TechJunction

Is Google stealing some of Apple’s iPhone thunder?
Google’s Android operating system edged out Apple’s iPhone operating system for the No. 2 spot in the U.S. consumer smartphone market in the first quarter, according to research firm NPD Group.

According to NPD, devices running Android accounted for 28 percent of the units sold to U.S. consumers in the first quarter of 2010. BlackBerry devices made by Research In Motion, which use RIM’s homegrown operating system, took the top spot with 36 percent of the U.S. market. Apple’s iPhone, which had been in the No. 2 spot previously, fell to third place with 21 percent of the market.

However, Android is an operating system that is available on several different models of phones made by different manufacturers, such as Motorola, HTC, and Samsung. Meanwhile, Apple’s operating system is used only on Apple’s own iPhone.

It was a busy week in the worlds of browsers and operating systems, as Google proved–with its unveiling of the browser-based Chrome OS–that the two are colliding.

Imagine a computer experience that’s much like TV: flip a switch and it’s on. That was the vision conveyed by Google Vice President of Product Marketing Sundar Pichai Thursday as he offered the public its first look at Chrome OS, the new operating system based on the company’s Chrome browser.

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Support for social-networking applications is the main draw for users to purchase a smartphone

Smartphones are set to become much cheaper as mobile phone vendors try to get data-centric devices in the hands of pre-paid subscribers.

Smartphones are often thought of as very high-end and expensive devices that sit at the top of vendor portfolios, according to Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight. In reality that is starting to change, with vendors putting out more devices at much lower prices, he said.

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A European developer of iPhone software has suggested Apple may be blocking the delivery of push notifications to iPhones that have been unofficially unlocked.

Czech Republic based PoweryBase, developer of the top-selling NotifyMe reminder application for the iPhone, thinks Apple may be blocking the delivery of push messages to iPhones that have been unofficially modified.

The company is at pains to point out that the observed behaviour could be accidental or intentional.

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Google’s Chrome OS isn’t the first operating system to challenge Microsoft Windows’ commanding lead. But it’s got an advantage that other rivals such as Linux lacked: the Web.

Any new operating system must attract the developers who produce the applications to make it useful. The trouble Windows challengers have had is matching the wide spectrum of software available for Windows already.

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That Google operating system rumor is coming true–and it’s based on Google’s browser, Chrome.

The company announced Google Chrome OS on its blog Tuesday night, saying lower-end PCs called Netbooks from unnamed manufacturers will include it in the second half of 2010. Linux will run under the covers of the open-source project, but the applications will run on the Web itself.

In other words, Google’s cloud-computing ambitions just got a lot bigger.

“Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the Web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small Netbooks to full-size desktop systems,” Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, said in the blog post.

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Ars has learned from two separate sources, one inside the company and one outside of it, that Google is preparing to deliver a Chrome-focused operating system that targets netbooks.

Two separate sources—one inside the company and one outside it—have confirmed to Ars tonight that Google plans to launch an operating system built in some fashion around its new web browser, Chrome. One source says that the new OS will be launched soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

Tentatively called “Google Chrome OS,” the project appears targeted at netbooks, the tiny portable computers typically used only for such light tasks as web browsing and e-mail. Chrome, of course, isn’t an operating system, but a quick-booting OS built around a single application like Chrome would be a natural fit for a netbook. With such an OS, Google could obviously make it extra easy for users to access the full range of Google cloud applications through the browser—Google Docs, Gmail, Google Maps, etc.

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If you’re a PC gamer, you might willingly pay $15 a month to stomp around the World of Warcraft. What if we also told you that depending on your rig and daily play time, you might also be paying a hidden fee of $10 or more a month to play even single-player PC games?

Gaming PC

After our debut round of all-in-one PC power efficiency results, we’ve had a chance to test the power consumption of a few other kinds of desktops. The most intriguing system so far has been a $3,600 gaming desktop from Digital Storm.

Most performance-driven gamers will consider the added power consumption simply the cost of racking up more kills, but that hasn’t stopped vendors from trying to bring that cost down. HP’s Firebird was an admirable first attempt, and we’re eager to see what Maingear has accomplished with its forthcoming Pulse. Hopefully Maingear, unlike HP, can keep the power draw down, without charging you more for the privilege of fewer frame rates and limited upgradability. We’ll know once we get one in for review. [link]

Mozilla is exhorting users to “upgrade the Web” with Firefox 3.5 and variations on that better-browsing theme can be found with Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, and Opera.

The hope is that the Web will evolve from a series of relatively static pages to a lively home for Web applications–everything from today’s e-mail to tomorrow’s spreadsheets. But it could take awhile for reality to catch up with the vision.

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The iPhone 3.0 update promises 100 features and enhancements for users, including copy-and-paste functionality and push notification

As promised during last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple on Wednesday released the iPhone 3.0 software update, a major overhaul of its mobile operating system that promises more than 100 new features and enhancements. [Read the rest of this entry...]