The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Chromecast

You don't need a teardown to notice that Chromecast's model number is H2G2-42. From iFixit:

"Wasn't 42 the answer to life, the universe, and everything in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? And H2G2 is an abbreviation given to the book, as well as the name of a website dedicated to making a guide to life, the universe, and everything."

If you check YouTube.com's source code, you'll find some references to "hitchhiker".

One of YouTube's sprites has "hitchhiker" in the filename.

Google Cast: Cloud AirPlay

AirPlay is one of the greatest iOS features. It lets you wirelessly stream music, videos, send photos and even mirror your device's display on your TV. It's simple to use, it's supported by many apps and devices, but the most important thing is that it just works. Sure, you'll need to buy an Apple TV or an Airport Express and AirPlay is mostly limited to Apple devices and accessories that license AirPlay from Apple. AirPlay works because it's a native feature, has a consistent interface and it's very easy to understand.

Android OEMs tried to solve the problem of sending content to a TV by adding HDMI ports, supporting MHL and adding software for DLNA. It's obvious that people don't like cables and a mobile device shouldn't be restricted by a cable. DLNA has a lot of compatibility issues and doesn't work well for streaming online content. Last year, HTC and Samsung added an AirPlay-like feature to their flagship phones and started to sell companion devices. The issue was that the features were limited to a few apps. This should've been an Android feature, not two different APIs limited to a few HTC and Samsung devices.

Google started to address this issue when it added support for watching YouTube videos on a TV using the mobile YouTube apps. Pair your mobile phone with your TV and you can easily send the video you're currently watching to the TV. You can also your phone as a remote control and pause the video, change the volume or switch to a different video.

YouTube's "send to TV" is the backbone of Google Cast, a feature that can finally compete with AirPlay. Developers can use "the Google Cast SDK to enable mobile and web apps to cast content to the TV". Google Cast is not limited to Android, it works on Google's favorite platforms: Android, iOS and Chrome. There are already a few apps that support Google Cast: YouTube, Google Play Music, Google Play Movies & TV, Netflix. To use this feature, you need to buy Chromecast, a very cheap device that connects to your TV's HDMI port and runs a simplified version of Chrome OS Google TV. It only costs $35 and it's a lot smaller than an Apple TV. You can buy it from Google Play, Amazon and Best Buy, but only if you're in the US.

Google Cast is only the cloud version of AirPlay: it only works with content that's stored online, so you can't send a song that's stored on your tablet or a video you've just recorded. Just like for AirPlay, the mobile device controls what's playing on your TV, but the content is streamed directly to the Chromecast. There are a few differences: Google Cast works on Android, iOS and Chrome and the Chromecast functionality will be integrated in other devices, including Google TV devices. Another difference is that any mobile device from the same network can control an existing Google Cast stream, so you can have multiple remotes.

Here's the Google Cast icon: it's not displayed when there's no device available.

"While content is playing on TV, a user can multitask on their device. For example, a user can search for a video on their phone's YouTube application and then send it to their TV via a Google Cast device. They are able to play, pause, seek, and control volume using their phone and still be able to check their email while the content keeps playing on the TV," according to the developer documentation.

There's also support for mirroring. "In addition to apps like Netflix, you can use Chromecast to bring a broad range of content available on the web to your big screen, thanks to a new feature in the Chrome browser that allows you to project any browser tab to your TV. From sharing your family photos to enjoying a video clip from your favorite news site, it's as simple as pressing a button. This feature is launching in beta, but we're excited for people to try it out and give us their feedback," explains Google.

Here's a video that shows this feature in action:

To use Google Cast, you first need a Chromecast. It's a low-cost device that connects to one of your TV's HDMI ports and uses USB for power. For only $35, you get a lot: the Chromecast dongle (only 34 grams), a USB cable and power adapter and an HDMI extender. To setup the device, you need to visit google.com/chromecast/setup and install an app. It's interesting to notice that Chromecast only supports 2.4GHz WiFi networks and the only Chromebook you can use to setup Chromecast is Chromebook Pixel.

To cast from your computer, you need to install the Google Cast extension for Chrome. There are only 2 Cast-optimized sites: YouTube and Netflix. For all the other sites, you can cast a tab and mirror it on your TV. Unfortunately, casting a tab requires a powerful computer even for standard streaming: at least a Core i3 PC, a Macbook Pro 2010, a Macbook Air 2011 or a Chromebook Pixel. You need a Core i5 PC, a Macbook Pro 2011, a Macbook Air 2012 or a Chromebook Pixel for high-quality streaming. Casting a tab is limited to 720p streaming, so you won't get 1080p mirroring.

For Android devices, you can use a few apps: YouTube, Google Play Music, Google Play Movies & TV and Netflix. "To cast to your TV from your smartphone, tablet or laptop, simply open up a Cast supported app, press the the Cast button and the Cast button will turn blue, letting you know you're connected. Once you are connected, you can Cast videos, movies and TV shows directly to your TV," explains Google. For now, the only iOS apps that support Google Cast are Netflix and YouTube.

I haven't tried Google Cast, so I don't know how well it performs, but these are the early days. Once more apps add support for Google Cast and more devices include Chromecast's functionality, it will be a lot more useful. Chromecast is a Chrome device, so it will constantly improve and add new features.

Office Document Editor for Chromebooks

Google works on creating a Native Client app for Quickoffice, a software acquired last year. There's an Office Viewer extension for Chrome, which is bundled with Chrome OS.

Now Google experiments with adding editing features to the Office Viewer. If you have a Chromebook, you've switched to the Dev Channel and have the latest Chrome OS version (29.0.1547.2), you can enable these features:

1. open a new tab

2. type this in the address bar: chrome://flags/ and then press Enter

3. use Ctrl+F to search for "document editing"

4. click "Enable" next to "Enable document editing"

5. click the "Restart Now" button to restart your computer and use the new flag.

The editor is pretty basic and it only works for Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. For some reason, the document editor only saves documents in the Office 2007 format.

It's likely that editing will be a standard feature and it will also be available in the Chrome extension. Google will have to change its name to shows that it's more than a file viewer. It will be interesting to see how Quickoffice for Chrome integrates with Google Drive.

Chrome OS supports a lot of file formats without relying on Google Drive. You can open and edit photos (BMP, PNG, GIF, JPEG, WEBP), you can play videos (3GP, AVI, MOV, MP4, WEBM, OGV), play music (MP3, M4A, OGG, WAV), create ZIP archives, extract files from archives (ZIP, RAR, TAR), open PDF files, text files and Microsoft Office documents (DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX). Offline and natively.

{ via François Beaufort }

Google+ Photos App for Chromebooks

A few months ago, François Beaufort posted some screenshots of a Native Client Chrome app for Google+ Photos. The app is now available, but Google says it's only for the Chromebook Pixel, which is not exactly true.

"When you plug an SD card into your Pixel, the app will back up your new photos to Google+ automatically. (For your eyes only, of course.) And when you're offline, you can still view your most recent photos. The Pixel's high resolution display makes your photos look their best, and browsing via touchscreen is a lot of fun. You can share individual photos, set of photos, or an entire album in just a few seconds. Simply select the images you want, then click 'Share.'"

It's a pretty useful app for Chromebooks and it's not limited to the Pixel. In fact, I don't see why it couldn't work on any desktop computer that runs Chrome. It could even replace Picasa at some point.

You can download the app from the Chrome Web Store. Google engineers "are working to bring the app to other Chromebooks as well", even though the app works on other Chromebooks. The Office Viewer powered by the Google-acquired Quickoffice used to be limited to the Chromebook Pixel and it's now available as a Chrome extension.

Update: I've tried to install the app in Chrome for Windows and it worked:

... but then I got this message:

Then I switched to my Samsung Chromebook Series 5, installed the app and it worked well.

Even the SD card import worked:

So the app should work on any Chromebook. Maybe it's only optimized for the Pixel, maybe there are some bugs that need to be fixed. All I know is that the app worked well on my Chromebook and I don't have a Chromebook Pixel.

Undocumented Shortcut for Caps Lock in Chrome OS

One of the most important changes Google made when designing the keyboard for Chrome OS notebooks was replacing the Caps Lock key with a search key. While the search key is not very useful since it only opens a new tab, the Caps Lock key made a lot of comments, forum threads and emails unreadable.





If you really need to use the Caps Lock key, there's a way to change the search key into a Caps Lock key in the settings. Unfortunately, this is time consuming, especially if you constantly switch between the search key and the Caps Lock key. There's a better way: press both Shift keys at the same time to enable or disable Caps Lock. It's an undocumented shortcut that works in the latest versions of Chrome OS.



{ Thanks, Cougar. }

Chromebooks Could Automatically Delete User Data

The latest Chrome for Chrome OS Dev Channel release (14.0.835.87) added a warning at the bottom of the file manager which informs users that "these files are temporary and may be automatically deleted to free up disk space".



The warning links to a page that provides more details: "Your browsing data is automatically deleted if your Chromebook is running low on space. If additional space is needed, non-owner profiles that have not been accessed for more than 3 months may be erased (including downloaded files)."





In Chrome OS, the owner is the first user who logged in using a Google account. He's the only user who can restrict sign-in access or switch to the beta/dev channels. Regular users don't have these permissions, but they can save files. Google's warning informs users that these files are temporary and they could be automatically deleted if the accounts are rarely used. Google recommends users to upload the files to Google Docs or another "web-based storage application", but it would be a much better idea to add a new feature that automatically saves files to Google Docs.



Chromebooks include a 16GB SSD that's mostly used to store system files and cached user files. User data is encrypted and some of the data is automatically synchronized (preferences, bookmarks, extensions, apps, passwords). To reclaim disk space, Chrome OS can always delete discardable data like browser cache, so it's unlikely that important user files are removed first.



{ Thanks, Cougar. }

Google Makes Money from Chromebooks

While many people think there's a lot of overlap between Android and Chrome OS, the products don't have a lot in common. Chrome OS is a proprietary operating system based on an open-source project and OEMs can't tweak it or add new features. Just like for Nexus One and Nexus S, you get all of the updates from Google. Another difference is that Chrome OS is constantly updated and you can even switch to the beta or the dev channel to try the latest features. Chrome OS has an automatic update feature, so that Chromebooks run the latest version of the operating system.

Google's CFO, Patrick Pichette, mentioned another difference between Android and Chrome OS: "Google is making some money from companies buying computers that run the Chrome operating system." Google came up with an innovative subscription model for businesses and schools. Instead of paying for the hardware, organizations can pay $20-$33/device/month and get a notebook, enterprise support, new devices every 3 years or even more often, a Web-based central management console, integration with Google Apps. While enterprise Chromebooks are a lot more expensive than the regular Chromebooks available at Amazon or Best Buy, Google says that the total cost of ownership of a notebook can be reduced by up to 70%. "Chromebooks and the management console automate or eliminate many common, time-intensive IT tasks like machine image creation, application distribution, patching, and upgrades. Additionally, there is no need to purchase licenses for anti-virus, data encryption or data back-up software."

Like Android, Chrome OS also encourages people to use Google's services more often. "People search more when they use the Chrome browser or Android phones, which increases Google's core business," says Patrick Pichette. Android will also offer additional revenue opportunities. "Nonsearch revenue will eventually arrive for Android as it combines Google Maps, mobile payments with Google Wallet and daily deals with Google Offers."

When we have products that get resounding user and consumer success and that are growing in the hundreds of millions we don't worry. The only question is when and how will we monetize. Everybody's all nervous about the fact it's been 36 months since Android has launched and you only have search (revenue). That's the criticism I hear. The questions that are asked are so short-termish. That's just not the way that Google thinks.

For now, Chromebooks are the perfect Google Apps "thin clients", while Android devices have so many sensors that help you explore the world and make Web services a lot more useful when you are on the go.

Chromification of the Operating System

Three years ago, when Google launched Chrome many people wondered if it will be successful. Chrome became a very popular browser, with more than 160 million active users, but its most important achievement was accelerating the development of all the other browsers and shifting their priorities from adding UI features to removing clutter, making them faster and better suited for running Web apps. Internet Explorer embraced HTML5, Firefox started to update more often, Opera simplified its interface. Google started from the scratch and created a browser for today's Web apps.


For some, Chrome OS may seem pointless. Why buy a notebook that can only run a single program, when you can install Chrome on your existing computer? But why switch from Firefox to a browser that doesn't support advanced extensions? After all, Firefox is a lot more customizable than Chrome since any extension can dramatically alter the interface and integrate with the browser. It turns out that Firefox extensions can sometimes slow down the browser, some use a lot of resources, they're difficult to update and every new major release can break them. Chrome's extensions are less powerful, but they don't slow down the browser, they're easier to develop and to maintain and major new releases rarely break them.

Just like Chrome influenced all the other important browsers, Chrome OS will change the other operating systems. Sandboxing applications can make the operating system a lot more secure, saving your settings and files online allows you to use them from any other computer, Web applications are powerful enough to replace some of the native apps and they don't live on your computer, so they can be constantly updated. Even Windows intends to switch to "Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC" in the next major release, while still supporting "legacy" apps. It's obvious that most of the apps will eventually migrate to the Web and Chrome OS is better suited to support them because it doesn't have to worry about legacy apps and because it's designed just like a Google Web app: constantly updated, fast, clutter-free. "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed," said William Gibson. Chrome OS is ready... when you are.

{ image from the Chrome Comic Book, licensed by Google as Creative Commons }

Chromebooks

Fast, simple, secure, built for the Web, doesn't require administration. It's a Chromebook, a Chrome OS notebook that will be available starting from next month.

"Chromebooks will be available online June 15 in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain. More countries will follow in the coming months. In the U.S., Chromebooks will be available from Amazon and Best Buy and internationally from leading retailers," informs Google.

Google's simplified computing model puts the browser at the core and creates an operating system that revolves around Google Chrome. Samsung and Acer are the launch partners. Samsung's notebooks have 12.1" displays, Atom Dual-Core processors, 16 GB solid state drives, weigh 1.48 kg and get 8.5 hours of continuous usage. They're similar to the Acer notebooks, which have 11.6" displays, a higher resolution, but only get 6 hours of usage. Some of the notebooks include 3G support, while other notebooks are Wi-Fi only. "The Samsung Chromebook will cost $429 in the U.S. for the Wi-Fi only version and $499 for the 3G version. Acer's Wi-Fi only Chromebook will cost $349," reports CNet.

Here's one of the Samsung Chromebooks:


While Chromebooks don't require administration, businesses and schools need a way to manage hundreds or thousands of notebooks, so Google decided to offer a service that includes a cloud management console, support, device warranties and regular hardware refreshes for only $20/user (schools) or $28/user (businesses).

Chromebooks are actually the real netbooks, lightweight and inexpensive computers built for simple tasks like browsing the Web. Unfortunately, netbooks are no longer very popular and users replace them with tablets like the iPad, which have better displays, better battery and are easier to use. For now, Chromebooks will compete with Windows netbooks and it won't be easy to convince people to buy a Chrome netbook when they could run Chrome on a regular netbook. The good news is that Chromebooks will force Google to improve its web applications, to offer more advanced features, more free storage and all Google users will benefit even if they don't buy a Chromebook.

Chrome OS Is All About the Missing Features

Here's an interesting quote from Ted Power, a former designer for Google's mobile web apps:

"Chrome OS could potentially mark a profound leap forward. For the first time, all the layers between the network and the computer have been removed. The device itself is of little consequence; you can 'feel right at home' from any networked device. Chrome OS isn't so much about what has been added, but what has been stripped out; no more complicated file systems, software updates, etc."

Paul Buchheit, the ex-Googler who created Gmail, thinks that the ideal design of a computer that acts like a local node of a global super-computer matches the design target of Chrome OS. "It should be relatively cheap and reliable, secure (no viruses or anything), zero-administration (I don't want to be a sys-admin), easy to use, and fast." Paul says that Chrome OS is unnecessary because iOS and Android devices meet the same ideal and there are already millions of devices that run these operating systems.

There are already millions of people who use Chrome and some of them would like to buy a computer that's as fast as their browser. Mobile phones are not yet powerful enough to handle complex web apps, but that will change and, at some point, web apps will be indistinguishable from native apps. You'll be able to use your favorite web apps from almost any device, but why not use a device that removes everything that's unnecessary and slows you down?

Win a Chrome OS Notebook

When I started this blog, Google Operating System was just a metaphor for a future when Google's apps will make your operating system irrelevant. We're not yet there, but we're close and Chrome OS is an attempt to show what's possible right now.

If you'd like to try an early version of Chrome OS on a notebook that's optimized for Chrome OS, post a short essay on the future of computing in a comment and you can win a Cr-48 Chrome notebook.

Here are the rules:

1. This competition is only open to USA residents. Google can't ship the notebook outside USA due to product certification requirements.
2. You must be 18 years of age or older.
3. Your essay must be original and it must be written in English.
4. You should a include a way to contact you: a link to your Google profile, a link to your website, a link to your Twitter account etc.
5. If you win the notebook, you're expected to use it regularly and send your feedback to Google.
6. The competition ends 1:59pm Pacific Time on December 14.
7. Only one of you will win the notebook.

Good luck!



Update (December 14): Thank you for all your great comments. I'll announce the winner tomorrow.

Update 2: We have a winner.

Google Chrome OS and Disposable Computers

When you use a Chrome OS computer, most of your data and your settings is saved online, so it doesn't really matter which Chrome OS computer you're using. Just sign in with your Google account and you can find your bookmarks, your applications and maybe even your documents.

Chrome OS computers are actually designed for sharing and there's even a guest mode based on Chrome's incognito mode. "When you use web apps on your Chrome notebook, all your documents are stored safely in the cloud. But certain kinds of files, like downloads, cookies, and browser cache files, may still be present on your computer. Your Chrome notebook encrypts all this data using tamper-resistant hardware, making it very difficult for anyone to access those files. With Guest Mode, you can let friends use your Chrome notebook without signing in. They can use the web freely, but they won't be able to access your email or other data. And once they sign off, all their browsing data is permanently erased from your computer," explains Google.

Glen Murphy, who is a Chrome user interface designer, tried to show what happens when an inexpensive Chrome OS notebook is damaged. Your data is still available because it's stored online and you can resume your work using another computer.

Chrome OS, Google's True Operating System

After today's Chrome event, it became clear that Chrome OS is Google's true operating system and Android is just a placeholder. Google says that web apps are the native apps in Chrome OS and there are a lot of cool applications in the Chrome Web Store, which is now available.


Chrome OS is still an early project and it's not yet ready for primetime, so the first Chrome OS notebooks will be available in mid 2011. For now, Google focuses on notebooks, but that will change in the future.

Google realized that cloud computing wasn't successful 15 years ago because there weren't great Web applications. Now there are a lot of great apps and Chrome Web Store is the place where you can find some of them. We'll see a lot of iPhone and Android developers creating web apps that work in Google Chrome, but also work in other browsers.

Check the New York Times web app, which has a beautiful interface, it's customizable and also works offline.


Chrome now has 120 million active users, up from 40 million users one year ago. This number will grow next year, when people will buy Chrome OS devices. Google hopes that Chrome OS will become one of the top 3 operating systems in terms of usage, but it won't be easy to achieve this. For some people, a Chrome OS notebook will be the main computer, for others it will be a secondary device. What's important is that users will have a great platform for running web apps, a computer that doesn't require maintenance, it's really secure and easy to use.

Chrome OS is "nothing but the web". It may seem limited, but it's actually open ended. It's a platform that lets you access the web instantly, that's always connected and always in sync, it's built for sharing with other people, it's up-to-date and it's constantly improving.

Chrome OS is the obvious extension to Chrome. Why use a bulky operating system that requires maintenance, it's slow and insecure when you can switch to a lightweight operating system that's fast, free and refreshing? If Chrome can open in 3 seconds, why can't the operating system load so fast? Chrome OS is an operating system that doesn't need drivers to print, doesn't need an antivirus to be secure and doesn't need to store or process your data. Chrome OS could make computers exciting once again and the best part is that you won't have to use it to benefit from its influence.

Further reading and exploring:
* Google's blog post about the Web Store and Chrome OS
* Chrome Web Store
* Chrome OS website
* Chrome OS pilot program for US early adopters: get a free Cr-48 Chrome notebook.

Google Will Launch Chrome Web Store and Chrome OS Today

Today is an important day for Google Chrome: Google will launch Chrome Web Store, a marketplace for web apps, and Chrome OS, the first browser-centric operating system. Google has uploaded two introductory videos to the YouTube channel, but they're not yet publicly available. Here are some snapshots from the videos:

Chrome OS Tour

Chrome Web Store: Museum of Thieves (Flash game)

Chrome Web Store: Sports Illustrated

Google has already announced the launch event a few days ago: "On December 7, we will host an event in San Francisco where we plan to share some exciting news about Chrome. The event will be webcast live on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/googlechrome. Mark your calendars for 10:30 a.m. PST and tune in."

{ Thanks, Emanuele. }

Chrome OS Tablets, Only for Early Adopters?

Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, made an interesting comment about Chrome OS and the potential users of a Chrome OS tablet:

Chrome OS, Schmidt said is focused on selling Netbook-class computers to early believers in cloud-based storage. The first devices, which he reiterated will come this year, will use either Intel or ARM chips, have a keyboard and won't have local storage beyond that needed to cache data.

"People who believe in cloud computing, believe in the benefits of Web computing and who are Chrome users will be the target market," he said. "It's probably a large market."

Google Chrome has more than 70 million users, but not all of them switched to Chrome because it's a good platform for Web apps. Few Chrome users will decide that Google Chrome is the only important application they use and migrate to a Chrome OS tablet. Google should promote the tablet as a complementary device for browsing the Web and running Web apps, a device that boots quickly, updates automatically, doesn't require maintenance or security software.


It's interesting to read Andy Rubin's blog post that explains why Google decided to close the Nexus One online store:

"While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It's remained a niche channel for early adopters."

Google Chrome Web Store

One of the reason why mobile app stores are successful is that applications are more discoverable. Users know where to find applications, there's a consistent interface for ratings and reviews, an easy way to buy applications and to compare them.

For web applications there's no web store and it's not always easy to find a good web app. Since Google Chrome OS is an operating system designed for running web apps, it's really important for Google to provide a list of high-quality web applications. Users may need an online photo editor, a music player, a chess game, a Math software or an online IDE.

Chrome Web Store will be launched later this year and intends to be "an open marketplace for web apps". Users will be to "install" applications by adding a shortcut to the new tab page. When you "install" an application, it can integrate with the browser by using advanced features that require permission: local storage, user's location, notifications.


"An installed web app could be separated visually from other tabs, could integrate better with the OS, and could be granted increased permissions. This special handling of web apps is exactly what we're working on in Google Chrome. Installing a web app in Google Chrome is easy and quick, with no restart required. At its simplest, installing a web app is like creating a super-bookmark to it. Once installed, a web app gets a big icon in Google Chrome's app launcher area, as well as some integration with the host OS," explains Google.


Even if the web applications from the Chrome Store will work in other browsers, Chrome will include some features that make it easier to use the applications. It will be interesting to see how many paid apps from the Chrome Web Store will be successful.

Update: You can already install applications in the latest Chromium builds. This post explains how to add the "enable-apps" flag and shows an example of application.

More Google Chrome OS Screenshots

Google posted more images that show the user interface of Google Chrome OS. The interface is still under development, so it may change until the first stable version is released, later this year.

Chrome OS uses an interesting visualization for tab overview. "The overview is available via either gesture and hotkey. It provides a visual way of switching between windows and tabs. Windows are exploded into the tabs they contain, and all tabs/windows are visible in a single 2.5d space. This model is largely based on Peter Jin Hong & Elin Pedersen's G.L.I.D.E. Tab Navigation. We present tabs in a venetian blind arrangement, ensuring visibility of the top left of every page, and using perspective to compress the most useful portions of the page into the available strips. Favicons are presented as an alternative visual aid."



Google also posted some screenshots of the open/save dialogs and the download shelf panel. "The shelf is an on demand target for downloading and uploading. It acts as a temporary resting place for files that have been accessed, and for content being uploaded to websites."

Even if the Chrome OS only lets you use a browser, you can still download files and open them using Chrome's multimedia libraries or using web applications like Google Docs.



A notification panel will be used for OS and website notifications, so web applications will be able to add their own alerts.


Chrome OS will also include simple applications like a calculator:


{ via TechCrunch }

Google Cloud Print

Google found an interesting solution for printing documents in Chrome OS. Instead of preloading the drivers for the most popular printers, Chrome OS will use an online service for printing: Google Cloud Print.

In Google Chrome OS, all applications are web apps. Therefore, in designing the printing experience for Google Chrome OS, we want to make sure printing from web apps is as natural as printing from traditional native apps is today. Additionally, with the proliferation of web-connected mobile devices such as those running Google Chrome OS and other mobile operating systems, we don't believe it is feasible to build and maintain complex print subsystems and print drivers for each platform. In fact, even the print subsystems and drivers on existing PC operating systems leave a lot of room for improvement.

Our goal is to build a printing experience that enables any app (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer anywhere in the world. This goal is accomplished through the use of a cloud print service. Apps no longer rely on the local operating system (and drivers) to print. Instead, apps (whether they be a native desktop/mobile app or a web app) use Google Cloud Print to submit and manage print jobs. Google Cloud Print is then responsible for sending the print job to the appropriate printer, with the particular options the user selected, and providing job status to the app.

The only problem is that no printer supports Google Cloud Print and that's why Google revealed some details about the service's interfaces, hoping that printer manufacturers will update their software and support it. If a printer doesn't support Google's service, you'll need a proxy software for the computer where the printer is installed. Google says that the proxy software will be bundled with Google Chrome.

Google wants to associate your printers with a Google account and manage them the same way as you manage Google Docs documents, so you can share them with other people. Web applications can use APIs to customize the printing options and change the user interface displayed when you start printing a document.

"We believe cloud printing has tremendous benefits for end users and for the industry and is essential, given the rapid shift toward cloud-based applications and data storage. We also believe that the only way that the benefits of cloud printing can be realized is if the protocols are open, freely implementable, and, when possible, based on existing industry standards. We expect there to be multiple cloud print services, and users should have a choice in which services they use and which printers they can connect to a service. Stay tuned for more details. We are confident that cloud-aware printers will soon be a reality," suggests Google.

It may seem that Google's solution is complicated and difficult to implement: we need an open standard for cloud printing, cloud-aware printers and users need to associate printers with an online service. Instead of sending the printing job directly to the printer, you'll send it to the online service, which forwards it to the printer. Despite all these hurdles, Google Cloud Print allows you to print documents from a mobile phone, tablet, notebook or any other mobile device. You'll be able to print files from an Android phone or tablet, from a Chrome OS computer, from any computer that runs Google Chrome and from other devices that will support Google Cloud Print.

Eric Schmidt on Chrome OS

At Google Atmosphere, a CIO event about cloud computing, Eric Schmidt explained why Chrome OS is meaningful:

"The promise of Chrome and Chrome OS is that the devices that you give to your employees will have a 2-second boot time, will be completely disposable and the price will be incredibly low."

Chrome OS computers will no longer be personal because it doesn't matter which computer you use. After logging to your Google account, Chrome OS will retrieve your bookmarks, themes, settings, web history from Google's servers. Your data is stored in a central location and you can access it from all your devices.

Computers will boot almost instantly, so you no longer have to wait. They'll be cheap, easy to replace and to maintain.

You can already use Chrome on your computer, but a Chrome OS computer is optimized for running a browser, doesn't have extraneous software and it's inherently more secure.

Chrome OS Tablet Mockups

Hot on the heels of the Apple iPad announcement, Google released some mockups for Chrome OS tablets.

"On tablets, the UI would be adjusted to handle larger touch targets. Initial explorations have maintained the same basic chrome layout, but enlarged the controls. Icons could be placed above tabs to provide larger, square targets. Panels would be placed along the bottom edge and could be opened with upward dragging motions," explains Google.



Even if Chrome OS was initially designed for netbooks, Google hopes to create an operating system that works on tablets, laptops and desktop computers. "Each would have vastly different input methods, available screen space, and processing power".


Chrome OS has the advantage of a simple interface optimized for web applications. This may seem too restrictive, but Chrome, Safari, Firefox and other browsers are quickly evolving and many popular apps are migrating to the web.

{ via TechCrunch }