Thursday, November 19, 2009
Google’s Chrome OS: “It Just Works”
Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this past July, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said of Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS, “Who knows what this thing is?” Today, he found out. The operating system, a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows, was on display at a media gathering at the company’s HQ this morning, and in the words of Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, it is intended to make computing a “delightful” experience.
As the world’s largest maker of computer chips, Intel is considered a bellwether for the wider industry. So the fact that the company’s latest revenue and profit numbers handily beat expectations is a very good sign indeed.
Well, this is a first. Sonos, the company responsible for the wireless multiroom audio system of the same name, is today debuting a new piece of hardware designed for an iPhone app, rather than the other way around.
Approximately 12 percent of all computer-using U.S. households own an Apple machine, and nearly 85 percent of those also own a Windows-based PC. That’s the conclusion of an NPD survey that suggests that Mac households favor multiplatform environments, buy more gadgets and have the higher income needed to afford them. 
Oh, it’s really on now. This morning Palm announced webOS 1.2.1, another point release to its new webOS platform that restores media synchronization with the latest version of Apple’s iTunes (9.0.1). Moreover, the company has gone the extra step of extending that synchronization feature to photos. 
The passing of a year hasn’t much changed Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s opinion of cloud computing. Remarking on the industry’s sudden fascination with the concept at Oracle OpenWorld last September, Ellison reduced it to a thin sheen of windshield condensation. In conversation with former Sun CEO Ed Zander at a Churchill Club event a little over a year later, Ellison expanded on those remarks, suggesting that if the cloud is anything, it’s a cloud of BS.
Asked in October 2008 why Apple wasn’t yet offering Blu-ray DVD drives as an option on machines, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the licensing issues were too complex to make doing so worthwhile. “Blu-ray is a bag of hurt,” he quipped. Well, no longer. Because Apple is planning to refresh its iMac desktop computer in the next few weeks, and when it does, it may well offer a Blue-ray drive option. 
Well, what do you know? Like Apple, Microsoft is also developing a tablet computer. It’s called “Courier” and it’s remarkably different from what Apple is imagined to be cooking up. 
of the week was undoubtedly Apple’s Rock and Roll event on Wednesday featuring Steve Jobs 2.0, that was only the anodized aluminum, candy-colored, video-shooting cherry on top of another week of tech sector reporting from All Things Digital. 
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the latest iteration of Apple’s operating system, arrived at market today–about a month earlier than originally anticipated. And while it doesn’t really deliver the GUI enhancements we’ve come to expect from Apple and some incompatibilities are riling people up, Snow Leopard’s under-the-hood improvements and price point appear to have struck a chord with critics. After the jump, a selection of early reviews.
Domestic Mac shipments for the second quarter of 2009 rose to 1.422 million, a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase. Or, they fell to 1.2 million, a decline of 12.4 percent. All depends on whom you believe, Gartner or IDC.
So that mysterious touch tablet Apple’s rumored to be developing? It’s about to go into production in advance of an October launch date. This according to a report in the Information Times, which claims that three of Apple’s manufacturing partners–Foxconn, Wintek and Dynapack–have received orders from Apple that suggest the company is building a “netbook” with a 9.7-inch touchscreen. 
