That's right. As if I didn;t have enoug to do, I've just launched an all new online magazine called Netbook MOjo. As you can guess, the publication is 100% devoted to netbooks. It's 100% focussed on netbooks, netbook accessories, netbook news and tutorials.

Please stop by, tell your friends and all that.

I've been around long enough to remember when Netscape was THE browser. It only took about a year for Microsoft to realise that the wide-open-to-the-world Internet was going to take off and that they're closed Microsoft Netwrok was a failure. In those days there were a few different search engines to choose from (Alta Vista was my favourite) and the expansion of the World Wide Web and ubiquitous Internet access were on their way.

Now, almost 15 years later, Internet Explorer is still the most used browser by some margin but almost everything else in the net is strongly influence by Larry page and Sergei Brin's Google. From its start as the fastest, smartest search engine of its time it is now a juggernaut and it has Microsoft in its sites.

Just putting aside things like Google Apps, You Tube, Flickr and a few other bits and pieces for the moment, the release of Chrome last year told us something very important about Google - they're planning to be a force in the tech world for many more years to come. Chrome's popularity is growing rapidly. Regardless of whose stats you look at, Google is either already the third most used browser behind Interent Explorer and Firefox or it's soon going to be number three. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that of all the people who get a choice in the browser they get to use, they're probably number two behind Firefox with Internet Explorer coming third.

Google's multi-platform foundation and standards adherence, combined with Google's huge market cachet makes it a formidable opponent to its rivals. Even the "dev" build (found at this page) is stable enough for real-world use (although I have heard of a few compatibility issues with some CMS apps).

A number of things are happening in the tech world at the moment. People are realising, more and more, that they can choose what software they want to use on their computer. In the past people saw updating their software as being like updating firmware in a washing machine - something you didn't bother doing. That sort of inertia is a big part of IE's significant, but dwindling, lead in current browser usage stats.

Chrome's main rival is, of course, Firefox. Firefox is extremely popular and the entire plug-in ecosystem that's grown up around it makes it a platform for developers and users. However, Chrome has a similar ecosystem developing. IE on the other hand... nothing. This time next year, I expect that Chrome, Firefox and IE will be close to equal in usage stats. Recent security issues with IE have lead to some government agencies moving away from IE and record download stats for Firefox and Chrome.

There's good news in this shift for all of us. Competition gives customers choice and breeds innovation. This will lead to having a better browser no matter which one you choose. We''ll all see better security, more functionality and increased reliability in our browsers. I fear that Microsoft's constant fight to make IE more secure will simply become a marketing cross that they won;t be able to bear. The stigma of security will burden it with a reputation for unreliability even if they resolve their problems. It'll be like Apple's constant and continuing battle to convince people that compatibility issue with files systems and document formats is a thing of the past.

If Firefox and Chrome can escape any serious security issues, maintain reliability and continue to be a viable host for a symbiotic relationship with developers then they'll overtake IE and fight for the tile of The World's Most Popular Browser.

I reviewed the current crop of browsers for The Age this week. The story is in the Green Guide (the entertainment and tech supplement on today's paper) or you can read it online if you prefer.

 Browsers • Chrome • Firefox • Internet Explorer • Opera • Safari

The Huawei e220 is probably the most popular mobile broadband on the planet. Many carriers across the globe use the Huawei E220 and the hardware is supported on just about every platform in common use. I've used it with Windows and mac systems and it passes the "just works" test. But what about the Eee PC?

It turns out that using the e220 with an Eee PC is trivially easy. In fact, it's been one of the easiest tasks I've had to negotiate as I learn more and more about the Eee PC and Linux.

The starting point, for me, was the discovery of the eee220 Mobile Broadband Tool that can be downloaded from the 3epc User Portal.

Installation was simply a matter of downloading the application's DEB package, right-clicking the downloaded file and installing the software. That took a mere 30 seconds or so.

Once the installation was done, I plugged my e220 in and followed the prompts to create a connection using the Eee PC's own wizard. At the end of it all, I had an icon on the Internet tab of the Easy Mode screen and a "3G" icon in the system tray in Desktop Mode.

[If you don't know about Full Desktop Mode this tutorial might be of assistance]

Plugging the E220 into the USB port automatically launched the connection software. Click the "Connect" button (the one with the stylised globe of the earth and plug) and you're online.

What you need

• Eee PC (I tried this with the 701)
• Huawei E220
• Contract with your comms carrier and a SIM card from them for the E220 (I use Three in Australia)
• eee220 Mobile Broadband Tool from the 3epc User Portal

 3G • Asus Eee PC • Huawei E220

I've been a long time fan of mobile broadband services. Like regular, in-home broadband I think I was one of the earliest adopters amongst my friends and peers. However, the hardware I've used for connection has been largely determined by my service provider and the specific modems they offer with the particular deal. What that's meant is that my hardware decision has been out of my hands.

The market has changed recently with many carriers, at least in Australia, letting customers mix and match their hardware and data needs. I've tested three different mobile broadband modems. All the tests were carried out in exactly the same location, on the same computer with the same carrier. the only thing that has changed is the modem.

The Test Environment

I've chosen three different modems. They are

1. Novatel Wireless XU870 Express Card


2. Huawei E220 USB


3. Huawei E169G

Testing mobile broadband services can be a little tricky. For that reason I've chosen to use SpeedTest.Net. I know that it's not perfect but it's an easy way to do a controlled test where the only variable changing is the hardware.

All testing was done using an Apple MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.4

Outcomes - the Numbers

I must say that the outcomes of my testing were a little surprising. I expected that the ExpressCard product would offer the best performance but that honour went to the Huawei E169G - branded as the Internet Key by Three. It was able to consistently deliver downloads of about 1000 kbps and uploads around the 320 kbps mark.

The Huawei E220, probably the most most popular 3G modem on the planet, delivered similar upload speed but slightly lower download performance with speeds consistently around the 900 kbps mark.

Coming in at around the 800 kbps mark was the Novatel XU870. Consistently, my testing rated this the slowest at downloads but the equal of its rivals in uploads. I'm at a bit of a loss as to why this might be so I'm putting it down to some sort of software anomaly. Given that signal strength atmy test location, in Melbourne's CBD, was very similar with each device I don't think that my finding is due to signal reception.

Outcomes - Ease of Use

One of the factors to consider when buying your mobile modem is its form factor. This is where the XU870 and E169G stand apart from the E220. The E220 requires a USB cable to connect to your computer - the others either slide into an ExpressCard slot or connect directly to the USB port.

However, one of the great things about the E220 is its ubiquity - it'll work with just about any computer and operating system. I've even got it running with my Asus Eee PC. The E169G is also very easy to use as it ships with Windows and Mac drivers on the flash memory within the modem. that means it can be installed to a new system in minutes without the need to carry a CD of drivers.

The XU870 offers convenience through its form factor. It only protrudes from the computer's ExpressCard slot but a couple of centimetres making it great for working in confined spaces such as on public transport. However, installation requires drivers that need to be loaded from a CD or some other media.

Which would I buy?

If I had to buy one of these units today, it'd would be a toss-up between the E220 and the E169G (I actually own a XU870) as they offer the greatest flexibility. Every computer has at least one USB port whereas ExpressCard slots are still a little thin on the ground.

The e220 has the annoying "dangling off the side" thing happening but it'll work on practically any computer. The E169G doesn't need a driver CD or extra cable but I worry that it could be bent or snapped when plugged into the side of a notebook.

My final decision is the Huawei E220 - but only just.

 3G • E169G • E220 • Huawei • Modem • XU870

Now that I'm getting the hang of installing apps on the Eee PC (I still maintain that it's too hard but that's an old rant) I'm looking at a few apps to make the Eee PC even better.

The installed browser, Firefox 2, is competent enough but it's a little long in the tooth. After a little research I've settled on two candidates - Firefox 3 and Opera 9.5. Here are my impressions.

Opera 9.5

Installation was dead easy with Opera coming in a deb package that installs simply. The main trick was to download the correct version - the one for Xandros 1.0 and 1.1. The version for Versions 2 or above didn't work for me.

Once it was installed, I imported my Firefox bookmarks and was up and running in a few short minutes.

Browsing was definitely faster than with Firefox 2. The user interface is very clean with the default theme making a nice change from the regular grey/blue toolbar arrangement.

Tabbed browsing works nicely although I was annoyed that my favoured Ctrl-Click on links for new tabs opened the new tabs in front of the current tab with no option (that I could find) to open new tabs behind the current one unless I used the right click and selected the appropriate option from the context menu. However, this is a small complaint and not a showstopper for me.

Given the Eee PC's limited screen resolution, one of the key factors in any Eee PC browser is its ability to zoom and deal with wide web pages. Using the Ctrl-Minus and Ctrl+Plus keystrokes, it's easy to increase and decrease the size of pages with text and graphics scaling in 10% increments.

You can download Opera from the Opera Download page.

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 is a sensational browser. It's fast, offers good zoom for pages exceeding the Eee PC's display width and offers a familiar look and feel.

I know this will draw the ire of some quarters but without this excellent guide at Eeeuser I'd never had got it up and running. I needed to install the GTK 2 library (whatever the heck that is!), edit a script file and enter a bunch of commands in a terminal window.

Once it was installed, Firefox 3 was excellent to use.The page zoom in and out feature worked well.

Where Firefox beat Opera was its ability to render pages nicely. If you take a close look at the screen grab from Opera and compare it to Firefox, you'll notice that Firefox does a much nicer job of rendering fonts.

Conclusions

At the end of the day there are a couple of things that web browsers have to do. These are render pages correctly and be easy to use. At the end of the day, Firefox, while a little less refined in its default appearance (in my opinion) is certainly easy to use and it is better at rendering pages.

While Firefox was a pain to install I don't expect that it's a task I'll need to repeat often.

So, the winnder is Firefox 3 but not by a lot.

 Eee PC • Firefox 3 • Opera