Right On Technology

A few days ago a Techcrunch reader alerted the site that he had found a “chromeos” folder on their Chromium build site. Google quickly removed the folder, but not before Jonathan Fredrickson could snatch the files and download them. The initial impressions so far are pretty positive. The OS itself looks and feels very similar to the Chrome browser, which makes sense.

One must wonder how happy Google is about this revelation, they can’t be too happy that details and actual builds of the OS are already getting out. On the other hand, that was pretty careless of them to place the entire OS on a publicly accessible folder. Also, it’s open source, so what can they really do? Not much.

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Rumors have abounded for weeks or months now with blurry pictures of supposed Android phones coming to Verizon. This has set the rumor mill in full motion dreaming up scenarios whereby Verizon might finally get off their duffs and decide to get in the smart phone game. It appears that this might finally come to pass as Google and Verizon are set to announce a strategic partnership today.

I’ve been a Verizon customer for about 5 years mostly due to the fact that they have/had the best network in America, especially when roaming and stuff used to really matter to me. However, their phones stink. When given the chance to have the iPhone on their network they told Apple to take off. Worst. Mistake. Ever. In fact, just last week I finally left Verizon and switched to AT&T so that I could get my wife an iPhone. We tried to hold out for a Gphone/Android based phone to show up Verizon, but we just couldn’t take it any longer.

So, it appears that Verizon will be offering the Android phone very soon. What remains to be determined is whether or not they are going to gimp the features that make the Android phones really cool. Verizon has a history of gimping phones on their network so you can’t take full advantage of them (like the GPS ability in the Blackberry I had from Verizon). With Verizon nothing is beyond imagination, if they gimp them though, really there is no point to get an Android phone. The whole point of Android is openness and accessibility. Here is one of the phones rumored to be offered by Motorola, looks promising.

Sony is set to start distributing Google Chrome as the default broswer on all their PCs this year. This is the first browser distribution agreement that Google has reached with any major consumer and is figured to help raise the profile of Chrome, which is actually a pretty good browser.

I find it it interesting that Google and Sony would enter this kind of agreement though. Google has complained loudly over the years about Microsoft “forcing’ customers to use Internet Explorer because it is bundled with windows. I find it ironic that Google would now enter into a similar type of deal.

Can this type of deal work? Sure it can, it only raises to expose Chrome to more and more users, which is certainly a good thing. My guess is, though, that it won’t do much to really phase the market penetration that Firefox and IE already dominate in. If I’m just an average user who bought a new Sony Vaio (which says enough about me as a consumer already, gag) am I’m going to be smart enough to even know what Chrome is? Probably not, I’m just going to continue using IE, because that is all I know.

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Today Google opened a preview of their new search engine optimization called “Caffeine”. Reportedly Caffeine will boost the already quick and accurate Google but adding new optimization. In recent weeks there has been a slew of bad news for Google that has them, frankly, concerned. First Microsoft and Yahoo announced a new combination/search deal that would make them a powerful number two in the search engine business. While Google still has about 65% of that market, the new Bing/Yahoo deal gives them virtually everything else. Jason Calacanis estimates that each percentage of the search engine business is worth about $1 billion dollars. Next came Microsoft’s announcement of the online Office; or Office in the Cloud, which is meant to compete with Google Docs and other investments Google is making. There has been a lot of back and forth this summer between Microsoft and Google, so the announcement of Caffeine is interesting.

So, what exactly is Caffeine? Essentially it’s next generation architecture that will allow faster and more accurate results. Most people will not notice a large difference right away, mostly this sits “under the hood” as Google says. However, web developers and power users probably will notice some differences. If you want to learn more or check updates about Caffeine you can click here.

Whether you are a Microsoft or a Google fan, on thing is for sure, competition is good for the market. I have worried for some time now that since Google is by far and away the most popular search engine, they would allow their status as number one to carry them, which is pretty much what Microsoft did during the late 90’s/early 2000s. Now Microsoft has real competition from Apple and Google and their products are much better. Bing is so good that I actually use it quite often (I especially like their cash back offers when you purchase items using Bing). Will Bing ever replace “google it” in our lexicon? Probably not, but as long as both Microsoft and Google (and Apple I suppose) are viable entities, this will only benefit the consumer.

Last week Apple caused quite the stir in the tech world by denying Google’s application for the iPhone for Googlevoice. For those not familiar, Google Voice is a new service (formerly called Grand Central) that Google will be releasing at some point that will allow users to have one portable phone number, and then have all their other phone lines (home, cell, work, etc.) point to that one number. There are a lot of other very cool features as well. Right now it is invite only (I got one ) but they are expanding the Beta all the time, so if interested you should apply. The cool thing about the iphone app is that it would have allowed you to dial directly from your iPhone and other phones would have seen your Google voice phone number as opposed to your iPhone number.

However, Apple rejected the app, much to the chagrin of many users. In fact, Michael Arrington of Techcrunch.com was so mad that he actually called AT&T and canceled his contract, he’s not the only one. These kind of draconian moves (which Apple is somewhat known for) may be the biggest argument for using an alternate smart phone like the Pre or an android based phone. No worries though, Google has a solution for all you Apple fan boys, they are going to develop a web based application that will allow you to do basically the same thing. As the New York Times reports:

“Google says it is readying a replacement for the Google Voice app that will offer exactly the same features as the rejected app—except that it will take the form of a specialized, iPhone-shaped Web page. For all intents and purposes, it will behave exactly the same as the app would have; you can even install it as an icon on your Home screen.”

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