http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:32:54 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/22589/Google_Chrome_for_Mac_Beta_Released_Linux_Beta_Released_Too/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22589/Google_Chrome_for_Mac_Beta_Released_Linux_Beta_Released_Too/ After a long wait, Google has finally released the first official beta release of Google Chrome for Mac. This being a beta release, it is not yet entirely on par feature-wise with the Windows version, but in return Mac users get a browser that is very well integrated with Mac OS X. Update The Linux beta is out too! More here. Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:24:14 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 36 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News google_ninja http://www.osnews.com/story/22584/Building_the_Dream_Google_Smartbook/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22584/Building_the_Dream_Google_Smartbook/ InfoWorld's Mel Beckman conjectures on the functionality necessary to make the Google 'smartbook dream' a reality, prioritizing the features any smartphone/netbook hybrid would require to succeed. From multitouch, to SSDs, to dual-boot capabilities, the list goes beyond what early Android-based entrants have to offer but remains within the realm of possibility, especially if Google CEO Eric Schmidt's hints at a future Chrome/Android OS convergence come to fruition. Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:49:46 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) Google 2 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News snydeq http://www.osnews.com/story/22586/Google_Acquires_AppJet/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22586/Google_Acquires_AppJet/ AppJet Inc. is the company behind EtherPad, a real-time collaboration tool somewhat similar to Google's own Wave. More about the acquisition here. Naturally, EtherPad team will be working on improving Wave in the future. The original plan was to discontinue the EtherPad, but because of user demand, Google decided to keep EtherPad online at least until its code is published as open-source. It was not originally planed to release the code either, but it was decided that it would be a fair compensation to EtherPad users. More about this here. Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:24:21 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 0 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News drstorm http://www.osnews.com/story/22572/Google_Launches_Public_DNS_Service/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22572/Google_Launches_Public_DNS_Service/ Google has just launched its very own public Domain Name System resolver, with which the company hopes to speed up internet traffic. The search giant claims its DNS is more secure (through protection against cache poisoning attacks) and faster than others. Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:58:50 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 61 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22563/Google_Working_with_Manufacturers_on_Printing_Support/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22563/Google_Working_with_Manufacturers_on_Printing_Support/ As most of you will know, a common problem for any new operating system is hardware support. Drivers don't grow on trees, and usually need to be written by manufacturers, which costs time and money. Luckily for Chrome OS, it uses the Linux kernel which makes the hardware support question far less problematic. Still, when it comes to printers, the situation is different, and here, Google is trying to achieve something which should've been done ages ago. Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:22:46 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 81 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22546/Dell_Releases_Experimental_Unsupported_Chrome_OS_Image/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22546/Dell_Releases_Experimental_Unsupported_Chrome_OS_Image/ It looks like Dell is already pretty excited about Google's Chrome OS, as the company has released a highly experimental USB key image of the new operating system. It's made specifically for the Dell Mini 10v, but is far, far from stable of perfect. "It contains a functioning image of my USB key loaded with ChromiumOS. In addition, I have made a best effort attempt to get the Broadcom Wi-Fi adapter working in this image. It's definitely not perfect (read: highly experimental, untested, unstable, yada yada...) but it does appear to function." Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:05:37 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 4 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22536/Chrome_Extensions_Site_Now_Open_for_Uploads/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22536/Chrome_Extensions_Site_Now_Open_for_Uploads/ Google has opened up its gallery for developers to share Chrome extensions, a step that soon should make it easier for people to customize the open-source browser. Aaron Boodman, a leader of the Chrome extensions effort, announced the move on a mailing list posting Monday, and programmer and "gallery master" Lei Zheng shared details in a blog post. So far, only uploads are permitted. Google plans to let some testers use the gallery to download extensions, too "in the next few days," Zheng said. "We are making the upload flow available early to make sure that developers have the time to publish their extensions ahead of our full launch." Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:50:11 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 6 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22532/Chrome_OS_Security_Overview/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22532/Chrome_OS_Security_Overview/ Google has put up a very interesting document explaining the security features underlying its Chrome OS. The document also details the underlying guiding principles of Chrome OS' security features. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:28:13 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 15 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News waid0004 http://www.osnews.com/story/22505/Google_Unveils_Chrome_OS/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22505/Google_Unveils_Chrome_OS/ Google has just unveiled its Chrome OS operating system during a press event at the company's headquarters, and it's pretty much exactly what we expected it to be: a streamlined Linux kernel booting straight into the Chrome web browser. The code is available starting today. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:01:20 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 147 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22504/Google_To_Unveil_Chrome_OS_Tomorrow/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22504/Google_To_Unveil_Chrome_OS_Tomorrow/ Okay, so it's not an actual release as Arrington predicted last week, but Google will indeed take the wraps off its Chrome OS tomorrow. The company will hold an event tomorrow at its company headquarters in Mountain View, California, where it will unveil its plans for the operating system. Update: An OSNews reader has uncovered possible evidence that Chrome OS uses X, Clutter, and Slim. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:45:13 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 104 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22492/Android_Eclair_Open_Sourced/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22492/Android_Eclair_Open_Sourced/ Google engineer (and my husband!) Jean-Baptiste "JBQ" Queru just open sourced the latest Android version, codenamed "Eclair". This will open the doors for device manufacturers to get the latest version of Android. You can read all about it in his message here. Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:40:31 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Google 8 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22488/Arrington_Chrome_OS_To_Debut_Next_Week/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22488/Arrington_Chrome_OS_To_Debut_Next_Week/ TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is claiming Google's Chrome OS will debut next week - but his story does have an odd ring to it. He goes on and on about how driver support will be shoddy, but that makes no sense - isn't Chome OS supposed to be built on Linux? The only way I can see initial driver support to be shoddy is when Chrome OS has its own, custom graphical layer, instead of using X. However, were that to be the case, I'm sure Google would at least support some NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel chipsets. In any case, it's a rumour - do with it as you please. Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:01:20 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 37 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22486/A_2x_Faster_web_SPDY/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22486/A_2x_Faster_web_SPDY/ Google have created a new HTTP-based protocol "SPDY" (pronounced "Speedy") to solve the problem of the client-server latency with HTTP. "We want to continue building on the web's tradition of experimentation and optimization, to further support the evolution of websites and browsers. So over the last few months, a few of us here at Google have been experimenting with new ways for web browsers and servers to speak to each other, resulting in a prototype web server and Google Chrome client with SPDY support." Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:30:52 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc Camen) Google 65 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22478/Google_Creates_New_Open_Source_Programming_Language/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22478/Google_Creates_New_Open_Source_Programming_Language/ Google has invented a new programming language designed to reduce the complexity of coding without compromising the performance of applications. Called Go, the language has been tested internally at Google but is still at an experimental stage, so the company is releasing it as open-source code in the hope that it will get help with its future development. Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:21:02 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Google 62 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News http://www.osnews.com/story/22466/Google_Acquires_Gizmo5_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/22466/Google_Acquires_Gizmo5_/ TechCrunch broke the news today that Google has bought Gizmo5, the popular VoIP SIP provider, for $30 mil cash (not confirmed officially yet). The company was led by Michael Robertson, known for his times on mp3.com and Lindows. What does this mean for Google Voice? Read on. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:11:14 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia Loli-Queru) Google 13 http://www.osnews.com/topics/28 News