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.

The news spurted out when beta testers started receiving email from Google Chrome Team, inviting them to grab some limited set of Samsung Chromebooks from Gilt.

Here’s how the email reads…

chromebook store

Now, even if you want one right now, you won’t be able to buy a Chromebook, even from Gilt, unless you have received the above email invite. Good thing is that these lucky Chromebook buyers will also get custom-fit Chrome sleeve by Rickshaw.

If you didn’t get such an email invite, you better stay patient till the Chromebook launch at Amazon and BestBuy.

Then came the rumor that Google might possibly rent out Chrome OS machines to users for just $20/month. We weren’t that convinced about the rumor that time but it astoundingly came out to be true after yesterday’s announcement, although partially only.

‘Partially’ because Chrome OS netbooks are going to be available on rent, only for Educational and Enterprise customers; not for those individuals who want to rent it just for themselves. Individual buyers will have to ‘buy’ it as no rent option is available to them.

Also, other renting advantages such as full admin console for software administration & management, direct support from Google for any issues, warranty and replacement facility for the hardware aren’t covered by Google. Individual buyers will have to look up to hardware manufacturers for fulfillment of any such requirments.

Educators can get Chromebooks on rent for just $20/mo per user while businesses can order Chromebooks on rent for $28/mo per user. Consumers can ‘buy’ Chromebook for a starting price of $349 (WiFi only cheapest available Chromebook right now).

Acer and Samsung are among the first two OEMs to start selling Chromebooks starting June 15, 2011. Several other OEMs are expected to start selling Chromebooks by end of this year.

But there’s one important thing to note here. Renting Chromebook will bind you under a 3 year contract and the only way to get rid of that contract, in case you wish to do so, is by paying rest of the contract money. This sounds a little creepy but that’s the way it is, at least for now.

The minimum quantity of Chromebooks to be ordered for renting (for Educational/business use) has been set as 10 units. So, even if you run a small business and wish to get Chromebooks on rent, make sure your small business isn’t too small.

Finally, its showtime !

Google at its I/O Event yesterday unveiled the biggest surprise of the two-day event and that raised a lot of eyebrows and also shut up a lot of skeptics doubting the dwindling intentions of Google behind Chrome OS project.

Google unveiled Chromebook, also dubbed as ‘Nothing but the Web’ by Google, which itself tells a lot about the thoughts and purpose behind the Chromebook, a Chrome OS netbook.

At the time of launch, Samsung and Acer are going to be selling their Netbooks as Chromebooks(powered by Chrome OS). More OEMs are expected to join the party later this year but as of now, its just Acer and Samsung that have joined hands with Google.

But all of this glossy product announcement at Google I/O event took endless hours of engineering efforts by Chrome OS team at the back end, building things to the level where they’re today. Chrome OS was actually full of bugs when it launched in closed beta testing  phase late last year but since then, the cloud-based OS has had tons of improvements with the help of precious user feedback from beta testers.

At last, all of Chrome OS enthusiasts can take a sigh of relief and welcome the Chromebook !

According to Neowin, Google will be selling the devices as part of a subscription based model with Gmail to customers so as to attract more customers than they could have attracted by conventional sales of Chrome OS laptops.

Although this seems very unlikely as this will loosen the control of sales from hardware manufacturers which they obviously wouldn’t like at all and may also impact the profits that manufacturers make out of selling Chrome OS laptops at their usual price.

Remember, this model would be more like renting a device rather than buying it with subscription. That means, those who will rent such a device will not own it, even if they keep using it for 2-3 years and keep paying the rental money.

Factually, hardware renting model is complete rumor at this point and Google is not supporting this at all but who knows what ways Google might try to help increase the sales of its upcoming line of Chrome OS devices.

Stay tuned…!

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.

But there’s something that’s interesting to note here. Just couple of hours back, a cluster of Flash related bugs have been simultaneously updated with the same standard update message and then moved to Milestone R10

“Flapper won’t make it to R9.x so punting to R10″

Now, a total of 10 Flash related bugs have been simultaneously updated with this message and further moved to Milestone R10. What does that mean ?

May be, Flash bugs are temporarily deferred for now and all Flash support issues will not be fully resolved at the time when Google announces Beta version of Chrome OS to the world.

Looking at the Chrome OS bug history, Flash bugs in Chrome OS have been persistent since the very beginning of the project and have consumed a lot of time in getting resolved, and still, the bugs aren’t fully resolved as yet. Few hours back, a new Flash bug has been filed in Chrome OS bug list and this may not be the last Flash related bug on Chrome OS bug list.

Well, December isn’t too far and we will soon get clarification on all the speculations floating right now.

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