Tag Archives: smartphones
thechromesource Weekend: Links for 8/15/10
Posted on 15. Aug, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 
0 Comments
Chrome OS can follow the same path for tablets and netbooks as Android has for smartphones, says the Wall Street Journal.
A New York-based Google think tank is in works; it supposedly will be called Ideas and headed by Jared Cohen from the US State Dept.
Making services “come to you” socially will be a big part of Google social strategy according to Playfish’s Sebastien de Halleux.
Visual search technology firm Like.com will soon be acquired by Google according to TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.
Does Oracle’s lawsuit against Google somehow benefit Apple’s mobile strategy?
Why Use a Laptop When a Tablet Will Do?
Posted on 21. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 6 Comments
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the advent of the tablet. Sure, much has already been written about the subject, so I’d like to stay away from the normal conversation. I would, of course, like to reference some articles before I delve deeper here, including Devin Coldewey’s article about the coming onslaught of Android slates, as well as Christopher Dawson’s take on the amount of changes he’s seen in a month’s time of more people relying on tablets and smartphones.
I currently use a Dell v13, an $899 ultra light laptop that is loaded with Windows 7 for all of the work I do on this site. Notwithstanding the fact that I had a Dell tech replace the faulty touchpad within a month of purchase and the fact that the graphics capabilities are tethered to the Intel-based chipset, I’m happy with it. But a nagging feeling remains that my current setup is just not optimal. If there were a middle ground between smartphone and laptop that is not Apple based and could give me what I get from the v13, I would happily switch.
The problem with my current laptop is that even though it is light and very mobile, it lacks the “easy-on” that I need. It runs Windows 7, a behemoth that seems to be better suited for desktops or bulky replacements for such. I don’t need all the junk that comes with a Windows OS; I just need something that works. This is not to say I don’t want to tinker, but I would prefer everything be configured from the start, and I’ll mess with what I want to much later on.
I want a tablet; I just don’t want an Apple one. I also am not interested in one that runs Android because that’s for phones, not for computers. Do I need a keyboard? That’s a subjective question, since I do type a lot as a writer but if there is a badass alternative to this antiquated set of Chiclets that I use to communicate then I would be all for it.
What do you think? Is the time for grappling with Windows over? Where is the cloud-based Windows killer we’ve all been looking for?
Gaming Could be a Possible Growth Area for Google
Posted on 17. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
Last week, TechCrunch deftly pointed out that Google is on the hunt for someone to fill the role of Product Management Leader, Games. Currently, Google really does have too much going in the gaming market. It did, however, recently purchase LabPixies which creates widget-like games for the iGoogle portal as well as making games for Apple products, Android systems and social networking sites.
So the gaming arena could in fact be another engine of growth for Google, one that diversifies the company from advertising and its stated goal of profiting from enterprise cloud applications. If they move aggressively in this space, they may find themselves at an advantage when you consider that the console industry is now experiencing an overall decline in sales. More often than ever, multipurpose devices such as the iPad and smartphones allow people more flexibility to play video games without having to pay a lot of money for gaming titles. This is also true when you consider how successful some companies have become offering games on social networks.
Even some internal Google employees have ported a first person game like Quake II to the browser as one of their projects. Games are now capable of being ported over to HTML5 and run in the current generation of browsers, such as the Asteroids port that is available at the Chrome Experiments site.
Even OnLive, which plans on streaming games to your PC or television, will be launching this summer, allowing gamers to play their favorite titles from top publishers in an entirely new way. Although the bandwidth requirements may be quite high, OnLive is dubbing their service as “the future of gaming” which is most likely true.
Bottom line? There is a lot of room for Google to grow in gaming since their footprint right now is nascent. I would not be surprised if they would go with the now-classic free model that is supported by advertising, expertise that a mobile ad company like AdMob can lend to Google’s wealth of knowledge from utilizing AdWords on web sites and Apps like Gmail. That is, if the Federal Trade Comission ever approves the Google-AdMob deal.
Gmail Web App for iPad is Announced
Posted on 03. Apr, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
Yesterday Google announced a special version of Gmail on its mobile blog, a version that utilizes HTML5 in order to optimize the experience for iPad users. All anyone with the Apple tablet needs to do is head over to gmail.com and they will see their email in a format that best uses a tablet’s functionality:
You’ll notice that incoming emails are pushed off to one side, while selected messages are shown in a main column to the right. Also, the buttons in the application are sized for touch. This interface was actually first developed for smartphone users to be able to use Gmail, and has been ported to this new version designed for a tablet.
What is interesting to note is that instead of using an App Store-type of strategy for Gmail on the iPad, Google has gone ahead with their web app methodology. That’s because Google is more interested in allowing open content on the web as opposed to Apple’s strategy of creating a controlled, as some call “walled garden” approach. Indeed, there are other Google services readily available on the iPad such as YouTube and Maps.
With that being said, Google does have the Google Mobile App in the App Store, first released for the iPhone and available for the iPad if users are interested in voice search.
Nevertheless having more services that are strictly web-enabled allows Google to be more prevalent in all platforms – and will help them push their own initiatives for their own platform which will promote applications that are easily used on the web with no other software need that what a user already has.
