Although I promised myself I wasn’t going to spend time running Google’s Chrome OS right now, I got the bug. Thanks to gdgt who put an image together, I’ve spent about 15 minutes tinkering with it in VirtualBox. Chrome OS is definitely bare-bones right now and slow in a VM, but any performance judgements should be considered irrelevant right now. Two thoughts came to mind as I got my hands dirty: who is this for and what can make it successful.

As far as the first question, Chrome OS is for someone like me — someone who spends 98% of their day in a browser. Or it could be for everyone else, provided they use it in the manner intended. Is it meant to replace a daily operating system for most people? No more so than a netbook would be a replacement for a high-powered workstation. It’s simply not that kind of tool. Chrome OS is intended for quick access to the web on a portable notebook-like companion device. Think of it as the environment and device you’d go to when you don’t want to boot up a full OS but you want a larger screen and keyboard than your smartphone has.

So what can make it successful? There are several factors, but one of the key ones is what makes Firefox so useful — extensions. As Mozilla’s browser has shown, you can do quite a bit in a browser with the right tools. And oddly enough, while Chrome OS doesn’t yet support extensions officially, you’ll see in my video that I have a few installed anyway. That’s my first look and first thoughts. I’ll have plenty more to say as the project matures.

Note: because I couldn’t resize the virtual machine or Chrome OS, I recommend watching this video in full screen and in the HD version when it becomes available.

The Verizon Droid is soon to be returned to the kind folks there who sent me this evaluation phone so it’s time for a video look at the phone. The Droid is the Android 2.0 slider that is thin and light, and sports an industrial design bent. In the video I show the responsiveness of the Droid, the hardware and give a feel for the web browsing experience. I also show the camera function, including how long it takes to focus and shoot.

I have been impressed with the Droid, and will be sad to see it go. It is a very capable smartphone compared to the many I have tried. I find it is easily the best phone on the Verizon network currently.

UPDATED: Livestreaming is all the rage today, be it from a handset or a home computer with a webcam. But one of the major challenges to overcome is how to view that live content on a handset without re-encoding it. Vimeo today took the same approach that YouTube did for the iPhone — it went back to certain video content and re-encoded it for mobile handset playback on iPhone and Android devices. While that works, it’s not ideal. Wouldn’t it be nice if a company could provide a method for livestreaming to mobiles without a lengthy re-encoding process?

Lo and behold, enter Livestream and its Procaster beta application for Mac and PC. I just got my hands on the software a short while ago, so I have a “quick and dirty” video — don’t worry, it’s not that kind of dirty — to show you some of the basic capabilities. I was up and running in just a few minutes with Procaster. The application uses any attached webcam and microphone and livestreams from your computer. OK, that sounds like most of the other livestream platforms, right? But here’s the kicker: your live stream from Procaster can be viewed immediately on an iPhone by using the H.264 HTTP streaming built into the handset’s Quicktime application. That’s the bulk of what I show you in my brief video demo because it’s just too cool.

With Livestream Procaster, you can set up your own channel and chatroom to go with your video. I see a multitude of uses for this as I allude to in my short video demo: I’m thinking of trying this out at the Consumer Electronics Show to give you some show floor experience in real time, for example. And this solution could come in handy for tips and tricks because you can easily switch between the webcam view and a screen sharing view. Or you can display both in real time to an iPhone. The possibilities are endless and with the H.264 HTTP streaming, it opens up the floodgates to mobile viewing as well. Livestream’s full press release follows and you can find their beta application right here. Livestream will be using the new Procaster features at our NewTeeVee Live event tomorrow, so you can follow along on your iPhone! It is, after all, NewTeeVee Live, not NewTeeVee Recorded.

Update: After my post went live, I realized that I had an early look, so check out Procaster starting tomorrow.

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Today is the day that Esquire’s Augmented Reality application hits newstands. Using a software download and image codes in the magazine, you can get a dose of AR. It’s an interesting concept although I’m not sure it adds value just yet. Still, when I saw a video demonstration of it, I thought was pretty wild to see. And then I got to thinking — if the software keys off of a simple black and white image in front of a webcam, could I duplicate the effect with a quick drawing?

Sure enough, my first attempt — which isn’t even all that neat of a drawing — did the trick as I tried it on camera. In the video you’ll see the Esquire AR software pick up my hand drawn image, which is really just an 8 x 8 set of cubes. There’s a little meter in the AR software to show how well it’s tracking the AR image and my sketch is getting 100%! I like how you can turn and tilt the AR code and the software moves the images to match on screen. Chalk this one up with the remote controlling a car with an iPhone bit — it’s not very valuable, but it was fun to try! I may have to run out and buy the magazine to see what other AR bits they have.

I’ve been playing a little with the latest Moblin release this afternoon and I’m actually thinking of trying to run it full-time on a netbook. There’s a few holes yet, but it does offers me much of what I’m looking for in a smartbook — a lightweight operating system and good browsing experience. My wireless broadband modem isn’t working, nor is my sound or my Bluetooth, so there’s a few gotchas just yet. The Bluetooth might be easily fixable in my netbook BIOS, but no sound on the Toshiba NB205 is a reported known bug.

In this 11 minute video, I think you’ll see why I’m walking away impressed. The user interface is intuitive, although it will take some getting used to, and the overall environment is fluid and snappy. Bear in mind that I’m running a live image from a USB drive, so an actual installation should perform even better. Maybe it’s time to turn the Toshiba into a triple-booter: Windows XP, Windows 7 and Moblin!

I have demonstrated Parallels Desktop on the Mac that I use to run Windows 7 alongside OS X. A new version of Parallels Desktop, version 5, was released yesterday and among many new features offers better Snow Leopard and Windows 7 support. One of the new features of Parallels Desktop for Mac v.5 is the Crystal mode, which allows the Windows 7 environment to be “hidden” while running. In the video I demonstrate how this works, and show the ability to run Windows programs like Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer on the Mac desktop.

Today is Windows 7 launch day and it is appropriate to show how I run Mac programs on the Windows 7 desktop. I know, you can’t really do that, but if you are running Windows 7 under Parallels Desktop on a Mac you can. In this video I show how I can access any Mac program from the Windows 7 Start Menu, and even how I pin oft-used Mac programs to the Windows 7 taskbar. It’s a slick way to run Mac programs without leaving the Windows environment on a Mac. Happy Windows 7 launch day!

I’ve been admiring the ARCHOS Internet Tablet with Android from afar lately. A current Android device is appealing, but I’m on the fence between adding a CDMA Android phone that I can swap with my Pre or simply getting a standalone Android unit. That’s when it hit me — why not repurpose my Samsung Q1UP to run Android to get a feel for such a device? I did just that over the weekend, thanks to the community at Android-x86. I found a port of Android 1.6 that’s really geared for netbooks like the original Eee PC 701 and got it working on my UMPC. You can run the port from a Live CD or USB drive, so you don’t have to remove your current operating system.

My first impressions — Android is blazing on a 1.33GHz Intel Core Solo, just like you’d expect. It seems like the battery lasts longer on a charge as well, but I haven’t had time to really test that theory. Of course, this ported implementation isn’t perfect on my device. In fact, there’s enough that’s not working for me to say: only do this for fun right now. I can work on the web over Wi-Fi and the built-in keyboard and mouse work great. No touchscreen yet though, nor any sound or Bluetooth either. The biggest killer that I’m focused on solving? No buttons map to the Menu screen in Android. I’m talking to developers on that because it’s completely limiting my usage. Oh and so is the lack of persistent data storage among other glitches. Have I scared you away yet?

Even with the problems, this has me leaning towards a non-phone Android device. I already have two phones and there are times I’d like to use the browser on a bigger screen on the couch or in a coffee shop. I don’t need the pocketable web because I already have that in my phones. Hmmm….. decisions, decisions.

As an avid runner, I went out and bought a Nike+ sensor as soon as I upgraded my original iPhone to a 3GS. That solution worked OK, but I think it’s lacking for me in some areas: it has to be calibrated for accuracy, works only with certain shoes and can only be used for running or walking activities. Looking for something to compensate for those limitations, I found RunKeeper in the iTunes App Store. There’s a free version and a $9.95 RunKeeper Pro version. At half the price, I find RunKeeper Pro to be a far better value than the Nike+ sensor because of its flexibility and fewer restrictions.

In this video, I show you what the application looks like and talk about how it works by using the GPS in your handset. Some have complained that the application eats up your phone’s battery too fast, but I simply turn my iPhone display off, which helps tremendously. I did an hour-and-a-half bike ride with the application and only used up around 25% of my battery. Oh, that’s right — you can use this for cycling, which is something else I like to do. You can’t do that with a Nike+. After showing you the application, I share a walkthrough of the online tracking and logging that’s done automatically. It offers a great summary of workouts and dives into some details for those that want more.

This little screencast is a showcase of some of the utilities I use every day to make my life easier. In the video you’ll see:

• App for the milk- free desktop app for Remember The Milk
• Remember The Milk Gmail gadget
• SoundSource
• Pandora One desktop app
• MacJournal