Google-powered laptops to go on sale June 15

AN FRANCISCO: The first laptops running on a Google-designed software system will go on sale in the US and six other countries next month.
The June 15 release date announced Wednesday means the lightweight laptops will hit the market nearly two years after Google Inc. began working on an operating system based on its Chrome Web browser.
Since then, Apple Inc.’s iPad and other tablet computers have become hot sellers. The growing popularity of tablets has raised questions about how interested consumers will be interested in buying Google-powered laptops specifically tailored for Web surfing.
Samsung Electronics Co. and Acer Inc. are making the first Chromebooks. They will sell for $349 to $499 at Best Buy and Amazon.com Inc. in the US. The cheapest IPad sells for $499.
Acer’s Chromebook, at $349, will have an 11.6-inch screen display and up to six hours of battery life. Samsung’s version, selling for $429 to $499, will have a 12.1-inch screen and up to 8.5 hours of battery life. Both models will have keyboards, but no hard drives for storage. The machines will be like computer terminals dependent on a connection to the Internet. The laptops come with 16 gigabytes of flash memory – the kind found in smartphones, tablet computers and some iPods. They have slots to plug in other storage device you buy separately.
The Chromebooks also will be sold in Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain.
Chromebook’s long-awaited debut will intensify Google’s competition with Microsoft Corp., whose Windows operating system remains the foundation of most personal computers.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have long felt that Windows computers took too long to power up and were too clunky to operate. They believed that Windows’ drawbacks were discouraging people from spending even more time online, where they could click on ads sold by Google.
To address the perceived problem, Google announced its plans in July 2009 for a Chrome-based operating system that would enable computers to turn on in a matter of seconds and encourage more Web surfing.
”The complexity of managing computers is really frustrating for users out there,” Brin told reporters Wednesday at Google’s conference for software developers. ”It’s a flawed model.”
Besides attacking Microsoft’s Windows franchise, Google’s Chromebook also will represent another challenge to Apple, which makes Mac computers as well as iPads. Google and Apple have been engaged in a fierce competition in the smartphone market for the past two years.

Microsoft Windows 8 is Leaked !?

Every now and then, a big software release is leaked during development to the broad audience mainly because the software manufacturer wants to check customers’ reactions to the path they are taking. When news came that Windows 8 leaked, many people frowned for two reasons. First, it has never before happened to Windows, on purpose or not. Second, so short after a very good release, which Windows 7 undoubtedly is, to bring out a new operating system is as close to suicide as you can get. Microsoft made the mistake already twice, fiddling with a good operating system for no real reason, and releasing a new version prematurely. The Windows Me, right after Windows 98 and before Windows 2000 was such a dud. Vista was somewhat less of a dud than Me, but a poor operating system that never really worked properly.

Windows 8, a true leak or not?

Torrent and P2P sites boasted a little while ago that an early version of Windows 8 is available for download. There were not all drivers available for Windows 7 for download, but already the new operating system is being developed beyond the basic functionality phase? It sounded incredible and it was. The leaked Windows 8 was nothing but a dressed up Windows 7, whereby some people figured it might have been the “Milestone 1” version of the program. Be it as may, it looked and worked like the Windows 7.

Did Microsoft not announce Windows 8 officially?

There was an announcement at the Las Vegas show commonly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, where Microsoft announced that they are indeed developing Windows 8, whereby the idea is to include support in this particular operating system for mobile ARM and system-on-a-chip processors. A tentative release date has been rumored to be somewhere in the late 2012, but estimates are that it will most definitely be later than that.

What else is there to be expected from Windows 8?

There are plenty of new technologies coming up, but mainly in hardware form; nothing that a driver download and software installation could not fix easily. Microsoft learned early that there is no profit in free upgrades. Microsoft has never learned from their prior mistakes, after Windows Me a disaster like Vista should have been avoidable. Windows 2000, which was a good operating system and lead into development of the most popular Windows to date, the XP; and the current Windows 8 that was developed out of Vista seem to give Microsoft right that improvement is possible.
Nevertheless, people are going away from stationary computers and turning towards laptops and handheld devices. Perhaps this is what the idea behind Windows 8 is; making an operating system that can run totally cross-platform. Since that Microsoft is a company primarily concerned with the bottom line, such an innovative and smart idea is highly unlikely. Why would a software giant produce something durable, something that will last and be compatible with every gadget there is, where one volume license would cover all machines and provide even greater control over the hardware market than Microsoft currently has over the PC sector? On the other hand, that just might be it.