensive, costing $100 a year for MobileMe, but it enable you to locate your phone on Google Maps, through MobileMe’s website. You can send a message to your iPhone, or even wipe its contents and deactivate it remotely. This seems like a very useful feature, but there is a major flaw, in that the guy who steals your iPhone could simply disable the feature. That seems like a damn big flaw for a feature costing $100 a year, but it could be useful if you dropped your iPhone in your mate’s house etc.

Copy/Paste

This new feature has certainly been the most discussed of them all, but does it work? In all, yes. It certainly does. You simply have to click on a sentence/block of text until the magnifier comes up. Then unclick, to have the option to copy. For ease of use, there is also a bar on the side of the selected block of text, which can be stretch to include more text.

However, the problem with this feature is that the copy option pops up everytime you place a cursor anywhere other than the end of a sentence. This can become an annoyance, whilst working with text.

Overall:

There are many benefits it upgrading to 3.0, namely:

• Spotlight- which is works amazingly
• Copy and Paste is finally introduced
• Its FREE
• There are lots of small improvements some of which must satisfy your needs

There are also some drawbacks:

• Copy/Paste function can become quite annoying
• Find my iPhone is expensive and can be turned off anyway

More to be added on this review…

There are many features like MMS and internet tethering, which we could not test, but will do so in the future (Blame AT&T). If you have upgraded, we would love to hear your thoughts about iPhone 3.0 OS. Did it meet your expectations? Do you have any annoyances? Feel free to comment below.