With the release of latest Chrome version 13.0.782.108, Google has addressed bucketful of issues that were bothering Chrome OS users for a long while.

On the list of updates that Chrome OS is getting, here are some of the most crucial updates:

• In-built support for VPN: With latest Chrome update, Chrome OS netbooks will now have in-built support for use in Virtual Private Network. That would be a major relief for IT administrators, especially those who ordered Chrome OS netbooks for their entire staff in bulk. However, L2TP over IPsec with PSK is supported at the moment and L2TP over IPsec with certificate-based authentication is coming soon.
• Citrix receiver: With the introduction of Citrix receiver, Google is trying to bring comfort to those masses who want same Windows apps be present on Chrome OS as well. Citrix Receiver is meant to convert all your windows apps into Chrome web apps. So, you will get the same comfort of using windows apps on Chrome OS.
• Netflix support: Google Chromebooks will now have native Netflix support but one will have to be very careful about streaming costs as even couple of minutes of HD streaming may run into 100s of Mbs of data consumption, which will easily cross the free monthly limit of 100Mb of data usage.
• Google Cloud Print has also been updated and whatever bugs were bothering the users while printing from their Chromebooks will not be a problem anymore.

To be more accurate, they’ve gone up for sale but Amazon would still show that Chromebooks aren’t released yet. Wait for some more time and everything will come at right place.

The lowest priced model is Acer Cromia Chromebook(WiFi version) which is selling at $380, while Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook is the costliest one at $499.

The following launch is currently applicable for U.S. citizens. For citizens of other countries where Chromebook launch has already been announced, please locate your local dealer to find out where can you buy your Chromebook.

Chromebook buyers will definitely be among the early ones but not the earliest. The same opportunity went live around two weeks back when Gilt Group started selling Chromebooks exclusively.

But one thing that stole the limelight among other things was much awaited ‘Chrome OS event’. Google invited tech journos to the suspense packed event on Tuesday, Dec 7 and the event proved to be a mixed bag of fruits.

Chrome OS team explained that they have long been hard at work, building Chrome OS from the ground up but they’re still not ready with fully tested and debugged version of Chrome OS and therefore, as rumored earlier, releasing only beta version of Chrome OS at the moment so no consumer Chromebook for Chrome OS fans during the holiday season.

In a pilot program set up by Google for Chrome OS, the Internet giant is giving away truckloads of Chrome OS Notebooks, named Cr-48, by giving any adult U.S. citizen a chance to request for a test unit using this form. Cr-48 notebooks carry no branding whatsoever(not even Google’s ) and with distribution of fully loaded(Verizon powered 3G) notebooks, Google’s plan is to create tens of thousands of beta testers of Chrome OS beta version.

As Google clearly stated during Chrome event itself, the current version of Chrome OS installed on Cr-48 notebooks is in its beta state and therefore, all lucky recipients of Chrome OS should expect to encounter lot of bugs while using the test unit.

The more users of Cr-48 notebooks out there, the more data(bug reporting) Google will gather from actual usage habits of end consumers.

About the future of Chrome OS

Well, many skeptics were pretty unsure about Google’s stance over Chrome OS, especially after managing to grow many folds in mobile OS space with Android. The fact of the matter is that Google looks up to Chrome OS as their ultimate cloud based OS and envision it as the future of computing in the years to come.

One must note here that Google refrained from using the term ‘Netbook’ during the Chrome event and preferred calling their Cr-48 test unit as Cr-48 Notebook, not an over-sized Netbook.

Although not highlighted much, there seems to be a shift in Google’s strategy with reference to their main hardware focus regarding Chrome OS. Netbooks are sharply loosing their relevance in computing industry with the fast advent of consumer friendly tablets and Android seems more appropriately positioned to capitalize on untapped tablet market, instead of Chrome OS.

PC market is already facing severe decline due to obvious limitations and that leaves laptop/notebooks as the only potent hardware option that will successfully thrive in the days to come.  That’s probably the reason why Google is pushing ‘Chrome OS’ as the future OS for Notebooks.

Google also confirmed during the event that Acer and Samsung will be the first two companies, who would bring their Chrome OS Notebooks into the market by mid 2011. More manufacturers will join the bandwagon as the time progresses.

Google is giving away Cr-48 Notebooks via several other ways apart from the primary option of form entry so we will be reporting on those ways as we discover them. Keep visiting our site for more info.

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Now, Google has already been hard at work to get Chromebooks out of the factory for quite sometime and with such rumors coming out, there are good chances that Google will not disappoint us this time.

Google has already released Chrome 8 and is working day-in, day-out to get Chrome Web Store functional and it all seems to indicate that ChromeBooks are now on their way.

But one must not expect too much out of this launch, if the rumors turn out to be true, simply because Google branded Chrome OS Netbooks will be extremely limited in production and may not be available to users for doing some ChromeOS shopping this holiday.

Chrome extension and Chrome web store developers might prove to be the lucky guys in grabbing the very fist chromebooks.

Let’s see if we hear some official announcement from Google regarding some event next tuesday or not !

Stay tuned…Keep following us on Facebook..

So after a ton of rumors, we have some solid news about the arrival of ChromeOS/ Chromebook.

Linus Upson, Google’s Vice President of Engineering has made some bold statements over the status of ChromeOS and what should people expect from Google with regard to this.

Mr. Upson told NYT that Chrome OS would be a universal computing platform spanning hand-held devices, tablets and TVs, not just netbooks.

He also said “We are starting with laptops and we will expand in both directions” he said. He reaffirmed that ChromeOS will come out this year itself(probably in Beta) and also hinted at the possibility of Google branded Netbook, similar to what Google did with Nexus One.

Now, these statements stand in direct conflict with CEO Eric Schmidt’s early statements given during Web 2.0 conference about Chrome OS. He said that Chrome OS and Android differ in their suitability and asserted that Chrome OS is more inclined towards keyboard based devices and Android is more suitable for touchscreen devices.

One year back, the earlier vision of Google for Chrome OS was indeed making Chrome OS a universal platform for computing across a wide range of devices, from netbooks to laptops, smartphones and tablets. That vision seems to match perfectly with Google VP’s recent comments. But statements from Google CEO Eric Schmidt have made things more confusing than doing any good.

One major reason why Chrome OS vision is still under lot of confusion is because of the super success of Android mobile platform and production of several tablets using Android OS. Even Google TV software is built on top of Android platform. May be, Android fit itself into most of the areas which were earlier planned for Chrome OS.

But it is apparent that Google’s future is actually into web based platform only and chances are that Chrome OS is the right platform for it. Android, albeit being a super-success in mobile landscape, doesn’t provide a long term solution for computing.

In our opinion, Android, being so dominant in mobile turf will remain Google’s preferred choice as their primary mobile OS, atleast for the foreseeable future. ChromeOS may probably take the lead in other variety of devices such as netbooks, laptops, tablets, TVs.

Eric Schmidt, after giving a teaser of first Gingerbread powered Nexus S, Google’s follow up to Nexus One Android phone, told the interviewers that Chrome OS is going to be more focussed around keyboard based devices and Android will be scaled up for touch enabled devices.

This statement goes against the rumors that Chrome OS will also come on tablet devices. And if you go and ask any gadget freak, Web based Chrome OS would have suited Touch based computing much better than any existing Mobile OS, even Android. But looks like super success of Android platform has made Google dedicate Touch computing area to Android and focus on keyboard computing devices with their yet-to-launch Chrome OS.

Also, there are some speculations that Chrome OS launch will be delayed further to next year. While scanning the bug tracking status, looks like Chrome OS team is already hard at work but there are more than just bugs that impact product launch timing, especially when the product is so critical that it holds the key to future of computing.

Also, working with multiple hardware partners makes it difficult to keep up with timelines. Still, we’re hopeful that speculations remain speculations and Christmas brings Chrome OS Netbooks to join the party !

Stay tuned for more on that…

According to rumor mill, Google would release Beta version of Google Chrome OS today but our guess is that the beta launch will take some more time to happen. Lets see what’s in Google store today.

We’re going to LIVE BLOG the event scheduled for today, 10 am at Google HQ so come back right here for Chrome OS event details.

• Sorry folks but there is going to be no beta today. The actual Google Chrome OS is still 12 months away from its mainstream launch.
• Sundar Pichai is now talking about Google Chrome’s achievements in terms of radical growth(over 40 million users within an year), high browsing speed and regular bug fixes. Chrome for Mac and Linux are in the pipeline, he says.
• Google Chrome OS team is figuring out a secure way for Web based applications to take advantage of the desktop OS in the same way that desktop applications do, says Sundar Pichai.
• As expected, every application on Chrome OS will be a web application(NO DESKTOP APPS). The emphasis will remain on providing high level of security, lightening speed and 100% fidelity. By fidelity, he refers to an instance that If someone loses his Chrome machine, he should go buy a new chrome machine and that’s it ! My computing experience would remain exactly the same it was earlier.”
• Chrome OS is basically Chrome browser with everything else on the cloud. All applications open in tabs and there are ‘panels’(described as persistent light windows) as well.
• Quick demo of Chrome OS UI is shown to us..It seems just fine…cool and lightweight.
• Speed, simplicity and security are the three main points Chrome OS will be based on.
• Sundar Pichai is done with his introductory speech and handing over the next part to Matt Papakipos
• Chrome OS eliminates the need of booting up. The browser gets auto-launched the moment we switch on the machine. The OS will self-update itself to stay aware of any security patches available and does the job by itself.
• From firmware to the OS kernel, things remain protected with a cryptographic signature ensuring a secure bootup. Malware detection and removal are automated.
• The existing system allows same level of system privileges to apps as given to users. This is entirely different when we talk about web based OS. The apps are web based and hence the privileges to web apps are never system based, which makes everything much secure and controlled in web based OS environment.

• Chrome OS’s file system is pretty much locked as it’s a read-only root file system. All user data is encrypted and synced to the cloud. PC would be utilized for caching your data but the ultimate stuff remains cloud based.
• It won’t be that easy to download and install Chrome OS on just about any machine. The hardware specs are an issue and Google is very much in talks with hardware manufacturers to settle down with a min. hardware requirements for Chrome OS. Chrome OS is expected to be ready by the fall of 2010.
• Q&A session starts..some interesting questions coming up….you catch the video embedded below :

• Development progress on Chrome OS
• Complete Chrome OS overview
• Future plans on official OS launch
• Scope and scalability

The complete event will be conducted by Sundar Pichai, VP of Product Management and Matthew Papakipos, Google Engineering Director for Google Chrome OS. The event will end with a Q&A session and our guess is that the Q&A will be most interesting to look out for.

Finally, it seems that Google Chrome OS is about to go mainstream by early next year so its great for us that we will have more to write about the stuff our website is all about.

Stay tuned…we will bring you byte-by-byte event details as they happen on thursday.

Finally, we will soon be witnessing an Operating System from Google built around Google Chrome, hence the name Google Chrome OS. It will be somewhere in 2010 when we all would actually have a preferrable alternative to Windows OS.

So far, there was absolutely no competiton for Microsoft in Operating system market(implying no options for the consumers). Apple’s Mac was busy serving a minority of computer users across the globe (around 4-5%) and may continue struggling, majorly due to its Hardware dependency issues. One shouldn’t even count Linux as a Windows competitor, as the open source OS never really managed to go beyond a certain usage level, mainly due to its poor User Interface, sophisticated functionality and non-familiarity with the masses.

There’s no witness required to conclude the fact that Windows Vista was a forced deal by Microsoft to its millions of religious userbase. In spite of Hardware incompatibility, poor performance, low efficiency and plenty of other ‘dark spots’, Windows Vista was heavily promoted as a preferrable upgrade but it didn’t take much time for the users to realize that Windows Vista wasn’t worth its cost.

Knowing the loop holes that Windows Vista had, the only reason why millions of users still upgraded their Operating systems from XP to Vista (or were simply sold Windows Vista by the hardware OEMs) was because of a lack of a better alternative to Windows Vista.

Many thanks to Google for providing all of us with an better alternative that we now can look upto. Welcome Google Chrome OS !

Is Google Chrome OS a Windows Killer ? Will it kick Microsoft Windows out of the OS market in 2-3 years from the day it officially releases ? Absolutely NOT.

Microsoft Windows is currently the De-facto standard in OS market. From hardware drivers to third party software applications, Windows has been a proven compatible Operating system for years now. The developer relations and overall OEM market is single handedly governed by this Software Godzilla. Windows 7, the much hyped operating system from Microsoft is set for release later this year. And building an Operating system, capable of  knocking out Microsoft Windows may even take generations of innovation.

And Google knows all this stuff quite well already. Still coming up with Google Chrome OS ?

Google is really not looking to challenge Microsoft all the way but want to capture the OS market stepwise, starting with an area where it can leave its impact the most, the Netbook Industry.

As Google Chrome OS will be built around Google Chrome, this would-be OS will rely mostly on Cloud services, Web apps and the concept of Webtop (think of Desktop) to make all things happen on the web, not on the desktop. It will primarily attract those, who live their life on internet and use their OS as just a medium to access the web browser, the actual door to the seemless world of internet.

As Netbooks have been the worst sufferers of Windows Vista due to Hardware incapability issues, the Google Chrome OS will address the urgent need of Netbook industry by providing a lighter, faster, more efficient and best of all FREE operating system to this upbeat industry.

Google is already busy working with major Netbook OEMs such as Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba, to finally come up with an Operating system, capable of being a preferred alternative to Windows OS.

Google Chrome OS is an open source project and will therefore be opened to developers later this year, to help making Google Chrome OS, as compatible and driver-friendly as Windows OS.

In the end, we have to admit that Microsoft has certainly realized its Deadliest competitor possible.(just think of any company, capable of challenging Microsoft in its own homeground(OS Industry) and you would end up with nothing else but Google).