Google will endeavor to keep Chrome OS and Android separate, though they could still have some overlap. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt confirmed that the two operating systems are to "remain separate for a very long time, because they solve different problems", in the wake of the company's management reshuffle.
Google appears to be edging closer to including Google Now into Chrome itself. Flags associated with the service have been spotted in chrome://flags in the latest Chromium build, suggesting that the search giant may bring Google Now to Chrome OS computers and desktops carrying the Chrome browser in the near future.
Google may be creating a Chromebook of its own, if a promotional video for the device is confirmed as real. The Chromebook Pixel would in theory have a 2560x1700 resolution display with multitouch, running on Chrome OS, and is claimed by the tagline "Designed by Google. Down to the last pixel."
Samsung has redesigned its Series 3 Chromebox, but has continued with the same internals. Prior to the revamp, the Series 3 Chromebox had been likened to the Mac mini, however the new version has adopted a look more in line with Samsung’s whitegoods. As with all devices running Google’s Chrome OS, the Series 3 Chromebox relies on an Internet connection to delivers its full capabilities.
Acer made a move today to expand the availability of its recently announced Chromebook, bringing the $199 notebook to three new online outlets. Starting today, TigerDirect, NewEgg, and Staples.com will carry Acer's C7 Chromebook, joining Google Play, BestBuy.com, and Best Buy stores. The Chrome OS-powered notebook will still sell for $199, though some outlets are packaging it with other accessories.
Google is said to be preparing to join manufacturing partners Samsung and Acer in producing hardware to run its Chrome OS. The latest rumors have a 12.85-inch, touch-enabled notebook to be sold under the Google brand. The rumored notebook would supposedly debut in the first quarter of 2013.
Google announced today the latest version of its so-far-underperforming line of Chrome OS-powered Chromebooks, and in doing so significantly lowered the price for a Chrome device. The search giant unveiled a new 11.6-inch Samsung Chromebook in San Francisco, pricing it at $249. The new device will be available for pre-order today and will be available for purchase in physical retail locations next week.
(Update: iOS app now available) Google's Drive file storage service is officially coming to iOS and Chrome OS, the company announced today at its second Google I/O keynote. Little has been announced about plans for the former, except that an app should launch for all iOS devices sometime today. One feature will be the ability to search through scanned documents, thanks to OCR technology; searching for "pyramid," for instance, should bring up images with the word in them even if the filename is completely unrelated.
Google Drive, the cloud-based storage system that functions as a file system for Google's Chrome OS computers, will soon be getting an offline mode, according to Google's Senior Vice President of Chrome & Apps, Sundar Pichai. The addition of an offline mode would address one common complaint about Google's browser-based line of computers, which recently received a refresh. Pichai also hinted that an ad-supported model for Chrome OS devices wasn't outside the realm of possibility.
Since the introduction of Google's Chrome OS, there has been some confusion as to what the search giant would do its two operating systems; but Google's vice president of engineering, Linus Upson, has told TechRadar that users can expect to see a gradual convergence between Android, its increasingly popular OS for tablets and smartphones, and Chrome OS, its decidedly less successful notebook- and desktop-oriented OS. In fact, says Upson, that convergence is already happening, albeit on a small scale.
Seemingly undeterred by the lackluster sales of its prior efforts, Google has launched once more into the computing sphere, announcing a refresh of its Chrome OS computer line. The Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 is an updated Chrome-powered notebook, while the Samsung Chromebox is a small form-factor desktop machine reminiscent of Apple's Mac mini.
Images of Samsung's forthcoming Chromebox desktop appeared briefly on the Internet today, as retailer TigerDirect posted a video featuring the device. The video has since been taken down, but it confirmed details Samsung had previously released when it revealed the device in January. The desktop computer, similar in its form factor to Apple's Mac mini, will be one of the first desktop PCs to run Google's Chrome operating system.
The Chrome OS developer channel has been updated to add Google Drive integration, which means that users of Google's fledgling Chromebook line will likely soon see the search giant's cloud storage solution popping up in the next wide-release OS update. The addition of Drive, revealed earlier this week, is expected to address one of the major obstacles to file management on the line of web-only netbooks.
A Wired interview with Sundar Pichai revealed that an upcoming update to Google's Chrome OS will see tighter integration between the netbook OS and Google's new cloud storage offering, Google Drive. The update is expected to greatly improve the file system functionality of Chrome OS.
Pegatron on Wednesday became the latest company to reach a patent deal in Microsoft's Android licensing campaign. In a boilerplate statement, Microsoft said Pegatron would pay a royalty on every Android or Chrome OS device it manufactured. The two kept up Microsoft's typical request that the terms of the deal not be made public.
The often-rumored Google Drive might have at last settled on a more definitive launch plan that would include true cross-platform access. A draft press release sliped to The Next Web had the service more closely following the Dropbox formula, where files were stored in a syncing folder or folders on a Mac or Windows PC. Although widely suspected, it's now believed to have an iOS app to match the Android and desktop components.
Google's latest developer channel release for Chrome OS has revealed pressure to bring it back to more of a traditional desktop. A new window manager, Aura, now gives it a Windows-like taskbar ("shelf") and multiple windows, much like the conventional operating system it was hoping to avoid. A button on the taskbar now invokes a full-screen app launcher much like Apple's Launchpad in OS X Lion.
NVIDIA's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang in an interview mid-week has predicted that Android tablets will hit $199 by the summer. Speaking to the New York Times, he predicted that the presumably Tegra-based hardware would shave about $150 in costs. Some of this would come from reducing flash storage, although he also implied that quality might take a drop through reductions in "build materials."
Google as anticipated started taking registrations for Google I/O 2012. The tickets to the developer event, which cost $900 for regular developers and $300 for education, sold out in less than one hour. In an unusual step meant to drive adoption, anyone who signed up had to do so both as a Google+ member and by using Google Wallet, neither of which was a deterrent.
A new discovery within Chromium OS bug tracking has suggested that Chrome OS is not only close to using ARM but may use one of its fastest processors. Thomas Taschauer has spotted numerous references to "Daisy," an unknown device that would use Samsung's Exynos 5250. The 2GHz, ARM Cortex-A15-based chip could both significantly improve battery life and thinness while making a Chrome OS device as fast or faster than current Intel Atom Chromebooks.
Google's future Jelly Bean version of Android, unofficially known as Android 5.0, might be focused even more on larger screens than recent versions. A rumor from Taiwan suppliers late Wednesday claimed to Digitimes that Jelly Bean was "further optimized" for tablets. Some elements of Chrome or Chrome OS would supposedly be in place to allow a live dual-boot: users could flip from Windows to Android without having to shut down one or the other.
Google wrapped up and posted the finished version of Chrome 17 for the desktop on Wednesday. The new browser update takes site prerendering beyond just search results to include autocompletion. If the autocompletion in the address bar is headed towards a likely web address, the browser will start loading content in the background to speed up the perceived load time. It can give the impression that favorite sites load almost immediately, Google suggested.
Signs that Apple and Google are honoring laws barring no-poaching deals may have surfaced this weekend after new tips that Google had hired away one of Apple's veterans. VentureBeat understood that Simon Prakash, Apple's senior director for product integrity, had been hired away to work on a "secret project." He would reportedly start on Monday.
At the Florida Educational Technology Conference on Wednesday, Google Chromebook for business and education head Rajen Sheth announced three school districts have signed on to receive 27,000 of the browser-powered notebooks. The devices will be used by students in Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina. In addition, hundreds of schools in 41 states have at least one classroom with a Chromebook, Sheth added.
Samsung had one of its most sweeping notebook updates yet at CES this week and introduced multiple major updates to its notebook line. We had the opportunity to try them all at CES and came away with mixed reactions. Read on for early impressions, including whether or not the Series 9 will give Apple heat in the ultrabook category.
A library in Palo Alto, California, will soon launch a pilot program that will allow members to borrow a Google Chromebook for as long as one week at a time, Wired said Wednesday. The undertaking is largely made possible due to the nature of Chromebooks as multiple users can easily customize the computer simply by signing into their Google account, as most data and applications are saved in the cloud rather than locally. As such, privacy concerns aren't applicable.
Google kept up its development track by posting the finished, stable version of Chrome 16. The release centers on the multiple account support from the beta and lets more than one user share the same browser. Bookmarks, extensions, web apps, and more will carry over from device to device.
Google said this morning that it was delaying its high-profile I/O conference by two months in return for more time. Originally slated to start April 24 and last for two days, it's now due to start on June 27 and will have a third extra day. An "unexpected opportunity" let it move to the later but longer schedule, Google said.
A presentation from Google developer evangelist Paul Kinlan at the Develop Liverpool conference has revealed that the Chrome browser, and by extension Chrome OS, should get plugin-free support that will be much more conducive to gaming. The browser should get support for common USB peripherals and allow for console-style gaming with a gamepad, Edge heard. Likewise, it would open the door to more seamless video chat, augmented reality, and body tracking.
Parts suppliers indicated to Digitimes that HTC is contemplating making portable devices that use Chrome OS. The gadgets might sit between tablets and netbooks. Chrome OS boots quicker and can run on both ARM and x86 devices, but Chromebooks from Acer and Samsung haven't been selling well and are priced higher than Windows systems.
Google on Monday took a pair of steps to revitalize Chrome OS. A new black Samsung Series 5 Chromebook is launching in the US The Wi-Fi only model is identical to the earlier version but drops down from $430 to $350, making it Samsung's first Chrome OS system under the $400 mark.
Google's Chromebooks may have been non-starters on their arrival in June, PC field reports alleged on Thursday. Between arrival and the end of July, Acer's Cromia 700 shipped just 5,000 units, Digitimes' tipsters claimed. Samsung's higher-priced Series 5 would have sold less than that.
More details have emerged about Mozilla’s mobile OS. The Boot 2 Gecko, or B2G, project is now undergoing testing by Mozilla developers. The OS has been compared to Google’s Chrome OS, as it has a web emphasis and relies on HTML5-based applications. Although Android is at its core the aim is to use “as little Android as possible,” but take the Chrome OS-like experience to mobile phones. Some screen mock-ups are embedded below, as a guide as to how the OS may look and function.
Microsoft picked an unusual Sunday timeframe to reveal that it had struck a patent licensing deal with Compal. The deal will make Compal pay a royalty for every Android and Chrome OS device it makes under contract for others. As with every other deal from Microsoft, the exact terms weren't made public.
Microsoft continued its patent campaign against Android on Thursday by striking a licensing deal with contract device builder Quanta. The Taiwan firm will pay Microsoft keep making computers, smartphones, and tablets for other companies. A boilerplate statement from Microsoft didn't give terms other than to confirm the expected word that Quanta would pay royalties.
Google is previewing Dart, a new programming language for building web apps. The language has been designed to be flexible, meeting the needs of a one-person project, without much structure, and scaling up to a large-scale project needing formal types in the code. Initially the code will support at least Chrome, Safari 5, and Firefox 4 browsers, but not Internet Explorer.
Google drew more comparisons to Apple again on Friday after it opened its first retail presence in the UK. The store-within-a-store, located in the PC World in London's electronics-friendly Tottenham Court Road, exists primarily to sell Chromebooks. The search firm's UK consumer marketing head Arvind Desikan told the London Evening Standard that it was an acknowledgment retail sales were key to selling notebooks, especially for those using a new platform like Chrome OS.
Microsoft continued its campaign of profiting from Android's success on Thursday with new patent licensing deals through Acer and ViewSonic. The deals will see each pay royalties for their Android devices, such as the Iconia Smart and ViewPads. In spite of Acer being one of the first Chromebook makers, only ViewSonic of the two will also pay royalties for any Chrome OS devices it makes.
Google's bid for Hulu may involve a much more elaborate prospect than anyone else, insiders gave out Tuesday. Amazon, Dish, and Yahoo are all offering conventional bids of up to $2 billion, but Google is now thought to have said "there's enough money" for a much more involved deal. Tips to AllThingsD didn't identify what the intentions were, but the amount was enough that Hulu would have normally thrown it out were it not for the cash involved.
South Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy deputy minister Kim Jae-hong stated late Monday that the country was looking to develop its own mobile and desktop operating systems to reduce dependency on outsiders like Apple and Google. A plan due to start before the end of 2011 would see Korean companies, presumably LG, Samsung, Pantech, and others, make their own open-source platforms both for mobile and a Chrome OS-like desktop. It would also hope to establish a "habitat," Kim told Yonhap and other media outlets, where locals were encouraged to pick their own OS over others.
Microsoft in the SEC filing for its annual report has removed Linux as a competitor on the desktop. While discussing what it has to compete with in operating systems, the Windows developer has scratched out Linux altogether and has relegated it to a factor only in niches like embedded and servers. Only Apple and Google are left in the category, Wes Miller noted in finding the difference.
Netflix has tweeted that its @Netflix app is now available for Chromebook owners. The app is available from the Chrome Web Store. Netflix is a offering a one month's free trial to new customers.
Amazon has quietly provided an end-run around Apple's App Store rules. Kindle Cloud Reader brings a touch-friendly reading app that provides all the settings, highlights, bookmarks and other features of native apps in a device-independent form. The page takes advantage of HTML5 to work entirely offline and thus can keep going even during a flight or another moment where no Internet connection exists.
Windows 7 will have made it to 42 percent of PCs in the last year before it's replaced, Gartner said in a new estimate. It expects the Microsoft OS to get 42 percent in 2011, just a few months before Windows 8 is ready. The lift would come mostly from businesses with more cash to spend on upgrades, not home users.
Google's progress towards Chrome OS on tablets may have become more definite with a posting of a video (below) showing the early interface. Along with the necessary on-screen keyboard, the interface would optimize much of the interface specifically for touch. Suggested results would appear as touch-friendly buttons, and elements like menus would be oversized to make them easy to use.
Chrome OS is vulnerable both to extensions and, to some extent, to Google's own approach to security, WhiteHat Security experts led by Matt Johansen revealed in a presentation at the Black Hat conference this week. Because extensions have to reach outside sites and the OS depends on this code for extra features, it's possible to compromise the OS itself by installing a malicious extension. While not an issue by itself, CNET noted that extensions have shown up in Google's own Chrome Web Store explicitly meant to steal information, and others get deep access that could be misappropriated.
Mozilla has confirmed plans to build a ChromeOS-inspired operating system geared for mobile devices. The project, which is currently referred to as Boot to Gecko (B2G), will be built upon Google's Android OS at its core, though Mozilla's VP of Technical Strategy, Mike Shaver, suggests the company will try to use "as little of Android as possible."
One Laptop Per Child's delayed XO-3 tablet for children in developing countries will get rubber covers that will not only protect the device but may also have solar chargers, satellite Internet or external keyboard connections. OLPC founder and chairman Nicholas Negroponte during an interview with PCWorld revealed that he hoped to draw more interest through the features, which are targeted at countries where power and reliable Internet access are harder to find. The device, originally announced in late 2009 and due to arrive on the market early in 2012, will be priced at under $100.
A new hack has managed to load Chromium OS on to the previous-generation MacBook Air. The trick involves 'burning' an image of the OS to a USB flash drive and running Terminal prompts to move the OS and give it permission to run as a boot drive on the Apple notebook. Because it needs to run on the Mac's solid-state drive for the firmware to recognize the boot process, it has to wipe out the Mac OS X install; the creator, Hexxeh, urges every user to backup any data.
Google Chromebooks will soon get a big speed upgrade in return for a slight discount, insiders claimed Wednesday. The Chrome OS hardware will reportedly go to Core i3 and beyond processors and, to make the price balance work, will get a 10 to 20 percent discount from Intel on the chips. Existing partners Acer and Samsung were reported by Digitimes as onboard and might be joined by ASUS and others as soon as early 2012.
