Tag Archives: Dell
Dell Shows Off its Tablet
Posted on 01. Feb, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 
1 Comments
Dell. Michael Dell. In this video he gives a peak to the Mini 5, a tablet that has Android as its operating system. This thing is clearly running some type of ARM chip, but he will not specify a whole lot in the video. It looks pretty good while going through the various screens quickly. At 5″, it seems to fit in one hand quite well, and I am wondering if this is going to be targeted towards selling to a wireless carriers, or if it will be a standalone product:
So, what’s the right size for these devices before they are too big for your pocket, too big for one hand? Five inch screens are probably the limit. We’ll see how these products sell. I would think that Chrome OS would be best utilized on something with a larger screen, over seven inches.
New Chromium Build from Dell Out
Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
In late November, the Linux support team over at Dell were one of the first folks to release a custom build of Chromium, set up with the Dell Mini line of netbooks in mind. Now, they have released a new version:
I have posted a new ChromiumOS for Mini10v.
DISCLAIMER: This image is totally UNSUPPORTED with no WARRANTY – USE
AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Updates in the Jan09 Image:
• Smaller! 188MB download now (compressed, I believe you can use a
4GB USB key now)
• Re-built off of latest git tree
• Added script to simplify installing the wl wireless driver – /etc/
install_wl.sh
• Seems to also work OK with the Mini 9 and Latitude 2100
• “chronos” user password has been set to “dell” (no quotes)
• See the README-Jan09.txt for more details/instructions
Note that this image *requires* a wired connection for your initial
login. You must use a valid gmail account.
Current Issues:
• Still having delays in wifi connectivity for the Broadcom wifi
driver
• DNS name resolution is slow for the Broadcom wifi driver
• Touchscreen in the Latitude 2100 is not calibrated correctly
• Mini 10v touchpad is very twitchy
Regards,
Doug
The Top 10 Questions For Chrome OS in 2010
Posted on 31. Dec, 2009 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
As we wrap up what has been an eventful 2009, I thought that now would be a great time for some reflection on where Chrome OS is going and some of the big questions that do not have concrete answers yet. An official release by Google is at least six months away for Chromium but even so that leaves a lot left to the imagination at this point. So here is a review what are the biggest issues relating to the Chrome operating system and my best attempt to try to explore them. Enjoy and here’s to a great 2010!
Who will manufacture the GoogleBook?
A look at the third quarter 2009 market share for netbook manufacturers puts Acer out in front with a 38.8% piece of the pie. But Asus is not far behind at around 30%. I don’t believe that a brand like HP or Dell would want to slap a Google logo on hardware that they’ve designed, so my bet right now is that Asus is Google’s HTC in the netbook market. However, a contract supplier such as Foxconn or Flextronics could offer a sweeter deal and have no qualms about branding issues.
Will it be subsidized?
As we’ve already seen with Google’s Nexus One Android Phone pricing, subsidizing and partnering with a wireless provider looks like the best path for the GoogleBook. It doesn’t look like Google wants to eat any cost trying to release this product, and why should they? There should be enough hype prior to an official launch. And don’t forget that open source developers will have had their hands on Chromium, release their own builds. This project is starting to mirror in some degree the path that Android took to completely blowing up this year, and I mean that in a good way.
Will it be secure?
It’s going to need to be. McAfee has already reported Chrome OS as a top vulnerability of 2010. In a hacker’s eyes, Microsoft is no longer the big daddy, since they have gotten their security up to snuff in the past couple of years. Now it’s time for the focus to be shifted onto software that is complementary to operating systems, such as Adobe’s Flash or Reader. Since Chrome OS will be both the OS and the applications, that’s where the concern is. Basically, cybercriminals are going to target the software that has the lowest level of protection in terms of security, and I think that McAfee has now put Google on alert with their report.
Will there be hardware options?
No, there won’t. Just kidding. But it’s interesting to see Google deciding what hardware is going to work with their operating system. I don’t blame them, because they want to make something that is simple and just works. Microsoft has spent so much time trying to be everthing to everyone in terms of hardware support, and although I don’t blame them, I am curious to see how creating specific standards for Chromium could potentially make this operating system so simple to use there’s no thinking about it.
What about the competition?
Amazingly, there are a lot of options out there for operating systems designed with netbooks in and mind that there too many for me to list here. We just did a review of Moblin, Intel’s open-source foray into the realm, and we plan on posting more soon. A little competition never hurt anyone, especially in the tech market since that is just going to make products that are better for us end users. This is especially true when you consider that sales for netbooks is expected to grow by 297% within the next three years.
Is Chrome OS a marketing ploy?
You have to start wondering if Chrome OS is supposed to be a conduit to everything Google. If you think about it, the operating system complements things that Google has been working on for years. Take Google Apps. While it has been out for 2006, and it did experience an outage this year, it appears that Apps is starting to gain some traction with large companies such as Genetech implementing it. Now give users a Google-branded device that doesn’t have Microsoft Office and what do you get? Instant adoption of Apps by a wide range if users. This method could potentially be used for an array of other Google offerings.
What about Android?
It’s difficult to figure out the strategy on this one, because although Sergey Brin says they’ll eventually converge, it feels like there is a chasm that is further separating these two especially as Android begins to take off in the mobile phone market. Along with a tepid review for the Acer One D250 netbook loaded with Android, it feels like for the time being these two are going to be very, very separate in terms of functionalities. Besides that, I keep wondering about the human-computer interaction element of the two that makes them fundamentally different: for a netbook to be really useful, it needs a full keyboard which is not a feature that is in any way desirable on a phone.
How does Chrome OS affect privacy?
It wouldn’t be surprising if Google CEO Eric Schmidt would like to take back his recent comments on privacy in terms of search, but he has not retracted them as far as I know. While it’s a great idea that cloud computing can allow someone to log onto a machine and get their data from wherever they are, let’s not forget that the logon you use is your Google account. The information from your account is currently used to target advertising while you search and use Gmail. If that is the case now, in the future who knows what else? Did I mention that the login to Chrome OS is your Google account as well?
What will open source developers’ impact be?
We’ve already seen iterations of Chrome OS developed by open source developers, and there is already a 64-bit version out there to try out. This leads one to wonder where this will go in the next six to eight months before there is an official release. Since Chrome OS is open source, it’s entirely possible that techies out there will run there own builds that allow them to do more than a commercial version would. Regardless, open source is the way to go. Developers outside of Google will make this a legitimate competitor in the netbook market, and we shall soon see if it will either quickly dominate or not.
How will Microsoft fight back?
Although Steve Ballmer doesn’t seem particularly concerned with Chromium, there are some indications that Microsoft is going to have embrace more open source projects in order to stay relevent in a market that is increasingly on the moving towards that direction. For example, Windows4all is a browser based version of Windows 7 that has been developed by Microsoft’s open source community called Codplex. Also, They are releasing Office 2010 with browser based versions. They are going to attempt to stay in the game, but really it seems like all they are doing is trying to not fall completely behind.
Where to Download Chrome OS
Posted on 04. Dec, 2009 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
At this point, there are already several different flavors of Chrome available. It all depends on what kind of system you plan on installing Chrome OS on, and we can give you a run down on what you need to know.
If you want to run Chrome on a virtual machine (VM) such as Sun’s VirtualBox or VMware, you can get a compiled version of Chrome OS here.
As reported earlier, there is a version that has been released by Dell that has been successfully tested on their Mini 10v. The build is loaded via a USB device, and you will need one that has a spare 8 GB. You can get it here.
There is a smaller more comprehensive version of Chrome OS that has been developed as well. According to the developer, it offers a wide array of support in terms of hardware. This is by far the most comprehensive site that is out there, and also offers excellent instructions on how to install Chrome. The version is called Chrome OS Cherry, and the build supports wifi and can be loaded on a 1GB memory stick.
Acer Will Have First Chrome OS Machine in 2010
Posted on 03. Dec, 2009 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
It’s been reported all over the net that Acer chief JT Wang is claiming his company will be the first manufacturer to release a full fledged netbook that is running Chrome OS. This is not surprising seeing as how Acer has already released the Aspire One AO250 (left) as a dual-boot machine with Windows XP and Android. I don’t know what the Android experience would be like, but a dual boot netbook with XP and Chrome OS would be an awesome combination.
I can’t wait to have a machine that runs Chrome so I can use it on a daily basis, but my concern (one of a few, actually) is that with Chrome I won’t be able to open and manipulate files on my machine. At least that’s been the theory so far based on Google’s documentation – I’m conceptualizing, I know. But If I had a dual boot machine with XP or Ubuntu along with Chrome OS, now that would be cool.
Now, I’ve always been a Dell fan for my laptops, but lately I have become somewhat captivated by Acer’s lineup. Years ago, I equated Acer with crappy quality but they have really taken a lot of market share from Dell and other PC makers in the past few years. I think that it is smart for Acer to captivate early adopters for Chromium – the appeal for Chrome is going to be BIG. Many people don’t want to fuss with computers anymore and they want it to just work and I really feel that Google is on to something good.
We’ll keep you posted on the latest.
Native Tests of Chrome OS on Netbooks Successful
Posted on 29. Nov, 2009 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
I was browsing the Dell website recently, trying to see what existing netbook models in their lineup would best fit the Chrome OS. Since Chrome would ideally be distributed free to manufacturers, I was surprised to not see Dell’s name on the list of manufacturers that were planning on working with Google in developing devices that worked with Chrome since without licensing fees that are tacked on to Windows netbooks, a comparable netbook sold by Dell would be competitive as it would surely sell for less.
Well, as it turns out the Dell Linux team has put an install on a Dell Mini 10v and they have released the image file as well. An interesting item of note about the install is that the team was unable to get the wireless hardware to seamlessly talk to the OS. As a consequence, it takes quite a bit of time to actually get connected wirelessly. This is despite the fact that the wired connection tested solid. I was pondering this issue the other day, as the ability for users to be able to easily get connected to the net is going to become a big deal when running Chrome, and while the Dell Linux team reported a native hardware start-up of about 12 seconds, its not a good thing when it takes the OS’s connection manager over five minutes to make Chrome useful unless there is a wire around – and who wants to deal with that?
What motivated the folks over at Dell to try this experiment was Engagdet’s install of the Chrome source code to a Vostro A860 netbook, booting the machine natively from a usb device. This is the same method with which the Dell techies used to boot the Mini 10v. I also came a across this video of the first touchscreen device with a native Chrome OS install on an Asus EeePC Tablet T91 by a Brazilian blog called Techguru. It is certainly something worth noting:
All of this is coming out less than seven days after the release of the source code from Google. This makes things pretty exciting about what’s probably coming next, whatever that may be.
