Hasta La Gadget!

All right, we have heard our fair share of rumors concerning the Chromebook from Google, and the most recent one would be a Chromebook Pixel promo video that touts a touchscreen with a whopping 2560 x 1700 resolution, and the folks over at the Wall Street Journal have reported that such a device, and even devices, are in the pipeline. This is not a surefire confirmation, but it is a step closer in the right direction for sure. Prior to a Google press event that is held tomorrow in San Francisco, the WSJ claimed that “the first touchscreen laptops powered by its Chrome operating system to be sold later this year”.

This is not the first time that mainstream media has revealed more information than it should before an official announcement, and we are quite sure that it will not be the last, either. In fact, as the event is being held at Obscura Digital, it could definitely prove to be a subtle method of letting the world know of a touchscreen Chromebook. Do you think a touchscreen Chromebook will be able to sell by the truckloads?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: WSJ “Confirms” Google’s Retail Store Plans, Google Rumored To Be Opening Their Own Retail Stores This Year,

Rumor has it that Google will be opening up its own retail stores by the end of this year. Google will be following both Apple and Samsung by giving consumers a place where they can get a hands-on feel for its products. You can get a feel for the latest Nexus device or Chromebook before you jump the gun and buy them. Google is hoping that by offering this hands-on experience, it would be able to get more consumers to purchase its products, and hopefully get more demand for its upcoming products.

Considering that this is Google, we can expect their retail stores to be quite the spectacle. The store will probably be overly colorful and lively, which would be perfect for attracting the attention of curious customers. Inside you will be greeted by well-trained Google employees who will act as your in-person Google search engine (for all things Google).

The rumors state that Google came up with the idea of launching its own retail stores because it needed a way to give consumers a hands-on feel for their new Project Glass product. Google figured that consumers are more likely to purchase the Project Glass product when they get to try it out first-hand to see if its worth the hype. I mean, the Google name may be enough to sell Project Glass to the tech community, but it may not be convincing enough for the average consumer.

We hope that the Google retail stores become a reality, because it would be great to be able to try out products like the Nexus 4, or the Nexus 10 before we hand all of our money over to Google. Also, if Google keeps the prices of their products the same as the prices in the Play store, we can expect the Google retail store to be a big hit.

[via Android Community]

Google retail stores coming to a place near you is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Got your grains of salt at the ready? Good. Rumors of a more extravagant Chromebook have been making the rounds for months now, but the new, supposedly leaked video the new touch-friendly Chromebook Pixel may provide the first real glance at what Google has been working on behind closed doors.

The video was spotted by Chrome buff François Beaufort, and it certainly looks flashy enough — it exhibits and level of polish and clarity of message that’s notably absent in most fan-made mockups (though some of them are getting very good). The video doesn’t offer much in the way of hardware specifics aside from noting that the display plays home to 4 million pixels, which Beaufort believes means a screen resolution of 2560 x 1700.

For what it’s worth, the information laid out in the leaked video jibes with some earlier reports of a touch-enabled Chromebook. Last November, the China Times claimed that Google was planning to launch a Chromebook with a 12.85-inch touch display, and noted that the search giant (and not a hardware partner like Samsung or Acer) had placed orders with ODMs Compal and Wintek.

The implication at the time was that Google would be bypassing its usual slew of hardware collaborators completely in favor of crafting and selling its own gadgets. Interestingly enough, the Chromebook Pixel video states that it’s a new kind of computer “designed entirely by Google,” suggesting that Google may have done just that. Naturally, Google declined to comment when asked if the Chromebook Pixel was indeed a real product.

The story behind how this video came to light is perhaps just as outrageous as the product being shown off. It was found on a YouTube channel owned by Slinky.Me, a Mountain View company whose states mission is to build the “world’s largest visual guide” — whatever that means. Slinky.Me was apparently was hacked a few hours ago, and the secretive Chromebook video was posted to the company’s YouTube account shortly afterward.

But why would a company working on what appears to be a fairly static visual guide have access to a promo video for unreleased Google hardware? Well, it would seem that part of the team’s work also involves crafting promo videos like these pro-Google ads that were uploaded to their collective Vimeo account this past week. None of them seem all that high-brow — not nearly as much as curious Chromebook Pixel promo anyway — but they hint at some sort of working relationship between Google and Slinky.me.

Adding fuel to the fire is Slinky.me’s CEO, one Victor Koch who claims on his LinkedIn account that he is (or was, if he’s not the type to update regularly) a software engineer at — you guessed it — Google. A quick look at his Facebook profile seems to shed a bit more light on the situation, as he refers to himself there as an “ex-Googler.” We have been unable to confirm with Google that Victor Koch was a former employee, and Mr. Koch wouldn’t respond to the Facebook messages I’ve sent him so for now this facet of the story is still a bit murky.

Naturally, someone attempted to clean up this leak as best they could as soon as the supposed hack went down. The video no longer exists on YouTube, and the elusive Mr. Koch issued a public apology (and tagged Google co-founder Sergey Brin) on his Google+ account for the video’s sudden exposure. This case has many of the earmarks of your typical botched release, but I imagine we’ll soon get official word on the Chromebook Pixel’s veracity — Google I/O is just a few months away, after all.

Google Chromebooks are aplenty at the moment, with Acer, Samsung, Lenovo, and HP all offering Chromebooks at different shapes and sizes. However, it looks like Google may take matters into their own hands, because a video has leaked today that features a touchscreen Chromebook laptop that has a Retina-quality 2560×1700 resolution.

The video was originally uploaded to YouTube, but has since been taken down, and the company responsible for uploading the video, SlinkyMe, says that the video made its way to YouTube after its servers were compromised by hackers. Of course, we don’t know if that was actually the case, since it’s also possible that the video was just accidentally set to “public.”

The Google-designed Chromebook is supposedly called the Pixel, most likely named after the high-resolution display. It’s not said whether the device is both designed and manufactured by Google, or if they’re partnering with a manufacturer to put it together for them, similar to how the Nexus series of mobile devices operates.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that a Google-designed Chromebook has been made. The company released the CR-48 Chromebook, which only made its way to a handful of people and actually never went on sale. Of course, just like with the CR-48, the Pixel looks to be simply designed and takes a few queues from the MacBook, including the aluminum shell and the chiclet keyboard. We’ll be on standby if more details emerge of the Google Pixel.

[via Liliputing]

Google-designed Chromebook Pixel leaks, features Retina-quality touchscreen is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Now here is a new notebook for all of you out there in the educational circles, as well as folks who are looking for a basically dummy proof notebook to use without compromising on its form and function. Have you heard of the Chromebook from Google before? Well, this time around, Google has enlisted the assistance of the good people over at HP to get started on the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook.

Basically, you can more or less say that the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook would make for the ideal home companion which will be able to offer the kind of built-in security, speed and simplicity which you would expect from a Chromebook, where it will also be accompanied by a brilliant 14” screen. This means you are now able to enjoy your favorite videos, and photos among others in greater detail than ever before, sporting versatile HDMI and USB ports that would certainly make the HP Chromebook a whole lot easier to customize with peripherals. In fact, the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook will measure under an inch thick, and it runs on an Intel Celeron processor.

Since this is a Chromebook, you would know for sure that it will be able to play nice with popular products such as Gmail, Google+ Hangouts, YouTube and Maps that already come built in, delivering what had always been the best of Google at the very tip of your fingertips, always. Not only that, the new HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook would also allow you to take full advantage of 100GB of free storage on Google Drive, which makes it a snap to backup your essential and crucial files in the cloud that would make them accessible from just about anywhere and from other devices.

The asking price ain’t that high either, as it is available for $329.99 a pop in the US at HPDirect.com and at other retailers in due time.

Press Release
[ HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]