I'll try it

In building the best search engine, maps, and Web-based email around, Google spent 10 years making itself an integral part of our daily online lives -- and spent the last few years exploiting that position with one intrusion into our privacy after another. But is there any hope of pulling Google's hooks out of our mouths? One brave man is here to tell us that it can be done. The first step is purging Google's traces from your browser, computer, and phone; next is the search for alternatives.

Can Apple's tablet replace all other computing devices for a solid week? Our brave guinea pig found out.

Steven Vaughan-Nichols recently spent a week working with nothing but a Samsung Series 5 Chromebook. Here is a day-by-day accounting of what he found. It's a tale of both triumph and tragedy. Well, OK, so it's really a story of what worked and what didn't work, but you get the idea.

The author vows to read and reply to all email for one week. Can he tame the wicked beast?