Chrome OS rumour mill grinds its gears
It’s amazing how quickly rumours spread on the Internet. Take recent news reports that Acer was launching a Chrome OS-based all-in-one computing device.
The original story appears to have originated with German website, Heise Online. The story claimed that Acer’s DX241H monitor would be equipped with Google’s long-awaited Chrome operating system.
Published on a Tuesday, by late Wednesday the story had been picked up by dozens of bloggers, online publishers and mainstream media. Publications such as The Register, PCWorld and others pushed out articles based on the original Heise story.
It was only a short while after that Heise updated its original article and said that Acer’s monitor in fact only ran a version of the Chrome browser and not the entire operating system. The monitor does, however, have a built-in processor, networking and USB ports and the ability to surf the Net even while unattached to a PC.
But it’s not the first Chrome OS device everyone has been waiting for.
CR-48
The first real Chrome OS-based piece of hardware most people are going to see is the CR-48. It looks as uninspiring as the name suggests. The CR-48 is a laptop that relies entirely on the Internet for its functionality.
Under the matt black exterior, the CR-48 has an Intel Atom chip (running at 1.66GHz), 2GB of RAM, a 16GB solid state hard disk and WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G support and probably a 12.1-inch screen.
This is not high-end hardware and the tiny solid state disk will scare off most geeks who have music collections larger than 16GB. Of course the CR-48 is designed for web use. Everything happens through a browser and most, if not all, data is stored online in tools such as Google Docs and GMail. Which is why a tiny 16GB disk is more than enough. In fact, consider that just a couple of years ago consumers were spending good money on netbooks with just 2GB or 4GB of disk space.
Google has already issued some reviewers with advance copies of the CR-48 and has launched the Chrome Web App Store as the go-to place for applications for its Chrome products.
The first consumer Chrome OS devices are expected to ship mid-year 2011 and will probably be manufactured by Acer and Samsung.
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