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.

Even though I had fun running OS X on a both a netbook and a touchscreen UMPC, a couple of weeks with the operating system turned semi-frustrating. Ironically, it was for the same reasons that Windows was a hassle on UMPCs when they first hit: the desktop operating system isn’t designed to fit in a space under 1280 x 800 or so. Does it fit? Yup. Does it work well? Sometimes yes and sometimes no, depending on the dialog boxes you see. It simply required too much tweaking to use on a full time basis for me — not to mention that pesky licensing issue.

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Hands on with the HTC HD2
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Google’s Chrome OS might have the focus today, but Qualcomm made sure that people don’t forget about Android. The company showed off a smartbook concept made by Quanta and powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform. Although this is the same chipset running in some high-end smartphones, the Snapdragon chip isn’t underclocked — it’s powering Android on the full 1GHz speed on the Cortex-A8 architecture.

Bill Timmons of Qualcomm envisions smartbooks in the same price range as a smartphone, but I think that’s a tough challenge, barring the subsidy factor. While the devices have the guts of a smartphone, there’s still a larger display to pay for. If these devices are too close in price to netbooks, I suspect that netbooks will win out with most consumers — people will perceive the fuller featured netbook running the familiar Windows OS as a better value. Anything over $200 and I just don’t see smartbooks becoming successful. And while I was leaning towards Chrome OS boosting the slow starting smartbook market, the lack of application support brings me back to Android as a potential operating system for smartbooks and netbooks.

Google held their developer and press event today to show off the upcoming Google Chrome operating system. The source code for Chrome OS is open source and available as of today, so theoretically, you can build your own Chrome OS. However, the actual release isn’t planned until late in 2010.

Some takeaways from the live stream that I watched:

• Every application in Chrome OS will be a web-based application — there won’t be any local apps installed
• You can pin shortcuts to apps in the browser
• Fast boot times (under 7 seconds) will be partially due to the light environment, but also due to the requirement for Solid State Disk storage
• No mention of smartbooks; Chrome OS looks targeted solely for netbooks
• Support for X86 and ARM, so there’s still hope for smartbooks running Chrome OS
• All Google apps you see today will look and behave exactly the same in Chrome OS
• Android apps will not be compatible — remember, no local apps installed.
• Google will actually sell the netbook hardware work with partners on the hardware that runs the operating system
• Main use case for Chrome OS requires connectivity, such as Wi-Fi. Google is planning for 802.11n support
• Chrome OS devices aren’t intended to be your primary machine. Google assumes you have a second computer at home or work
• Google was coy on device pricing but said to expect prices that customers are used to today. I take that to be around $300 to $400
• Local user data is simply stored in a cache. The book of record for your data will be on Google’s servers
• You won’t need a Chrome OS machine to use it. Most all of the Chrome OS features will be baked into the Chrome browser.
• Interesting approach to security: “Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot.”

There’s more info to digest, which I’ll be doing over the afternoon. Suffice it to say, Chrome OS isn’t an “operating system” by traditional standards. This is more of a paradigm shift to determine what an OS is and a way to get consumers more reliant on the web where possible. In some sense, I feel that this is more bare-bones than I wanted to see. But that feeling comes from how we’ve defined an operating system up to now. I’m planning to step back and re-think my point of view because I’ve always felt that I can live in a browser. I did it before for 60-days with a safety net — the question now is: can I do it without the net?

• Display: 11.6″ 1366 x 768 screen
• CPU: AMD Athlon Neo MV-40
• OS: Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Pro (32 bit or 64 bit)
• Memory: Up to4GB
• Storage: 160/250/320GB 2.5″ 5400rpm HDD
• I/O: 3 USB ports, VGA output, 4-in-1 card reader
• Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n WiFi, optional Bluetooth, 3G
• Input: Trackpoint and multi-touch touchpad
• Camera: 0.3MP
• Battery: 3 cell (2.2 hour) or 6 cell (5.1 hour)
• Dimensions: 11.1″ x 82.” x 11.2″ (w/6 cell battery)
• Weight: 3.3 pounds (w/6 cell battery)

• Microsoft Windows 7 Premium
• 12.1 inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution
• Intel Atom 330 dual core processor
• 2GB of RAM
• Nvidia ION graphics
• Hard drive of 250GB (plus 500GB online storage)
• VGA, HDMI, 3 USB 2.0, Ethernet, headphone and microphone port
• Memory card slot
• 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• 11.7 x 8.2 x 1.3 inches
• 3.2 pounds weight

LAPTOP hasn’t done a battery test yet, but ASUS expects five hours with their Super Hybrid Engine. The notebook is patterned after the Eee PC 1005 / 1008 models, also known as Seashell, so it’s based on the thin, wedge-shaped design of those netbooks. Although this is just a first look, I’m intrigued and impressed — and looking forward to the detailed review that’s sure to be coming.

First, I live in a web browser for most of my waking hours. I don’t need many of the standard features that a full desktop operating system provides, so it’s essentially just feature-bloat for me. Second, in the past two to three years, I’ve moved over to Google’s services for email, contacts, phone management and more. Lastly, while I expect Google’s Chrome OS to run on x86 devices, I’m really hoping to see it to thrive on the ARM platform. Chrome OS is probably overkill for a netbook or notebook, so I’m thinking it will help kickstart the smartbook platform — a lightweight web-based OS for a power efficient processor for all day browsing.

What are you expecting to see out of Google’s Chrome OS this week?

Retweet — the new retweet function that Twitter has rolled out was seemingly in every third tweet I’ve seen lately. Let me be straight — I am interested in reading smart things that folks have to say, on Twitter or anywhere else. I do not care that 1,300 people also found them interesting enough and retweeted them. We don’t need more noise on the web, we need more focus.

Droid Auto-focus Bug — the Android development team has admitted there is a bug in the auto-focusing API that caused all of the Droid’s bad camera experiences, and then fixed them automatically. There’s a time-stamp error in the API that causes it to work poorly for 24.5 days, and then properly for 24.5 days, ad infinitum. Time-stamp? In a camera focusing routine? You’re kidding me, right?

Microsoft Exec Ray Ozzie — smartphone apps don’t matter, developers will port all apps people want to all the platforms. Apps are not a differentiator among phone platforms. Spoken like a company in denial. Sadly, Ozzie is Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect. Let that sink in for a moment.

Windows 7 Starter Edition on Netbooks — Joanna Stern of Slashgear points out that 23 of 28 netbooks on sale at Amazon currently are preloaded with Windows 7 Starter Edition. Ms. Stern also points out the basic functionality that is missing from the Starter Edition, such as desktop wallpaper customization, that makes Windows XP a better value for netbooks than Win 7 Starter Edition. It’s like we have taken a step backward in the Windows world, yet again.

She lives with her boyfriend and they do not use the web much. Light surfing is as deep as they go, and if not for schoolwork they wouldn’t really need connectivity at all. They’ve done without the web for a long time, but find when they need it they really do need it. They researched the costs for getting connectivity added to their apartment, and the monthly costs were pretty high.

They have their phones on the Verizon network, so they have been researching the subsidized netbooks being offered. The $60 monthly fee for the data plan on a netbook is in line with the costs they would have to shell out for fixed connectivity, and they find it makes sense to have “connectivity to go” for the price. They need to buy a notebook too, nothing heavyweight performance-wise, just a simple netbook meets their needs.

They did their homework on the situation nicely, and have determined that the Gateway netbook that Verizon is offering with a data plan subsidy more than meets their needs. The netbook will only cost them $99 with the subsidy, and the data plan gets them web connectivity which is the real objective. I have to admit they’ve researched it well, and this path is a very good one for them that meets their needs.

Although it’s been said many times and many ways (GigaOM Pro, subscription required) — yes, I’m prepping for Christmas carols — that $199 netbook is really costing you much more due to the monthly data service. If you don’t plan to use the netbook outside of the home or office where you have Wi-Fi, I wouldn’t recommend the purchase. In a more stationary case, you’re better off just buying a device at full price for $350 or $400 with no monthly fee. Having said that, I’m starting to wonder about the success, or failure, of notebook subsidies. I’d love to see some breakout numbers of how many netbooks are subsidized as opposed to how many are bought outright. I know that the subsidy model is a little more prominent outside of the U.S., but I don’t expect that sales of subsidized netbooks are very high here.

Do we have any readers that have bought or considered buying a subsidized netbook?

This is usually the season for door-busting sales, but I think this one has to do with reducing inventory more than anything. MSI is touting a new online promotion in India, the UK, Australia and Italy, and although I’m not near any of those parts, I checked it out. The promotional link took me to a deal for a free MSI Wind netbook with the purchase of an X600 notebook. The free netbook is the same U100 model I purchased in 2008 and is worth roughly $350. To get the deal, you actually have to print out the online coupon and take it to specific vendors.

Purchasing the X600 gets you a skinny 15.6″ notebook with 1366 x 768 resolution running on an Intel ULV chip and ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics processor. The 2.1-kilogram notebook with 6-cell battery should run for nearly a full workday, and of course, you can always migrate over to your free netbook if you run out of juice.

All other labeled specifications appear to be within normal operating parameters: 1024 x 600 display, 250 GB 5400 RPM hard drive and Wi-Fi. The  keyboard looks fairly standard, but SlashGear notes that the trackpad is buttonless. The label also notes 2 GB of memory right from the get-go, so no need to spend more money on a RAM module after purchase. Of course, we’ll have to wait for an official announcement to see when that purchase will be, and for how much. Any guesses on the number of PineTrail-powered products announced at CES in January? I’ll wager a dollar on 83.

Credit: LAPTOP Magazine

A few weeks ago, I ran some battery tests on my netbook. I have  both Windows XP and Windows 7 installed on my Toshiba NB205, which takes hardware variances out of the equation. My early looks show that Windows 7 offers 10% less runtime on the exact same device. I’ve since done some additional testing, thinking that the graphically intensive Aero features of Windows 7 might be the biggest factor. Unfortunately, that’s not what I found — using Windows 7 with all of the advanced Aero features off not only makes your netbook look like a Windows 95 beta, it doesn’t help run time in any noticeable way.

Readers offered up great commentary on the testing techniques and I can’t argue that there are many ways to run these tests. But even my informal testing shows the same trend continuing. When I use XP in my normal work day, it runs longer than when I use Windows 7 on the same hardware and in the same use cases. But don’t take my word for it. Brad Linder of Liliputing confirmed the same results not long after my testing and now LAPTOP Magazine completes the trifecta.

In fact, LAPTOP put three different netbooks through the paces — and all of them offered less run time on Windows 7. They used an entirely different approach as well, one that’s more reflective of real world usage, so it’s a safe bet that you’ll see less battery life on a Windows 7 device. Will there be exceptions? Of course there will — everyone uses different power management settings, not to mention they use their devices in different ways. But by and large, it looks like there’s a small battery life sacrifice with Windows 7 on a netbook. Should that stop you from using Windows 7? My opinion, is no, but if you’re happy with XP and don’t want or need some of the new Windows 7 features, you might want to stay put.

Again, I’ll temper my thoughts with the fact that the device shown yesterday won’t officially be introduced until the Consumer Electronics Show in January. If I were involved in the project, I’d use my time between now and then to revamp the form factor. Why? Based on what we know now, the smartbook will offer a high-definition quality screen. While the exact resolution is unknown, “high definition” means at least 720 vertical lines of resolution. I’d guess the device will see 1280 x 720, which is fine — it allows for decent viewing of web pages and is far less limiting than the 1024 x 600 displays found on netbooks. But based on that resolution and the picture of the device, it sure looks like the first smartbook will have a screen size of nearly 10 inches. That’s far too big for what I’d consider a successful smartbook, for a few reasons.

First, the screen size dictates the overall device size. You could argue that the keyboard actually does this, but display panels are pretty standard, so it’s more likely that a screen is chosen first and then a keyboard is designed to fit in such a device. So if this smartbook has a 10″ display, it should offer a keyboard comparable to most of today’s netbooks. That’s all well and good, but the overall device size won’t be different enough from a netbook to make size a differentiator. I expect the smartbook to be thinner, but early reports are that it will come with a large battery, so who knows? It could be just as thick and heavy as a netbook.

Related research from GigaOM Pro: "The Future of Netbooks"

About that battery — why would a large battery be needed if the smartbook is powered by an ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU? Doesn’t the ARM platform use less power than the Intel Atom used in netbooks? Sure it does, but the bigger power culprit is the display. And that’s why using a netbook-sized display isn’t the way to go for a smartbook. Essentially, it looks like this first smartbook entry will be too much like a netbook in terms of form factor. But it won’t offer the netbook’s benefit of x86 compatibility for applications.

So what benefit will it really provide? One could argue price, but remember that the smartbook will be sold through AT&T. That means it’s subsidized and you’re on the hook for $1,440 in data plan bills over two years — unless the data plan model changes with a smartbook to make it cheaper for the customer each month. I doubt that, but I’ll leave the door open for just such a change. It wouldn’t surprise me to see such a device to be free up-front. But subsidized netbooks can be had for $200 or so — so will a free smartbook entice sales? I don’t think so in most cases when the $200 alternative offers more.

Ultimately, it comes down to this — what are the use cases for a smartbook that make it different from a smartphone or a netbook? The types of activities you’d use a smartbook for are really the same as what you’d use either a smartphone or netbook for, so it’s a matter of where and how you’d use this device. And those definitions should be dictating the form factor. Let’s use the smartphone as an example:

• Easy to use anywhere while sitting or standing
• Has always-on connectivity so there’s no location limitations
• Limited by screen size and keyboard usability
• Generally runs (on and in sleep) for a full day or more on a single charge
• Users can wake device and begin using almost instantly with little hit to battery life in sleep mode
• Can be put in a pocket

Looking at the same six factors for a netbook:

• Easier to use in more places than a laptop, but not as unlimited in terms of location than a smartphone
• Connectivity is often limited by Wi-Fi locations, although there are always-on connection options available
• More enjoyable experience than a smartphone due to larger screen, higher resolution and larger keyboard
• Eight hours of run time is considered good
• Can be put into sleep, but not as instant for wake and use
• Not pocketable

For smartbooks to be successful, they need to offer the best of both worlds here and although I’m a fan of the smartbook concept, that’s going to be a tough road to hoe. To offer the runtime of a smartphone but still be highly portable, a netbook-sized display isn’t the answer. And if the devices are going to have a netbook-sized display or form factor, what’s the reason to pick a smartbook over a netbook? Price alone isn’t going to do it on large scale. Connectivity can help, but that’s an option in many netbooks as well. Perhaps adding cellular voice capability for use with a headset might help, but I’m on the fence there.

I’ve said this before, but I’l reiterate it now because it’s timely: if I were a smartbook designer, I’d be looking at the Sony VAIO P for inspiration.

Due to the wide footprint, it offers a touch-typable keyboard, but uses a clamshell design with an 8″ display so you’ll have a better visual experience than a smaller smartphone. You could tuck it into a large jacket pocket, so it’s more portable than a netbook. The smaller screen — I’d even consider making such a device with a six or seven inch screen — won’t use as much juice which could let the unit run as long as a smartphone. In such a form factor, there actually would be benefit over the two markets the device would sit between. Would it sell? That I don’t know, but I’d be inclined to buy one. Would I buy the device that we saw yesterday? I don’t yet see a reason to — do you?

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs showed off a red smartbook at an analyst meeting in New York, and went on to share that the smartbook would be appearing at the CES in January. The small smartbook is to work with the AT&T network in the U. S., and no pricing information was offered by Jacobs.

When questioned if the new smartbook would offer a full Internet experience, Jacobs said Qualcomm worked with Adobe to put a full implementation of Flash on the new device. He also mentioned that the new smartbook, as yet unnamed, will play high definition video.

Liliputing found a fuzzy pic of the new smartbook as pictured above.

Related research: The Future of Netbooks (subscription required)