Google launches Chrome for Android

Google has announced the availability of a beta version of its Chrome web browser for the Android platform. The browser is available on handsets and tablets running the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, and is downloadable via Android Market in select countries and languages.

However, this version of Chrome will not support Flash, as Adobe is no longer developing the browser plugin for mobile devices following the release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook.

The Chrome for Android browser is available on handsets and tablets running the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, and is downloadable via Android Market in select countries and languages. The browser is based on the Chromium open source project, and supports HTML5.

“Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices,” said Sundar Pichai, SVP for Chrome and apps at Google.

However, Mark Doherty, strategic solutions manager at Adobe Systems Doherty recently told Telecoms.com that while HTML5 is certainly one path forward, it will take years to produce widely consistent web standards necessary to support everything required by the creative and publishing industries in HTML.

“Content owners just weren’t that interested in optimizing Flash content for mobile browsers, but they are keen to build applications and so Adobe is supporting that model,” said Doherty.

The Chrome for Android browser has been redesigned from the ground up for mobile devices, and Google’s Pichai said that the development team reimagined tabs so they fit just as naturally on a small-screen phone as they do on a larger screen tablet. Users can flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures, as if holding a deck of cards in the palm of their hands.

“One of the biggest pains of mobile browsing is selecting the correct link out of several on a small-screen device. Link Preview does away with hunting and pecking for links on a web page by automatically zooming in on links to make selecting the precise one easier,” added Pichai.

The Google Chrome Zone

I’ve just been to the site of Google’s first physical store, to see how the company is faring in its efforts to entice users away from the Windows operating system and switch to its internet-based Chrome OS.

The Chrome Zone is conveniently situated just a short walk away from the Telecoms.com office, within the PC World/Curry’s superstore in London’s Tottenham Court Road, a street that is well-known for its technology outlets.

Like the OS itself, Google has taken the minimalist approach. Taking up just a few square metres of the outlet, Google’s first foray into physical retail is a modest one – there was very little fanfare surrounding its opening, and it is currently stocking just one Chromebook, the Samsung Chromebook Series 5, which retails at £349 for the wi-fi only version.

For an extra £50, users can opt for the 3G version, which offers 3GB free usage for three months from – you guessed it – 3 UK. Thereafter, users can opt to switch to a new 3G provider or stay with 3.

Google clearly feels that it is much more likely to shift its new product range if users can first have a hands-on experience in-store. Arvind Desikan, Google UK’s head of consumer marketing at Google UK, explained that the firm had “found anecdotally that when people tried it and played with it, that made a huge difference to their understanding of what the Chromebook is all about”.

Although the Tottenham Court Road Chrome Zone is a pilot store, the firm has already announced that it will be opening another Chrome Zone at the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex, and is expecting to open up more stores in the UK, and internationally, over the coming months. Rumours are rife that this may pave the way for Google to open up its own retail outlets, in dedicated buildings as rival Apple has done with its own outlets.

The Chromebook:

The user interface of the Chromebook is essentially just a Chrome browser. The home screen consists of a tiled display of apps, much like the Android mobile operating system, and users can download more apps from Google’s fledgling Web Store. There are not many apps available for Chromebooks as yet – although most of those that are available are free to download – and Google’s helpful in-store assistant assured me that more apps will be on their way soon.

The user experience is much like using a Chrome browser – there is no start menu, control panel, or any other features that operating systems such as Windows bring. Even stored documents and files are saved in the cloud, rather than on the 16GB solid state drive (SSD). This largely limits the user to using just websites and browser based tools, although certain apps, such as Google docs, do make use of the SSD, for features such as saving docs offline when there is no internet access. However, as soon as internet connectivity is restored, those saved documents are moved into the cloud.

Gamers may be disappointed to know that Chromebooks are not ready for titles such as Call of Duty, Half Life or Fallout, due to its web-only nature, although it may come as consolation to know that at least Angry Birds is on offer via the Chrome Web Store.

Acer’s 11.6-inch Chromebook will be the next to be launched in the UK, and is expected over the coming months.

A job desciption posted on Google's web site indicates that the search giant is preparing an assault on the social gaming market

Google has announced its entry into the games market via a job posting on its web site. The role of “Product Manager, Games”, will be based at Google’s Mountain View HQ and comes with a fairly broadly defined job description suggesting that the company’s strategy is very much in its infancy.

Describing the position as a “rare opportunity to grow a brand-new business – Games at Google!” the advert says the company is looking for someone capable of designing strategies for game distribution and discovery, suggesting that a mobile play will form a significant component of the strategy. It’s not clear whether any initial launched will be Android or Chrome based.

Social gaming, privacy and virality are also mentioned, as are the ubiquitous content deals – none of which are likely to evoke a surprised response to industry watchers, who have long anticipated a social gaming venture coming out of Mountain View.

Google’s approach to expanding its social reach is an increasingly layered one. The search company has rolled out personalisation features, including its recent +1 recommendation tool that allows Google to use social connections to disseminate personalised, shared recommendations among a users friends, Gmail or GoogleTalk lists. Earlier this month, the company announced the open sourcing of its WebRTC framework for real-time browser-based video and audio communications. At the time, Google said its intention was to “make the browser the hone for innovation in real time communications.”

When CEO Larry Page resumed his position at the helm of the company in April, a memo was issued to all Google employees stating that the company viewed social applications as key to its future success and strategy. The company is reported to have gone to the lengths of linking employee bonuses to Google’s success in the social media space.

Google has announced the commercial availability of its Chromebooks

Google’s move into the desktop operating system environment was completed Wednesday with the launch of its much anticipated Chromebook device, which is to be manufactured by Acer and Samsung. In a throwback to the days of the dumb terminal, the device is essentially a portal to cloud-based applications and services, all accessed through the Chrome browser.

The notebook has no installed software, a feature that Google is punting as a bonus in what it says is an increasingly complex online world. Speaking at a press briefing this week, co-founder Sergey Brin said that the current computing model was a flawed one, adding that “Whether it be Microsoft or other operating system vendors, the complexity of managing your computer is really torturing computer users out there.” Brin said that the Chrome notebooks remove the “burden of managing a computer” from end users; apps, games, updates and security will all be managed automatically and remotely.

According to Google, notebooks will last for a full day of use on a single charge. Optional 3G is also available for users. One feature that is likely to set some observers on edge is the lack of anti-virus software, which Google says is not necessary because “Chromebooks have many layers of security built in.” These layers include a combination of system hardening, process isolation, continued web security improvements in Chromium, secure auto update, encryption and intuitive account management.

Google has said that while the notebooks will be capable of working offline, the model is ultimately one that is focused on connectivity. The company has said that its initial target use cases will be “computing on the couch, use as a lightweight secondary work computer,” and sharing in public places. The notebooks will be available to buy online in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain from June 15. Samsung models will start at $429 ($500 with 3G) while the Acers will come in at a lower $429.

A Chromebooks for Business and Education service has also been announced. This will offer enterprise-level support and warranties as well as regular hardware refreshes and a cloud management console to remotely administer and manage users devices and applications. Monthly subscriptions for the service will start at $28 per user for business and $20 per user for schools.

The Chromebook announcement came on the same day as news that more than 400,000 Android-based devices are activated every day, amounting to about 12 million units each month. The platform is expected to have reached 200 million users by the end of 2011.

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Developers get preview of Google Chrome OS

Open source fever continues to grip the industry as web giant Google on Thursday open sourced its forthcoming operating system and released preview code to developers ahead of the platform’s official launch in 2010.

Google may well have set Microsoft quaking in its boots back in July, when it announced plans to launch a full fledged operating system, bringing its efforts in the web browser and small footprint operating system spaces together. Google Chrome OS, with the open source project dubbed Chromium, marks a further encroachment on Microsoft’s territory and reinforces speculation on the firm’s plans for world domination.

Chrome OS is all about the web and all applications running on the platform will be web apps, with the entire experience taking place within the browser. “This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs,” Google said. This approach should also make things more secure because every application will be sandboxed. And speed is also of the essence, with Google specifying hardware components the OS will run on, such as solid state memory only, no disk drives.

When it was announced, Sundar Pichai, VP of product management at Google, described Chrome OS a lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. The OS is designed to be fast and lightweight and get users onto the web in a few seconds where most of the user experience takes place, with a minimal user interface.

The Quanta built Android-powered smartbook prototype

Essentially, the platform will be Google’s Chrome browser running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. The OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips pitching it at the mobile and desktop markets, and for application developers, the web is the platform, using standard technologies that run on Chrome, Windows, MacOS and Linux.

Google has already won support for Chrome OS from a handful of key players in the netbook and mobile computing spaces, including Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.

On Thursday while at the Qualcomm Innovation day in London, telecoms.com got to check out an Android-based netbook (or ‘smartbook’ as Qualcomm calls it), which is presumably the target form factor for Chrome OS. The prototype device was built by Quanta and didn’t quite convince us that there’s a market for a device with all the power of a smartphone, in a larger form factor.

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Google gets everywhere

Web giant Google must have sent the mother of all shivers down Microsoft’s spine on Tuesday, when it announced plans to launch a full fledged operating system in 2010.

Bringing its efforts in the web browser and small footprint operating system spaces together, Google Chrome OS marks a further encroachment on Microsoft’s territory and reinforces speculation on the firm’s plans for world domination.

Google kick started the Android project in November 2007, carving itself a niche in the mobile and portable devices space as well as set top boxes and other consumer electronics. Then in September 2008, the web giant launched the Chrome browser, which neatly integrates with Google’s online services and is targeted at online users.

Chrome OS goes one step further and should cause both Microsoft and the Linux community cause for concern by being the first OS designed from the ground up by a company that really understands the online world.

“The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web,” said Sundar Pichai, VP of product management at Google, “[Google Chrome Operating System is] our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”

Pichai described Chrome OS an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks, and sounds like it has a lot in common with Android. The OS is designed to be fast and lightweight and get users onto the web in a few seconds where most of the user experience takes place, with a minimal user interface.

“We are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work,” said Pichai.

Essentially, the platform will be Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. The OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips pitching it at the mobile and desktop markets, and for application developers, the web is the platform, using standard technologies that run on Chrome, Windows, MacOS and Linux.

As with Android, Google is tapping the open source community to drive Chrome forward. Later this year the firm will open source the code base, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.