www.netbooknews.com – First impressions of Cloud the first real cloud computing operating system from gos. Unfortunately i had no wifi connection available but i guess you are getting it. It’s a beta version right now but it should be launched on CES 2009. Looks like it could be the Google Chrome OS
The Internet is not the goal of computer. Nor should one assume that because many things tie into the Internet that one should give up the power of personal computing for the lack of power found in “cloud computing” aka SOFTWARE AS SERVICE.
All internet users should be familiar with cloud computing. Anyone that uses a web-based e-mail service (think Gmail or Hotmail or Yahoo!), or manages a social networking profile (such as Facebook or Twitter) should be familiar with the cloud computing concept.
We are moving our lives progressively to the web. Whether it’s for social networking, business, news or e-mail, we are spending more time in the digital space. Advancements in bandwidth and technological development have enabled users to access more information at faster speeds than ever before.
Elements
Accessibility — In the past, when you lost your computer, you lost everything — documents, presentations, pictures, etc. With cloud computing, you can access your information from any machine.
Connectivity — Cloud computing allows users to share entire histories (either via photos, or personal blogs) within seconds. While software-based information lives on a single machine, information in the cloud can be shared with the world.
Examples
Google Profile — Many web users have profiles on many different web service. For instance, a photographer could have a Flickr and Picasa profile. A Google profile aggregates all of Google cloud computing services to one place.
Chrome OS — Chrome OS is a web-based system built on a Linux OS kernel. If you combine the simplicity of Apple’s Leopard OS, the utility of Window’s Vista and move it to the web, you have Google’s Chrome OS. In general, all of Google’s web services operate in the cloud — from Gmail to Docs to Pages to Wave. Google’s new OS speaks to the potential of cloud computing.
Aviary — Aviary exemplifies how software can work in the cloud. Aviary is a suite of photo editing and design programs that allow users at any machine to edit, manage and share their images. Essentially, it is a light, web-based…
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A year ago Apple launched iWork.com in beta, which allowed users of their office suite of applications to publish documents online. It’s a light feature set compared to Google Docs and Office 10 – just viewing and commenting. But a job posting suggests Apple may be creating a true collaborative cloud based version of the iWork apps.
The job posting popped up on CrunchBoard on December 22. Apple is looking for a mid level engineer to “be part of the core development team” and “engage in an area from design to development” of a new javascript rich internet application for the iWork team:
The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.
Besides exceptional programming skills and devotion to creating great software, we look for one or more of the following kinds of expertise or experience:
• JavaScript language and browser technology – understanding from inside-out, or
• Computer graphics – the mathematics, algorithms and programming, or
• Experience developing scalable rich internet application, or
• Experience developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projectsBS or better in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering
Apple has job postings all the time. But what caught our eye on this one is the language around building an application, from design to development. That suggests something different than just joining the existing team. Apple is putting together a whole new team, for a new project, and they need outside expertise.
Want the job? Apply here.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
View full post on TechCrunch
Google is sometimes misled with the term “search,” which is the center of our day-to-day computing. The company has achieved a market cap of $183 billion, which is about 71% of the total value of much more established archrival Microsoft.
However, Google has enlarged its domain beyond stellar search, and keeps increasing its bundle of free tools or applications that enable users to communicate, manage multimedia, map trips and even create virtual worlds. With such huge resources in hand, the company had released about fifty new products in last two months.
Recently, the company has acquired various companies like AdMob, Gizmo5, Teracent and AppJet to increase its revenue outside search-based ads business.
Search Share
In the recent market share for November, Google remained the dominant leader with 65.6% share, whereas Yahoo and Bing reported 17.5% and 10.3% share in the November. Microsoft and Yahoo had joined hands in the search to thrash Google’s monopoly in the search.
Now, the company has moved from its search fort and is trying in various fields like apps, programming language, mobile phones, operating systems, cloud apps and many more.
Here, the feature discusses some of the products recently launched by Google. However, the question is; Whether Google succeeds outside of search?
Google Phone: Nexus One
The company has been planning for an all-out assault on the mobile-phone market via its own branded handset, called “Nexus One.” According to various analysts, it will be one of the most advanced Smartphones present in the market with Android OS and will directly challenge Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry in the sector. Recently, Google gave employees an Android handset for testing that can search the Web by speaking search terms.
Google Android OS
Android is a mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel. It was launched back in 2007 especially for mobile devices, but now many PC vendors are planning to introduce Android based netbooks.
In the recent data for November month, Android claimed 27% share in the market, whereas iPhone OS reported 55% share in the Smartphone market in US.
Google Chrome OS
Google has released the source code for its browser based operating system, called Chromium OS, which will target the small and low power PCs like netbooks that have shown positive growth during the recession. Further, the new systems based on the OS are strictly for cloud computing and they will be connected to the web via Wi-Fi and will play only web-based applications such as Google Docs. Also, all the data will be stored in cloud not in users’ netbook. Hence, users do not require much storage in their PC.
Google Apps
It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites that includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs, Picasa, Google Earth and Sites. Google redefined the concept of Cloud Computing and developed applications that made migration easier for users from pre installed applications to cloud based services.
Google Dashboard
Google Inc, the search giant has announced that it will provide a window called Google Dashboard to its users so that they can view what data Google is capturing from their activities on 20 products and services like YouTube, Gmail, Google Reader etc.
Google Social Search
In contrast to Microsoft’s Bing-based Twitter search, the new Google search tool will make use of users’ contacts from more than 20 services and other information from your contacts to build up a network, for example Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, data from Google readers and other web based social content.
Google Wave
It is a web-based service, which will merge e-mail, IM, wiki and social networking. Further, it also provides robust spelling/grammar checking, automated translation between 40 languages and numerous other extensions. Currently, it is available in a developer preview for sandbox access. Sources suggest that the platform is designed to provide the next generation of Internet communication.
Then Google announced the launch of its operating system, the Google Chrome OS. The launch is scheduled for H2 2010 and is expected to create a cult status among the open source community. Google OS already exists in its Android phone, which was in turn produced to compete with Appleâs revolutionary product, iPhone. Google Chrome OS would be an OS in the already choc a bloc world of OS. Apple, Microsoft, UNIX, Linux, open source OS, and now Google, the list seems endless. Google is tying up with Acer to bundle its OS and manufacture its brand of netbooks.
Microsoft preferred to maintain a wait and watch policy on the wake of Googleâs announcement. Though not a stranger to stiff market competition, Microsoft was waiting for a judicious moment to announce its latest product line. Microsoft is prone to the usual anti trust litigations and other controversies, and going by their past history, the entire tech community waited in bated breath for a new launch.
And Microsoft did just that. They announced the launch of Microsoft 7, their latest OS to hit the market in a monthâs time. Itâs a much improved version of Microsoft Vista Pro and will contain a host of new features. Early reviews say the OS boots quickly and sleep fast, and avoid much of the confusing interface decisions that have made many dislike Vista, the successor to Windows XP. Microsoft also dominates in the business world, where nearly every medium to large company standardizes around Microsoft Office. Microsoft is also at work on version 6 of its operating system for handheld devices, which it first launched in 2000.
Microsoft also announced the launch of MS Office 2010, with sleek design and an effective document management system. Also users would be given a preview of the cut-copy-paste feature. Taking a cue from Google Apps, and taking cloud computing to a whole new level, Microsoft is also implementing deploying its office products on its cloud or over the internet. Users can work with office apps online, and can create documents, presentations; spreadsheets etc. and store them on the Microsoft servers. One can eliminate considerable IT costs in deployment and maintenance. Microsoftâs cloud product for the enterprise space, Microsoft Azure is already open for reviews and will be a paid service, once launched.
Google and Microsoft are both taking computing to a whole new level and it is the users who would be spoilt for choice. Microsoft had largely grown complacent until Google came along to shake up categories. Gmail’s massive online storage capability and fancy programming made Microsoft hustle to upgrade its popular, though not user-friendly, web e-mail service. Google Maps led to Microsoft’s Live Maps, which now bests Google’s efforts in some ways.
Google has been winning the fight for the last few years, showing that it is still nimbler than the software giant from the Northwest. But the pendulum may be slowing, or even poised to swing the other way. With the innovations in Bing and the promise that Microsoft’s online Office offerings will be free and more fully featured than the Google equivalent, Microsoft is taking on Google where it matters for users: on the field of innovation.
Web Bee is specialized in writing articles about Web Design and Development, Mobile Web Application, SEO Services and many more. He is a regular contributor for his own interest.
Five Reasons the Google Chrome OS Will Flop – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership
By Tony Bradley
Yesterday Google hosted a press event at its Mountain View campus to reveal a first glimpse at the Chrome OS. The excitement around the operating system has led to rampant rumors and speculation, but I question whether the Chrome OS is really worth any of this hype.
Google is Google. It has a Midas touch when it comes to web-based applications and services so its easy to get wrapped up in anticipation about a web-centric operating system from Google. Here are five reasons Chrome won’t live up to the hype.
Editor’s note: PC World contributor Jared Newman takes an alternate point of view in his Today@ blog “Five Reasons the Google OS will Succeed“. Think they are both wrong? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments)
1. Not everything runs in the cloud. I know Google has a web-centric, cloud-computing perspective on the world, but not everything runs from the cloud. Sure, Picassa and Flickr have some photo editing capabilities, but they’re not Adobe Photoshop.
That is just one example, but the point is that there are applications that pretty much have to be run locally. An operating system that is essentially just a web browser on steroids designed to run on low-end netbook hardware will not be able to fill that need.
2. The cloud isn’t always available. In order to run all of your applications from the cloud, you have to be connected to the cloud. Wi-Fi connections are becoming more ubiquitous, but there are still plenty of places I go where there is no Wi-Fi available.
An airplane is a good example. Airlines are beginning to implement wireless network availability in-flight, but usually for a fee. That basically renders a Chrome OS netbook useless while flying unless you cave and pay the exorbitant airline access fees.
3. Games. One of the driving forces behind PC hardware development and PC sales is gaming. Nobody needs a $750 graphics card to use Microsoft Office, and a 5.1 surround sound speaker system is a little overkill for checking email.
Sure, there are games on the web. Thousands of them. Facebook users waste spend weeks of time playing Mafia Wars and Farmville. But, Farmville is no Spore. Hardcore gamers want the raw horsepower that a PC provides.
4. Chrome web browser. Google’s Chrome web browser has been around for awhile. It has received some good reviews and has experience a relative degree of success in a crowded browser market.
That is admirable, but the Chrome web browser hasn’t exactly caught fire. It isn’t steamrolling Internet Explorer, or even Firefox, to capture browser market share. If the world isn’t tripping over itself to get the web browser, it seems safe to assume we also won’t flock to drop our Windows or Mac based hardware for a netbook running a glorified version of the browser we weren’t using in the first place.
5. We can do most of that now for free. Google doesn’t intend to offer the Chrome OS as a free application like most things Google. The plan is to make the Chrome OS available pre-installed on netbook hardware by the 2010 holiday season.
We can already do most, if not all, of what Chrome OS promises to deliver. Using a Windows 7 or Linux-based netbook, users can simply not install anything but a web browser and connect to the vast array of Google products and other web-based services and applications.
Netbooks have been successful at capturing the low-end PC market, and they provide a web-centric computing experience today. I am not sure why we should get excited that a year from now we’ll be able to do the same thing, but locked into doing it from the fourth-place web browser.
The Chrome OS is half Linux and half Chrome web browser. Netbooks built on the Chrome OS will basically be web appliances running an operating system that is really just a web browser on steroids.
Google is virtually synonymous with the web, so its hard not to get excited. The Chrome OS may have something to offer the netbook audience, but it is not a threat to existing desktop operating systems at all.
My PC World counterpart Jared Newman seems to agree that the Chrome OS will essentially be a niche operating system. Jared feels, though, that Google is not trying to take over the operating system market and that, relative to what the OS is intended to be, Chrome will be a success. Perhaps.
If it didn’t have the word ‘Google’ at the front, nobody would care and most people would simply dismiss the effort. Chrome OS will be little more than a niche product and it begs the question ‘why bother?’
 Microsoft Internet Explorer |
64.64% |
| Firefox |
24.07% |
| Safari |
4.42% |
| Chrome |
3.58% |
| Opera |
2.17% |
| Opera Mini |
0.35% |
| Netscape |
0.33% |
| Mozilla |
0.11% |
| Konqueror |
0.05% |
| ACCESS NetFront |
0.04% |
| Playstation |
0.03% |
| Danger Web Browser |
0.01% |
| Obigo |
0.01% |
| Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer |
0.01% |
| Blazer |
0.00% |
| Unknown | 0.00% |
| MaxThon |
0.00% |
| WebTV |
0.00% |
| Lotus Notes |
0.00% |
| BlackBerry |
0.00% |
| iCab |
0.00% |
| ANT Galio |
0.00% |
Tony Bradley tweets as @PCSecurityNews, and can be contacted at his Facebook page .
© 2007 PC World Communications
Posted using ShareThis
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.
Google is holding an event right now in which they are unveiling what they are calling the Chrome OS. Chrome has hither to been known as a browser, one that has garnered an impressive 40 million users. But what I find interesting is the bet Google is making that more and more “computing” will take place in the Cloud or over the internet. To support this they point to the continued growth of the netbook, and the movement away from phones to tablets. The growth of netbooks certainly seems true. I don’t understand how tablets will replace phones. Other than that phones seem to be moving to a touch screen interface, I think what compels people to them is first and foremost their size.
But all arguments aside, I agree that we are moving more and more to applications and services occurring in the cloud. I’d be interested in seeing the statistics, but it seems to me that most people’s demands of a computer are pretty limited; web browsing, video watching, communicating with friends via social networks, dealing with PDF’s, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. This excludes, all processor intensive activities, Gaming, most creative fields like music or video creation, or software development. But I have felt for quite a while that people need a whole lot less from their computers than they are capable of. And this is mostly informed by my helping people put computers together and learning what exactly they do with their computers.
And also interesting to note is how hard they are railing on the easiest objections people may have to cloud computing: speed, simplicity and security. If everything exists in the cloud than we really are a lot less secure. I’m glad to hear they are thinking of that. They have something called Verified Boot in which Chrome OS automatically updates itself with security patches. Every time you boot Chrome it double checks what you’re running. If something fails the cryptographic system check, it reboots to give you a clean image. This sounds like a very good thing.
They’re making the case for a cloud OS being faster by saying the path to activity requires fewer steps as seen below:
They currently state that it takes 7 seconds to log into the browser and another 3 seconds to load an app. That’s not bad. If more and more moves to the cloud then speed will definitely be an issue. Already on the East Coast I believe we have slower internet speeds because of laden infrastructure. It seems their speed assertions are dependent on many variable they do not control. I’m not totally convinced they will be able to do much…either that or they will never be able to make consistent claims…everyone’s experience will be so different.
Simplicity, well, we’ll have to see about that as well. The cloud isn’t owned or controlled by one entity so I’m not sure how they will accomplish that. Can they control a set number of things, say, how Chrome interacts with Flash based games? Sure. Will they be able to ensure that it is simpler than what exists now? I don’t know.
Either way, it will be very interesting to see how this move plays out. I think Google’s approach in the mobile world with Android has been pretty amazing, will they score another run in the cloud? We’ll see.
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