We’ve had plenty of pre-knowledge on this , but surprisingly this is our first actual glimpse of Google’s new unbranded Cr-48, the very first Chrome OS laptop, which will Google will distribute as its Chrome OS Pilot Program, in a sort of public beta. You actually have to apply to join the program, and there’s going to be a limited number of them available. Google’s doing a number of little promotions to give away the devices to interested users and businesses which will provide feedback, and it looks like there’s no way to purchase one right now. Developing… Google unveils Cr-48, the first Chrome OS laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Google partners with Verizon for free 3G data allowance with every Chrome OS netbook
December 7, 2010 No Comment
There you go, folks. Google says it wants you always connected, now it’s helping you do it. 100MB of free Verizon data, each month for 24 months, will be yours as a complimentary extra when buying a Chrome OS netbook. $9.99 will give you unlimited access for a single day and there are no contracts to fiddle with. Obviously, and sadly, this is a US-only hookup. Google partners with Verizon for free 3G data allowance with every Chrome OS netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Google just demoed Chrome OS running on a piece of reference hardware at its event in SF. It just takes four steps and less than a minute to set up a brand-new Chrome OS machine — it pulls all your Chrome themes and settings from the cloud, so it’s ready to go almost right away, and changes can propagate in less than a second in some cases. The reference machine demoed was able to come back up from sleep almost instantly — Google says the limiting factor is actually how fast the user can move their hand. (It wasn’t that fast in the demo, but it was still really fast.) The OS also supports multiple accounts with a guest account that runs in Incognito mode by default, and everything is wiped on logout. Developing… Google Chrome OS gets detailed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Amazon demonstrates new Kindle for the Web, coming to Chrome Web Store early next year
December 7, 2010 No Comment
What do you do when the web’s 500-pound Googorilla decides to muscle in on your action ? Amazon’s answer, apparently, is to work with said primate. Instead of making pouty faces about Google eBooks, the Kindle purveyor has unwrapped a new version of its Kindle for the Web browser-based reader and is rolling it into Google’s Chrome Web Store. Up until now, this web offering only ever permitted the consumption of book samples in its short beta existence, but that’s a limitation that Amazon is lifting with its new software, promising to “enable users to read full books in the browser and [enable] any Website to become a bookstore offering Kindle books.” And hey, since it’s on the web, you shouldn’t have any trouble accessing it on Chrome OS, either! Coming to a Web Store near you early next year. Amazon demonstrates new Kindle for the Web, coming to Chrome Web Store early next year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It hasn’t been that long since we first saw Google’s web store — mid-May, to be exact . An updated version is currently being showcased on stage at the Chrome event. The UI looks much more refined, and those who are itching to try some out yourself, it seems some of the web apps are already available, at least partially: NPR , The New York Times , Amazon Windowshop . If you ask us, they feel a lot like iPad apps for browsers and mice / keyboard. Audio can run in the background even if you move to another tab. There’s offline mode, too. App purchases are tied to your Google account, naturally. There’s some gaming, but from what we’ve seen so far ( ” you pop it! ” ), it’s nothing you’re gonna be focusing a lot of time on. We’ve been trying to access the web store (via the Chrome browser, naturally), but it’s currently hiding behind a “coming soon” redirect — it’s rolling out later today, though, at least for the US, so keep an eye out. Gallery: Chrome Web App demos Google demos Chrome Web Store, rolling out later today to US originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Google spruces up Chrome with Instant Search from the Omnibox, other nerdy things
December 7, 2010 No Comment
It’s a big Chrome day for Google today , and they’re kicking things off with new features for the browser itself, features that will be included in Chrome 9 when it lands. The real highlight is the addition of Instant Search to Chrome’s famed “Omnibox.” It works about as you’d expect: as you type a Google search you still get your regular suggestions, but you also get a full search results page loading and refreshing live as you type. Google took things a step further and actually implemented this for regular sites too: based on your typical behavior, when you start typing an address, Chrome will pull up that site for you automatically (we hope when you type “e” you’ll get Engadget, instead of Google’s espn.com example). The other huge improvement is “Crankshaft,” which Google claims is a 2X improvement in JavaScript speed, based on what benchmark you’re looking at. To put it in context, Google claims Chrome is 100X faster than IE’s JavaScript performance back in 2008. Other rendering tweaks include a super fast built-in PDF reader (Google demoed the browser loading the entire health care bill in a blink), and full-on WebGL support. Developing… Google spruces up Chrome with Instant Search from the Omnibox, other nerdy things originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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They rocked our world yesterday with Gingerbread , the Nexus S and a Honeycomb-based tablet , but Google’s not done yet — today, it’ll unveil a horse of a different form factor in Chrome OS . That’s right, Mountain View’s finally ready to share hard details about its instant-on operating system (and perhaps a netbook or three ) and we’re here in San Francisco liveblogging the whole thing. Live from Google’s Chrome event! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …U.S. government hits snag printing new $100 bills, prints old ones instead
December 7, 2010 No Comment
The U.S. Treasury Department may have been eager to open the doors to its money printing factory back in July to show off its brand new $100 bills, but it looks to be a decidedly different story today. As CNBC reports, all of the added security measures have apparently been harder to print than expected, and have resulted in a creasing problem that has left some bills with a blank portion on the face. The real problem, however, is that it’s not clear how many bills have the flaw, which has forced the department to “quarantine” some 1.1 billion bills until they can be sorted — one person familiar with the matter says as many as 30 percent were affected at the height of the problem. As you might expect, that accounts for a pretty big chunk of the bills intended for circulation, which has forced the fed to print some more of the older $100 bills that still feature Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s signature in the meantime. U.S. government hits snag printing new $100 bills, prints old ones instead originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Combined sales of smartphones and tablets to surpass the humble PC in 18 months, says IDC
December 7, 2010 No Comment
Our supply checks say that 10 out of 10 analysts are insanely bullish about tablets — despite the fact that there are only 2.5 competitive products on the market, and one of them only came out a month ago. So, naturally, it isn’t difficult to scrounge up sales predictions that show the tablet rocketing into the stratosphere, cutting into PC market share, while also expanding the market outright to accommodate its post-PC ways. Gartner ‘s guess is 55 million tablets next year, while IDC has a more conservative estimate of 42 million, but both predict a sharp, exponential rise in the following years, and IDC takes it one step further: 18 months from now, combined smartphone and tablet sales will eclipse the PC, it claims, with both categories hovering in the mid-400 million range. Now, that number is mostly smartphones, which isn’t an unprecedented shift in and of itself — the PC took a major hit in popularity in Japan once the kids got ahold of these newfangled phone things — but overall it represents a shift from the open-ended, flexible, and powerful PC to the narrow, task-specific, app-driven nature of the iOS and Android kind. Or you could spin it the completely opposite way: people need phones, so they buy a nice phone. No PC death knell in that behavior, and the tablet is still a very niche product with some good PR. Either way, we’ll be much more impressed with this sort of market battle when it’s the tablet (perhaps with a little help from the smartbook or netbook-lite category) going up against the Windows and Mac PC head-on, without smartphones shouldering most of the load. Combined sales of smartphones and tablets to surpass the humble PC in 18 months, says IDC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Just $799? Wait, really? Indeed, it’s quite hard to grasp that the Samsung QX410 costs under $800, and when you hear about what you get for the money, you’ll understand exactly why. The system not only packs some seriously impressive specs — a Core i5 processor, NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU with Optimus, and a 640GB hard drive – but it’s also got an aluminum lid, flush glass 14-inch display, and is just an inch thick. And on top of all of that, you can stream video to your TV with Intel’s WiDi and get on a fast WiMAX network without an extra dongle. So yeah, on paper it’s a killer deal, but after spending a week with the rig do we still feel the same way? Or do we suggest you keep shaking the piggy bank until you can come up with an extra $200 for the Envy 14 or a Dell XPS 14 ? Find out in our full review! Gallery: Samsung QX410 review Continue reading Samsung QX410 review Samsung QX410 review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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