Today Google made a rather large, and ambitious, announcement. They announced a little thing called Google Chrome OS . All uncreative name choices aside, this seems to be the fabled Google OS. According to everything we know right now, Chrome OS will be targeted at the Netbook audience, an ever popular trend in the Personal Computer arena.

Here are a few facts you might want to know from the post.

• A lightweight OS targeted at Netbooks.
• Slated for product release in the second half of 2010.
• Designed to work on x86 and ARM processors.
• Built on a Linux Kernal. (Quoted from the blog, “Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.”)
• Open Source.

One thing I noticed is it did say Open Source, so I’m assuming it’ll be free. I mean most, if not all, of what Google does is free, however considering this is an entire operating system, you never know how it’ll go. Also, although they did say it was targeted to Netbooks, they did in fact mention full blown desktop setups and such. So, with that said, we have to wonder how capable this system is meant to be. Will it just be watered down for Netbooks, or will it be lightweight but capable for everything?

This also brings up the question of Microsoft’s, and to a lesser extent Apple’s, response to the whole situation. Linux was pretty much killed as an OS for the Netbooks when Microsoft announced it would extend the life of Windows XP. And with Windows 7 just around the corner, I’m sure Microsoft thought it had the Netbook market wrapped up. Of course they’ll probably just pull the “We have a very capable, well built, Operating System with loads of software already made for it.” but that may not be enough. Of course, Apple has denounced Netbook’s in general, so it’ll be no surprise if they don’t care in the least. If anything they may support it, as it would certainly hurt their competitor.

Of course, details are few and far between on this new OS, considering it was just announced hours ago. However as time progresses we should start seeing what the folks at Google have to offer in an operating system.

Thanks,
Oliver (lockerhaxor)

Hey everybody! I’m Oliver (otherwise known as lockerhaxor across the internet), a high school student, a video maker, a gamer, and a fellow geek. I was invited by Keaton, to blog on Geekologist, and I’m very happy to be here.

Just to give you a little background on myself, I’ve been a blogger for a little over a year now on my own website, and I have been talking about Technology, and the internet there. Until recently, when I started branching out into new topics, and making my site a little more personal. But Geekologist.net is the perfect place for me to put all my Geeky thoughts down. I was actually inspired to start blogging about technology by well know geek Chris Pirillo. And I eventually started vlogging (video blogging) after seeing people like iJustine, and sxephil online.

Anyway, I’m not a fan of long blog posts usually, and so I’ll leave you on that note. I look forward to blogging here, and getting a whole new communities feedback on what I say.

Thanks,
Oliver (lockerhaxor)

Today when logging into my Apple Developer account I noticed a nice little surprise. A new iPhone OS beta was available for download via Apple Developer connection. I have yet to download the beta considering many people are having issues with the network connectivity and such however I did want to point out some interesting modifications in the new firmware.

After reading the Developer Forums it seems as if apple has re-enabled the MMS feature but currently MMS is not working. I still believe AT&T needs to enable the MMS feature on their end but it does seem that MMS will be enabled when the iPhone OS 3.1 is publicly released.

For all you iPhone 3GS users it seems you get a great new feature to go along with the your excellent video recorder (Can you tell I have not upgraded yet?) Apple has added the ability to copy video clips in the editor. I am still unsure where we can paste the clips but I think it will be used mainly to allow us to “splice” two video clips together.

Smaller changes include:

• Modem firmware upgrade bringing the carrier software version from 4.0 to 4.2.
• Adding feature to when the phone is put into “move mode” (when you can move apps) the device vibrates.
• Fixed issue with Voice Command and Bluetooth.
• Phone Keypad now allows you to copy and paste.

Most issues with the beta seem to be with the network connectivity and the iPod app. Some users are stating that the iPod app will not even open. As of now I am going to stay away from the 3.1 beta OS until said issues are resolved and I strongly suggest anyone considering updating to the beta do the same. I will keep you posted when I get more news.

Got questions or your own comments? Leave them below!