Google has delivered the knock out punch even before the first round began. The Google Chrome OS is free. It is open sourced and based on the Linux platform. This gives a shot in the arm to Linux and developers who were finding themselves marginalized by Microsoft and the commentators who were ever snapping at the Linux community for its non success vis a vis Microsoft.

Google has also announced a partial list of PC manufacturers it has decided to work with. The notable absence is of Dell and Sony. The partial list includes :

• Acer
• Adobe
• ASUS
• Freescale
• Hewlett Packard
• Lenovo
• Qualcomm
• Texas Instruments.

There is also good news for the developer community. The Google Chrome OS is likely to be ready and available by the end of this year. Google is also looking for full time developers to work on Google Chrome OS and interested developers can contact the following Google Offices :

• Mountain View, US
• San Francisco, US
• Kirkland, US
• Santa Monica, US
• Reston, US
• Montreal, CA
• Aarhus, DK
• London, UK
• St. Petersburg, RU
• Tokyo, JP

There are free typing tests online that test and enhance your typing speed on a computer keyboard. The typing speed is defined in wpm, which are words typed per minute. A word is taken to be five characters long which include the blank spaces. It is also defined as strokes typed per minute. When you are a beginner, the interactive exercises in this Typing Tutor automatically adjust to your skill level. The Web site is free and helps you master the skills of touch typing. When you type faster you increase your productivity and have more free time.

How much time will you save by typing faster per minute?

Let’s say you type 20 WPM, 20 hours a week. If you increased your speed to 65 WPM, you would save:
2 hours a day
13.8 hours a week
58.2 hours a month
5054 hours a year!

A good typing speed gives you lot of confidence in a conference where you can make your presentation more precise. Also you can send emails faster to your contacts and chat online through quick messages and replies to queries made by them.

Powertyping.com

Powertyping.com is a popular online ‘typing tutor website‘ for all PC users and internet browsers. It is an online free typing tutor for Qwerty US standard 101 keyboards and Dvorak keyboard. The typing lessons are supported with Qwerty keyboard pic and Dvorak keyboard pic to help with hand positioning over a keyboard. The typing tutor is designed to teach, develop and practice, step by step typing skills. Ultimately your aim should be to type 65 wpm.

This website is replete with several games (some of the games like in Qwerty are enhanced with music) with time limits where you are tested as to how quickly you can produce the results on your Pc screen. The Dvorak typing lessons are self explanatory where as in Qwerty lessons, typing progress and wpm are in view. The Alphabetic Rain typing game focuses mainly on the letters. There are several paragraphs available to practice with each paragraph having two versions including, with or without space after a period.

TypingWeb for the iPhone

Typing Web featured on apple.com as a Web App where you can work your text making skills. Simply, register for a free account by pointing your iPhone to http://iphone.typingweb.com and you are ready to type away.