No more Cr-48's. For now...

And that's the end. Google has shipped the last of the Cr-48 demo units out to it's happy owner. That totals up the suspected 60,000 Chrome OS laptops that Google had built and sent for free to willing testers. Sadly, we did not receive one here at Chrome Techa. It seems that only those with the loudest voice in the media realm were deemed worthy by Google. Anywho, the Product Management VP at Google, Sundar Pichai, said they're all gone, for now.

It looks like manufacturers like Samsung and Acer are geared up to release Chrome OS notebooks to the market this summer. That's some good news, as Sammy is usually pretty good about making nice hardware. Perhaps they'll keep it simple yet sophisticated, like the Cr-48? We'll see.

Chrome OS' open source pays off, NVIDIA Ion now supported

As you might have read earlier (here), Hexxeh released another build of Chrome OS, named Flow. I covered the major new features of this open-source release, but one such feature warrants another look.

Hexxeh built in NVIDIA Ion graphics support ino Flow, with full hardware acceleration. This is one of the first major signs that Google's choice to make Chrome OS' source code open is paying off. Without open source, Chrome OS would not support NVIDIA Ion, unless Google chose to do so. And if Google didn't want to do that, Ion users would be left out in the cold. But, thanks to Hexxeh, Ion users can rejoice and Chrome OS is a stronger operating system in the end.

If Google wants Chrome OS to take on the big dogs, this might be just the way to do it. While Google's own devs are hard at work making the system better, there are also developers like Hexxeh out there doing the same thing. As they always say, the more the merrier!

Hexxeh releases ChromiumOS Flow

Hexxeh, the creator of Chromium OS images that are easy to boot from USB, has just released the latest version of his work, dubbed Flow. ChromiumOS Flow comes with a slew of new features, such as more video hardware support and automatic updates.

Here is the complete list of new additions, according to Hexxeh:

User-customisable menus (rearrange, add, delete apps on your own menu)

Automatic updates via the Velocity engine (with an all new interface from what you saw in the BETA, it’s now been integrated into the browser)

nVidia GPU support (this includes ION, and it’s fully hardware accelerated)

Realtek RTL8187SE support (RTL8192E is coming as an update soon)

Audio fix

Flash fix

Bookmark Sync fix

Power indicator fix (as long as it worked in Cherry)

Battery life improvements

Increased image size to 2GB (1GB was becoming too restrictive, needed to do this to add more hardware support, sorry!)

Webcam support (to test this, right click on a YouTube video and then click settings)

If you need a guide on how to get Flow running, we have a nice one here: Install Chrome OS to USB.

Simply download the new image and follow the rest of the instructions. Maybe this version will support our video card? Let us know how your experience goes.
You can check Hexxeh's announcement post here: It's Flow time

Chrome OS will handle media with its own player

Many people seem to be worried about what Chrome OS can't do. However, I am more concerned with what it can do. And there's another skill to add to the operating system's list: media playback. In a recent interview with Ars Technica, the directing engineer for the Chrome OS project explains that Chrome OS, without any web app in play, will be able to play your music and videos.

"...You might just have a USB key that has a bunch of MP3s on it, so you want to be able to plug that in and listen to those MP3s. There might not be any controlling webpage for that activity, but it’s clearly something you need to be able to do in any reasonable operating system or browser. So we’re doing a lot of work to make Chrome and Chrome OS handle those use cases really well"

That said, Mathew Papakipos just might have put many fears to bed. While numerous people have said that a "browser" can't do everything they need to do, this shows that Chrome OS will be able to do quite a bit. You can read the full interview here: Google talks Chrome OS, HTML5, and the future of software.

Should Apple and Microsoft be afraid of Chrome OS?

Eric Goh, of egoh.com, has an interesting slant on Chrome OS and its effect on the OS landscape. He wagers that Google's new operating system should have the big players scrambling to get something together. Because, as Goh puts it, "a simple browser based OS that is self-updating and relatively secure would solve 95% of the issues people contact me about".

Goh touches on a point I had in a recent article (which you can read here: How Chrome OS will change computers as we know them).  Chrome OS, when it is production ready, could supplant current Windows and Apple OS' for many users. These users simply want to use the web and Internet for daily routines. They rarely need to edit an image more than resizing it, they don't develop software, and they withhold from heavy video-editing. Chrome OS is perfect for what they need to do. And it will keep them out of virus and malware troubles.

So even though you see many pieces in the blogosphere with authors complaining that Chrome OS is too weak, you don't see your cousin and grandmother writing that the new OS can't do what they want. Because it can and it likely will, if the big dogs don't come up with something fast.

You can read Mr. Goh's post in its entirety here: Google Chrome OS - Microsoft and Apple should be worried

Chrome OS Zero brings new features

Hexxeh, of hexxeh.net, has released yet another customized version of Chrome OS. Chrome OS Zero is once again bootable from a a USB drive, but has additional goodies added on by hexxeh. Here is his description of the new release:

• Newer version of ChromiumOS code
• Major speed improvements for many users
• Reduced Broadcom delay
• New artwork for the boot process
• Full extension support
• Reduced download size, clocks in at under 250MB
• Still fits on a 1GB USB drive despite the new features
• Beginnings of multi-language input (requires a little terminal work to add your language as there is no UI yet)
• Quite a lot more!

You can download the new image here: Chrome OS Zero, and can follow my directions to install it here: Install Chrome OS Zero on a USB drive.

Now don't be shy, let us know how your Chrome OS Zero experience goes in the comments below!

Chrome OS to be supported by Qualcomm

Qualcomm announced at this year's CES that the chip manufacturer has added Google's Chrome OS to its supported platforms list. The company's CEO made the announcement yesterday, which is more great news for future Chrome OS machines.

Qualcomm is the maker of ARM processors, namely their Snapdragon. Google has previously revealed that their operating system will run on ARM CPUs, which are famous for extending the battery life of mobile devices.

Qualcomm also announced the production of a dual-core, 1.5 GHz Snapdragon, which will bring even more power to the architecture.