Just a quick post today. But Google Voice is officially entering beta. Which means if you signed up for GrandCentral back in the day, then you should keep your eyes peeled for an invite. And you can try signing up again on the Google Voice site.

For more information about what Google Voice is, how it works, etc, check out the official post on the Google Blog.

Today I'm gonna make a quick post full of fun things you can do with your Google Chrome browser.

If you are using FireFox or Internet Explorer, these experiments probably won't run right. Why you ask? Chrome has a special and powerful JavaScript engine that makes it able to do cool things like in the links below.

If you have the latest FireFox beta (3.5), then you may be able to run some of these experiments, but they probably still won't look exactly right. The Chrome Experiments page has more links, but here are a few of my favorites, plus descriptions.

Bomomo - This is a cool randomizing drawing program. You can make tons of cool shapes and patterns. Select randomizing tools from the bottom of the page and hold down the mouse to draw. Play with the line and polygon tools located along the bottom of the tool bar on this page.

Fireworks - Spells out a message, (customized by the box at the top of the screen). Shoots line fireworks all over the screen.

Solitaire - Takes a little bit to load, but it an extensive solitaire game that runs entirely on the web. (Better than XP's default solitaire, I think).

Google Sphere Image Search - An awesome way to use Google Image Search. It may take a sec to load, but once it does, the page will rotate around the image search box. Perform a search and watch the images fly into orbit around the box. Do another search and the old images fly away replaced with the new results, all in a perfect, mouse-controlled orbit, around the search box. Very cool!

Depth of Field - A fun little way to watch a very well done 3-d depth of field demonstration. Camera x-y axis controlled with the mouse.

The coolest part of these experiments is that they are done with JavaScript and not Flash or Silverlight. What does that mean?

Its like somebody who can build a really nice car (Ferrari) with two screwdrivers. If he can build a Ferrari with that little, then imagine what all he can do with power tools. That's why Chrome is so cool, because it can do all the neat stuff in the above experiments with two screwdrivers, where other browsers need power tools.

I like betas. Well, I like have cutting edge technology, and the latest features. That's why I use Gmail Labs, bleeding-edge Google Chrome (Dev Version), Google Labs, (including my personal favorites, Google Squared and Google Trends), and Google Search Experiments. In addition to all the Google betas, I have the Firefox beta, and the beta of anything else I can get my hands on.

But the point of this post is Skype. Most of my family/friends use Skype, and some portion of them read this blog. So if you haven't already, make sure you go download the Skype Beta. It's definitely worth it.

Just a couple of the cooler features include screen sharing (so no more demanding that you go to Tools -> options -> sound settings -> microphones and webcams -> advanced options -> manual configuration -> reset all). Plus its easier to share contacts, more stable (i.e. less crashes), and its just cool the LATEST VERSION.

If you didn't read any of the post, then use this link to download the Skype Beta. Talk to ya Sunday @ 7!