The Technology Blog

Here’s an interesting one. While one would assume that Intel would be quaking in its boots with the emergence of Chrome OS, Michael Chen — director of Intel’s embedded sales group and ultra mobility group in Asia-Pacific — recently proclaimed that the company isn’t worried at all. In fact, Intel seems pretty stoked that Google has introduced an operating system that will undoubtedly rival its own Moblin. To quote: “Our long-term goal is providing hardware for devices with different operating systems… more competition will drive up more innovations and that’s good for consumers.” Furthermore, we’re told that Intel is looking forward to providing chips for machines based on Chrome OS, and frankly, we reckon that Intel’s foothold in hardware and software makes it easier to brush this whole thing off. Must be nice, right?

Filed under: Handhelds

Intel doesn’t view Chrome OS as a threat to Moblin, just wants world peace originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

It’s not much, in fact, these screenshots are incredibly easy to fake. Still, a hastily constructed WordPress blog has been setup to host what are claimed to be the world’s first screenshots of Google’s new Chrome OS — hailed as both a Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X killer or a Google FUD generator depending upon who you’re listening to. As the story is told, a Google representative demonstrated a private beta build of the OS to an anonymous Acer parts supplier yesterday, presumably somewhere in Taiwan. The picture above was grabbed breathlessly while the Google rep was distracted. Highlights of the demonstration break down as follows:

• The “elegant” install on the Acer Extensa 4620Z laptop took about 10 minutes and 1 restart
• Reboots desktop-to-desktop in about 25 seconds
• It was “amazingly fast” in its stripped-down beta form
• The blue orb on the auto-hiding “Chrome Bar” along the bottom of the UI is essentially the start menu
• Navigating the file system can be done in “exploration” (like Windows explorer) or “browser” (search based) modes
• The Chrome Bar can also host a search bar if configured
• Future Chrome OS netbooks will feature an iconified Chrome key on the keyboard similar to the Windows flag key

Of course, it’s a long, long time before this OS appears on next generation ARM and x86 smartnetbooks — second half of 2010 according to the Goog — so who knows what the interface will look like by then. One more image after the break.

[Thanks, Matthew M.]

Update: We just got another set of shots of what is purportedly the boot screen. To be honest, any of these could be faked, but we thought we’d pass along — hopefully we’ll be seeing something a bit more concrete in the coming weeks. Gallery is below.

Gallery: More leaked Chrome OS shots?

Update 2: Mr. Chrome OS Leak himself has come forward and confirmed his “screenshots” to be fake. Thanks, buddy. No word on this other set of pics.

Continue reading First Google Chrome OS screenshots leaked? Update: it’s a fake

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

First Google Chrome OS screenshots leaked? Update: it’s a fake originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments — according to the latest Chrome OS update from Google, you’re looking at the company’s initial ragtag team of co-conspirators for its entry into the operating system business. With Adobe’s involvement, we can assume Flash support is a given, and the others unsurprisingly run the gamut of netbook and smartbook players. We can’t help but notice a couple of conspicuous absences on that list, including Intel and Dell. With Intel, you don’t need to partner to work on its chips, but we gotta imagine it’d help by offering more support, and as for Dell, we don’t know about that one, but there’s still plenty of time for the Big G to enlist more companies in the lead up to its second half 2010 debut.

Update: Google updated the list to include Toshiba.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software

Google names Chrome OS compatriots, Dell noticeably absent originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments