thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Resources

Logitech Begins Showing Off Google TV Ads

Posted on 29. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Well, its clear that summer is coming to a close because Logitech is ramping up its marketing efforts for the Revue, a set top box that will offer Google TV to those who subscribe to DISH Network this fall in the United States. The Revue is decidedly netbook-like internally, loaded with a Intel Atom processor.

Although traditionally a television would most likely destroy itself in spectacular fashion by doing this; I guess the idea of television being “reinvented” here is the main point.

Video: O2 Joggler Running Chrome

Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

We posted a video earlier this week of Hexxeh using Chrome OS Flow on a tablet. The tablet in question is called the O2 Joggler, a multimedia tablet that comes at a very low cost – around $80. The system specifications are less than a typical netbook, and it doesn’t come with a battery, so it has to be plugged in all the time.

Here is a more complete video of an O2 Joggler running Ubuntu and Chrome browser with the ChromeTouch extension.

Hexxeh Shows off Touch on a Chrome OS Tablet

Posted on 16. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

A few days ago Hexxeh showed off his newest Chromium project, which is porting his Chrome OS Flow build over to a tablet. Supposedly the device used is an O2 Joggler. Today, he’s posted an early version that is working with touch.

I can’t wait to get my hands on a Chrome OS tablet.

Firefox 4 Sure Looks a Lot Like Chrome

Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Firefox 4 Beta 1 certainly looks familar. I can’t seem to place where I’ve seen this interface before. Oh, I know, it’s the one I see every day when I use Chrome. You be the judge.

Tabs have been moved to the top of the window, the color scheme has changed accordingly and even the input boxes on the main toolbar area now have a rounded look to them. I can’t wait to download this and check out the generation-leaping JavaScript engine this thing is supposed to have.

Sync Your Chrome Extensions Between Computers

Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Chris Pirillo has a great video that shows the capability to synchronize extensions with Chromium. Ever been somewhere and forgot that great extension allowing you to open tabs you recently closed? (I use TabJump) Or what about that badass weather extension, except you know that’s not really the name of it? Well, now starting with the developmental builds of the Chrome browser, that’s not going to be a problem.

Wow, that Visual Tabs extension looks mighty interesting, I may have to do a review of that one…

Video: Newest Chrome OS Build Booting Up

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

DownloadSquad has put up a video of the latest Chromium OS booting on a Gateway LT netbook. While it’s not overly quick, it does demonstrate the UI changes that have happened since the initial launch last November.

Chrome 6 Versus Safari 5

Posted on 16. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Safari 5 just came out last week, and Chrome 6 is still in development. Which one is faster?

How About Some Chrome Browser on Your PSP?

Posted on 15. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Yeah, I didn’t really believe the title of this YouTube video until I actually saw it myself. But it appears that some enterprising person was capable of tossing a little Chrome browser action on their Sony Playstation Portable. Nice work.

Instructions:

PSP Google Chrome browser + how to install

DOWNLOAD :
http://lolq.eu/s/psp_chrome/

HOW TO INSTALL:

Connect your psp to your computer

Copy the ‘pspchrome’ folder in x/psp/common/ on your memorystick

Disconect your psp from your computer

Go to the psp web browser, write in the address bar ” file:/psp/common/pspchrome/index.html ”

Then pspchrome will open, choose the language, and it will start.
You may now set it as your home page or mark it in your bookmarks

Marvell Talks Cloud Computing, Chrome OS

Posted on 13. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

At Computex, I had the opportunity to talk to Bou Chung Lin, VP & GM of Taiwan Operations for Marvell. While we were going though an overview of the company’s offerings, we got on the subject of cloud computing and Chrome OS. Here’s a quick clip of his response to my questions regarding this.

We know that Marvell has been working on an ARM-based Chromium OS build, as our pal Charbax over at ARMDevices.net showed us earlier this year when the company showed it off running on their Armada 510 processor at CES in Las Vegas.

It will be interesting to see what will happen to Chrome OS in terms of using an ARM based solution versus an x86 one. I’ve heard rumors that Intel is readying a rival to ARM-based solutions, or perhaps start making their own ARM licensed product.

There is no doubt they are going to need to do something after some of the things that I have seen coming from ARM processors comprised of multiple cores that divvy up the duties for a device to separately process system, video and audio functions for mobile devices.

Video: Could Chrome OS Plus Ubuntu be the Dual Boot Solution?

Posted on 09. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Just came across this video showing Chrome OS and then a quick boot to Ubuntu. This makes me wonder whether using Chrome OS and Ubuntu as a dual boot solution would help to ease those fears about going completely into a cloud environment:

One thing noticeable is that there was no login at the boot as if this build was somehow packaged without it. For more information, head on over to http://www.chromium.jp as it looks like a build made from this version will be available from there.

Video: Google Executive Talks Chrome, Chrome OS

Posted on 02. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Google VP of product management Sundar Pichai was featured at a Google press conference held at Computex today. I got a chance to film many of the questions that were asked, as well as ask some of my own regarding Chrome OS.

More Chromium and Chrome OS information to come. Follow us on Twitter and/or via our RSS feed for the latest updates from Computex.

Opera Thumbs its Nose at Chrome Speed Tests

Posted on 31. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Always outnumbered in users but not one to back down, the folks at Opera have put out a video in jest of the Chrome speed test clip that was released by Google in celebration of the stable release of Chrome 5.

And, in case you may not remember the Chrome speed tests video, here it is.

Browser Tests: Which of the Current Generation is Best?

Posted on 29. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Here is a video that pits Chrome 5, Firefox 4, Internet Explorer 9, Opera 10.5 and Safari 4 against each other. Using a good array of speed tests, including one for JavaScript, the SunSpider test and the Peacekeeper Benchmark, you might be surprised to see some of the formally fastest browsers on the market are starting to fall behind the pack.

It’s clear that Google is directing a lot of resources into the development of Chrome. Witness the fact that Chrome 6 in now in the development channel, and the browser was first introduced in 2008. It appears that major financial and development time is what is going to win the title of best browser, so it doesn’t come as a shock that IE9 is pulling itself up by its bootstraps and start moving up the rankings.

An interesting point: some seem concerned about the fact that Android and Chrome OS are being developed concurrently, and that the logic behind doing something of this nature is faulty. But the reality is that Chrome is not going anywhere. Massive resources are being used to develop this platform, and along with the fact that Google TV will use Chrome as well, I don’t see Android and Chrome merging anytime soon. Plus, perhaps with Chrome OS Google will be better able to handle the fragmentation issues that have plagued Android via its auto-update technology.

What do you think? Should Android and Chrome be merged? Or does it make sense for the two to be separate, one used for phones and one for computing?

Chrome OS on a $199 Tablet

Posted on 27. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Our pal Charbax from ARMDevices has a video showing Chromium OS running on the $199 Freescale i.MX51 tablet which runs the ARM Cortex A8 processor. Although he has to use some external input/output devices are used in order to make it work, this gives me some hope we will see some breakthroughs in terms of affordable tablet technology utilizing Chrome OS at the Computex conference which starts next week.

At CES, Korean mobile device maker Cydle showed off a 7″ Android tablet and said that they were planning on having a Chrome OS version at some point as well. Having cheap internet enabled devices running Chrome OS would be great, and would probably scare wireless companies if Skype or another VoIP company had a webapp to complement these tablets.

What’s the Newest Chrome Build Look Like? Here’s a Look

Posted on 26. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Yes, the new version came out many weeks ago, and now someone has captured the spring release of Chrome OS on video (plan on us doing this in the future, we promise). Notice how there is a profile element to logging on, full screen mode and integrated Flash capability now available.

Does Android Have the Fastest Mobile Browser with Flash?

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

A comprehensive video showing the Flash elements of a Nexus One with Android 2.2 compared to the iPhone and HTC HD2 (Windows Mobile 6.2), which is very telling. The video also has a comparison to prove to whether Android actually has the fastest mobile browser as claimed by Google. So how does the mobile variety of Flash integrate with pages when you are on the web? You be the judge.

A Quick Look at the Newest Chrome OS Build

Posted on 30. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

A newer build of Chromium has been released (you can get a packaged version here), and while I plan on looking over it soon someone has posted a video showing some of the updates.  From this clip with the new build on a MSI netbook it looks like the login screen now features the ability to have several profiles that load up, and the options screen appears to be more lengthy than before:

I could go through the Chromium site to look at the changes, but there has been so many revisions I’ll hold off until I take a look myself.

New Chrome Ads Highlight Extensions, Translate

Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

These videos continue to be enjoyable, simply because they are all so different and while Chrome is the singular product promoted, there really is no underlying theme that ties them together other than the similar motif. I think this is a smart move, as consumers are pretty sophisticated about products theses days.

It’s no wonder that people have to be when you think about how many marketing messages a person is exposed to day in and day  out. At the same time, the presentation here is simplistic, not trying to alienate those who may not be into the technical side of computers:

Here is a previous ad that the same agency, BBH, did a while back:

Check out this clip on how they made the ad above. It’s pretty cool how they are using their creativity to make these effects instead of just using a PC. It really stretches your abilities while at the same time enables one to make something truly unique:

Optimizing Chrome Browser for Speed

Posted on 19. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey.

Everyone wants their browser to move as fast as possible. This is most likely due to the fact that no matter the speed of an application, it still seems to lag behind human performance in terms of user interface. While Chrome has certainly achieved a level of browser performance that I have not seen before, there are still some settings that slow it down a bit:

Hopefully this helps you out. No one wants to use something that is slower than it has to be.