thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Forum

Google Was Interested in Palm – Because of Apple

Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

Business Insider wrote an article recently about the talks that led to HP ultimately buying Palm. Apparently, Google was a part of these talks, mostly because they thought Apple was in the bidding – even though Google wasn’t sure if that was the case or not. Surprised Apple was interested? They likely were because of their desire to compete with RIM’s more business-attuned customers.

Although Palm was struggling financially at the hands of both Android and the iOS, they have some interesting technology to offer the market. Now that HP owns them, I would expect to see some innovative products come from the Palm brand, since the acquisition was structured so that Palm is a division of HP.

Just don’t expect a Chrome OS or Android tablet anytime soon from HP, it looks like they have their hands full trying to make some money off of Palm’s own cloud-oriented operating system called WebOS.

HP Delays Android Tablet – Why Develop One Anyway?

Posted on 15. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments

Lilliputing is reporting that HP is delaying its launch of an Android tablet until – who knows? It seemed like plans for any sort of tablet development would shift from the moment HP bought Palm, since the WebOS operating system is now theirs. Earlier this year, HP showed off a tablet that was running Windows 7, so who knows what the company is going to do.

Since HP has been listed as an official partner for Chrome OS, this news is somewhat interesting. I would suspect that with WebOS, Chrome OS and Windows that the company has enough on its plate as is in terms of tablets.

Besides, are Android tablets really the way to go? If you’re going to make an AndroidPad, how exactly are you differentiating yourself from Apple’s already successful tablet? Having a slate that is cloud-based would be much more interesting, especially if it is paired with an always-on wireless connection.

Ah yes, the wireless connection. That’s probably what’s taking so long for some of these Apple competitors to actually surface. Can wireless networks actually handle all of the data for these tablets?

Activision: Let’s Use PCs Instead of Consoles

Posted on 12. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments

A major publisher of games doesn’t like being limited by the console market.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is not appreciative of the walled console gardens that make up Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. He says it would be better if games were just played on PCs instead of having to navigate through proprietary processes in order to publish popular games. Kotick laments about the fact that those who play Activision’s games online don’t pay publishers for the experience, but the console makers.

“We’ve heard that 60 per cent of (Microsoft’s) subscribers are principally on Live because of Call of Duty,” Kotick told FT. “We don’t really participate financially in that income stream. We would really like to be able to provide much more value to those millions of players playing on (Xbox) Live, but it’s not our network.”

He also goes on to say that the company would fully support PC manufacturers’ efforts to create a device that hooks up to a television and allows gamers to play via that method.

This sounds familiar. It almost relates to what Google is trying to do with manufacturers such as Dell and HP for Chrome OS. The problem with Activision is that they don’t provide an open platform to play games on; the majority of PC games are still played on Windows. Possible solution? Work on the Google TV project selling higher-end set top boxes built with special graphics cards for gaming.

WebOS May Now be the Focal Point of HP’s Tablet

Posted on 07. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments

One of the official Google hardware partners for Chrome OS has been known to be computer behemoth HP. We’ve been very interested in seeing what HP would be able to offer Google’s forthcoming computer OS since they really are one of the only computer manufacturers that has been able to create and produce designs that are, shall we say, less utilitarian and more eye-pleasing than the rest of the PC market.

But recently HP bought the financially struggling Palm, possibly to boost its position in the ever-growing mobile market. Palm has been able to design and launch smartphone products that have been critically praised of late, however because of the growing dominance of Android phones it has not been successful in boosting its flagging market share. This, in a nutshell, is why Palm desperately needed HP in order to survive.

But the fact of the matter is that now with Palm in the fold, it’s quite possible that HP will focus on developing a tablet that runs Palm’s WebOS rather than Chrome OS as might have been originally planned. WebOS sounds surprisingly similar to Chrome OS as a cloud operating system based on the Linux kernel, although WebOS may be more focused upon social media aspects, so there may be a niche edge there for Palm in that space.

So, we’re not saying that the new Palm-HP relationship (Palm is now a subsidiary) means that HP will not release its own version of a Chrome OS device this year. It does, however, leave one curious how much in terms of resources will be spent on WebOS versus Chrome when the former is something built specifically for Palm devices and could be more successfully branded for long-term opportunity in HP’s eyes.

We shall see, as it will be dependent on either device’s success, that being a laptop device or tablet. This will be HP hedging its bets on both operating systems in the end.

Schmidt on Chrome OS: The PC Industry is not Like the Phone Industry

Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments

Everybody’s working for the weekend, so it kind of flew under the radar last week a quote by Google CEO Eric Schmidt about the reluctance to try another Nexus One-type branded phone, or say, Chrome OS device for that matter.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Schmidt said, ”we have a reference spec for Chrome OS, we have a couple of hardware partners all lined up and the open source is all out there. It’s on schedule and it will happen later this year. Let’s see how well those partners do first. My guess is we won’t need to. The PC industry is different from the phone industry. The PC industry is used to working with Microsoft, whereas the mobile industry was not used to working with software.”

Now the mobile industry is working with software, and that software called Android sure is working out well.

What Schmidt said is really the same thing that we’ve been hearing since Computex. Acer, HP and (although not listed as an official partner) Dell are the three most likely companies at this point to put out Chrome OS devices in Q4.

Back to the topic of software. Because the fact that we’re hearing that Google is ramping up its music and news services only seems to solidify how important user experience is going to need to be to make these Chrome OS machines an ultimate success. We’ve seen a bit already of Picasa adding some cloud computing functions, and there will be no surprise that we will see more of this as we move along the third quarter.

So, in its continued fight against Apple’s massive dominance in apps, Google keeps those Chrome Apps in an ever-evolving state.

Those Repository Files Must Mean Something

Posted on 21. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

Last week, DownloadSquad’s Lee Matthews discovered some public repository files that referenced three hardware manufacturers: Dell, Acer and HP. A few days later, those files were then replaced by a different listing that included some legacy hardware such as Amiga, Atari and Commodore, among others.

This has got to mean something. One thing that jumped out in my mind when Matthews first reported this story was that Dell is not on the official list of hardware partners. When I contacted a source who is working closely with some official partners on hardware about Dell, I was told that there are no new announcements for the time being.

It seems the three manufacturers and there repository files on the Chromium site point to the logical conclusion that they will be the first companies associated with official Chrome OS products. It’s a different move than the route that was taken for Android where a more upstart company, HTC, took the first leap into the mobile OS and rode that platform to the success that it is today. I really don’t see HTC having the same spotlight it now holds with smartphones if it had continued down the Windows Mobile path it was on a few years ago.

Regardless, I have a great deal of respect for Dell, Acer and HP as longstanding companies producing computer hardware. The fact that they are getting behind this project further validates to me that Chrome OS will be a strong competitor in the consumer computing market over the coming years.

thechromesource Daily: Links for 6/16/10

Posted on 16. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

Remember the Chromium repository files that listed Dell, Acer and HP? They’ve been replaced by different ones now.

While Google has not launched its own storage service, it has given Memeo permission to use the “GDrive” name for Google Docs.

Social networking-focused browser Flock has replaced its Mozilla underpinnings with those of the Chromium browser.

The next version of Android will be focused on the user interface, hoping to avoid having manufactures put their own UI on devices.

Here’s a video of the the Logitech Revue, which will be a companion device for Google TV.

Dell an Official Chrome OS Partner?

Posted on 14. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

Recently, DownloadSquad deftly discovered that the Chromium repository referenced three manufacturers and their private hardware builds – from Acer, HP and Dell. While the first two companies were already on the list of known partners with Google on the project, Dell was left out for some reason.

However, the Dell Linux team has periodically been releasing updated builds of Chromium OS, announcing this fact in the Chromium discussion board. It is hard to speculate at this point, but one must start to wonder if the three hardware manufacturers plan on announcing releases of their Chrome OS products at the same time. Whatever the case may be, we know to expect any release information to come directly from these manufacturers at some point in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The releases that have been put out by Dell have been aimed at their Mini series of netbooks, so it’s easy to wonder whether they will be launching a Chrome OS product that is a 10″ netbook.

It is really hard to say at this point since we have seen such a precipitous decline in the popularity of netbooks since the arrival of Apple’s tablet, so it would most likely do Dell and the other two companies well to find some middle ground on a netbook/laptop hybrid that encompasses an innovative form factor paired with performance specs to wow enthusiasts, all at a competitive price.

Sounds like a tall order. No wonder Google is letting the manufacturers do the talking on this one.

thechromesource Weekend: Links for 6/13/10

Posted on 13. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

Dell, Acer and HP Chrome OS devices appear to be coming out first, based on Chromium repository info found by DownloadSquad.

Does open source software have more vulnerabilities for hackers to exploit than closed-source?

Potential Chrome OS tablet competitor WePad will come with ad-supported widgets that cannot be removed from the system.

Legal problems are still ahead in the Google wi-fi fiasco, and a class-action may be in the cards.

In order to further push Google Apps, the company has launched the Gone Google site, complete with a “cloud calculator”.

thechromesource Daily: Links for 6/11/10

Posted on 11. Jun, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments

Extension syncing – which will allow individual extensions to share data with one another - appears to be coming to Chrome browser.

The plans that Google had to launch a desktop application to compete with Skype may be shelved indefinitely.

The FCC is promising increased regulatory scrutiny for both Apple as well as Google.

Is there merit to the claim that Google Apps lacks the requisite security needed to be used in the enterprise?

Potential Chrome OS competitor HyperSpace, whose operating system boots in ten seconds, has been purchased by HP.

Understanding Agnilux, Google’s Latest Purchase

Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 5 Comments

Who, or what, is Agnilux?

This is a serious question seeing as how Google has decided to purchase the company. Everyone knows that Google doesn’t just buy companies for sheer fun. There is very little known about Agnilux, but according to some sources they employ people previously in the server business, although they also have employees who were in TV. That’s interesting since Google has traditionally built their own servers using stock parts. As any network engineer would know, this is a bit surprising as most Fortune 500 companies buy their servers from companies like HP or Dell.

But not Google. They have been known for setting up their own hardware architecture, and many times CEO Eric Schmidt has talked about the fact that Google uses servers that are based on common PC hardware. Imagine the fact that they are able to do this, since they own and operate one of the largest network-capable services in the world. In essence they own the most proprietary network configuration out there today, but I’m sure they would prefer if you didn’t know that.

Mark Hayter, the chief operating officer at Agnilux, came from P.A. Semi (Palo Alto Semiconductor Company), which is a company that was purchased by Apple in 2008. This most likely indicates that P.A. Semi had some technology that was used in the iPad.

Ah yes, the iPad. Now can you see where I am going with this. Interestingly, Google has proclaimed that they only want to be the “pipes” for content, but at the same time, their actions here are speaking louder than words. Maybe it is a strategic move to thwart a purchase from Apple. But an acquisition like this has to make one think that Google knows in order to stay competitive that they will have to engage those who pursue innovative hardware solutions, much like they have been doing for quite some time.

Apple’s Strategy: iPad the Bottom Line – Before the Competition

Posted on 30. Jan, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments

There is no speculation at this point that Apple’s tablet has been way overhyped – but it’s been some great free marketing. Plus, the  iPad has a leg up on its rivals in that it does not have any solid competition right now in this segment. Many are saying that at $499 ($130 if you want wireless 3G) for the entry level 16GB iPad that this tablet is a good price. But the reality is that it’s a good price because there are not many tablet products out there as well as the fact that it’s a pretty cheap Apple product.

The only other tablet products that are out now are made by PC manufacturers such as HP and Lenovo, but these devices usually come with Windows 7, have swivel keyboards and cost over $1,500. Those products are tagerted toward businesses, and that’s a totally different market altogether than what the iPad is currently focusing on.

What you’re getting is essentially a larger iPhone – without the phone. There’s no camera, you cannot multitask and typing anything other than short texts are going to be difficult unless Apple has some really groundbreaking technology in this product. And did I mention that the operating system for the iPad is closed source?

Apple still doesn’t offer a product in the netbook genre. Instead, they are releasing a tablet. This may be a good idea for them – but I have a feeling once the competition heats up that only those who are Apple diehards are going to want an iPad. In fact, at a recent presentation at Google’ London headquarters, Senior Product Manager of Search Anders Sandholm basically had to go the “no comment” route when asked about whether Chrome OS will have a multitouch tablet product.

Final thought? Apple is going to have a cash cow on their hands – until Google gets a product from a manufacturer like HTC or maybe even an MSI product running Android. Also Motorola has announced plans to bring out a product that is cheaper and has more capabilities. And there’s no doubt that many other companies are going to announce their plans as well.

Don’t believe that Apple is just using this tablet to pad the bottom line from slower iPod sales? Look at this bill of materials report on the iPad by Computerworld. Interpretation? Apple has room to drop this price when competitors arrive, but they will try to keep their healthy margins as long as they can.