Google celebrates holidays with Chromebook price drop, OS update

Google’s ”Chrome team elves” have been busy prepping for the holidays and will be celebrating with an update to the Chrome OS and a price drop on Acer and Samsung Chromebooks to $299, the company announced.

Google’s foray into “Chromebooks” — basically Chrome OS-based netbooks with some additional functionality — hasn’t been as smooth as its move into smartphones with Android, which has spread like wildfire through the mobile world — Android is now the … Continue Reading

Security researchers hack Google’s Chrome OS

When Google first started talking about its Google Chrome OS software a few years ago, one of the selling points was the promise that it would come with much better built-in security than other operating systems. Now, Chrome OS has only been commercially available for a few months, and security researchers have already figured out how to hack it.

Two researchers told a crowd at the Black Hat security conference today that they had used … Continue Reading

Google Chromebooks available for pre-order, will ship June 15

Google announced via Twitter on Thursday that its Chromebook laptops are now available for pre-order from Amazon and Best Buy. The half dozen models that can be ordered are manufactured by Samsung and Acer and are expected to ship on June 15.

The release of these netbooks will be a test to see if U.S. consumers are interested in a new kind of operating system that is focused on web applications. The promotional language on … Continue Reading

Apple’s cloud sure doesn’t look like Google’s

Apple finally threw its hat into the cloud computing ring in a serious way today with a new service called iCloud, which allows users to synchronize their applications and media across all their devices. It’s an ambitious vision, and one that’s about as different as possible from Google’s.

The search giant, of course, offers a range of online services, but its most cloud-centric product is Chrome OS, an operating system that basically consists of a … Continue Reading

Google says it was just kidding about Chrome lock-in

One of the most provocative comments made during Google’s most recent earnings conference call was Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette’s statement that the company’s Chrome Web browser is good for Google because “everybody that uses Chrome is a guaranteed locked-in user.”

Today, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, executive Sundar Pichai (who leads Google’s Chrome team) said that Pichette “misspoke”. Google’s goal with Chrome isn’t to force people to use Google applications and … Continue Reading

How Google just won the enterprise with Chromebooks

Google unveiled a program that will basically let a business or educational institute run the entire company with Chromebooks — notebooks that are lightweight and attached to a web-based operating system — that are managed through a centralized web administrator.

Chromebooks are powered by the Chrome operating system, which is basically a suped-up web browser masquerading as an OS that gives users access to some of Google’s most popular web applications like Gmail, Google Docs … Continue Reading

Google announces Chromebooks: Chrome OS powered laptops coming June 15

Google today finally unveiled its plans for Chrome OS-powered laptops, which the company is calling Chromebooks.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s VP of product management for the Chrome web browser and Chrome OS, gave a quick overview of what to expect from Chromebooks today at the company’s I/O developer conference.

Pichai describes Chrome OS as “nothing but the web.” He says that the advantages of Chromebooks over traditional laptops include instant-on capabilities; always being connected to the … Continue Reading

Google to announce Chrome OS laptop rentals for $20 a month

Google is set to unveil a Chrome laptop “student package” tomorrow at its I/O developer conference for $20 a month, an unnamed senior Google executive tells Forbes.

If true, the move has the potential to completely reshape the way consumers adopt computers, and it will also serve as a not-so-subtle Trojan horse for Google’s online offerings.

The $20 monthly fee will cover both hardware and online services for the laptops, which run Google’s web-centric Chrome … Continue Reading

Asus looks to Chrome OS/Android for $200 netbook

Computer manufacturer Asus is betting there’s still a pot of gold to be found in the netbook market, despite decline due to growing competition from tablet computing devices.

The company will team up with Intel on a $200-$250 light-weight netbook featuring either Google’s Chrome operating system or Android Honeycomb 3.0, according to a Digitimes report based on sources from an Asus components maker.

The line of netbooks, the report states, will target people seeking a … Continue Reading

Week in review: Why Google needs DRM

Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Why Google needs the video digital-rights technology behind Netflix — Google recently announced that it has purchased Widevine, a video digital rights management company mostly known as the technology behind Netflix’s video protection. Why does Google suddenly need a credible DRM solution? Webtrends’ Peter Yared explains.

Why Facebook’s playing a dangerous game with the … Continue Reading

Amazon debuts Kindle for the Web on heels of Google eBooks

Signaling renewed competition in the e-reading space, Amazon today debuted a web-based extension to their existing Kindle platform with a new product called Kindle for the Web, which is nearly identical to a product Google announced yesterday dubbed Google eBooks, which is also a cloud-based ebookstore and reading webapp that lives within the browser.

Unlike Google’s dearth of reading devices, Amazon’s new service snaps into the same “buy once, read everywhere” experience that the existing … Continue Reading

Three reasons you might actually buy a Chrome OS netbook

Netbooks with Google’s Chrome OS operating system won’t be available to most consumers until the middle of next year, but company executives walked through many of the features at a press event today, where they also announced a pilot program using unbranded netbooks.

I’m finally starting to understand why someone would buy one of these devices. Most of the discussion until now has been at a theoretical level, focusing on the idea of an operating … Continue Reading

Google exec: Chrome OS and Android represent two visions of computing

Tech pundits (including me) have been wondering about how Google’s Chrome OS will compare to Android and how the two operating systems fit into Google’s broader product strategy. Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, took another stab at answering the question today.

The topic came up at a Chrome OS press event in San Francisco, where a reporter asked if Chrome OS might be a better operating system than Android for tablet. The … Continue Reading

Chrome OS launch coming in mid 2011, but Google starts pilot program now

Google offered a flood of news about its Chrome OS netbook operating system today, but it turns out that most consumers will have to wait until the middle of 2011 before they can buy a computer with Chrome OS installed.

Previous reports predicted a limited Chrome OS launch, perhaps with a Google-branded device coming at the end of this year, with a bigger release due in 2011. That’s close to what Google announced today.

Sundar … Continue Reading

Week in review: Amazon takes down Wikileaks

Here’s our review of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Amazon continues tight-lipped policy with WikiLeaks takedown — WikiLeaks, the nonprofit site that publishes leaked government documents, was booted off Amazon.com’s cloud computing services on Wednesday, and initially, Amazon refused to explain why. Later, it claimed the move was not a response to political pressure.

Will OnLive squash game retailers with $9.99-a-month online games? … Continue Reading

Google's Chrome OS netbook coming Dec. 7th

It’s been a long stretch, but Google is nearing the finish line with its Chrome OS netbook operating system. The company sent out invitations today to a Chrome event on Tuesday, December 7th, where it will launch the netbook, sources tell Engadget.

But don’t expect to get your hands on one anytime soon. Apparently, there will only be around 65,000 units produced, and those will go to Google’s closest “friends and family.” It’s a testing … Continue Reading

Google struggling to define Chrome OS as launch approaches

Google may have announced its Chrome OS operating system a year and a half ago, but it looks like the company’s executives are still wrapping their heads around its significance and potential. At least, that’s what I took away from a New York Times article about the OS.

Acer recently told Engadget that it won’t be releasing Chrome OS devices until 2011 but that Google has something up its sleeve for December of this year. … Continue Reading

Google Chrome OS smartbooks coming this month?

Google and its hardware partners are gearing up to launch the first generation of Chrome OS smartbooks this month, according to a report by news site Digitimes. The term “smartbook” is key when describing these Chrome OS devices, because they will likely run smartphone CPUs instead of typical laptop or netbook chips.

After Google launched its mobile operating system, Android, it put out a phone of its own, the Nexus One, as a model for … Continue Reading

Google may be readying Chrome OS tablet for Black Friday release on Verizon

We’ve been hearing rumors that tablets based on Google’s Chrome OS were getting ready to hit the market for a couple of months. Now there’s word that Google is preparing a Chrome OS tablet with Verizon for release on November 26 — a day better known as Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. — according to a source speaking to Download Squad.

Now that Google and Verizon seem to … Continue Reading

Google's Chrome Web Store likely coming in October, focusing on games

Back in May, we reported that Google was working on an app store for web applications, dubbed the Chrome Web Store. Now we have further details on the project.

Google spoke to gaming press at the Game Developers Conference Europe, where it unveiled further details on the mechanics of the store and announced that it’s “most likely” expected to launch in October, gaming site 1Up.com reports.

The store resembles a web-based version of the iTunes … Continue Reading