The Inquisitr » google

Google Chrome OS – the morning after still has people not getting it

Steven Hodson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:27:10 +0000

If there is one thing about the tech blogosphere it is its predictability. Just as you could predict the almost breathless press that surround Google’s announcement that yes they were working on an operating system, yes they were going to open source it (in other words free), and yes everyone can now get excited but you’ll have to wait until next year when you buy a netbook to use the real thing.

There’s gotcha number one – while you can download it (see Kim’s post of where to grab a copy) it isn’t going to be the real thing because the real thing is only going to be installed on the netbooks of those hardware companies that meet Google’s standards.

But just as you can predict the positive spin that comes with just about every Google release you can predict just as well the next day’s rapid back-peddling as the early rush of kool-aid begins to leave everyone’s system. In this regard we definitely weren’t let down in the slightest even though there were a few that seem to have grabbed themselves a whole new serving.

Those still thinking that this is the game changer, or at least close to it, that we’ve been waiting for:

Google Chrome (or something like it) Will Take Over…Bet On It! – TomsTechBlog

Chrome isn’t about next year or even the year after that. No one in their right mind would bet on netbooks as the future of humanity. But it is about Google showing the world a new way of computing and earning the world’s trust.

The Chrome OS Release Is Not About Now, It’s About Next. – Louis Gray

Google’s preview of the Chrome OS was more than a product release. It was a milestone in a vision of a Web-centric world, one in which we are increasingly living. For the vast majority of my own activity, I am online, not using software. I intentionally use some applications, like Microsoft’s Office suite or Adobe Photoshop, quickly, and then close them just as quickly, as to not slow down my computer’s performance. Google’s Chrome OS is the latest development in a vision that says our activity will be online, our data will be stored in the cloud, and applications that have traditionally been desktop software will make their way online.

Why Google Chrome OS has already won – Robert Scoble

Today InfoWorld’s Randall Kennedy says that Google’s Chrome OS will fail.

What he is missing is he’s looking at the wrong field.

Google is playing a different game. Google Chrome OS is NOT about killing Microsoft or Apple.

What is it about? Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers.

See, what happens if the world goes to Microsoft’s Silverlight, the way that Seesmic did this week? Google is locked out of such a world.

Google is in a war over developers with Microsoft. Google wants developers to build for the open web. Microsoft wants developers to build for Silverlight. Those messages are VERY clear coming out of both camps now.

Chrome OS, Google Intends to Destroy the Desktop and Microsoft – Mashable

Here’s the thing: Microsoft is well aware of the Google Revenue Equation. It also knows that Chrome OS and its price point (free) aren’t in its best interests. Thus, Microsoft won’t play to Google’s game, leaving Google with only option: to destroy or fundamentally alter Windows. This is equivalent to gutting Microsoft and leaving it to wither away into oblivion.

Google is setting the stage for is biggest battle with Microsoft yet. The result of its Chrome OS bet will directly affect the fate of computing, the operating system, and the web.

Those that are either back-peddling or are busy writing epitaphs of failure

Why Chrome OS will fail — big time – InfoWorld / Cloud Computing

The Chrome OS is here — sort of. This week, Google was kind of enough to give the world a sneak peek at its nascent desktop operating system. And after months of speculation (and more than a few bogus screenshot galleries), I can finally say that I’ve seen the future … and it’s not Chrome OS.

Google Chrome OS: I Don’t Get It – webomatica

And we had to make do with web apps. I wouldn’t buy such a thing, not after getting used to the Swiss-army wonderment of the iPhone.

As far as I’m concerned, the Google Chrome OS seems limiting at best, and at worst, pointless. I don’t get it.

Was Chrome OS a Disappointment? – ReadWriteWeb

At the end of the day, Chrome OS is an exciting, but not fully realized, vision. Although it has potential, the world may not be ready for a web-based netbook right now. Also, the technology needed to make the Wi-Fi only netbook useful without an internet connection isn’t up to full speed either. At the end of the day, the netbook will be marginally more useful than an iPod Touch – when connected, it’s amazing. Offline, not so much.

A short post on the conceit at the heart of Google ChromeOS – Technovia

That’s why Google ChromeOS, which says “do everything in the web”, is so weak. Of course, there’s good reasons why Google wants you to use web interfaces for everything (MOAR EYEBALLS! MOAR ADS!) but there aren’t really good reasons for customers to want to do it.

ChromeOS Will Fail, Unless Its Purpose Is Not To Succeed – Regular Geek

The second reason, which many blogs have not stated, is that everyone knows this will fail.

ChromeOS will fail because the timing is not right. If mobile phones were still those nasty little devices that made even checking email a chore, it would have a chance.

Those who see the glimmer or at least honest enough to sit on the fence

As much as I might yank Scoble’s chain on this over his blanket statement he also sees where the real play for ChromeOS is.

Why Google Chrome OS has already won – Robert Scoble

Well, it’s a new field altogether. I’m hearing a raft of new, low-cost, devices are coming that you will only need to have on the Web. For instance, I want a cookbook on my kitchen counter that just brings me cool recipes. Right now I use my big Windows 7 computer for that, or my big MacBookPro.

But what if there were a new device that costs less than $100 that JUST does cookbooks and other things I need in the kitchen? I would buy one. A Chrome OS is all that’s needed for such a specialized device.

4 Big Gambles Google Is Taking With Chrome OS – GigaOM

There are quite a few misconceptions going around about the new operating system, among them that it’s aimed squarely at Microsoft’s operating system hegemony. It’s not. Chrome OS is targeting netbooks, not desktop and server systems.

158,616,176 Reasons Why Google Chrome OS Won’t Fail – SiliconAngle

That leaves 158,616,176 potential users for a Google product that could effectively be the cheapest computer ever mass produced.

Cheap. We’re talking theoretically $150, which incidentally is cheaper than what you can buy the famed “$100 Laptop” for.

You’re telling me that Google and their partner vendors don’t have an incentive to move 158,616,176 $150 machines? In case you’re really bad at math, that could theoretically be a $23 billion market. And that wouldn’t include one single Microsoft or Apple customer, nor does it touch the dollar figure that Google makes from selling ads against those people’s time online.

End game

As Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and I went back an forth on this in a podcast last night the thought came to me that as he points out in his post ChromeOS + Netbooks + Broadband = the cheapest possible computers we have ever seen. Take that one step further and given Google’s penchant for giving things away it is entirely possible that they could partner with all the broadband providers and give away ChromeOS equipped netbooks and just in time for the 2010 holiday season.

That could possibly result in the largest influx of people to the Internet we have even seen in the Web’s short history.

Chrome OS available as VMWare download

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:20:14 +0000

Google had an event yesterday to give us deets on the upcoming Google Chrome OS, and Steven told you a bit about it here.

If you are, as Steven said, swimming in the “ocean of Google kool-aid” and you’ve got to take the OS for a spin ahead of the 2010 release, with a little elbow grease and some downloading, you can get an idea of what’s under the hood. A torrent is available on The Pirate Bay, and GDGT has set up a bit of a one stop shop for all your Chrome OS under the tree box-shaking needs. (GDGT has options for running it with VMWare, Virtual Box or a USB stick.)

I’ve not had a chance to give it a go, but Engadget was on it, offering some first impressions of Chrome OS. Indeed, as Google trumpets in the video below, the speed the Chrome browser is known for seems to be the first point of woot- reported time from boot to login is about ten seconds. Apps like GCal and GMail were reported to be “choppy,” but that could be down to the relative youth of the project.

Check out the video below for a peek if you’re not enterprising enough to test run it, but if you do, let us know in the comments.

Google Chrome OS – so is it worth all the fuss? (Round-up)

Steven Hodson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:54:10 +0000

Anyone who has been on Twitter for the past couple of hours will have notice the over abundance of messages about Google’s Chrome OS announcement today. Then the deluge of posts started showing up letting us know all about the details on how in Google’s words “a new model of computing” was happening; or at least would be happening in a year from now when they actually ship web-browser operating system.

Interestingly enough much of the shot across the bow’s of Microsoft and Apple rhetoric has subsided as the ocean of Google kool-aid recedes from the minds of many tech bloggers. I guess that happens though when you suddenly find your fodder for future pageview inducing posts over a war that will never happen go poof in the night. That said the big news out of today’s announcement was that the ChromeOS is that you have no control over your computer other than to browse, write a few documents, play web-based games and even then it has to pass through the Chrome OS guardhouse to get approval to play.

I just finished a discussion with my good friend Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins who seems to think that this is a play for the low-income bracket who can’t afford fancy things like laptops or desktops.

Here’s the Whoop-Dee-Doo: There are 30% of north americans unable to get online because they can’t afford a full fledged computing device.
This is a play for them.
This could, potentially, replace the need for a mobile phone and a desktop device for them.
Potentially.
At the very least replace the need for a full fledged system.

All well and nice but if you are that low income that you have to hook yourself up with a sub-par netbook for under $200 as Mark suggests what makes you think these same people are going to be able to afford the ever increasing broadband access fees that are being charged.

As idyllic and Utopian as this idea of free operating system … err browsing experience for everyone might be I find it interesting that at a time when the iPhone is the big news and the average price of a smartphone – not counting the cost of the data plans needed – is around the $200 – $300 Google decides to go this route. After all combine a netbook and Google Voice with a bluetooth headset and viola you have a smartphone, and then some.

You have to give Google credit though – it’s a hell of a way to increase their advertising network which is how they make the largest portion of t heir money. But as a great leap forward for our computer experience – or a new model as they call it well I only have this to say

Chrome OS Round-up

Here’s a bunch of the posts that I followed today in trying to keep up with the Google hype machine.

ReadWriteWeb: Live Blog: The Google Chrome OS Press Event
Google Blog: Releasing the Chromium OS open source project
DownloadSquad: Google ChromeOS: It’s basically a modified browser that runs web apps
DVICE: Google Chrome OS revealed, won’t be ready for a year
SiliconAngle: Chrome OS Isn’t an Anti-Microsoft, Anti-Apple Play [Gratuitous Backpatting]
The Next Web: Chrome OS Still A Year Away – Screenshots and First Information
VentureBeat: Google aims to release Chrome OS for netbooks by holiday season 2010
GigaOM: Chrome OS Unveiled, Focused on Netbooks, the Cloud

Event Thursday at Google HQ demos Chrome OS, Chrome extensions

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:16:44 +0000

Rumors of an initial, possibly developer-centric release of Google’s Chrome OS this week have been swirling, but that looks like a less likely outcome, for now.

We do know Google is hosting an event tomorrow at Google Headquarters where more information regarding the details-light project will be unveiled, hopefully including images of the elusive beast in its natural habitat. Google’s Chrome OS has been the center of much speculation, with little hard information to go on- spawning tech-blogger fanfic since news of the Chrome OS’s existence in July. Tomorrow’s meeting will will hopefully give the project a birthday, and Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management for Google, and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome, will be hosting a Q&A session after the demo. There’s always the chance a beta could be released, but it looks more like a demo than a launch.

Also, according to Download Squad, a “small event” also occurred last night with Chrome Extensions, and they speculate that the highly anticipated browser add-ons for Chrome may be a topic at tomorrow’s event as well:

What used to be a redirect go the good ol’ index at google.com (or your regional version) has now been replaced with a “coming soon…” tease and puzzle piece image which matches the one added to Chromium’s new tab page on Sunday.

Coming soon, eh? Why not announce it at the big event on Thursday?

Google Image Swirl Is Actually Rather Nifty

Duncan Riley — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:36:18 +0000

Google has today launched Google Image Swirl, a new image discovery tool that visually clusters similar images.

Google Image Swirl starts with a basic image query, then visually matches similar image based on that query. For example, a search for Melbourne clusters day time city shots, night time city shots, and more.

Users then pick the cluster they want, and the images are represented visually is what Google calls a “swirl.” Think circles with other circles and lines (see image above.) Users can then drill down on a new level of clusters that more closely reflect similarities in images until they eventually find the image they are after.

According to Google, “Image Swirl currently works for more than 200,000 queries and we plan to include more queries in the future. Available queries will auto-complete as you start to type in the search box, similar to Google Suggest.”

I’m not particularly fond of visual representations such as what Google is offering here, and plenty have tried similar interfaces in the past and failed miserably. However in actual use, Google Image Swirl is rather nifty. It does make finding the right image easier, be it when you’re after a specific shot or angle vs a simple generic image that you’d find in half the time in Google Image Search.

You can give Google Image Swirl a go at image-swirl.googlelabs.com

Acer Liquid A1 Shipping To UK Customers Before End Of November, Leaves Off Android 2.0

James Allen Johnson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:50:36 +0000

Acer has officially announced that the Acer Liquid A1 will begin shipping in late November. The phone which runs Google Android 1.6 “Donut” has also been priced at £286 before tax ($481), thankfully no contract is required for that pricing.

So what do users get for $500? How about a 3.5 inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen, 3G data access, WiFi b/g and built-in GPS. Acer is also throwing in Bluetooth 2.0 + A2Dp, a 5MP camera and a SnapDragon processor.

Unfortunately, the 1Ghz processor for some reason has been underclocked to 768MHz, which is like saying “here’s a Ferrari but you can’t drive it over 65mph. There’s still no word on whether a Google Android 2.0 upgrade option will be made easily available to Liquid A1 users.

The War of Giants – coming to a web near you

Steven Hodson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:02:01 +0000

This has to be one of the few times that I find myself agreeing with Tim O’Reilly but his post today over at O’Reilly Radar touched on something that I’ve been thinking about for some time now. He started out with how Facebook seems to be messing around with links people are posting to their feeds. The short of it is that Facebook was removing the links from the posted URLs.

It turns out that this might have been more of a bug than anything intentional from Facebook. Tim used this though as his jumping off point to explain why he thinks we could be headed into some really troubling times on the web.

I’ve outlined a few of the ways that big players like Facebook, Apple, and News Corp are potentially breaking the “small pieces loosely joined” model of the Internet. But perhaps most threatening of all are the natural monopolies created by Web 2.0 network effects.

One of the points I’ve made repeatedly about Web 2.0 is that it is the design of systems that get better the more people use them, and that over time, such systems have a natural tendency towards monopoly.

And so we’ve grown used to a world with one dominant search engine, one dominant online encyclopedia, one dominant online retailer, one dominant auction site, one dominant online classified site, and we’ve been readying ourselves for one dominant social network.

But what happens when a company with one of these natural monopolies uses it to gain dominance in other, adjacent areas?

Near the end of his post he comes right and suggests that we could very well be facing a war for the control of the web.

It could be that everyone will figure out how to play nicely with each other, and we’ll see a continuation of the interoperable web model we’ve enjoyed for the past two decades. But I’m betting that things are going to get ugly. We’re heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it’s more than that, it’s a war against the web as an interoperable platform. Instead, we’re facing the prospect of Facebook as the platform, Apple as the platform, Google as the platform, Amazon as the platform, where big companies slug it out until one is king of the hill.

Tim finished off his post with an interesting prediction that given his past opinions caught me off guard.

P.S. One prediction: Microsoft will emerge as a champion of the open web platform, supporting interoperable web services from many independent players, much as IBM emerged as the leading enterprise backer of Linux.

I find the idea that he believes that Microsoft will end up being our champion of the open web absolutely fascinating, and one that I have believed for sometime now. It is incredible that the company derided at one time for being the most evil thing that happened to computers is now looked upon a more open company than its two main competitors.

I might not like the idea that we could be headed into troubling times on the web but on this I have to agree with Tim as well as have a great big chuckle over the changing opinion about Microsoft – even by O’Reilly.

Samsung i5700 Galaxy Spica Android Phone Gets Official With 800Mhz Processor

James Allen Johnson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:12:50 +0000

Samsung today officially announced their newest phone, the Google Android based Samsung i5700 also known as the Samssung Galaxy Spica.

The smartphone clocks in at a manageable 13.2mm in thickness and features a 3.5mm headphone jack for audiophiles to enjoy all of their albums and move fans to listen to all of their favorite movies as they stream them to their phone. The Spica is also the first Android phone to feature built-in DivX support.

The phone also features an ultra fast 800mhz processor, which isn’t quite as impressive as recent 1Ghz Snapdragon offers, but it’s still faster than the iPhone series and it offers multi-tasking.

The units already out in Europe and is headed next ot the Middle Ease and Asia. It’s also a Google phone through and through, if you aren’t convinced of that fact, just check out how many times Samsung mentioned the world “Google” in their official press release.

According to Samsung the phone as should be expected also features:

The Samsung Galaxy Spica supportsthe full suite of Google services, including Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™, YouTube™, and Google Talk™, letting users enjoy the familiar desktop computer experience while on the move.

Just one question for Samsung, when is this phone coming to North America?

Time for Google, and Microsoft, to call Murdock’s bluff

Steven Hodson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:57:20 +0000

There’s been a lot of go-round this past week about Rupert Murdock yanking everyone’s chain about pulling their content from Google unless the search giant is willing to cough up some money for the privilege of indexing News Corp properties. In fact both Duncan and I have written about the whole stupid mess here at The Inquisitr.

The most consistent statement that everyone has been making about the threats is that if Murdock was serious all it takes is a single line in the Robot.txt file on any of the News Corp servers and the bullshit poker game is done. On the other side is a bunch of folks saying that this is nothing more than a bargaining ploy by Murdock to try and get all the search companies to cough up some cash for access.

Well I’ve got another suggestion but this one goes to both Google and Microsoft.

Call his bluff.

Seriously. Pull all of News Corp content from your indexes and don’t have your search crawlers pull in any new data. After all neither of you are obligated in any fashion to index Murdock’s content. There are no laws saying that you have to index News Corp media sites.

If Murdock seriously thinks that he has the upper hand in this, that Google will collapse without the content and that Microsoft will truly do anything, no matter how stupid, in order to get even a percentage point over Google by paying News Corp blackmail money then I think it’s time to show him otherwise.

All Murdock is getting right now is more and more press as we babble on endlessly about the momentous battle of the search titans against the news titans. It’s bullshit people. Seriously. It’s all a game and I think that if Microsoft and Google in conjunction shut down any spidering of News Corp media properties we’d see in a very short time just who has the better hand here.

And it isn’t Murdock.

Think not?

Then check out Jeff Jarvis’ post today. He has some nice looking graphs showing just how little the 148 German newspapers who signed the Hamburg Declaration really matter to Google.

Here’s a hint….

… dick all.

C’mon Google and Microsoft – call an end to this farce. Call Murdock’s bluff. We’ll love ya for it.

Your Google PageRank may soon depend how fast your site loads – Why?

Steven Hodson — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:52:20 +0000

Google has been making a lot of news over the past while about how it wants to help speed up the web; and as nice as that might be it has gotten more than a few people wondering why.

This last week saw the announcement that the company was working on a new protocol that would sit on top of the standard HTTP protocol. The idea behind SPDY is to help reduce latency and make the overall page surfing experience a little faster.

Not long after that Google’s Matt Cutts has an interview with Mike McDonald from WebProNews were Matt lets the world know that Google is seriously looking at making the page load time a part of the algorithm used to calculate a web site’s PageRank. The idea being that the faster your site loads the better that will affect your overall score as calculated by Google and the better placement you’ll have in search results.

Interesting idea – except why is there this sudden concern with how fast pages load?

Granted we all have heard about how fanatical Google can be about page load times since the faster their pages load the more searches they can deliver. On the flip side however there is the time that it takes for the Google crawlers to index, and update, all that data out there. In this aspect of the search game they are often at the mercies of the designers of websites.

So if Google can get everyone to do everything they can to make their pages load faster it means that Google’s crawlers can do their job in the fraction of the time thus saving Google an incredible amount of money. Of course it benefits site owners as well to do what they can to increase page load speed but is Google’s rewarding faster loading sites with a better rank the right way to do this?

Douglas Karr from Marketing Tech Blog doesn’t think so and he goes as far as to suggest that this is leaning to being evil.

So, as one of the wealthiest companies in the world, Google is beginning to drop the hint… hard. Make your sites faster and we’ll reward you with better ranking. This is fantastic for companies with the infrastructure, capacity and resources… but what happens to the little guy? How does a small personal blog hosted on GoDaddy for a few dollars compete with a company hosted on a platform that costs thousands of dollars with loadsharing, caching, web acceleration or cloud technologies?

In my humble opinion, I think it leans the evil side. Let’s break it down:

The web is becoming more complex.

This requires Google to advance its technologies.

That costs Google more money.

The alternative is penalizing sites that perform slowly, requiring them to spend more and speed up their sites, reducing Google’s costs.

That doesn’t make good PR, though.

Instead, Google does it in under the auspices of enhancing the web experience.

It’s not about you and me. It’s about Google’s bottom line.

Personally I think Douglas makes a valid point and one well worth thinking about.

News Corp Dithers on Google Pullout While AP Asks For More Traffic

Duncan Riley — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:01:06 +0000

News Corp has indicated that its expected withdrawal from Google search results won’t be for months, while on the same day AP has met with Google asking for more traffic.

News Corp’s chief digital officer Jonathan Miller told the Monaco Media Forum that the withdrawal from Google’s search results will occur in “months and quarters – not weeks.” He went on to say that “the traffic which comes in from Google brings a consumer who more often than not read one article and then leaves the site. That is the least valuable of traffic to us… the economic impact is not as great as you might think. You can survive without it.”

Across the Atlantic, Tom Curley, president of the Associated Press, was reportedly ready to meet Friday with officials at Google about getting a better deal for links to AP stories provided by the search engine.

Curley wants Google to elevate the ranking of AP stories so they appear more prominently in search results. He also wants a cut of the revenue from ads Google runs alongside the top news stories. Curley claims that AP gets paid for less than 15 percent of its stories on the Web.

What does it say about News Corp’s stance when the main body owned by media outlets in the United State, the main cheerleader against new media is actually asking for more Google traffic, the same traffic that Murdoch and Miller say is worthless?

The delay to News Corp pulling out of Google once again proves that News Corp is all talk and no action when it comes to their constant attacks against the likes of Google. There’s ZERO technological basis for the delay because as we’ve repeated time and time again: one line in a Robots.txt file is all that’s required. If they had the courage of their convictions they’d be taking themselves out of Google not next week, not tomorrow, but today.

Part of this story from AHN under license.

Chrome OS to launch within the week?

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:51:55 +0000

After several spurious sightings in the wild, rumors intensified this morning that the hotly anticipated Google Chrome OS might be released within the week.

Google said earlier in 2009 that the open source operating system would be available “later this year.” A mid-to-late November launch would make sense, but don’t get too excited yet. It’s expected that the code will be opened to developers, and that it’s not going to be something you can install on your netbook just yet. Essential functions and details like driver support will ostensibly be forthcoming, and the Chrome OS likely won’t be usable out of the box for average schmohawks right away.

As all the information surrounding the Chrome OS release this week is rumor/speculation at this point, the nature of the possible impending release is up in the air- plus scant details surrounding the Chrome OS and an abundance of fake information have made users even more curious, fueling chatter. According to PC World, there is a chance that the alleged version allegedly set for this week (supposedly) could be a stripped down version most users could test run and use for basic functions. Either way, we’ll update details of the possible launch as soon as they become available.

Dell Officially Announces Mini 3 Smartphone, Forgets To Mention Specs

James Allen Johnson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:35:38 +0000

Dell has officially announced the arrival of their Mini 3 Google Android Based Smartphone, the companies first foray into the Smartphone market dominated by Apple, Research In Motion (Blackberry) and Google Android Smartphones.

According to Dell the touchscreen enabled device will be available in various regions around the world and will be customized to take advantage of those regions 3G frequencies. Dell has however announced that China will only receive Edge service, while the device in that region will use the OPhone interface and OPhone App Store.

Unfortunately, Dell has yet to give up the devices full spec list, what we know at this point is that it carries a 3MP camera and a display with 640×360 pixels of resolution.

According to Electronista, the first arrivals of the device will come to China Mobile before the end of November, with Brazil’s Claro network set to receive the units before the end of 2009 and the U.S. Slate for AT&T and Verizon early next year. Various other providers will also receive the Mini 3 at some point, including Vodafone, Maxis, M1 and Starhub.

The Dell Mini 3 is a drastic departure from the non-phone capable Dell Axim line which Dell discontinued in 2007. It’s also a departure from those devices Windows Mobile operating system.

Just one question for Dell, how do you debut a phone that’s shipping in the next couple of weeks and then proceed to leave out a spec sheet?

Google Confirms Gizmo5 Purchase

Duncan Riley — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:37:39 +0000

Google has confirmed rumors from earlier this week that it has acquired Skype competitor Gizmo5.

In an announcement on the Google Voice blog (but notably not on the main Google blog… yet), Wesley Chan and Craig Walker, Group Product Managers for Google Voice said that “Gizmo5’s engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience” and that they “welcome the Gizmo5 team to Google.”

If those quotes seem a little light on detail, so was the announcement itself. Notably though (and in fine Google fashion) Gizmo5 is being closed off to new users, and existing users will no longer be able to sign up for a call-in number.

For the time being though, existing users will be able to continue to use the service, although you can see where this is heading: think Jaiku or any number of Google acquisitions before it: they keep it open for the short term but don’t allow new uers, merge the tech into an existing product (in this case Google Voice) or they eventually close it down. Either way, the existing service usually ends up going the way of the Dodos.

Gizmo5 took $6 million in VC and the rumored acquisition price was $30 million, not a bad exit for a company that was once billed as a Skype competitor, but never really got there.

Chrome OS gets ‘mounting library’ but doesn’t change the fact a Web OS is dumb

Steven Hodson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:35:08 +0000

I was reading Sarah Perez’s post at ReadWriteWeb about some clever folks at the DownloadSquad who have found some goodies in the Chrome OS code that seems to indicate that the new web-based operating system will be able to monitor for new devices attached to your system.

What does this mean?

Well it means that your web-browser – in this case Chrome I would imagine – suddenly becomes a file manager. This is nothing new really as typing (on a Windows machine) C:/ in the addressbar of both the newest version of Firefox and Chrome will display the folders and files on C drive. You can navigate your hard drives without any real problem. In IE 8 however it will launch Explorer which is a change from previous versions of IE.

As Sarah quite rightly points out though in her post this opens up a whole slew of security issues – this was the reason for the change in IE.

As exciting as that sounds, a commenter on the blog post points out that a browser that acts like this could mean serious security issues for the new operating system. Would a malicious web page be able to tap into this feature to wreak havoc on your system? We know that Google said security was one of the key aspects of the OS, but we also know that hackers are extremely crafty as well. No matter how good the security measures Google puts into place to limit this sort of access, there’s nothing that would provide 100% protection. And isn’t this the same sort of functionality that Microsoft ditched in Internet Explorer years ago with the launch of IE7 due to these very same security concerns?

All this aside the idea of a web-based operating system that you access through a browser still strikes me as one of the dumbest ideas around. Sure have your data in the cloud but to put the control of using even the most basic functions of your computers in the hands of a company that you can only access if you have an Internet connection is foolish.

Even if we were to consider this as as a possibility is it really a realistic use of hardware that continues to grow in power every year?

Here we have machines, even including laptops, that have more computing and graphics power in them than all the computers used to power the Apollo space program and we want to reduce them to running a bunch of javascript in a browser window.

What a waste.

Google Search Fail: Why Won’t My Parakeet Eat My Diarrhea

James Allen Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:54:46 +0000

Head on over to Google right now and type in “Why Won’t” and you’ll quickly realize an odd top search suggestion of “why wont my parakeet eat my diarrhea” one of the most popular search options found on Google at the moment I’m writing this article.

The fail comes from none other than the ultra popular site FailBlog and it’s reached “Volcanic” proportions on various trending websites across the web as users search for more information from the sites post.

While I’m sure the Parakeet search will fall off the map and be replaced by some new search term by tomorrow, it was still worth a good laugh today.

Google slashes storage prices, offering 20GB for $5G

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:45:32 +0000

Google announced today that they’re now offering “twice as much storage for a quarter of the old price.”

Comparing starter prices to the cost of a “triple mocha,” plans range from 20GB to 16TB, and Google helpfully equates how much you can store in pictures taken by “a 5 megapixel camera.” The five tiers offered to me when I opened the product page were:

20 GB ($5.00 USD per year)
80 GB ($20.00 USD per year)
200 GB ($50.00 USD per year)
400 GB ($100.00 USD per year)
1 TB ($256.00 USD per year)

While the cost is slightly higher per gigabyte (and a subscription, not a one-off purchase), it’s not prohibitively so when held up against standalone storage. And although some people fear cloud-based storage for stability or privacy, storing data via Google also means you won’t have to worry about spilling a coffee on your kid’s baby pictures or a project you’ve been working on for six months slipping from your pocket on the F train to be smashed beneath the feet of rush hour commuters. Also gone are the days where you spend your entire commute patting yourself on the back for preparedness, only to arrive at your desk realizing you left your files in your other purse or pants.

Integration with Google’s email and photo storage accounts is a natural plus for those who already use those services, too. I’ve had some kind of storage-consolidation item on my to-buy list for some time, meaning to spring clean all my computers (okay, some time=three years, but shut up, I’m a busy person who also likes napping) and I’ll be looking to Google as soon as I need more space imminently. Do you plan on taking advantage of Google’s newly cheaper storage options?

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Dropbox Blocked By Google For Malware

Duncan Riley — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:38:37 +0000

Popular file sharing and cloud storage service Dropbox has been blocked tonight by Google for hosting malware.

According to a message inserted by Google, Dropbox is a “Reported Attack Site!” that “has been reported as an attack site and has been blocked based on your security preferences.”

According to a secondary page, Dropbox hosts “malicious software includes 5 scripting exploit(s)” and has been “an intermediary for the infection of 3 site(s) including sifbasket.dk/, zhp.pl/, manskara.com/.

Google says though that “In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.”

Yeah, you reckon on that last statement?

Dropbox has been one of the most popular cloud hosting/ sharing sites that have emerged in the last two years. I use it on ever computer I own and I send files using Dropbox because it is a great service. Of perhaps millions of files, that Google has decided to block Dropbox is pathetically sad given that among the millions of links and files they deal in, maybe a handful in this case are bad.

Google Providing Free Airport WiFi For The Holidays

James Allen Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:04:00 +0000

Google is providing frequent and not-so-frequent fliers with a special holiday gift, free WiFi at various airports through the U.S. a free service that will last until January 15th 2010.

Google is providing the service in conjunction with airport and in-flight WiFi provider Boingo Wireless, along with Advanced Wireless Group, Airport Marketing Income and several other companies.

The free service is currently available in 47 airports throughout the U.S which includes popular destinations such as Las Vegas, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, St. Louis, Charlotte and various other locations.

Seattle and Burbank fliers also received even better news that their WiFi service will be offered for free indefinitely.

If you want to return some holiday cheer, you can also log into the free Wi-Fi service and donate to the Engineers Without Borders organization or the One Economy Corporation and Climate Saver Computer Initiatives, at which point Google will match donations up to $250,000 across each network.

Google will also donate $15,000 to the airport which receives the most donations, that money will then be given to the airports nonprofit of choice.

On October 19th I wrote about a similar plan Google had launched for Free WiFi on Virgin Airlines flights, perhaps this new airport service will extend to in-flight customers if we get lucky.

Visit www.freeholidaywifi.com to find out which airports are part of the initiative and to learn more about the program.

Motorola Milestone Heading To Telus In Early 2010

James Allen Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:18:51 +0000

It’s official! The Motorola Milestone is headed to Canadian wireless carrier Telus sometime in early 2010. The device, which has recently been released in Europe is basically the Motorola Droid with the addition of a multi-touch interface.

The Milestone will feature Google Android 2.0, a sliding qwerty keyboard and 3G+ network access on the Telus wireless network. Unfortunately the units are not slated to include Google turn-by-turn mapping since the program is only in the beta testing stage in the U.S.

No word yet on a specific release date or even an estimated contract price, but knowing how Canada’s wireless carriers operate I assume it will be cheaper than the European model, but with a longer 3-year contract period to supplement the pricing.

It will also be interesting to see if Telus offers any type of tether package with the device, much like the packages currently announced by Verizon.