Living in a Google World

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS

2010-12-15T16:48:00.002-05:00

I feel so lucky right about now. I came home today to find that I'd gotten a Cr-48. I have, of course, followed Chrome OS from the beginning, so I'm glad to have the chance to try out the first real Chrome OS laptop.

What surprised me about it, really, was the overall polish of it. I'd compiled my own copy of Chromium OS about a week before the announcement to run on my netbook, and while it was much more complete than it had been when I first started testing these builds, it was still nowhere near the level it's at now. The animations are smooth and everything just feels snappy. Of course, the Cr-48 was designed with Chrome OS in mind, so that's to be expected... but even so, it's always nice to see that things work better than you thought they would.

Would I replace my desktop computer and netbook? No, of course not. There are things I do on my computer that Chrome OS simply can't do. For me, this laptop is a quick web browser with the ability to connect remotely to my rack server and desktop at home. But then again, people like me aren't really the target market for these sorts of devices.

At school today, I realized just how helpful a laptop like this could be for someone who isn't quite as tech-savvy as most people who would be reading this blog. My guidance counselor was in the room preparing to talk to the class. She had a presentation that she wanted to display, so she signed into the laptop and checked her "My Documents" folder. It wasn't there. She then proceeded to open up Outlook because she had emailed it. The Outlook setup screen popped up.

She was on a shared school laptop.

It's things like this that remind me of the huge gap between the tech-savvy and the tech-clueless. Believe me, most people fall into the latter category. Maybe a purely cloud-based setup could benefit them. There will always be people who need local storage, so Google's vision of a world completely in the cloud is a bit off, but that doesn't mean Chrome OS is a complete failure.

That said, I don't think the OS will catch on as quickly as Google would like. For one thing, people have a tendency to resist change and complain when things aren't exactly as expected. The poor sales of Linux netbooks reflect this - they didn't have a start menu and a big blue bar at the bottom, so they were brought back to stores at an alarming rate because people just couldn't figure them out.. Maybe Google's marketing will be able to overcome this. We'll just have to see what happens.

Before you techies bash it, though, step back and think about this: does everyone you know have a basic understanding of how computers work? Do the people in your life understand the difference between local storage and web storage? Is the big blue "e" synonymous with the internet for them? Ask around sometime. You might be surprised.

Google and Net Neutrality

2010-08-09T19:56:00.000-04:00

Let me make one thing clear: I am not a Google fanboy. I love it when Google releases open source software... but that's mostly because it's open source, not because it's Google. So when Google announced that they've been in talks with a major ISP about the future of the internet, I was a bit uneasy. (Oh, yeah, and I do hate ISPs. And telcos. Yeah. Verizon's both.)

So basically Google and Verizon want net neutrality for the internet as it is today... but only for wireline providers. Oh, and they want to fragment the internet by allowing ISPs to offer extra services to their customers in addition to internet access. Alright, so some are already doing this (think Epix and ESPN3). It may not really be anything new, but I really don't think it should be encouraged. A few services are fine, but what we're talking about here is essentially dividing the internet based on your service provider.

Think of it this way. If you feel your ISP is charging too much or has substandard service, what can you do? Well, if you're lucky, you can switch to another ISP. This is one problem with them: there isn't enough competition. In most cases, you could at least switch to DSL from cable or vice-versa. But once you've switched, you're back up and running with exactly the same access you had before. It might be a little faster, it might be a little slower, but you're on the internet.

Now imagine the world as Google and Verizon would like it. You want to switch ISPs? Alright, but you can't get to the videos you used to watch. Oh, and maybe your health care monitoring, smart grid, and advanced educational services might not work too. See the problem here?

Ideally, as Internet Service Providers, their job should be simply to provide you access to the internet. This would effectively turn them into dumb pipes, and they are fighting to prevent this from happening. The reality of the situation is that they do want to lock you in by any means necessary.

Oh, and let's not forget that the net neutrality portion of this would not apply to wireless providers. They would continue to keep blocking access to whatever they want, slowing down whatever traffic they want, etc. It's a mess now, and this won't make it any better.

I realize this is a bit out there, but imagine what would happen if AT&T customers could only call other AT&T customers. Same for every other carrier. Nobody would switch carriers because their friends and family all use that carrier, and their friends and family wouldn't switch because they wouldn't switch. You already see this happening with their "in network" free calling, but to entirely segregate the different networks would increase this lock-in exponentially.

It's much like the current situation with VoIP and IM services. AIM, for example. If you use AIM, there's a good chance you use it because your friends use it. You won't leave because then you won't be able to IM them. There are open IM services (Google Talk, other Jabber/XMPP services), but they go largely unnoticed by the general public because they are either locked in or are not aware of an alternative. In most cases they don't know how these services are more open than what they use, nor do they care, because they've been using it for as long as they can remember and it's what they're used to.

The situation is similar with Skype, though they are starting to see competition... Apple for one. (And if Apple does actually make FaceTime an open standard, I will applaud them for that, but given their history with such things I seriously doubt that will happen.) But for the most part they are the dominant video chat service, and attempting to get any long-time Skype user to even try anything else is a rather difficult task.

In fact, the internet was like this at one point. Just take a look at early online systems to get an idea of where the internet could be headed. Granted, traditional websites are here to stay - people aren't going to abandon standards entirely, and they are the best way to reach the most possible users. But who is going to be making deals with the ISPs? Content providers. There's a good chance that, if this goes through, internet media will be split between ISPs, much like it is with TV. If you want this content, you have to pay for it separately from this ISP.

If this is how the internet ends up, I seriously hope it ends with the content providers. We do not need health care monitoring systems locking us in to a single ISP. But let's not see this go through in the first place. It's simply a bad idea. Sorry, Google, but I'm not with you on this one.

Google Voice desktop app leaked to TechCrunch

2010-07-02T00:51:00.001-04:00

Today, TechCrunch got the Google Voice app. It may never be released officially, but they have it, and it works really well. So I say... let's make sure Google knows that we still want the app. Tweet about it, blog about it, whatever, but let's make sure they know.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/01/exclusive-video-of-unreleased-google-voice-desktop-app

[UPDATE] Darchstar is about to release a FroYo ROM for the HTC Hero

2010-06-23T19:37:00.002-04:00

~~I've been following this in IRC... and Darch is just about to release his FroYo ROM. Check back for updates. :P~~

The rom's out, but I would advise against flashing it if you don't know what you're doing. As such, I won't post a link quite yet. There are a lot of things that can go wrong at this point.

Google Voice now available to the public

2010-06-22T16:05:00.000-04:00

That's right, Google Voice is finally available to anyone who wants it. No more begging for invites! (So please. People. No begging for invites.)

We'll see what happens from this point on... whether or not Google will start charging for it... but the one thing we know for sure is that they're hard at work on Gizmo5 integration. It's likely we'll see a desktop client (probably Windows-only, but I do hope there's a Linux version) and a web-based client in Gmail.

To all the new users... I think you'll love Google Voice, especially if you're already an Android user. There's an app in the Market, so if you are an Android user, make sure you check it out.

Google releases the Google Command Line Tool, a command-line based interface for several Google services

2010-06-18T16:32:00.001-04:00

Google just released the Google Command Line Tool, which provides access to Blogger, Calendar, Contacts, Docs, Picasa, and YouTube from a command line. I know I'll probably be using this... well, all the time. So much faster to add YouTube videos or calendar entries like that.

Granted, most users of these services won't care, since they're generally not Linux users and would hate to try and use a terminal... but hey, for those of us comfortable with it... perfect!

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/06/introducing-google-command-line-tool.html
http://code.google.com/p/googlecl/

Cloud Print coming in a few months; HP introducing cloud-aware printers

2010-06-07T21:18:00.000-04:00

HP is set to release a new line of cloud-aware printers compatible with Google Cloud Print shortly. The press release lists the basic model (HP Photosmart e-All-in-One) for release later this month at a price point of $99.

Google plans to release Cloud Print itself in the coming months, according to a blog post on their Chromium blog. They have begun testing the service internally.

http://blog.chromium.org/2010/06/update-on-google-cloud-print.html
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2010/100607b.html

[UPDATE] OI. Spam comments.

2010-06-01T18:00:00.001-04:00

So I've noticed an abundance of spam comments lately. Whenever someone comments here, I get an email. It gets very irritating getting spam comments from a blog that I rarely post on anymore (though I'd really like to change that). So. I'll be looking into switching the comments system over to, say... Disqus, maybe? I dunno. Until then, comments will be disabled. Sorry about that, but... yeah.

UPDATE:

The new comments system has been added. The one I mentioned above... Disqus seemed to work well on other sites I've visited, so... let me know what you think. (If anyone still reads these, that is.)

Sony and Google combine to provide entertainment services

2010-05-28T04:39:00.000-04:00

Sony and Google have formed an alliance to provide a range of entertainment services that will combine Google's open-source Android operating system platform with Sony's technology and product design.

Through this alliance, Sony aims to leverage the accessibility of Google's Android platform to further optimize its product development processes. As the first step in this process, Sony will introduce 'Sony Internet TV' incorporating the 'Google TV' platform. Through this interface, consumers will be able to search and access content from their TVs and across the internet. The 'Sony Internet TV' is scheduled to first launch in the US in the fall of 2010 featuring both TV model and set top box-type unit incorporating a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Howard Stringer, chairman, president and CEO of Sony, said: "The combination of Sony's industry-leading product design, engineering and development expertise with the flexibility and growth potential of Google's innovative, open-source Android platform will provide consumers with a world of new and exciting Internet user experiences. Through this alliance, Sony will deliver new levels of connectivity and Internet integration across our range of assets and product categories."

via (NewsWire | Published 25 May 2010)

Oh how I wish I could be at Google I/O

2010-05-21T20:20:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been an interesting two days... FroYo announcements, Google TV, WebM (yes!), and free phones for attendees. Sadly, though, I couldn't be there. I couldn't even watch the live streams. So that would be why I haven't been able to post about any of it really - from the school network, both YouTube and Blogger are blocked. Sorry.

But those free phones make me so jealous...

Google Tablet

2010-04-12T14:53:00.002-04:00

Also Google is apparently building an Android tablet. Supposedly Eric Schmidt casually revealed it to friends at a party. Make of that what you will.

http://neowin.net/news/google-confirms-tablet-won039t-run-chrome-os

Google Docs Updates with a Drawing Editor, Real-Time Collaboration, and Speed

2010-04-12T14:18:00.004-04:00

Here is the link to the official Google Docs Blog and here is the link to the Lifehacker.com summary.

Here is a video as well from the blog

Google updates Google Docs, now includes etherpad-like collaboration

2010-04-12T12:34:00.002-04:00

Google ~~has updated~~ will be updating Google Docs with some new features, including real-time etherpad-style text transmission in the document editor. I can't post a link due to the fact that I'm posting from my phone, but the blog post can be found on the official Google blog, so go check it out!

My Experience with Android

2010-04-02T20:17:00.001-04:00

So I realize I haven't posted here at all recently. I've been really busy with school and all... but during that time, I've finally been trying out Android, which I wasn't able to do in the past. And let me tell you I really haven't had a very good experience with it.

The first Android phone I got was the Samsung Moment. It overheated... a lot. The battery drained in a little over two hours. So I decided to switch to the HTC Hero. I've been having similar problems, though the battery does last much longer. So my question to you Android-lovers is this: have you had similar problems? Has flashing your phone with a nice new ROM helped at all?

Google Unveils Its New Mobile Interface

2010-02-09T10:04:00.000-05:00

Google unexpectedly rolled out a brand new look for its mobile interface this morning. As you can see above, it features the slightly more modern look that Google rolled out in Gmail and Voice lately.

The predictive search seems more snappy and you can now erase your query with one tap, which is very convenient.

It looks kinda Bingy to me, how do you like it? via [AppAdvice] via [Google]

Latest build of Chromium OS adds "cellular" option in network menu

2010-01-24T00:45:00.002-05:00

Did any of us not expect this? Regardless, the latest build of Chromium OS has cellular data access in the network menu. Not sure if this works yet, as I'm only running the browser portion of the OS inside Ubuntu (and don't have a cellular modem anyway), but the option is there. (I suppose it was only a matter of time.)

Hexxeh's Chrome OS "Zero" Build Released

2010-01-11T18:11:00.000-05:00

http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/

I'm about to try this out. Older builds haven't worked very well for me so far... and I was about to go build my own up-to-date version, but I noticed this one had just been released. Much faster that way, and he's got some nice little patches added in as well.

New Windows Chrome Icon?

2009-12-25T01:34:00.001-05:00

Now I'm not sure if this is happening for everyone, but when installing Google Chrome on a new Windows 7 machine, the Chrome icon looks like this:

Is anyone else seeing this?

Google Phone Confirmed

2009-12-12T17:29:00.000-05:00

The existence of the Google phone was confirmed in this recent blog post on the Google Mobile Blog. It had previously been tweeted by a Google employee as well, which may have been the cause of the announcement.

The phone will be made by HTC and will be Google-branded. It will be sold unlocked and it will have a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and an OLED screen. If TechCrunch's post from around a month ago is correct, it will be a device that uses VoIP for voice rather than the carrier's voice capabilities. This would likely be Gizmo5 if it is true, and in that case there's a good chance Google will start charging for the service.

If this device will actually be sold (and isn't just exclusively for Google employees), it could seriously change the balance of power in the mobile space. Right now, most mobile users seem to remain blissfully unaware of the existence of unlocked phones. Google has the power to change that. If the phone is cheap enough to be competitive with other (subsidized) smartphones, it could just make people consider unlocked phones as an option. Carriers now have more control than handset makers, but that could easily change. If people stop buying subsidized phones and the price of unlocked phones comes down, the carriers will actually have to make people like their service and their pricing. (What a concept!)

It's something I've thought about a lot lately since I've been looking at all sorts of phones and carriers. The major problem right now is that all the carriers (except maybe Sprint) charge extremely high amounts for family data plans with smartphones. If this can help bring prices down, I'm all for it.

Google To Open-Source EtherPad

2009-12-07T23:30:00.000-05:00

According to PC World, Google is set to open-source EtherPad, a real-time collaboration webapp. They recently acquired the company behind this application, AppJet. It seems EtherPad users liked the service enough to make Google listen.

For those who don't know, EtherPad allowed users to collaborate on a single document in real-time, much like Google Wave does. (And by that I mean instantly.) Each user's edits are clearly marked. It's like Google Docs meets Google Wave, really.

New pads can once again be made from the EtherPad home page, and this will be the case until the code is completely open-sourced.

Things like this are why I really love Google.

http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/etherpad-back-online-until-open-sourced

New Blogger

2009-12-07T11:12:00.000-05:00

I almost forgot to announce this, but that post below reminded me. As you may have noticed, I didn't write it. So I'm pleased to announce that this blog now has another writer, Eugene Niemand. He's going to be a big help... and I hope this blog will continue to grow in the future.

Google Goggles mobile visual search

2009-12-07T10:32:00.005-05:00

Have you ever seen something and wish you could get more info in as snap (pardon the pun) or you see something and think WTF is that. Well there will be an App for that, namely Google Goggles.

It was only a matter of time before Google came out with a visual search product. Google Goggles is geared towards the mobile market and allows anybody with the ability to snap a photo to receive relevant information via Make Magazine

Now the question is how long will it take Google to catch up with other similar applications? Most services I have seen only does bar code scanning so Google is one step ahead in that aspect, seeing that you can search for any image, so if you take a picture of Big Ben in London or The Statue of Liberty it will return results based on that.

I can think of a plethora of uses for this, product reviews, history of places while walking, more info of say a Polar bear while visiting the zoo just to name a few. Here is a short video that demonstrates Google Goggles.

Google Has Acquired AppJet. What Does This Mean?

2009-12-04T16:01:00.003-05:00

Google has just acquired AppJet, the makers of a web-based real-time collaborative document editor called EtherPad. The employees who worked on EtherPad will be joining the Google Wave team. What does this mean? Well, I'd guess the reason for this is to make Google Wave a whole lot faster. One of EtherPad's main selling points was that it was really fast.

After all, Wave in its current state ends up being very slow and clunky after 150 or so posts in a wave. If this acquisition can help that, this is very good news. Once that problem is taken care of, it seems like it'll almost be ready for a final release.

http://etherpad.com/ep/blog/posts/google-acquires-appjet

Chromium on Linux - Bookmarks Sync Now Enabled By Default

2009-12-03T18:06:00.000-05:00

Looks like today the daily builds of Chromium have the bookmarks syncing feature enabled by default. No more running it with --enable-sync at the end. Finally!

Google Public DNS

2009-12-03T17:01:00.000-05:00

Well, isn't that interesting. Google just released a DNS service.

http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

I've been an OpenDNS user for a while now, but this is interesting, so I decided to try it. It's not really configurable like OpenDNS is, but for the average user that doesn't matter. But will the average user realize the benefits of such a service? Will the average user even care? Not likely. That's what Google needs to work on if they want to make Google Public DNS catch on.

There's also, you know, all that extra data going through Google. I know some people that wouldn't like that idea.

Running Chrom(ium) OS

2009-12-02T20:28:00.000-05:00

Well, as I've said, I've been getting a bit too busy for blogging (and honestly sometimes there's just not much to blog about)... so this has already made its way around the internet by now. As such, you've probably already seen it. For those who haven't...

@hexxeh on Twitter has created images ready to be booted from a USB drive. You can find them at chromeos.hexxeh.net.

If you happen to have a Dell Mini 10V lying around, you can try this image released by a Dell employee.

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/11/25/chrome-os-wi-fi-support-running-on-a-mini-10v-source-code-available.aspx

Hexxeh says on his website that he will be releasing a newer image soon with wireless fixes for the RT2860 (MSI Wind, Eee PC 901 and 1000 series) and BCM43XX (Dell Mini 9 and 10) wireless chips.

Gizmo5-Google Voice, Google Wave Invites

2009-11-25T19:46:00.000-05:00

Alright, since it would appear I only got 3 retweets for that... everyone gets a Wave invite! Yay? They're not nearly as rare now as they were a few months ago. (Yeah, 2 days late, sorry about that.) @scaiuan, I can't DM you since you're not following me, but I do need an email address to send the invite to.

Also... recently (since Google acquired Gizmo5) it seems I've been able to make free calls to any phone through Gizmo5. It shows up as being from my Google Voice number. Has this happened to anyone else?

Chrome OS Is Here!

2009-11-19T16:27:00.004-05:00

Oh, now look what happened while I was at school. Google demoed Chrome OS! The Chromium OS source code was released as well.

Alright, so maybe we won't be seeing actual Chrome OS machines until later... but hey, you can always get Chromium OS.

Now I have to say, I am disappointed at the fact that you can't just go download Chrome OS. You'll have to buy machines with the OS preinstalled. Also, it won't work with hard drives, only SSDs. Keep in mind, though, that the average user doesn't want to have to deal with getting things to work... the average user just wants things to work. I think that's what we'll be seeing once machines with Chrome OS start hitting the market.

Is this good? Is this bad? I honestly don't know. The consumers will determine what happens to Chrome OS. In the meantime, I'll be trying to test Chromium OS on one of my laptops. Will it work? Doubtful. But hey, it's worth a shot. If it does happen to work, I'll report back here.

Here's the VMware image. There are a few things that haven't yet been implemented in this version (the menu in the top-left corner, for one) and the menus look like something straight out of Windows 95... but hey, it's Chromium OS.

Link removed because you guys overloaded it. XD

Google Phones, Google Operating Systems, and Google Wave Invites

2009-11-18T20:43:00.000-05:00

Well well, look what's been happening over the last few days. Lots of new Google news.

First of all, there's a Chrome OS event scheduled for tomorrow. Apparently, we'll be getting their launch plans and a "complete overview", so this could be quite interesting. I'm guessing this one won't turn out like that other one.

TechCrunch is also reporting that the Google phone does exist... and may end up being a data-only device reliant on VoIP. Sounds interesting, but Google has denied all rumors of a Google phone in the past. We'll see, Mike, we'll see.

On another note, I've got 8 Google Wave invites to give out. Follow @googleworldblog on Twitter and retweet this tweet to enter. I'll select the winners on the 23rd. (Also, this is the first time I've done this, so if anyone has any tips on an automated method of doing this... that would be nice. Otherwise I could see it getting out of hand if enough people notice.)

TechCrunch: Google Chrome OS To Launch Within A Week

2009-11-13T06:51:00.001-05:00

Hmm, TechCrunch has been getting a lot of exclusive stories lately. The most recent of which is this article stating that Chrome OS is to be released within a week.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/13/google-chrome-os-to-launch-within-a-week/

Their previous exclusive story turned out to be true; Google posted about the Gizmo5 acquisition on one of their blogs and Gizmo5 stopped accepting new members.

If this is indeed true (and I have reason to believe it is) I'll be installing and testing it upon release. Of course, the TechCrunch article mentions possible driver issues... but since Chrome OS is Linux-based, manufacturers don't necessarily have to create a completely new set of drivers. We'll see what happens though - I don't have a netbook at my disposal, so hopefully this Compaq laptop will do. It's fairly generic in terms of hardware.

We'll have to see what happens though. All I can say is... if this is true, it's going to be a good week.

TechCrunch: Google Has Acquired Gizmo5

2009-11-09T13:43:00.002-05:00

TechCrunch recently posted this:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/exclusive-google-has-acquired-gizmo5/

According to them, Google has now acquired Gizmo5. For those who don't know, Gizmo5 is a VoIP provider with clients for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Specifically, they run the only VoIP service supported by Google Voice, which is why this isn't so surprising. As of right now, the deal has not been announced officially by either company, but I'd suggest watching their blogs for more information.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
http://gizmo5news.blogspot.com/

So what does this mean for Google Voice users? Well, there are a few possibilities here. Google could integrate the Gizmo5 client's functionality into Google Talk, which I'd say is pretty likely. In the short term, they could stop charging for dialing out through Gizmo5/Google Voice... or they could keep charging, which would surely annoy a lot of people.

If they do keep charging, there's a nice little article over at Nerd Vittles that I saw a while ago. Basically, it describes how to integrate GV dial-out functionality with an Asterisk server. Take a look at it if you're interested.

http://nerdvittles.com/?p=635

Regardless of what happens, this move could serve to position Google as a formidable competitor to Skype. Consider this: Gizmo5's SIP services are open. Skype is completely proprietary. Gizmo5 is not very well-known. Plenty of people know about Skype, but even more people know about Google. The problem Google's had up until this point is that most people aren't even aware of Google Talk... which is pretty odd since Google is one of the largest advertising companies on the internet. If they actually start advertising these services, well, I think they could easily grab a huge portion of the VoIP market share.

Update: Google has announced it on their Google Voice blog.

http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/google-welcomes-gizmo5.html

On the Gizmo5 side, you don't need to look far to find this - it's on their homepage.

Oh wow...

2009-10-29T17:39:00.000-04:00

...I got over 100 followers without even noticing!

In case you haven't noticed, there hasn't been much going on with Google lately. There's Android 2.0, but that was covered elsewhere before the SDK (and therefore the emulator) was even released. Not to mention... Android's one topic I really can't cover mainly because of the lack of money on my part. I can't afford to get new devices very often, and I don't even have an Android device for myself at the moment. So... sorry about that.

(Although I hear the Droid's going to be really nice. Wish I could get my hands on one.)

Yeah, I know there's Google Music Search, but I haven't really had the time to take a look at that either. What I will say, though, is that most of the rumors about it were a bit off. I saw a lot of people discussing a possible "Google Music Store", and to be honest, I didn't really expect that. Music Search, on the other hand, seems like it will really come in handy for anyone looking for a particular song.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, Google is rolling out a new feature that puts songs (along with a preview) into your search results. You can search by artist, album, or lyrics within the song if that's all you remember. For some reason, I haven't had it show up over here yet, but hopefully that will change soon.

For now, I'll be here enjoying Ubuntu 9.10 until Google finally releases a build of Chrome OS.

A Look at Google Wave (AKA stuff you've probably read somewhere else.)

2009-10-21T23:51:00.000-04:00

This morning, my brother and I received our Google Wave invites. I've been using it all day, so I figured I'd post some of my thoughts on it.

I find that it's incredibly hard to describe to people exactly what Wave is and why they should use it. In practice, it's very simple, but there's no quick and easy way to describe it. What seems to amaze people the most is actually something that's been around for a long time: real-time transmission of text.

First of all, while I know it is a preview, it's just extremely slow when working in waves with more than a few blips. Of course, I'm sure this will improve soon enough (before an actual public launch). It's just something I wanted to point out.

I've actually seen one thing changed in the one day I've been using the service. This morning, if someone were to edit a blip, it would show that it had been edited by another user, but you would have to dig into the timeline to actually see the changes. Now, they are clearly displayed as highlighted text. It's a very nice addition.

Gadgets and robots also need a little work. Each gadget currently has its own button on the toolbar. While that's great if you only have one or two, it could easily fill up the toolbar with clutter. There's also the fact that robots are added into your Google contacts, so if you don't want a bunch of Wave robots scattered throughout your contacts, well... you'll have to play around with it a bit. A separate section for robots would be nice.

I will say this: I'm not a developer, so the potential Wave has for me at this point is very limited. However, once I get a few invites, I'll be able to actually invite people I know and see what happens. It's not quite ready for the public, though. It's slow, it occasionally crashes, and at this point it would not be a very fun experience for anyone who just wants to get something done. Google Wave does have huge potential, so keep an eye on it. Just don't expect it to be perfect right away.

Anyone have a Google Wave Invite?

2009-10-18T15:43:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know, everyone is asking this, but hey. I have two Google Voice invites, and I'm looking for a Google Wave invite so I could possibly cover it here. (Although, granted, I'm not a developer, so my options there are somewhat limited, but... hey, I can try, right?) I'd be willing to trade one or both.

I should have Google Wave shortly. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

(Updated) Huh. Why didn't anyone else notice this?

2009-10-15T23:49:00.000-04:00

Looks like I wasn't the first to find this. Sharkbaitbobby compiled a build of the Chrome OS version of the browser well before the debs were available for download. There may have been other people who found this earlier as well. Regardless, his is the earliest I've seen so far, so I think he deserves a little credit here. :P

http://sites.google.com/site/randomlinuxnerd/
http://sharkbaitbobby.blogspot.com/

Update: He's also created a new blog for Chromium OS browser builds. He already has a later build than the one I posted. (Mine was directly from Google, his are modified versions of Chromium. The source code for the Chrome OS browser has actually been in the Chromium source for a while.)

http://chromium-os.blogspot.com

I'll be posting any more news I find, but for the latest builds, that's the place to go. :P

Some people apparently can't read.

2009-10-15T21:58:00.000-04:00

Half the tech sites I see seem to be claiming that the "leaked build of Chrome OS" doesn't exist. Alright, they're correct. One problem with that. I never claimed to have a leaked build of the OS.

I can't tell the writers over at TechCrunch what to write. If they feel like making the title misleading, so be it. The article itself wasn't too misleading, but I think many people couldn't quite get past the headline. I think PC World's article was the best so far because it wasn't misleading at all. It clearly stated that it was the browser, not the OS, just as I did here.

Another thing I noticed was the whole "Rapidshare" thing. Alright, so scroll down a bit and you'll see a Dropbox link I added shortly after posting it (after reading a comment about Rapidshare in the TechCrunch article). Maybe I should have removed the Rapidshare link too, I don't know, but is it really that big of a deal?

Also, since people are complaining about that... any suggestions for a non-searchable download service that -doesn't- reward uploaders?

PC World: Google To Host Chrome OS Event Tomorrow

2009-10-14T22:43:00.000-04:00

http://www.pcworld.com/article/173692/google_to_host_chrome_os_event_tomorrow.html

Looks like Google's getting ready to announce more details about their Chrome OS tomorrow. It'll have been just a few days after TechCrunch initially spotted the chromeos folder and I posted screenshots of it.

Oh, and also, I got linked by PC World! :D

http://www.pcworld.com/article/173631/first_look_at_googles_chrome_browser_within_the_chrome_os.html

Google Chrome OS Browser (Unstable Build 28902)

2009-10-14T15:56:00.000-04:00

Alright, I know many of you have asked for this, so here it is.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1897142/google-chrome-unstable_4.0.222.6-r28902_i386.deb

I was a bit nervous about posting this, since it's something Google doesn't seem to want people to see, but... if there are any issues, I'll take it down. If not, it'll stay.

No, it's not the source code. It's just the i386 DEB package. I wish I had grabbed that source code zip, but I didn't, so... for anyone looking for that, you'll have to wait a bit longer.

Also, please keep in mind this is a very early build and is not in any way representative of the final product. If it crashes, so be it. Complain about crashes when you can find this thing loaded on computers at Best Buy. Right now? Yes, it'll likely crash. No, it's nothing to worry about.

(Removed Rapidshare link due to complaining, if anyone has any suggestions for a better upload service, please let me know.)

Chrome OS Browser Themes

2009-10-14T00:40:00.000-04:00

In case anyone was wondering, this is what Chrome OS looks like if you apply a theme and use the compact nav bar.

Update on Google Chrome OS Browser

2009-10-13T18:56:00.000-04:00

It would appear the Chrome OS folder has disappeared as of a few minutes ago. Luckily, I managed to grab a copy of the latest build available just before it was taken down. Completely by chance. Not much I can really give you here, as the latest unstable build seems identical to the stable build I tried last night from a UI standpoint.

EDIT: One noticeable change, see below for details.

Hold on, I found one functional change in this build. In the previous stable build I tested, ~~none of the options in the "Compact nav bar" menu worked~~. Now, however, I get this when I choose "New Window":

Never mind, it worked in the previous build, that was an oversight on my part.

Interesting. So it merges the top bar and the navigation controls.

Chrome OS Browser Tour - A Possible Look at What's to Come

2009-10-12T23:35:00.000-04:00

As I was browsing through my usual news articles, I spotted this interesting article over at TechCrunch:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/12/chrome-os-peaks-out-its-head-a-bit-further-and-what-is-the-touchpad/

Being the curious person that I am, I just had to try it out. And look! Google was nice enough to provide prepackaged .deb files!

Click images to enlarge

~~Of course, that's to be expected from anything branded Chrome. Chrome is, after all, not open source; the open-source browser is named Chromium.~~ (It would appear this version has already been open-sourced.) Anyway, after installation, what you get looks like this:

In the top-right corner, you'll find a clock (redundant when you're running it inside a full Linux distro), a network connection dialog (non-functional here), and a battery meter (also non-functional).

In the top-left, you have what appears to be the new logo (so far I have been unable to find a larger version of that image). Clicking on it opens this Google Short Links window, which doesn't really allow you to do anything unless you have a google.com email address, which I assume is restricted to Google employees only.

In the options menu, you'll find a new tab for "Google Chrome OS". As of the latest build, it looks like this:

Aw dangit, how did this get here? Ignore the Picasa 3.5 window in the background.

There's also a new menu option in the drop-down menu found in the top bar. Its options are identical to those found in the standard options button below it, except for a few things. There are options to clear browsing data, import bookmarks and settings, and go into fullscreen mode. There is also a new menu option called "Compact nav bar". Inside it you'll find the "New Window" option as well as "Open tabs on left", "Open tabs clobber", and "Open tabs on right". Sorry, but I was unable to get a screenshot for the menus, as neither of my screenshot utilities would let me do so and I'm not running this in a VM.

Browser running in fullscreen mode

Aside from these changes, the rest of the browser appears to be the same as the standard Linux build.

So there you have it. A quick look at an early build of the browser that's to be included in Chrome OS. Keep in mind that this is an early build of the browser and things are bound to change before the final version of the OS is released.