Hasta La Gadget!

Google’s second (and final) day of I/O 2011 was all about Chrome, and unfortunately for those yearning for a Chrome OS tablet, it looks as if your dreams will remain unfulfilled. Sundar Pichai, Senior VP of Chrome, spoke candidly about the company’s intentions during an executive Q&A session follow this morning’s keynote, and he didn’t bother to mince words:

“[Chrome OS] is a new experience we’re working on. It’s hardware agnostic in a sense. We are fully, 100 percent focused on laptops. Most of the web usage — greater than 90 percent — is on laptops. That’s what we’re working on today, and we have no other plans on any other form factors.”

Any other form factors outside of the Chromebox, we’re surmising. Goog’s been pretty steadfast in its approach to Chrome OS; it’s being marketed as a software + hardware package, with both working in lockstep to provide a (more or less) guaranteed user experience. To that end, the outfit’s obviously not interested in cannibalizing any Android slate sales with the addition of Chrome OS, and while we’re bummed in a way, the promise of Ice Cream Sandwich helps to numb the pain (a little). In related news, Sundar also addressed questions regarding the company’s decision to rely on both Chrome OS and Android. When asked to “reconcile [Google’s] two big strategic visions,” he hit us with the following:

“There are a variety of experiences out there, and the web model is very different. We’re comfortable seeing them coexist. Google Movies and YouTube have web versions — when you use a Chromebook, you see how it’s different, and they’ll naturally coexist. These are very different models — if we didn’t do something like Chromebooks, I’m pretty sure someone else would.”

That last line is most telling, and it begs the question: if not Google, then who? There’s no question that companies are crowding the cloud bandwagon, but would Microsoft or Apple really have the desire to bust out a totally connected operating system? Makes you wonder if Chrome OS won a race that never actually began…

Google: ‘no plans’ for Chrome OS on tablets, any other form factors originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors told us what, when and even how much to expect, but Google just made it official on stage — Chrome OS netbooks are finally here, and Samsung is leading the way with a ultra-slim 0.79-inch thin machine. This is the Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook, which plays to Google’s new standard “Chromebook” spec –in short means they’ll each come with a dual-core Intel Atom processor and an “all-day” battery, which Google says will provide 8.5 hours of continuous usage here. Samsung’s particular clamshell will have a 12.1-inch, 1280 x 800, 300 nit screen, weigh 3.26 pounds and come with dual-band 802.11 WiFi, optional global 3G, two USB 2.0 ports, an HD webcam and a clickable trackpad that Google tells us has thankfully been revamped since the CR-48. You’ll be able to order one from Amazon or Best Buy beginning June 15th. It’ll cost $429 for the WiFi version and $499 for worldwide 3G — which includes 100MB of free Verizon data per month, just like the CR-48. PR after the break.

Update: Amazon’s Series 5 listing details some additional specs — we’re looking at a dual-core 1.66GHz Intel Atom N570 chip, a 1 megapixel webcam, and a 16GB mSATA solid state drive here, as well as an SDXC card reader, and VGA-out via an “optional” dongle. The press release also mentions a Li-ion battery good for 1,000 recharge cycles, though it doesn’t mention what efficiency will be like after that.

Continue reading Official: Samsung reveals Chrome OS laptop — the Series 5

Official: Samsung reveals Chrome OS laptop — the Series 5 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If that offbeat Acer Aspire One 722 we told you about last month caught your fancy, well, we still don’t know when you’ll be able to buy it or how many pretty pennies it’ll cost. In the meantime, the folks at NewGadgets, at least, got to spend some time with one and gave it the full hands-on treatment, including a video (embedded below for your viewing pleasure) and gallery of close-up shots. So if you like your netbooks blue, dented, and loaded with AMD innards, head on past the break to get your eyeful. Now if only this had a release date to go with it…

Continue reading Acer Aspire One 722 caught in the wild (video)

Acer Aspire One 722 caught in the wild (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 May 2011 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first of Lenovo’s CES-announced S Series, the S205, sauntered into the computer manufacturer’s online store this week, albeit lacking the 8GB DDR3 SDRAM option mentioned at its announcement. The base model sells for $499, sporting a 1.60Ghz dual-core AMD Fusion E-350 CPU, an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768 resolution) 16:9 widescreen panel, 3GB of DDR3 SDRAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 6310 graphics, and a 350GB HDD. Two higher cost configurations score an extra gig of RAM, an optional Bluetooth radio, and a 500GB or 750GB HDD. The lesser of the higher end models can be had for a $429 at LogicBuy until Wednesday, if you can live without Bluetooth (which man did for thousands of years, but you know what we mean).

[Thanks, Tim!]

IdeaPad S205 hits Lenovo webstore, starts at $499 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Plowing through bug reports is a reliable way to dig up juicy morsels of info, and thanks to that timeless tactic we’ve got some specs on a pair of unannounced Chrome OS devices. First up is a netbook from Acer codenamed ZGB which, according to a recently filed report, will have a 1366 x 768 panel, presumably in the 10 to 12 inch range. We also know that you can hook up an external display to it via an HDMI port powered by an encoder chip from Chrontel. Since AMD’s Fusion netbook platform supports HDMI natively, we can also safely assume that the ZGB will be running the web-only OS on an Atom processor. That’s where the details end for now but, hey, it’s better than nothing.

The other device, Seaboard, has been floating around the Chrome OS flaw depot for some time, but reports are finally starting to reveal some tantalizing details. We now know that it is powered by a Tegra 2 and sports a touchscreen — the perfect place to test out those finger-friendly tweaks we’ve heard so much about. There are also mentions of a “lid switch” and a physical keyboard, indicating it may be a convertible or something in the vein of the Eee Pad Slider rather than a pure slate. The hybrid form factor would make perfect sense since it will house a pair of USB ports and an HDMI jack, which could make for a rather chunky tablet. Obviously, neither of these devices are confirmed yet (and Seaboard is most likely being used for internal testing only) but at least we’ve got a better idea of what to expect when the browser-based OS comes to consumers later this year.

Chrome OS machines leaked in bug reports: Acer netbook and touch-friendly Seaboard originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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