Tag Archives: hardware
Is Google’s Battle Against Apple Turning Towards Hardware?
Posted on 25. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 
1 Comments
I don’t think that many people expected a battle pitting Google versus Apple a year ago, much less a rivalry that is based on hardware.
In that span of time, many things have changed. No longer is Eric Schmidt on Apple’s board and it is anyone’s guess how much longer Google branded services will be promoted on Apple devices. Acquisitions have been heating up between the two companies, with both of them sporting no debt and having large cash reserves.
This past week has seen Google purchase Agnilux, which is a start-up semiconductor company that was founded by some people who once worked for P.A. Semi, bought by Apple in 2008 and reportedly featuring some of the technology that is inside the iPad. You following this? I know, perplexing. There seems to be a rush for semiconductors in the hardware market to push the market past what we’ve been using for years: netbooks and laptops.
Case in point: the rumor that is going around whereby Apple plans on purchasing ultra-mobile chip developer ARM. While I’m sure Apple covets ARM’s technology (since it is used in the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch) it doesn’t sound as if ARM wants to become a part of Apple. That’s probably because even though they are ARM’s biggest customer, ARM would likely lose most of their other competing customers such as Samsung, Qualcomm and Google (now via Android and soon Chrome OS).
“Nobody has to buy the company”, is the quote from ARM CEO Warren East when asked about Apple buyout rumors. That may be true, but when you see that Chromium’s newest releases are showing that the hardware is being steered toward using ARM solutions for processing, this probably makes Apple a bit nervous because they already have hold of a nice niche with great margins.
It makes sense in that light why when they recently purchased chip designer Intrinsity, they decided to keep it quiet. Also kept silent is the fact that Intrinsity likely had more to do with Apple’s A4 processor than anyone inside the company wants to be known.
While we’re on the subject of hardware, expect to see a different platform model as Chrome OS progresses, one that blends Apple’s model with an open source software environment. In order to offer the best user experience the hardware requirements for Chrome OS are going to be dictated by Google. At the same time, they will allow developers to continue to work on Chromium in an effort to make it the best cloud platform out there.
Expect to also see an integrated store for apps that cost money with Chrome OS, with Google acting as the intermediary for billing and marketing of the marketplace. All other apps will be readily available on the web if they are free, allowing developers to focus on their craft and tipping their hats to Google for paid offerings and the platform that allows interoperability with other developers’ apps.
It’s a somewhat reverse model from Microsoft, which has in the past allowed for hardware manufacturers to develop for their platform, but keeping the operating system and tools to create applications under lock and key. Many times I have heard from developers how the methods by which Microsoft dictates its architecture causes problems in terms of software development; however these gripes seem to be declining.
Hopefully, Google will take caution to make sure that they do not end up with the same problems, but in opposite order. Hardware manufacturers may become exasperated by strong technical requirements needed for Chrome OS hardware, causing material costs to rise and thus margins to be much lower than is accustomed. Of course, one can also put into account the fact that the licensing costs that are associated with Microsoft’s operating systems will not come into play since Chrome OS is free.
At the same time, a hodgepodge of applications that run on Chrome OS are going to need to have a strong, unifying Google-like theme that will save the operating system from looking like a MySpace-oriented user interface. Apple has done this successfully, but of course at the expense of allowing an open environment and allowing some web functionality (Flash) to work properly on their devices.
Bottom line: Google bought a secretive hardware company, which has to mean something worthwhile for either the cloud or for mobile devices. Clearly this is a strategic move to compete with Apple, albeit in a different way than the iDevices. We shall soon see which way that is.
A Look at How Printing Will Be Done in Chrome OS
Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 by Daniel Cawrey. 3 Comments
One of the central themes of Chrome OS is that the array of software and drivers that clog up a traditional operating system will be done away with in order to increase speed and usability. But users are still going to want the traditional features of a computer – and that includes printing. In the PC world of today, a driver almost always needs to be installed for a printer, which could possibly mean several print drivers if a user has a reason to use more than one, and there are so many makes and models out there that this could be challenging to accomplish in Chrome OS.
It hasn’t been discussed how this is going to be addressed before a Chrome OS release date in mid to late 2010. Is Google going to be able to come up with a standard one size fits all solution for the myriad of printing devices? It’s hard to believe that if Microsoft has not yet been able to do it after they had printer issues with Vista, although that did lead some companies like HP to release universal Vista drivers.
One novel approach is being taken by a virtualization company called ThinPrint, which has announced that they will work with Google to take the printer driver system that PCs currently use and place it in a cloud computing environment using their specially developed technology. In this situation, a device would probably need spooling capability but little else, acting as a communication tool between itself, the cloud and the printer. Below is a video demonstration on how the system works using an iPhone app as an example:
“Naturally, we don’t have all the details on the Google Chrome OS yet, but we are certain that we will provide the best Google Chrome OS print solution based on our patented technology,” said Carsten Mickeleit, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ThinPrint.
Pretty cool technology, and it makes me wonder what else the cloud can replace for us that we haven’t even thought of. I take that back – someone probably already has.
