Chrome OS Doomed from the start!

So today many people have been talking about Google’s announcement of Google Chrome OS. Of course Google has told us really nothing about this OS other then that it will run on x86 and ARM architecture as well as the fact that Google already has partners lined up. Now that we got what we know out of the way lets look a bit more at what Google is doing.

Why name it Chrome? First off why is Google naming it Chrome? Chrome is a product that so far is only used by Windows users (people on OSX and Linux want it but it’s not there yet). Google should not be naming its OS Chrome this will only cause further confusion. Of course this might also give away the secret as to why Google Chrome OS will fail.

Chrome OS doesn’t sound like its going to really have much more then a Web Browser! Wait what? Just a browser? Yep it sure sounds like it. They talk about how everything should just be done on the web. Sorry Google but web apps do not yet compete with stand alone. Take for example someone with a lowly DSL connection. Well how easy would it be to write a paper if you keep having to send data back and forth?  It would be a horrible experience (btw I know for a fact that trying to do anything quickly in Google Docs over DSL is slow.).

Google says people want faster computers. So what does Google promise? Well your netbook will run the Internet faster! But wait this is the same problem as before! Without a proper broadband network how is this beneficial to anyone? Will this OS actually run anything on the local computer is the one question that keeps popping into my head. I think maybe 5-10 years in the future this might work.

Of course if it ends up anything like Android it will be 5-10 years later. Look at android its been around for awhile now and still ONE actual phone. Good job Google where was the huge numbers you were saying would be out last winter. Of course the one major thing is suppposedly there are a bunch of ARM “Smartbooks” around the corner and well Chrome OS would be perfect for them as Windows would suck just as much on them. Oh wait Linux is out there.

Sorry Google but unless Chrome OS is just rebranding Ubuntu with Chrome installed I doubt its going to be as great as everyone is saying.

Why is the EU lawsuit getting press again suddenly?

So once again we got a big media group talking about the EU lawsuit by Opera. The real question is why does this keep getting released? Or even better what standing does this have? In the past it has been ok for Microsoft to have their browser installed by default and somehow with this HORRIBLE situation Firefox is still at what 25+% of the browser market? Wow I am so worried about Windows 7 bundling IE8 I mean people might actually get a decent and secure browser with their OS unlike XP which means some might not install Firefox? Um, sorry Firefox but if people switch that easily I am doubtful you were going to keep them anyways. Of course I am sure Mozilla would love for Microsoft to bundle IE6 I mean they are ACTUALLY better then that browser but suddenly they might have competition and it seems Mozilla has joined Opera in its if you cannot beat them in the market beat them in the court room tactic. By the way if anyone thinks this can really help Opera lets think about the end result with what Opera wants. Basically Opera wants to have a screen pop up that lets you choose an alternative browser. So lets see when you get to this screen it will probably just show the top 3 right? So we get IE8, Firefox, and Chrome ouch Opera you would still lose even if you won.

Links:

• pcmag.com

Why it doesn’t matter that most PCs cannot run XP Mode

So for some odd reason there seems to be a huge stink over people not being able to use XP mode on their out dated hardware or low-end hardware. Why does this surprise people? Virtualization technology on the CPU is not really that old yet and normally only on those CPUs that are above “Budget”. Of course most people buy the budget computers which come with budget CPUs but then why does this matter? XP Mode was created for business users not for the consumer. So really why does this all matter? Well I’m pretty sure its because they cannot find anything else to complain about right now.

Links:

• pcmag.com

Will the Kindle DX change the way we look at books?

Amazon pulls out a really interesting release with the Kindle DX. While there were rumors of a larger Kindle I don’t ever remember reading about native PDF support. This is the big killer for it. On a 9.7-inch screen with native PDF support that means you no longer need a printer to view your PDF on a shit of … well e-ink paper. Sure this all sounds amazing. What we don’t see here though is the one most important feature that Amazon is still lacking! WHERE IS ePUB SUPPORT!!! I fear for the future of ebooks if Amazon is the leader and from the looks of it is actively trying to KILL off what was created to be the standard ebook format! The only result of what is currently going on is Amazon will take over with its proprietary format or PDFs will become the main eBook style which would suck as well as they do not scale well. I guess though the real question is how will Schools and newspaper companies use this. The Kindle DX could easily be used to provide very cheap newspaper subscriptions and by this I mean cheaper for both the consumer and the newspaper companies which would have a better chance to stay alive if they didn’t have to deliver which would probably lower their prices into the ranges people are more willing to pay. On this larger screen it would become much more usable for reading like a newspaper. In schools the question is can students soon start just getting an ebook version of some textbooks? This should help save money on textbooks but more importantly reduce backpack weight which has been a rising problem for students. I really think the Kindle DX could be the first on the way to really changing the way we read on a large scale but do we need another iTunes repeat? Cause that is where we are currently going.

Links:

• Amazon
• pcmag.com

btw: The iTunes analogy works on more then one level. First, DRM vs non-DRM which took way to long to win for music. Second, iTunes uses AAC instead of the defacto standard MP3 where ePub is the actual standard and Amazon goes on with its perversion of the mobi format.

According to Consumer Reports MacBooks are best

So Consumer Reports is saying the MacBooks are best. Now remember though that this is from the users. Most though should take this as a grain of salt. I mean many of the Mac users that respond to this are the type that if Steve Jobs released a brick saying it somehow gave you telepathy some of them still might say it is the greatest thing ever. What am I getting at here? Well basically the Mac crowed will always calm they have the best meanwhile in PC land we can be more choosy about our laptops and generally people are never completely content with their laptops (unlike the Mac users who are more willing to overlook problems). So really none of this matters. I think we should just look at Consumer Reports and ignore Apple products as we know they are good quality but we should not really compare Apples to Oranges (or in this case PCs) when it comes to satisfaction.

Links:

• Tom’s Hardware

Itanium not doing as bad a SPARC

I generally don’t talk about CPU architectures since it seems to be something you really care about or something you pretty much ignore. As you an guess I really find CPU architectures rather interesting. In the past I wrote about an article talking about Itanium not living up to its promise and guess what it’s still not. Though it is used for process intensive systems (same that SPARC is used for) it really still is a niche chip. The good news is this niche chip is at least growing in sales. I don’t care if some people think it’s dying cause I think it has more then enough life in it. Not to mention the fact that some of the best OSs out there run on it (OpenVMS and many of the nixes oh and don’t forget Windows Server) so it is not like SPARC which offers less in the way of compatibility. So I guess what I am saying is this article is probably right though I think its a bit to negative on Itanium though I might be saying this since I have a soft spot for alternate CPU architectures.

Links:

• The Register

Windows 7 RC released today to the public

Today is the big day for Redmond. They finally are allowing the public access to the Windows 7 RC. This means go and get your CD key and try it out. Of course remember that this is not the final version and that Microsoft doesn’t officially have to support this release. This release though will be usable till March of 2010 which means that you have quite a bit of time to buy Windows 7. The real question is “Is Microsoft using the Windows 7 RC as a kind of unofficial trial?” I think the answer to this question is yes. I think the RC is being used by Microsoft to win over all the naysayers of Windows Vista to regrow the Windows brand. Is this really a bad thing? I don’t think so I mean it means I don’t have to buy a copy of Windows 7 the day it comes out. Anyways linked below are the announcement from the Windows Blog and Paul Thurrott’s review of the RC which goes over the changes between the Beta and RC. I may or may not post a review of the RC in the coming weeks I haven’t decided yet.

Links:

• The Windows Blog
• Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows

Google accused of stealing the Android name

Ok the simple answer is most likely no. From what is going on it seems like Google is under attack from someone who just happened to be lucky and own a name similar to Google’s new mobile phone platform. The fact that the company dissolved a few years ago makes it seem as though this case will end up with nothing for either side. It is really kind of sad to see Google attacked this way. I would not be surprised if this guy was hoping that since Google was so large it would just pay out the 2 million but has now bitten off more then he can chew. Who knows though? I guess we will just have to wait and I am sure we will hear more about it in the future.

Links:

• pcmag.com

EU wants ICANN completely private

The EU is calling for ICANN to become a completely private entity. This is brought up since at the end of September the current operating agreement that ICANN works under in the U.S. will run out. Now I can understand part of why the EU wants some control but their proposal is confusing. What they want is a “G12″ a sort of Internet council. Of course these come from continents. What is confusing here is how would you decide say the European delegates? Would EU select them? Last I checked not all European countries are in the EU. So how would this be any better? Instead of the U.S. controlling ICANN (which I should point out has not caused any major problems) the EU wants it to be this farce democracy. This would create a system worse then before as nobody would really know who would have a say in what is going on. Personally I say just keep it the way it is. ICANN seems to be doing fine as it is. If the U.S. government was pulling strings I would say it was ok but its not broken why are we fixing it?

Links:

• pcmag.com

Ever wonder why text messaging is so limited?

The Los Angels Times wrote a good article covering this exact subject. The quick answer is that text messages are 160 characters because that is the amount of space they could erk out of the control channel for cell phones. Of course this also explains the reason why the character set for text messages is also more limited. The one thing I think most people miss though is how much profit they give the cell phone companies with text messages. Since texts are sent over the control channel that means that normally this channel would normally only be used for telling the tower where a phone is and checking if it has a signal. Since this is not done very often and the bandwidth is never utalized texts work perfectly. Of course the great irony here is that the cost of these messages is pretty much nothing since these channels needed to be available at all time and there is no real disruption from using text message. In other words texting is pure profit for the cell phone companies. Just remember this next time you decide to text your friend instead of make a phone call.

Links

• Los Angles Times