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Google decided to give the tech world some big news last week when they announced their plans to create an open source Operating System named Chrome OS. Google’s plan is to initially target Chrome OS towards netbooks and you will likely start to see some running the OS in the second half of 2010. This is all very exciting news but it caught me a little off guard because Google already has an Operating System… well sort of. Android is the mobile operating system that Google has developed and it is already running on cell phones and even some netbooks. Of course, Android was never going to be able to take the place of a full operating system like Microsoft Windows so I definitely understand Google’s recent announcement.

What is Android?

Android is a mobile operating system released by Google that can be run on cell phones. It was origionally thought that Google was going to realease a “Google Phone” that would be a direct competitor to the iPhone. However, google took a different approach (a much smarter approach) and created only the mobile software so that it could be run on any cell phone hardware. The advantage of this is clear because any cell phone manufacturer can now choose to use this free software instead of the software being tied to one specific phone (i.e. the iPhone).

Which phones are currently using Android?

There are two phones that currently come with Android pre-installed:

• HTC Dream
• HTC Magic

These two phones were first released in the United States in October of 2008 and were the first phones on the market to use the Android platform. These two phones were just recently released in Canada by Rogers.

The next year will be a very exciting time for Android enthusiasts because Google has announced that they expect atleast 20 new mobile phones to be running Android within about a year.

The next Android phone to be released will be HTC’s 3rd Android phone named the HTC Hero. It will be released in Europe by the end of August with North American release dates to follow. (I think the HTC Hero looks fantastic and I can’t wait to get one!)

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Have you ever downloaded a random program from the internet and wondered if it is actually a virus waiting to attack your computer? Of course we have all been in this familiar situation and I have always been rather perplexed as to why there was not a better way to protect our computers.

I recently spent some time testing out a program caller Sandboxie that takes a different approach to computer security. Instead of being reactive like most anti-virus software that tries to scan and delete a virus once it is on your computer, Sandboxie is a proactive approach that allows you to test programs in an isolated space that prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer. This is a such a simple concept but it is implemented in a BRILLIANT way by Sandboxie.

Note: Sandboxie is a Windows only application and can run on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003.

Benefits of an Isolated “Sandbox”

• Secure Web Browsing: Running your Web browser under the protection of Sandboxie means that all malicious software downloaded by the browser is trapped in the sandbox and can be discarded when needed.
• Test Risky Software: You can install most applications into the sandboxed area. If necessary you can completely remove the application without leaving any lasting effects on your computer.
• Peer-to-Peer Networking: Run your p2p applications in a sandboxed environment because you never know what someone will be sending you.
• Enhanced Privacy: Browsing history, cookies, and cached temporary files collected while Web browsing stay in the sandbox and don’t leak into Windows.
• Secure E-mail: Viruses and other malicious software that might be hiding in your email can’t break out of the sandbox and can’t infect your real system.

After using Sandboxie I can honestly say that I don’t know how the computer world has gone this long without a program like this. Sandboxie should be your first line of defense in the war against computer viruses.