If you thought Google’s OS ambitions would end with Android, think again. The search giant has announced Google Chrome OS, an “open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks”, and which promises a start-up to internet-ready delay of just seconds.
The browser cycle continues, with Mozilla next to announce an update of their open-source app. Firefox 3.5 brings with it the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, said to be more than twice as fast as in v3.0 and ten times faster than Firefox 2, together with native integration of Ogg Theora video, and Location Aware Browsing.
Video overview after the cut
Marvell’s SheevaPlug wall-wart Linux PC has finally come of age, with the company announcing mainstream retail partners including Buffalo, D-Link, LaCie and Seagate, together with beginning distribution of the Plug Computer development kit in Europe. The original SheevaPlug has a Marvell Kirkwood processor with a 1.2GHz Sheeva processor, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of flash storage; resembling a wall-wart, it plugs directly into a power socket and offers a single USB 2.0 port and a gigabit ethernet port. Suggested uses included a home server, NAS or other form of network-connected device.
Windows 7’s native support for multitouch is well known, but if Microsoft thought that would be another knife into Linux then they should prepare for disappointment. A French development group at ENAC have developed native multitouch using Linux 2.6.30, supporting the usual swipe, flip, rotate and pinch-resize gestures.
Video demo after the cut
Joining Wistron’s N900z on the Freescale Semiconducters Computex stand is this netbook from Pegatron. Running an Freescale IMX51 800MHz ARM-based CPU and Xandros Linux OS, the most interesting aspects of the ultraportable are its super-skinny profile and long, eight-hour battery life.
Video hands-on after the cut
We’ve seen it run Quake at 60fps, now it’s time for the latest shots of the open-source Pandora handheld gaming console. Bearing the mark of the latest design refresh, only now in-the-plastic, the console is certainly looking more professional, and that will only increase once they reach the large-scale production line rather than these one-offs.
Acer’s Jim Wong, global president for IT products, has confirmed that the company plan to launch an Android-based netbook in Q3 this year. Full details of the netbook are unknown, but it’s believed to be based on the same Intel Atom processors as Acer’s existing netbook range.
Watch out Moblin and Android – if Jolicloud have any say in things, your path to netbook OS domination won’t be so smooth. In the works since late 2008, Jolicloud is based on Ubuntu and has been fettled for faster boot times and improved internet surfing. It’s also been customized for cloud computing, with Jolicloud’s creators describing it as a Social OS; Sascha from NetbookNews grabbed a demo video at Computex today.
Video demo after the cut
On the eve of Computex 2009, some company’s just can’t keep their excitement to themselves. Foxconn have been spilling the details on their SZ901, and Sascha at netbooknews.de caught up with the 10.1-inch netbook at the Linpus headquarters. Under the hood there’s the usual Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard-drive and, slightly more interesting, a UMTS 3G WWAN module, but it’s the OS which is actually catching our attention.
Video demo after the cut
Intel have released Moblin v2.0 beta for netbooks and nettops, the latest version of the company’s open-source OS for Atom-based devices. Mobile v2.0 brings with it a new, visually-enhanced GUI, together with the “m_zone” homescreen, integrated Twitter and Last.fm widgets, and a new integrated browser based on Mozilla’s engine.
Video demo after the cut
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