Google's Chrome OS

Using Google's Chrome OS Laptop of the Future

The Chrome Cr-48 netbook might just be a reference design—as in, most folks won't ever be able to use it—but it is what Google thinks a Chrome laptop should be. And it has some pretty nice touches. Updated. Here are some quick impressions on the hardware and software that we gleaned from about an hour's worth of usage. Advantages:- • Plain matte finish both inside and outside the lid feels nice—the antithesis of shiny MacBooks • The trackpad really does not like having two fingers on it at once. It's not multitouch, but you can use two fingers for right clicking. • Window switching with Alt+Tab is fast, and feels like switching workspaces (Spaces on OS X) • Fairly light and fairly thin • The keyboard keys are separated like MacBook and Envy, so I'm definitely used to typing on it • No function keys, instead, you have actually web-useful keys like back, forward, reload, fullscreen, next window and several standard laptop keys • Shutdown and resume really is almost instant • The screen doesn't get incredibly bright, but it gets bright enough for indoor use • Gmail calling works! It's only slightly laggy, and I sound like I'm in a closet, but otherwise, it works Dis Adv:- • It's definitely still a netbook—there's an Atom processor inside—so heavy duty computing is out of the question • YouTube is limited to 480p, even on 1080p videos. There's just no option to select the higher quality • Hulu is choppy, but it's not unwatchable • Gmail noticeably is slower than on a MacBook Pro • There's only one USB port Update: Extended impressions. Google really wants people to use the web, and having a web-only computer pretty much forces you to do so. I've been using the Cr-48 for a few hours now, and I can both say that it's the best netbook I've ever used, as well as the most limiting computer I've ever used. The experience of using a web computer Being locked into a browser for everything you do on a computer can be frustrating. It's modal computing—something that Apple seems to be pushing with their OS X Lion—so you're always working in one maximized window. You can still multitask in the sense that things are going on in tabs and windows that you're not looking at, but you can't really see more than one thing at once. Except, as a notable example, the fact that GChat windows pop up no matter where you are, effectively enabling web-based apps to transcend the window they belong to. Some quirks and pains of using a web browser are more significant when you're using one as an operating system. The search button, Google's "replacement" for the caps lock key, brings up a new tab. Logically, you'd assume the search button allowed you to say, search in Gmail, if you were in a Gmail window, or search your previous chat transcripts if you were in GChat. Also, Flash has crashed a lot. It doesn't take down the tab that it's in when it crashes, but you have to reload every single tab that you have that uses Flash. But overall, working entirely in a web browser isn't too bad, as long as you have web-based versions of things you need to do. I'm not quite there, but I'm convinced that with a few weeks effort, I can be. The prototype hardware Again, because Google doesn't intend this particular Cr-48 model to be an actual product, there's no need to review the hardware. However, there are touches, ideas and themes that Google has put in that they would like their hardware partners to carry on. The SD card reader on the side is quite handy, as is the existence of a USB port. The keyboard is also matted and nice to type on, and matches the rest of the finish. And I can't emphasize enough how cool it is to be using an unbranded, unmarked, totally generic laptop. This is like the Nexus One/S of notebooks. I suppose the fact that this is running an Atom processor is holding it back from being a blazing fast experience, even if all you're doing is web-based computing. Alt-tabbing may be fast, but everything else, like Google docs, Gchat, and other things that are supposedly lightweight will run slower than you're used to. I mean, when was the last time that Google Docs lagged on keypresses for you? So, hopefully the third-party manufacturers that do do Chrome OS notebooks find a way to balance extended battery life with the need for slightly more powerful hardware. It's a very good secondary machine, or travel machine, but in order for it to be a primary machine, you're gonna need more juice.

Discover more than 3 million Google eBooks from your choice of booksellers and devices

Google eBooks :To improve access to the cultural and educational treasures we term them as books. Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore. You can browse and search through the largest ebooks collection in the world with more than three million titles including hundreds of thousands for sale. Find the latest bestsellers like James Patterson’s Cross Fire and Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, dig into popular reads like Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken and catch up on the classics like Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and Gulliver’s Travels. We designed Google eBooks to be open. Many devices are compatible with Google eBooks—everything from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers. With the new Google eBooks Web Reader, you can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud. That means you can access your ebooks like you would messages in Gmail or photos in Picasa—using a free, password-protected Google account with unlimited ebooks storage. In addition to a full-featured web reader, free apps for Android and Apple devices will make it possible to shop and read on the go. For many books you can select which font, font size, day/night reading mode and line spacing suits you—and pick up on the page where you left off when switching devices. You can discover and buy new ebooks from the Google eBookstore or get them from one of our independent bookseller partners: Powell’s, Alibris and participating members of the American Booksellers Association. You can choose where to buy your ebooks like you choose where to buy your print books, and keep them all on the same bookshelf regardless of where you got them. When Google Books first launched in 2004, we set out to make the information stored in the world’s books accessible and useful online. Since then, we’ve digitized more than 15 million books from more than 35,000 publishers, more than 40 libraries, and more than 100 countries in more than 400 languages. This deep repository of knowledge and culture will continue to be searchable throughGoogle Books search in the research section alongside the ebookstore. Launching Google eBooks is an initial step toward giving you greater access to the vast variety of information and entertainment found in books. Our journey has just begun...

Facebook Planning Email Service Launch

Facebook is hosting a special media event on Monday, November 15, where the company is expected to introduce its own email service code named Project Titan. The service apparently includes a full-on Web-based email client and will give Facebook subscribers their own @faceboom.com email address,according to TechCrunch.

Facebook email may be on the way

Facebook isn’t saying yet what it plans to announce at its press event, but the invitations do hint strongly towards an email or message-related service. If the social networking company does in fact roll out a new email service, it could include features such as the ability to prioritize messages based who you interact with most on Facebook.

Assuming a new email service is on the way, that could account for a recent dispute between Facebook and Google over accessing contacts from Google Gmail user accounts. Google blocked Facebook users from moving their Gmail contacts to the social networking service, but a workaround has already surfaced that lets Facebook users get at their Gmail contacts.

Facebook isn’t dropping any more hints about its Monday event, so for now word that a new email service will be launched should be considered speculation.