Chrome: Over the weekend, Google unveiled Chrome Remote Desktop, a new Chrome extension that allows you to remotely control and manage another Mac, Windows, or Linux system through Google Chrome, as long as you have the extension installed on both systems. More »

iOS/Android/Firefox/Chrome/Safari: Previously mentioned social feed reader

Firefox/Chrome/Safari: Previously mentioned to-do manager and browser extension Taskforce has rolled out a number of new updates to its service, including the ability to share and collaborate on lists with other users, add recurring tasks, and fully integrate with Google Tasks, so you can manage your to-dos even when you're using a computer or device where Taskforce is unavailable. More »

Google's brought some good news for those of us who've been tolerating Chrome in Mac OS X Lion: they've released an update for proper compatibility. It's not that Chrome didn't work before, but it didn't fully support the new UI and—more importantly—wasn't terribly stable. This latest release promises to fix those things while also adding support for C and C++ code, seeking to blur the lines between web and native desktop applications. All good things for Mac users, we think. More »

Web/Chrome/Android/iOS: Springpad is a free service that allows you to save places, notes, itemsand more to your account for future reference. The service just got a lot more social with today's update: now you can connect Springpad to your Facebook account to automatically show you items that your friends like, places they visit, and more in case you want to save them to your account. More »

Chrome: Sick of hearing about Snooki, Charlie Sheen, or anyone named Kardashian? Install the Chrome app ‘Silence of the Celebs' to put any celebrity or political figure on a gag list that will remove posts featuring those names from the top news sites. More »

Amazon's new Kindle Cloud Reader webapp allows you to read ebooks you've purchased via the Kindle store on any device without installing an app to do it, regardless of whether you have an active internet connection. More »

Chrome: Google's Instant Pages feature, previously available to Chrome beta users, is now available in the latest stable version of Chrome to load Google search results much faster. You can see the side-by-side speed comparison in the video above. More »

Parents fret all the time about protecting their kids on Facebook, but many of the products and services I’ve seen that aim to help are intrusive, and inject the parents into the child’s normal, healthy online social life in a way that’s awkward for both.

Q:

I have been warned on the Web that Microsoft Office won’t work on Apple’s new Mac operating system, Lion. Is this true?

A:

In my tests, and also according to Microsoft, Office for the Mac does work in Lion, though some relatively minor features won’t work right. Also, you must be using one of the two latest versions of Office.

In my tests, using the current version, Office 2011, all features I tested worked fine, though of course I wasn’t able to test every one of the thousands of features. I even wrote my entire Lion review in Word 2011 on a Lion-equipped Mac. According to Microsoft, the 2008 version also works, though the 2004 version doesn’t.

However, Microsoft hasn’t updated Office for Mac to take advantage of Lion’s new features. More information on Mac Office compatibility with Lion is here and here.

Q:

Can you point me in the right direction for a purchase of a tablet? I am a home inspector and presently use a Toshiba Satellite laptop with a special Windows software program for my job. I need a tablet with a screen size of 12 inches or more. USB ports would be essential.

With its iPhones and iPads, Apple has led people toward a new way of operating digital devices that relies on direct manipulation of items with finger gestures, not a mouse and scroll bars. App icons are arrayed front and center, not buried deep in a file system or limited to a strip at the bottom of the screen.

For awhile, Google's been using their own goo.gl shortener to compress long links, but as of today they'll be using a different shortener, g.co. However, the goal behind g.co is not to provide another URL shortener for you to create short links. Instead, it's a service that only Google can use to shorten links to their own pages—that way, when you see a g.co link, you know that it's coming from a trusted source and you can click on it. For your own links, you can still use Goo.gl, but just know that when you see a g.co link around the internet, it's coming straight from Google and is safe to click on. [Official Google Blog] More »

While Microsoft and Apple are working to bring aspects of tablet computing to the next versions of their computer operating systems, one big computer maker, Toshiba, is going the other way: It is introducing a tablet that emulates a laptop in some key respects.

Unlike other well-known tablets on the market, the new Toshiba Thrive, a 10-inch Android model available this month, sports a full-sized USB port that works with a wide variety of devices and files; a removable battery; and a file manager application like those on PCs. It also includes a full-sized SD slot for flash memory cards and a full-sized connector, called an HDMI port, that can use a standard cable for linking to a high-definition TV.

Q:

I have just been notified that Quicken 2007 for the Mac won’t run on Apple’s new Lion operating system. I don’t wish to use the new Quicken Essentials for Mac program, which has fewer features. What are the alternatives?

A:

There are other full-featured finance programs for the Mac, whose makers say they will work with Lion and can import your data from Quicken. Two better-known ones are iBank and Moneydance. I haven’t reviewed either yet, so I can’t say how they measure up. Another option is to install Windows on your Mac, or buy a cheap Windows PC, and run Quicken for Windows. Intuit, the maker of Quicken, says on its support site that, while the Windows version can import most data from the Mac versions, it cannot import investment history. Intuit says: “You will need to either re-download your investment transactions or manually enter them.”

Q:

How do I put my computer to sleep?

A:

Tablet computers generally do a good job of playing videos and music, and displaying photos and documents. But they have limited capacity to store all these files, so you typically can carry only a fraction of your PC’s data on them.

You can get apps that allow tablets to access files you’ve stored in the cloud on services like Dropbox or SugarSync, but these require an Internet connection and can be slow.

Q:

I am going back to school in the fall and I contacted the school to see which laptop or tablet I should be using. They replied I would need the Adobe Flash Player to run the lectures. While I love Apple, I understand the newest Apple laptops and the iPad do not support Flash. Is this correct? If so, what should I buy?

A:

There’s a lot of confusion about this, so here’s the story. Apple’s Mac laptops and desktops do indeed run the Adobe Flash Player, and thus Flash videos and websites, just like Windows PCs. While they no longer ship with the Flash software pre-installed, you can quickly and easily download and install it free of charge. Once you do, Flash videos and websites will work on your Mac.

By contrast, the iPad won’t accept the Flash Player in its built-in browser and thus cannot run Flash videos or websites. There are some third-party browsers for Apple’s tablet, such as Skyfire and Puffin, that do run Flash on Web pages, albeit clumsily at times. The latter are available in the iPad app store. If you want a tablet that runs Flash natively, you could buy one of the newer Android models, or the HP TouchPad, but be aware that some Flash videos and websites don’t run properly on the current generation of Flash-enabled tablets.

A small army of multitouch tablet computers has been launched this year to take on Apple’s iPad, which has managed to sell 25 million units and attract 90,000 tablet-specific apps in just about 15 months, and is already in its second generation, the iPad 2. So far, none of these contenders has gained any significant traction with consumers or app developers.

Q:

When Apple’s MobileMe service goes away in June 2012, what happens to the stuff I have stored on iDisk? Will Apple still store my material someplace else remotely on one of its servers that I can access via my laptop? Will I still have some sort of .Mac mail system that I can access when on the road and using a computer other than my own?

A:

Apple says it won’t continue to have the equivalent of the iDisk online storage system, accessible directly from the cloud, after MobileMe gives way to its new iCloud service. It advises iDisk users to copy their online files to their Macs or PCs before next June. However, it says the new service will still support mac.com and me.com email accounts, and they will still be accessible via the Web. It promises details later, but has in the meantime published a document answering common questions about the transition at apple.com/mobileme/transition.html.

Q:

Is there a good program that will allow me to capture a Web video, especially a YouTube video, and convert it into an MP4 format file so I can play it on my Android-based Iconia tablet while offline on an airplane?

A:

Would you buy a laptop that comes with only one major program—a Web browser—and doesn’t allow you to install widely used software such as Microsoft Office, Apple’s iTunes, Adobe Reader, or, in fact, any other locally installed program?

Are you ready for a laptop that has almost no storage space to hold your personal files, photos and videos, and is designed around the idea that you’ll keep all that precious personal stuff on remote servers?

Q:

If you wanted a new phone, would you go with the Motorola Atrix or the iPhone 4? Also I heard that a new iPhone is due out this fall. Do you feel it is wise to wait or jump into one of the phones I just mentioned?

A:

It depends on your needs and preferences. Unless you dislike Apple’s iPhone operating system, called iOS; require a physical keyboard; or prefer Sprint or T-Mobile, I would wait if possible until the fall to see what the rumored new iPhone is like. That way, you will have a better basis for comparison.

However, if you wish to buy now, you should know that there are major differences between the two devices.

The iPhone 4 has roughly double the available third-party apps, and a somewhat higher resolution screen. But the Atrix, which is an Android phone, has a larger display, and can handle AT&T’s 4G network.

Most importantly, it was designed to power a laptop-like dock and, when connected to the dock, can run the full PC version of the Firefox Web browser. AT&T is currently selling the Atrix and dock together for $300, after a $100 rebate, with a two-year contract. The iPhone 4 starts at $199 with a two-year contract.

Q: