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.<\/p>\n
The original story appears to have originated with German website, Heise Online<\/a>. The story claimed that Acer’s DX241H monitor would be equipped with Google’s long-awaited Chrome operating system.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, PCWorld<\/a> and others pushed out articles based on the original Heise story.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But it’s not the first Chrome OS device everyone has been waiting for.<\/p>\n CR-48<\/strong><\/p>\n The first real Chrome OS-based piece of hardware most people are going to see is the CR-48<\/a>. It looks as uninspiring as the name suggests. The CR-48 is a laptop that relies entirely on the Internet for its functionality.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Google has already issued some reviewers with advance copies of the CR-48 and has launched the Chrome Web App Store<\/a> as the go-to place for applications for its Chrome products.<\/p>\n The first consumer Chrome OS devices are expected to ship mid-year 2011 and will probably be manufactured by Acer and Samsung.<\/p>\n