Welcome to ChromeOS

So after a bad start to this week due to a range of reasons, I was generally sulking. Went out with my parents to get breakfast, and as I was dropping my father off at home we saw a UPS truck pull up and drop something off at our place. I didn't think much of it at the time. I took my mother out to another store and ran a few errands. When I got back, my ipod decided to start acting up, so I had totally forgotten about getting a package earlier that day, after a bit of nagging by my parents I came out to investigate.

I opened up a box, and was shocked to find that inside was a shiny new laptop waiting just for me. I had totally forgotten that I had signed up for the ChromeOS beta test from Google. It's about 12"x9"x0.75" It has a monitor out, 1 usb slot and a headphone jack. There is one other thing on the side that I can't quite tell what it is, an expansion slot maybe?

It starts up quickly, and it comes out of hibernation quickly. It comes with 2 years of 100mb 3g coverage on Verizon free.

to right click you have to basically hold down both sides of the bottom part of the touch pad.

Foursquare’s Next Game: Choose Your Own Adventure?

Foursquare’s Next Game: Choose Your Own Adventure?

Oh this could be fun. I always did enjoy the chose your own adventure type books.

The best Google Android 2.2 specs and upgrades - by Amanda Fox - Helium

The best Google Android 2.2 specs and upgrades - by Amanda Fox - Helium

Google Android 2.2 “Froyo” which is short for “Frozen yogurt” is the seventh platform release in the line of Android technology which launched in September of 2008. Google Android 2.2 has been hotly anticipated by consumers because unlike some earlier upgrades which were a bit pedestrian, Froyo is a significant upgrade in 5 key areas of performance and available services. While Google Android 2.2 was rumored for quite awhile, it was officially introduced to the public on may 20, 2010, and the following 5 areas were highlighted as the best Google Android 2.2 spec upgrades and services.

The Dalvik JIT compiler was the banner announcement as this greatly enhances performance. The cited improvement is on the magnitude of a 2-5X range over the performance of its predecessor Google Android 2.1 Éclair. The earliest demonstrations have held this claim to be accurate, but some tech gurus have cited that the 5x performance claim may be a bit ambitious when multiple applications are at work.

The browser is said to run 2-3x faster thanks to the V8 JavaScript engine that is now included as part of the 2.2 Android browser. That speed improvement estimate is again regarding comparison to Android 2.1, and is accurate, but again, not all techies are convinced that is going to be that big an improvement over rumored similar upgrades from different developers hinted at later in the year.

New enterprise capabilities have been added which include calendar sync, account auto-discovery, and API’s that are going to give developers the ability to write applications that enhance security features like lock screen timeouts, remote wipes, and minimum password. As security features are always a worry this is a big deal even if it is not the most highly touted upgrade to Google Android 2.2.

Google Android 2.2 will offer a great new set of API’s and services. With this upgrade, users can count on API’s that have great data backup and restore features, as well as the ability to allow apps to restore the last data it held when it was installed or the device was reset. You will be able to take advantage of features like Android Cloud, two way push synch functionality, and apps that can be stored internally or on a SD card if designated as such by their developers. You can also expect to have Skia bitmap access.

The final Google Android 2.2 upgrade that was highlighted at the official announcement was the wealth of new additions to the Android Market. There will now be Android Application error reports, and a bug reporting feature which is significant. Now rather than having to waste time figuring out where to make bug reports, there will be one central location which saves users time as well as developers and enables quicker resolutions to errors.

Other features user will enjoy include:

* Home screen tips widget which makes configuring the home screen with shortcuts and widgets easier and enables the use of multiple home screen configurations.

* Global address list look-up will allow auto-complete of of recipient names on your messages from any name stored in your directory.

* Camera Gallery allows users to zoom in on picture stacks

* New onscreen buttons allow for controlling camera features like flash, zoom, geo-tagging, focus, exposure, and white balance.

* The camcorder feature will no allow video/size quality defaults directly suited for YouTube and MMS.

* The LED Flash now allows for low-light nighttime video recording.

* Portable WiFi Hotspot allows for sharing of up to 8 devices

* Multiple keyboard languages in one touch

* A kernel Memory boost which allows for a 20x improvement in memory reclaim which allows for faster app switching.

* Stagefright will support local file playback and HTTP progressive streaming

* OpenCore support

* BlueTooth

* Cloud Messaging

Regardless of any worries that some may have that speed and performance estimates may be a bit over inflated, there is plenty going on with Google Android 2.2 Froyo to be pleased with. Granted it will be obsolete technology in some regards within a year compared to upcoming upgrades, but for most people these upgrades and added features will be more than sufficient to make this a must have platform that can be serviceable for a couple if not more depending on individual needs.

Sources:

Android Developers market

Google I/O release notes

Tip: Market App Issue in Froyo | Droid Life: A Motorola Droid Blog

Tip: Market App Issue in Froyo | Droid Life: A Motorola Droid Blog

Woo a fix for the Market Issue with Froyo. Though one program says it's not compatible with Froyo, but I guess I can live without it for now.

Froyo Screen Shots

So last night, I finally rooted my droid to put the Froyo updates that had been coming out on it.

If you are wondering about my wallpaper, that's the 360 stage from U2.  Loving Froyo so far, though was able to confirm that they didn't make the one big change to Gmail that I had hoped they would. The ability to edit your reply. But I do like the way it looks, and that could still come since this isn't the "Official" Release.

Big Thanks to Droid-life.com for putting up all the details on how to do this!