Chrome Tablet

Google decided not to compete with itself (Android OS) on the tablet form and has said in its convention that it does not plan to port Chrome OS to tablet or any other form except lap/net-top. While this seems like a logical solution in a way and also a bit saddening for the people who were expecting the cloud computing goodness on a tablet form I think we still have a solution. The first Android tablets were released way before tablet-version of Android was even released by Google by the eager Chinese manufacturers and I see no reason why they shouldn’t have a go at it now. I have already hear rumors from my Chinese sources that prototype Chrome tablets have been already spotted in Shenzhen. It was reported a while back that touch input is working on Chrome when they ported it to an iPad so thats the biggest problem already out of the way. The problem might be the cloud access which is controlled by Google and they might decline access to it like they did with some of the Chinese tablets like Augen Gentouch a while back. Although there have always been ways to get past the security systems I do believe that cloud computing will make life a lot harder for hackers and software pirates.

So while it may seems that our dreams of a Chrome tablet were crushed it probably is not the case as long as we have our eager friends behind the Great Firewall wanting to make money

Chrome OS will be released in the second quarter of 2011 (this year btw!) according to Pocket-lint. They report that Google is working hard together with other giants like Samsung and Acer and are already testing out numerous devices that will cost between $250-$600 and are to be released quite soon.

Also finally some news on the Chrome OS tablet scene. To the Chrome OS code just got added lines to handle the websites which have special codes for tablet users, a completely new tab/home screen for tablets and on-screen keyboard. So this confirms that Chrome OS tablets are coming and quite soon. Expect a whole new tablet experience that should differ a lot from the Android OS tablet market thats already booming even before the first Android version thats actually meant for tablets is released, the 3.0 Honeycomb.

If you`re into netbooks then we sure got news for you!
Latest info from both ASUS and SONY gives us clear impression that both giants are starting to roll out their own Chrome powered devices.

SONY is said to put out a new CHROME VAIO in the summer with the following specs:

• Nvidia Tegra 2 (250) platform
• 11.6″ (1366×768) LCD display
• 1 GB of Memory
• 16 GB eMMC (electronic multimedia card)
• Ultra-low power GeForce GPU
• Wireless WAN
• Wide Keyboard (18mm) will be pretty similar to the Google Chrome Cr-48 laptop keyboard
• Dimensions: less than an inch thick at around 19.9 mm; width is at 11.7″ (298 mm) and it is 21.5 cm (8.46″) deep
• It should weigh around 2.2 lb (or 1kg)
• 8 hour battery life

Features like Bluetooth and GPS will be enabled later on, so don’t expect those two right at launch in summer of 2011.

As this is going on ASUS will be busy getting stuff ready for their own summer release, a $200-$250 netbook running either Chrome or Android 3.0 that`s aimed at office use and web browsing…sounds like Chrome OS to me.

Oh and if you remember the news from a while back about Acer`s Chrome powered monitor then that turned out not to be Chrome OS but the Chrome browser thats somehow built into the device…

A while back we talked about Chromium running on ARM devices and now a bit of time has gone by and we have another video from Texas Instruments that run HTML5 1080p video from YouTube on a ready-to-ship $176 platform running Chromium OS. Check the video after the text. The platform runs also in addition to Ubuntu and Android the Chrome OS. Flash is not currently supported on the Chrome(ium) but is supported on Android. All this multi-OS thing can become a bit overwhelming but it seems that the guys at Google still are certain that all of the different OS`s have their own niche to fulfill and will not collide in an epic fail. The main points they make is that cloud computing is the future and Android is meant for touch-input only while Chrome(ium) is for keyboard input.

Also in the news Google has finished another milestone with it`s CR-48 project which as of now is not putting out any new CR-48 devices. If you didn`t get one then tough luck, keep your fingers crossed that they`ll start to give out something cooler (maybe a Chrome tablet?) in the future.

Although we at ChromeTabletCentral didn`t mind the last logo big G thought that it needs a refreshing so here it is, the brand new Chrome logo. Under is is the also updated Chromium logo!

Latest hack from Hexxeh proves to be the best one yet. By fliping the developer switch you`re able to rock your CR-48 on ATTs GSM network for some torrent leeching!
The latest update to Chrome OS added support for 3G chip by Quallcom which opened doors for another round of already stable release of various hacks for the platform. Learn how to do it from here.

Don`t really understand why it was locked in the first place. Anyway a Chrome netbook or Chrome tablet which as we know rely 100% on web access should not limit in any way it`s ability to get connected with the great WWW.

Lets take a look back at the year 2010 for a second as I clearly remember there being atleast 2 very promising news about Chrome tablet. The first one was shown at Mobile World Congress that showed an sub $200 Chrome tablet which didnt have at the moment an working touchscreen. Although it was just a reference model it didn`t really impress…

The second news came in August that happily claimed that a Chrome OS tablet made by HTC will be in stores as early as November. It was supposed to be out in time for Black Friday sale but so far no word of it… It did have quite nice specs: nVidia Tegra 2, 2GB RAM, 32Gb SSD, GPS, 3G etc…

nVIDIA announced its range of new ultra powerful Tegra 2.5 line of chipset even before most of us got a hold of the Tegra 2(.0). It`s a dual-core chip that`s said to be 3D capable and runs on 1.2Ghz which will make one BEAST of a Chrome tablet if you ask me. Yes yes, it`ll be seen on Android a lot earlier than on Chromium OS but it has been more or less confirmed that the chipset supports Chromium also. So I predict the first Tegra 2.5 3D capable Chrome tablet to be released in the end of summer of 2011. Please don`t prove me wrong

There you have it – while most users were hacking away making the Chrome CR-48 booting Android on CR-48, Windows, Linux and who knows what a guy called Sergey Glazunov actually did what he was supposed to do – report bugs in the Chrome OS and it wasn’t unnoticed by Google who gave him over 3k for a single but critical bug fix. We all hope that this encourages all the testers out there to get back on doing what they were told and actually get this thing rolled out so we can finally start to see some Chrome tablets out there.

A programmer/hacker(?) called Hexxex who previously managed to install Chromium OS on an iPad now hacked his chrome netbook to run Android 2.2. Whether this is the “testing” Google wanted him to do on the privileged CR-48 is somewhat questionable. Seems that most people are more interested to do anything but test the big G`s new brainchild the Chrome OS. With the CR-48s running anything but the kitchen sink nowadays atleast the hardware developers can be happy since it gets pushed to its limits daily. We just hope that after installing MeeGo OS to it people can finally come back to the reason they were given the piece of hardware in the first place.