Category: News

 

Google has been trying to streamline their apps’ user interface to go along with the “cards” look we first saw in Google Now. Google Play Music and Play Books have already been updated over the past few days, and now Play Magazines follows with their new UI. The white background with purple accents fits very well into  Google’s new simplified design style. Aside from the new UI, bug fixes are also included in the update, version 2.0.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Google’s apps updated to match. You can download the updated app from the link after the break.

Play Store Download Link

Come comment on this article: Google updates Play Magazines user interface as part of design streamline

Google’s own version of Siri is coming to the iPhone and iPad “soon,” according to the company. On Wednesday Google announced an update for its Chrome app is now available for Android and that another update for the Chrome for iOS app will follow “over the coming days” and include Voice Search.

From Google’s blog post about it:

“You can now speak your searches into the omnibox. Touch the microphone, say your search query aloud and see your results (in some cases spoken back to you), all without typing a single letter.”

Unlike Siri, this is not integrated into the operating system, and can only be accessed through the Chrome app.

Little by little, Google has been fine-tuning and improving its products that run on Apple’s operating system, and it’s having the effect of creating a Google layer on top of iOS.

Not only are all of Google’s major properties accessible in app form on iOS — from YouTube to Google Maps to Mail, Drive, Chrome, Search, Google+ and more — they often best what Apple has to offer. In addition, Google is finding ways to interconnect its apps, so iOS customers can jump from Google service to Google service fluidly. Earlier this month Google introduced a new setting for iOS developers that can enable app users to choose to set links in the Gmail iOS app to open in YouTube, Chrome or Google Maps, as appropriate, by default.

In April the company updated its Google Search app for iOS with Google Now, an assistant app that offers suggestions automatically based on behaviors and preferences expressed across Google’s apps and properties, all of which are on iOS.

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As people continue to look for ways to “cut the cord” and move away from traditional cable services, right now they largely have no choice but to continue subscribing to ISPs’ Internet services even if they cancel pay-TV. Over the next few years, however, that need might fade in many regions. According to new research from ABI, LTE-FDD (frequency-division duplex) will expand to cover 57% of the global population by 2018 while LTE-TDD (time-division duplex) will cover 52% of the population by that point in time.

Continue reading…

During the Xbox One unveiling, we only got a small glimpse of what the console is truly capable of. In a new video released today, the people behind Xbox go into a bit further detail on what gamers can expect from the new console.

Xbox executives discuss how Xbox built the all-in-one games and entertainment system for today and the decade ahead — Xbox One. Xbox executives Yusuf Mehdi, Phil Spencer, and Marc Whitten discuss how Xbox One puts you at the center of all your games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype.

As an added bonus, here’s that “Xbox Anthem” video that Microsoft opened the Xbox One unveiling event with. It’s totally worth watching for the random appearances from Hideo Kojima and J.J. Abrams. Will they be creating content for the new console, like Steven Spielberg’s live action Halo TV series?

Microsoft has announced the long-awaited successor to the Xbox 360, naming it the Xbox One, but news does not stop there. Major game announcements at E3 were alluded to during the presentation, and today subsidiary Skype officially throws its hat in the ring, announcing it will bring additional functionality to the next-generation console.

This may not be a surprise, but Skype explains its plans for the new Xbox and those ideas are ambitious. “Skype for Xbox One lets you enjoy your Xbox games, apps and live TV with friends and family as if they were right there with you in the living room, all through features such as group video calling and Snap”, says Microsoft’s Tony Bates.

Bates also tells us that Skype for Xbox One uses the new Kinect camera and your broadband connection to send one-to-one Skype video calls in full 1080p HD resolution. The camera has a wide-angle field of view, attempting to let everyone sit and chat comfortably, and the microphone is directional to block out ambient noise. Finally, Skype will work with the voice control showed off during the announcement.

Skype does nothing to clear the air about when the new console will arrive, but does give us more information on the capabilities that we can expect from this upcoming release.

If you were Netflix, with the massive success of House of Cards, the love-it-or-hate-it buzz generated by Hemlock Grove, and the pure madness surrounding the launch of season 4 of Arrested Development – why wouldn’t you want to expand your content offerings?

In a lengthy interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix’s Content Chief Ted Sarandos hints at just that – possibly doubling Netflix’s content output next year (by the end of 2013, they will have put out 8 new shows).

“It’s feasible that we would double the load that we did this year. People’s tastes are wildly diverse, and I want to be able to appeal to all of those tastes and across demos. Hemlock Grove is totally different from House of Cards. Orange Is the New Black is a very different show. I think we can support a lot of specific tastes,” said Sarandos.

As far as what kind of specific tastes, Sarandos says that sci-fi is a good direction, as is “tween” content.

Also, sitcoms and comedy:

“And then we’re doing quite a bit in the original standup comedy space, too. Bill Burr, for example, is somebody who has had a great cult following, and now his audience is getting so large from him being on Netflix. He is touring in all of the parts of the world where Netflix is, like Norway and Finland, because he has an audience there now. So, we’ll definitely be competitive [with HBO and Showtime] in that space. it’s also a great way to cultivate talent for future scripted projects,” he said.

But as far as original movies go – Sarandos isn’t quite sold on the idea…yet:

“The reason why I’ve shied away from original movies has been that there are so many more great movies that get made than ever get distributed, and I think we function better as a distributor for movies than we do as a creator or marketer of movies for now. But I probably would have said the same thing about TV shows three years ago.”

Back in 2007, Google announced that it would be putting hundreds of millions of dollars into a “strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal.”

This included eSolar and Makani Power. News is out today that Google has now acquired the latter. Brad Stone at BusinessWeek writes:

Last February, Astro Teller, the director of Google’s (GOOG) secretive research lab, Google X, went to seek approval from Chief Executive Officer Larry Page for an unlikely acquisition. Teller was proposing that Google buy Makani Power, a startup that develops wind turbines mounted on unmanned, fixed-wing aircraft tethered to the ground like a kite. The startup, Teller told Page, was seeing promising results, and, he added proudly, its prototypes had survived all recent tests intact.

Page approved Google X’s acquisition of Makani, which was being completed for an undisclosed amount at press time. He also had a demand. “He said we could have the budget and the people to go do this,” Teller says, “but that we had to make sure to crash at least five of the devices in the near future.”

According to TechCrunch, Google invested $10 million in Makani Power in 2006 and another $5 million in 2008. Frederic Lardinois shares a statement from Teller:

Creating clean energy is one of the most pressing issues facing the world, and Google for years has been interested in helping to solve this problem. Makani Power’s technology has opened the door to a radical new approach to wind energy. They’ve turned a technology that today involves hundreds of tons of steel and precious open space into a problem that can be solved with really intelligent software. We’re looking forward to bringing them into Google[x].

Makani Power has the following statement up on its site:

We are happy to announce that Makani Power is being acquired by Google. This formalizes a long and productive relationship between our two companies, and will provide Makani with the resources to accelerate our work to make wind energy cost competitive with fossil fuels. The timing couldn’t be better, as we completed the first ever autonomous all-modes flight with our Wing 7 prototype last week. Makani could not have reached this point without the support of the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program and the hard work of our talented team, past and present. We look forward to working with our new colleagues at Google[x] to make airborne wind a cost-effective reality.

Earlier this year, Google put $200 million into a wind farm in Texas.

Jose Canseco has a wonderfully demented Twitter account, which boasts over half a million followers. But things got more scary/sad-demented than funny-demented this week when he tweeted out that he’s being accused of rape and is the subject of an investigation.

The ex-baseball great, who made news just yesterday when it was announced he’ll be moving to Texas to play/coach for the Fort Worth Cats, has deleted the tweets above from his account but did post this one today:

Lets play truth or dare. I dare susie bell to tell the truth.

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) May 22, 2013

Las Vegas police say they won’t reveal any details since it is an open investigation, but they have confirmed that Canseco is indeed a suspect in the case. Now, he’s drawing the ire of many who can’t believe he would post the name of the woman on a social network.

Jose Canseco tweeted the name, number and picture of a woman who accused him of rape. All of a sudden the Kardashians’ don’t seem that bad.

— Jenny Johnson (@JennyJohnsonHi5) May 22, 2013

@janemecom @ericmichaelnyc @wantedwebsite @josecanseco I don’t disagree truth is important but so is protecting real victims. #SpeakingAsOne

— Allison (@Auntie_Allison) May 22, 2013

Jose Canseco Grows His Steroid-Shrunken Testes Enough To Tweet Rape Accuser’s Phone Number, Like A Man zite.to/185d7pl via @zite

— Jessica Clanton (@sciencearkansas) May 22, 2013

Below, take a look at some of the TED speakers and Fellows who are cropping up in the news this week.

Esther Perel: The secret to desire in a long-term relationshipLybrido, a drug to treat women with low libido, is in clinical trials and could be presented to the FDA for review as early as this summer. In The New York Times Magazine‘s look at this new drug, TED speaker Esther Perel is asked about the conundrum of desire for women in long-term relationships. “Many couples confuse love with merging,” she says. “This mix-up is a bad omen for sex. To sustain élan toward the other, there must be a synapse to cross. Eroticism requires distance.” Watch Perel’s talk “The secret to desire” »

Philosopher Dan Dennett has a great new book, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. Read an excerpt containing his “seven tools for thinking, or check out any of his four TED Talks »

Last week, NASA announced the shutdown of the Kepler spacecraft mission. On the TED Fellows blog, Lucianne Walkowicz – an astronomer who worked on the project – shares her thoughts on its end. Watch her talk “Finding planets around other stars” »

Henry Markram: A brain in a supercomputer The new Wired takes a detailed look at Henry Markram’s years-long campaign to build a supercomputer replica of the human brain — a plan he shared early on at TEDGlobal, in fact. The piece begins, “Even by the standards of the TED Conference, Henry Markram’s 2009 TEDGlobal talk was a mind-bender. He took the stage of the Oxford Playhouse, clad in the requisite dress shirt and blue jeans, and announced a plan that—if it panned out—would deliver a fully sentient hologram within a decade.” And it gets weirder. Watch his 2009 talk »

CERN physicists share with the TED-Ed blog what it was like to have their words — and sometimes their personas — animated in five TED-Ed videos that boil down concepts in particle physics into understandable terms. Watch these five animated lessons »

Rose George: Let's talk crap. Seriously.Related to Rose George’s talk, “Let’s talk crap. Seriously”: On Monday, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, 184 couples wed in a mass ceremony — before which the husband-to-be had to prove he had a toilet or would build one within the month. As a reward, The Wall Street Journal reports, “the state covers the costs of the wedding and gifts for the groom’s family, which are traditionally provided by the bride’s parents.” Watch George’s talk »

Finally, fashion website Refinery 29 admits that Meg Jay’s talk “Why 30 is not the new 20” got their “entire office buzzing.” Watch the talk »

Congratulations to TED Fellow Kellee Santiago for being named one of Inc. Magazine‘s ”5 Most Powerful Women in Gaming.” Read a TED Blog interview with Santiago about the inspiration behind the game Journey »

This Tuesday, Microsoft announced the Xbox One, which the company is calling an “all in one home entertainment system.” Through voice and gesture commands, users will be able to stream music, watch live TV, play games, and access apps. Is this the future of the living room or mere hype? We ask you, GigaOM readers, to weigh in with your thoughts.

Note: Survey results will be posted on GigaOM Pro (subscription required). For survey participants who are not subscription holders, email [email protected] for a copy of the results.

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MassChallenge said it selected 128 startups for its 2013 MassChallenge Accelerator Program. The companies come from eighteen states and 11 locations abroad. The four-month accelerator program begins in June.

PRESS RELEASE

MassChallenge Unveils 128 Global Finalist Startups Entering 2013 Accelerator

Boston Community Rallies Around Global Innovators in Show of Massive Engagement

BOSTON, May 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – Today, MassChallenge unveiled 128 Global Finalists for the 2013 MassChallenge Accelerator Program at its finalist announcement event. The 2013 class was selected over a six-week evaluation process led by hundreds of industry professionals in the Boston community and dozens in Israel. In June, the finalist companies will convene in Boston to engage in the four-month accelerator program. The 2013 season is poised to draw the most community engagement to date.

“Based on feedback from the judges, this will be the highest-quality MassChallenge finalist pool yet,” said MassChallenge Founder and President Akhil Nigam. “Very high-potential startups from around the world are choosing to join MassChallenge to participate in the uniquely collaborative and engaged Boston startup community.”

MassChallenge increased its class size from 125 to 128 this year as a tribute to Route 128, underscoring the continued innovation renaissance in Boston. The 128 startups hail from eighteen U.S. states and eleven international locations.

“These 128 remarkable startups show the economic vitality of the Innovation District and this city,” says Honorable Thomas Menino, Mayor of Boston. “We welcome these bold thinkers and the creative energy they bring to the strong Boston Community.”

During the rigorous selection process, over 300 globally renowned experts volunteered their time as MassChallenge judges to evaluate ~1,200 applicant companies from 40 countries and 30 states. These judges provided 500,000 words of written feedback during an estimated 3,000 judge-hours of evaluation.

Many key partners from the MassChallenge community attended the announcement event, which highlighted the most engaged partners from the community who helped source applications and secure key resources for the program.

MassChallenge also introduced two new funders, Pfizer and the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, who will join the notable assembly of existing sponsors, including Fidelity Investments, Verizon, The Deshpande Foundation, and Fan Pier.

“Like Pfizer, MassChallenge is a global organization with a mission focused on driving innovation,” says Pfizer Vice President of Worldwide Innovation Wendy Mayer. “We are proud to continue a long tradition of innovation and eager to leverage our resources to support high-impact entrepreneurs alongside our new accelerator partner.”

An abundance of high-profile speakers and mentors engage with MassChallenge finalists throughout the four-month program, including Robert Kraft, Colin Angle, Linda Henry, Dharmesh Shah, Diane Hessan, and many more. The program culminates on October 30 at the MassChallenge Awards Ceremony where winners will be awarded over $1 million in cash prizes.
Links: 
Full Global Finalist List & PDF: http://masschallenge.org/startups/2013

About

MassChallenge is the largest-ever startup accelerator, and the first to support high-impact, early-stage entrepreneurs with no strings attached. Over $1 million in cash prizes is awarded to winning startups, with zero equity taken. Additional benefits for startups include world-class mentorship and training, free office space, access to funding, legal advice, media and over $15 million of in-kind support.

The post MassChallenge Accelerator Selects 128 Startups For Next Class appeared first on peHUB.

Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense, recently spoke on gay marriage and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell during a recent interview with Larry King.

On the issue of gay marriage, Rumsfeld said that he doesn’t exactly know where he is in the debate. He does wonder what would come next if gay marriage were to be legalized. He specifically says, “two people? three people?” as if he’s wondering if polygamists will be the next group demanding the state recognize their marriages.

King then reminds Rumsfeld that he was a proponent of civil rights in the 60s. He responds to King by saying that he doesn’t necessarily view gay marriage as part of a larger civil rights agenda.

It should be noted that he doesn’t have any animosity towards homosexuals. In a previous question on the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, he says that its repeal was only a matter of time. He points out that homosexuals have served in the military for decades, and that they served their country well.

That being said, he thinks that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will be tougher in certain parts of the military. He predicts that it will be easier to implement openly gay service men and women in the Air Force and Navy, but cautions that implementation among ground forces may be a little trickier. In other words, he worries that unit cohesion, or the ability of a troop to work together as a whole, may be impacted negatively if soldiers respond negatively to openly gay squad mates.

You can watch the relevant part of the interview below:

[h/t: Salon]

New details continue to trickle out following Microsoft’s Xbox One unveiling. Some new tidbits answer burning questions and some simply raise new questions, but there are also a few key features being discovered that Microsoft was oddly quiet about during its presentation but happily confirmed after the show. For one example, Forbes’ Matt Hickey was able to learn after the presentation that the new Xbox One will indeed support “Ultra HD” gaming at 4K resolution. “The video and interface portions, absolutely,” Microsoft marketing boss Yusuf Mehdi responded when asked whether or not the new Xbox would offer 4K gaming. It looks like games will be 1080p at launch, though 4K games will certainly be available down the road once Ultra HD TV sales pick up.

On Wednesday, Google announced that Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisconsin has been named the national winner of its 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google contest. The doodle, titled, “Coming Home” will be featured on Google’s U.S. homepage on Thursday.

Brady is a 12th grade student at Sparta High School. She will receive a $30,000 college scholarship in addition to having her doodle featured. She also gets a Chromebook, and her school gets a $50,000 technology grant.

Google Doodle Team Lead Ryan Germick writes:

Students across all 50 states amazed us with their creative interpretations of this year’s theme, “My Best Day Ever…” From scuba diving to dinosaurs to exploring outer space, we were wowed by the ways young artists brought their best days to life in their doodles.

Sabrina’s doodle stood out in the crowd; it tells the story of her reunion with her father as he returned from an 18 month deployment in Iraq. Her creative use of the Google letters to illustrate this heartfelt moment clearly resonated with voters across the country and all of us at Google.

There were 130,000 submissions to the contest. Google lists the national finalists (who will each win a $5,000 scholarship) here.

There’s a lot of BlackBerry and Android developers out there that still possibly have money owed to them by Mobihand. The company went bankrupt back in September of 2012 and recent court documents obtained by BlackBerryCool show that the company has sold to OpenMobile Worldwide for $15,000. It doesn’t look like developers will be getting their money any time soon as many are owed in excess of $15,000 and the period to recoup your loses has likely expired. It’s not really clear what OpenMobile does, but its about page suggests it works with app stores to improve their core technologies.

There’s also an overbid procedure so if you’d like to buy Mobihand/Mobireach, you can do so for at least $17,500. For that price, you get a native app store client for Android, as well as a host of other technologies such as APIs and update management systems. It actually seems like a really good deal.

After a series of high profile hacks, Twitter is finally getting serious about log-in security with a new feature that will require users to enter an extra pin code when using non-familiar devices.

The feature, known as “two-factor” authentication, is already used by companies like Google and Apple and works by sending a pin code via text message to a user’s cell phone. Twitter has details and a tutorial video here.

The decision to add an extra security feature comes after hackers have repeatedly gained control of high profile Twitter feeds. The most prominent example occurred last month when hackers used the Associated Press’s account to say bombs had injured President Obama. The fake tweet roiled financial markets and led to calls for Twitter to improve its security features.

Attackers have also targeted CBS, the BBC and the Onion. The latter offered a candid account of how the hackers phished employees accounts and induced some of them, including a person with control over social media passwords to share log-in information.

Two factor authentication would likely have prevented those attacks because the attackers would have had to enter a password sent to the employee’s cell phone.

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Verizon Wireless is going after the Latino market through a new venture called Viva Movil and it’s getting a little bit of help from Jennifer Lopez. The new venture, owned by Lopez, retail chain Moorehead Communications and mobile supply chain manager Brightstar, will have its own physical and online stores, but the devices and service plans all will be Verizon’s.

Speaking at a Verizon press conference at CTIA Wireless, Lopez said that there are 52 million Latinos in the U.S. with a combined purchasing power of $1.2 trillion annually, presenting a huge opportunity for a premium mobile service. “As modern Latinos, we do things differently, including how we shop for mobile devices,” said Lopez, who is assuming the role of Viva’s chief creative officer.

The venture might sound like one of the new breed of mobile virtual network operators, like TracFone’s Telcel America, which also targets the Latino community. But it’s not an MVNO. Nor is it a Verizon brand, like Virgin Mobile is brand of Sprint.

The best way to think of Viva Movil is as an authorized dealer, like RadioShack or Best Buy. Verizon has no ownership stake in the Viva, but it will be the venture’s exclusive service and device provider, said Verizon COO and EVP Marni Walden.

The only thing Viva stores will sell other than Verizon phones and services will be a line of accessories such as smartphone cases supposedly designed by Lopez. Viva is also adding a twist on the online front. It will turn its Facebook page into a full retail portal. Customers can see what phones their Facebook friends have bought or recommended, and they will be able to buy their devices and set up their accounts directly from the Facebook page, Lopez said.

The first store will open on June 15 in New York City. Lopez and Walden wouldn’t say where it would be located, though they strongly hinted it would be Times Square. The company plans to follow up with 15 more store openings in cities with bug Latino populations.

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After a series of high-profile hacks and calls from the user base, Twitter has finally unveiled their form of two-step verification.

“Every day, a growing number of people log in to Twitter. Usually these login attempts come from the genuine account owners, but we occasionally hear from people whose accounts have been compromised by email phishing schemes or a breach of password data elsewhere on the web. Today we’re introducing a new security feature to better protect your Twitter account: login verification,” says Twitter.

It works similar to other two-step verification systems you may be familiar with (Google, for instance). Once you enable login verification, the next time you attempt to log in you’ll also need to enter a code that Twitter will send to your mobile device. So, it’s your password + mobile code. Two steps.

All you have to do to enable it is visit your account settings page.

Twitter says that you existing applications you’ve enabled via Twitter login should be unaffected:

“With login verification enabled, your existing applications will continue to work without disruption. If you need to sign in to your Twitter account on other devices or apps, visit your applications page to generate a temporary password to log in and authorize that application.”

Of course, two-factor authentication won’t solve all of your security problems, and it’s not foolproof. But it’s a much-needed buffer between you and everyone out there eyeing your account with malicious intent.

If you’ve been paying attention lately, you’ll see the signs of a significant disruption in computing. No, I’m not talking about mobile: That disruption already happened and we’re in the midst of it playing out now as PC sales have become stagnant at best. Instead, it’s within the browser: Google Chrome is the harbinger of change and through it, Google has huge potential to change computing once again.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say, within a year, many of you will be using a Chromebook. Before you roll your eyes, let me add one caveat: That Chromebook won’t be Google designed hardware; instead it will be on the Mac, Windows or Linux machine you have at that time. So it won’t be a Google build device like my Chromebook Pixel is.

Let’s step back and I’ll explain.

Chrome is widely installed and growing

When Google launched the Chrome browser in late 2008 for Windows, the idea behind it was to speed up your web experience. It took until May of 2010 for all three major operating systems to have a stable version of the browser. Since then, usage has grown tremendously. Looking at market share summaries from five sources (consolidated at Wikipedia), four of them show Chrome as the biggest market share in March, 2013. (Note: April’s numbers are missing one source, which is why I’ve pointed to March figures.)

If you follow browser share statistics — hey, we all need a hobby — this won’t surprise you. Chrome has continued to slowly grow its worldwide user base with rather steady progress. And there’s little reason to assume that trend will change any time soon. So what does that mean?

For many Chrome is just a browser. For others who use a Chromebox or Chromebook, like myself, it’s my full-time operating system. The general consensus is that Chrome OS, the platform used on these devices, can only browse the web and run either extensions and web apps; something any browser can do. Simply put, the general consensus is wrong and the signs are everywhere.

Let’s talk about Chrome apps

First, much time was spent at Google I/O on two key topics we featured on last week’s GigaOM Chrome Show podcast: Packaged Apps and Native Client apps. You can listen to the show for a full description by Google’s own Joe Marini, but I’ll summarize the concept here.

Packaged apps are written in HTML, JavaScript and CSS, just like a traditional website or web app. There’s one subtle difference though. These apps are “packaged” in a way that allows them to run outside of the Chrome browser on any device that has Chrome installed. And they can run when the user is offline. Google Keep is a perfect example of this. I use it as a to-do list outside of my browser, both online and offline. When I don’t have a connection, my data is saved locally and when I later connect to the web, Google Keep automatically syncs my data to the cloud.

Here’s an image from my Chromebook showing Google Keep outside of the browser. Note too, the notification message at the bottom right; Google has added these in the developer channel of Chrome, bringing even more desktop features to the environment.

Native client apps are similar in that they’re also packaged and they support offline access. There’s a key difference however: These apps are coded in their native programming languages — C or C++ for example — compiled and then embedded in HTML where they behave like standalone native apps. Google says there’s about a 5 percent overhead performance hit, so they’re not quite as fast as their native app counterparts.

A good example of a native client app is a game I played on my Chromebook Pixel recently called Cracking Sands Racing The app, a port of a game for iOS and Android, was a 533 MB download to my Pixel and I played it outside of the browser. Even better, the support for a gamepad worked just fine as I used an Xbox 360 controller to play the game. Controls and graphics were responsive; no different overall that if I was playing a version of the game on a Mac or PC.

I know what you’re thinking. “That’s good for you since you have a Chromebook. What do I care?”

Chrome is a back door to the new app economy

Here’s the thing: Both Packaged Apps and Native Client apps work on any computer that has the Chrome browser installed. You remember: the browser that has the biggest market share. Even better, Google is working on Portable Native Client, which extends the native client app support to mobiles. Meanwhile, at Google I/O, the company said these apps can work on mobiles through Apache Cordova, a set of cross-platform APIs that support iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and more.

You can see where I’m going with this but lets take it a step further. Have you noticed that Google recently added the Chrome App Launcher to Microsoft Windows? It’s the same app launcher that’s native to Chrome OS. And Google is working on it for the Mac platform; it’s already in the developer channel for Chromium. And it’s sure to follow for Linux.

Essentially, once you can run web, Packaged and Native Client apps on any device with the Chrome framework, you need an easy way to manage and launch them. Think of Chrome as a platform environment atop a platform. On my Pixel, Chrome runs over Linux. For you, Chrome may run on top of Windows or OS X. Both of those have their own program launchers but as developers expand the number of Chrome apps, you’ll use the Chrome App Launcher to access them.

By the way, in the launcher picture above, did you notice that CIRC doesn’t have the same little arrow as the other icons? That means it’s an app, not a web shortcut.

Wait, won’t the big platform players block this?

Along with the disruption of mobile devices, the physical media market has undergone changes too. We typically don’t buy apps on a disk to install them any longer. Instead, platforms are providing centralized applications stores that they maintain control over. The Mac App Store is a perfect example. Note that you can install apps from outside of the App Store, provided you allow for such actions in your security settings. Since these stores are controlled by the platform makers, won’t Apple, Microsoft and others try to keep Chrome apps from spreading to the desktop?

They can try but I don’t think they’ll succeed, expect maybe on mobiles. If people find the apps compelling enough, they’ll be in an uproar for starters. But there’s another possible reason and I think it’s brilliant on Google’s part.

I noticed that when I downloaded Cracking Sands Racing, the video game I was able to play offline on my Pixel, the file had a .crx file extension. That may not look familiar to you, but I recognize it. It’s the same file extension Chrome uses for browser extensions. If that naming convention holds true, any company blocking Chrome app installations would also block Chrome extensions. How would the Chrome using community react to that? Not well.

What does your desktop look like a year from now?

As I alluded to at the beginning of this post, if you’re a Chrome user today, you’ll be more immersed in the Chrome ecosystem a year from now, even if you don’t have an “official” Chromebook. This all depends on how well Google pulls off its strategy to upend the desktop computing world, but so far, it seems to be on track.

Bear in mind the apps in this vision will be truly cross-platform as they’ll run on any Windows, Mac or Linux computer with Chrome installed. If it can get developers on board — and those I spoke with at Google I/O are ready to embrace the effort — Google will have a thriving desktop platform built on top of the platforms created by others. But it will be a desktop that’s far more agile, with new features added within days or weeks, not months or years.

Welcome to Chrome, my desktop today and your desktop of the future.

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