Hasta La Gadget!

Google’s browser-based operating system, Chrome OS, will begin shipping with notebooks sometime in November, according to Asian suppliers who claim to be making parts for the devices.

Taiwanese publication DigiTimes cites “sources from component players” who claim Acer and Hewlett-Packard will soon offer Chrome OS notebooks, and Google will also be selling its own branded Chrome OS notebook made by manufacturer Inventec.

Google introduced Chrome OS in November, 2009. The operating system is built around a special version of the Google Chrome browser, modified to run web apps, and with its own underlying file and storage system. Google said that devices shipping with Chrome OS will rely on flash memory and internet storage rather than traditional hard drives. This setup will ensure extremely fast boot-up times of about 7 seconds, Google said.

“We want Google Chrome OS to be blazingly fast … to boot up like a TV,” said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management for Google, during the November 2009 press conference.

A release this month would also pit Google against Apple, which recently released new MacBook Airs touting flash memory and instant-on capability.

See Also:

• Chrome OS Netbooks For Under $400, Says Google
• Google Chrome OS Not Ready for Primetime Yet
• Acer’s Google Chrome OS Devices Likely in June
• Mock-ups Show a Google Chrome OS Tablet
• Acer Plans a Million Chrome OS Netbooks, New E-Reader

Photo illustration by Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com

Google has filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Federal Claims against the US Department of the Interior for being what it claims as “unduly restrictive of competition.” Apparently the DOI wrote up procurement requirements for a hosted email and collaboration solution (it’s currently hobbling along with 13 different platforms for its 88,000 users) that specifically stated the software had to be part of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. Google thinks there should be a competitive procurement process for the $59 million contract, allowing for potential alternatives to Microsoft (like Google Apps, for instance). The DOI says it’s up for open competition on the contract, but it’s “standardized” on Microsoft tech. We’ll have to see how this plays out.

Google suing US Department of the Interior for Google Apps snub originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not much detail here, just some vagaries uttered by Michael Dell at an event in Hong Kong. According to Reuters, Mr. Dell said that it’s easier to develop smartphones using Microsoft’s Windows operating system than Google’s Android. Something that he, or at least his developers, should know something about having dabbled a bit on both platforms. Unfortunately, that’s all we’ve got — hopefully more details will be revealed later to give this some context. Switching gears, he also said that Dell would be launching a “significant number” of tablet PC models next year. Next year huh? What happened to Dell’s 7-inch Looking Glass tablet that was coming in “a few weeks” now more than one month ago?

Michael Dell: Developing Windows smartphones ‘easier’ than Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 05:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on July 01, 2008 by CyberNet.

One of the problems with using Flash on a website is that search engines like Google and Yahoo are unable to read the content of the files encoded in the Flash file format. This can keep people from using Flash on their sites for obvious reasons. Adobe (developers of Flash technology) knows this, and so to help advance the technologies that they created, they have decided to work with Yahoo and Google so that they will be able to index the information stored in the SWF format.

According to Adobe’s press release, “Adobe is providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines.” If this technology works well enough, that means anybody, even bloggers who rely partly on search engines, should feel confident using Flash because they wouldn’t have to worry about the content of their articles being hidden from search engines.

What this means for people searching for information on the web is that in the future when Yahoo and Google have their Flash reading systems worked out, searchers will have access to all kinds of information that they previously wouldn’t have been able to find. Those who have used Flash on their sites in the past will not need to modify any of their files for Google or Yahoo to be able to search the content, it’ll just work.

Source: Macworld

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It seems that there’s no end to Google’s usefulness. You can add yet another piece of important information to that seemingly unlimited resource: polling place locations. The search giant offers a simple way to find out where you need to go in order to vote in tomorrow’s mid-term elections.

You can either just type “polling place” into Google or visit the Google Voter Info page over at maps.google.com. From there, just type in your full address, and Google will let you know exactly where you need to be tomorrow, in order to play your part in democracy.

The service also offers a good deal of additional insight into the election, including a list of candidates and information about your location election office.