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Android and Chrome OS: Google’s split attention between two overlapping platforms has long come in for criticism, but rumors of a merge in time for the Chromebook Pixel failed to pan out. Then again, is the world ready for a $1,300 Chromebook, no matter whether it runs Android or Chrome OS? Perhaps not, Google’s director of Android user experience, Matias Duarte, says, but there’s more in Pixel’s prescience of the touchscreen future, he argues.

Pixel’s appeal on a purely hardware basis is undeniable: it’s a beautifully designed notebook, with an incredibly high resolution touchscreen and the same crisp lines that we liked from Google’s first Cr-48 Chromebook. However, its huge price puts Chrome OS up against full notebooks from Apple, Sony, and others, despite the relative limitations of the cloud-centric platform, a completely different market from earlier, highly affordable Chromebooks.

“Pixel shows the boundaries between types of computing blurring”

For Duarte, however, Pixel’s success won’t solely be measured by pure sales. “I think that Pixel is really exciting, because I think that Pixel shows the way that the boundaries between the different types of computing are blurring” he explained to us. “I think it’s great that the Chrome team is doing that, I think it’s great that the Chrome team is allowing Google to get into people’s lives with touchscreens on a desktop form-factor.”

That’s not a point of view shared by everybody in the industry, and in fact it puts Duarte and Google in the same camp as Microsoft and its hardware partners, rather than with Apple. Steve Jobs memorably decried the usability of touch notebooks, and Tim Cook has since made similar arguments, that reaching across a keyboard to tap at a display simply isn’t ergonomically satisfying.

Duarte disagrees, saying that despite what the MacBook makers think, users themselves are asking for a touchscreen approach. “I think that’s a real trend, that touch on laptops and on desktop form-factors is the way that people want to interact with computers” he says. “I think every screen should be a touchscreen in the future, regardless if it has a keyboard or not.”

Despite the overlap, then, between Android – which has touch at its heart – and Chrome OS – designed for more traditional form-factors – the two platforms still have a future as independent projects. According to Duarte, that will be the case for as long as it makes functional sense: the two OSes converging, perhaps, on a commonality of features as Google develops them.

“Google is excellent at diversifying, and experimenting” he told us. “And I think what Chrome OS does well – they’re getting better at, and it’s being reflected in what Android does well in succession – Chrome on Android is the best browser we’ve ever had, and we would not be at that level without the Chrome team doing the work that they do, without the Chrome OS team learning the things that they do, and learning to understand, for example, how to work on touchscreens.”

“Ultimately, still, the two platforms meet different needs”

Meanwhile, what was originally a smartphone, and then a tablet, OS has been gaining more functionality to bring it in line with a desktop platform, though Duarte says that it’s still not quite there year. “Of course Android has also been evolving, and I think it’s terrific the way that we are gaining capabilities on a day-by-day basis” he said. “For example in Jelly Bean we announced multi-user support, and that opens up a range of use-cases, but ultimately, still, the two platforms meet different needs.”

That also means Android playing more readily with accessories and other devices, as it continues its trend toward being the one “OS for humanity” as Duarte himself described it. “One of the things that was great that we did in Honeycomb, was we included much better support for peripherals” the designer said. “So if you go hook up your Nexus 10 to a Bluetooth keyboard, or even a Bluetooth trackpad, you’ll find you have a much better experience with that.”

Despite the convergence that has already happened, Duarte points out however, neither Android nor Chrome OS are at the point where they satisfy the overall needs of all users. “Until we have one solution for Google that can really capture everything, it makes sense for us to continue to develop two platforms” he explained. Exactly how long that development will take is unclear, but it may take some time before Chrome OS – or a flavor of it – achieves the same market dominance as Android enjoys.

Don’t expect Android and Chrome OS to merge any time soon is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

[MWC 2013] After nearly one month of leaks and rumors, Samsung made the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet official at Mobile World Congress and I had the opportunity to briefly try a global pre-production unit at the show. Basically it looks like a large Galaxy Note 2 and the key features are pretty similar with a few enhancements here and there. At the briefing, Samsung confirmed that it sports the same 1.6 Ghz Exynos Quad-Core cortex A9 than its smaller sibling. Additional similar features include 2GB RAM, a 1280×800 resolution (1280×720 in the Note 2), Android 4.1.2,  and the S-Pen supports with 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Ubergizmo’s Best of MWC 2013, ASUS Padfone Hands-On Review,

We’ve arrived in Catalonia’s capital city, where snow, apparently, has marked the start of this year’s Mobile World Congress. That’s right, the hills surrounding this typically warm Mediterranean metropolis have been blanketed in a thin layer of flurries, but we’re nonetheless optimistic about this week’s smartphone show in Barcelona. As MWC 2013’s massive new venue begins to take shape, we’re preparing to deliver the hottest hands-ons, directly from Fira Gran Via. Some manufacturers, such as HTC and LG, have already demoed their latest handsets, and other devices have made an early debut, but there’s plenty of excitement still to come, as you’ll discover in our show preview. We’ll be sharing our liveblog lineup in a few hours — for now, it’s time to bookmark our event page, and check back often throughout the next week.

Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, Laptops, Mobile

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[MWC 2013] Today, Metaio announced an agreement with ST-Ericsson, in which the semi conductor manufacturer agrees to integrate  Metaio’s Augmented Reality hardware IP, also known as “AREngine”, into its upcoming mobile platforms via the “first application processor accelerating Augmented Reality performance on mobile devices”, according to Metaio.

We know Metaio from its Augmented Reality  mobile browser, and its multiple innovations in the field.

We do not know much about this new hardware from the information we got from Metaio, we need to ask for more details.  According to the company, the new chipset “will improve nearly all aspects of an Augmented Reality experience, yielding performance increases in speed, precision and power consumption, with up to 60 times faster initialization, more than an AR app running on existing platforms – the highest to date in the mobile industry”. In addition, Metaio claims that its AREngine “drastically reduces power consumption making all-day AR experiences possible”.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: NVIDIA Tegra 4i LTE Processor, Slacker Music Application Rebranded,

Ahead of the upcoming Mobile World Congress, LG has unveiled two new handsets in the F-series, the Optimus F5 and the Optimus F7. These 4G LTE smartphones both feature mid-to-high range specs, and feature both the convenience of QSlide and the functionality of Live Zooming, which was previously only available for Optimus G. Both smartphones will be available worldwide, launching first in Europe.

First up is the Optimus F5, which features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and a 4.3-inch IPS display with 256ppi. Inside, users will find 8GB of internal storage space and 1GB of RAM, as well as a microSD slot for expansion up to 32GB. The handset features a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, as well as a 2,150mAh battery. It runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

Next is the Optimus F7, which features slightly more advanced specs. The handset is nearly a phablet with a 4.7-inch True HD IPS display (312ppi), as well as a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 2GB of RAM. There’s 8GB of internal storage space, as well as a microSD slot that supports expansion up to 32GB. The rear camera is slightly higher resolution at 8-megapixels, with the front camera clocking in at 1.3-megapixels. The battery is a decent 2,540mAh, and like the F5, it runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2.

Says LG’s President and CEO Jong-seok Park, “LG continues to lead the industry with 4G LTE innovation and the Optimus F Series, a well-balanced an well-equipped 4G LTE smartphone for the mass market, embodies the best of our broad LTE patent portfolio and innovative UX features. With adoption of LTE expected to explode in 2013, we are sending a clear message to consumers with the Optimus F Series that LTE isn’t just for heavy content users and techies anymore. It’s for everyone.”

[via PRNewswire]

LG unveils Optimus F5 and F7 4G LTE smartphones ahead of MWC is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.