Four Chrome OS Contenders that Could Take on Apple's iPad | Hacker News Reader

Four Chrome OS Contenders that Could Take on Apple's iPad

thechromesource.com

12 pointsdcawrey12 comments

I think this just shows that Apple is far ahead with the iPad. Two of those are just concepts, one is just a comment from a CEO and the third doesn't ship yet. This area might be more interesting in a year or 2/3, just like with the iPhone

  (along with an app store, we hope)

Is it me, or are people beginning to forget that Chrome OS does not run apps natively, and instead that web apps are Chrome apps? I'm actually looking forward to a Chrome tablet, because of several things:

  1. very elegent multi-tasking, as each task is just a tab in the browser

  2. circumvents the need for an app store by using "native" web apps

  3. no need to specifically target new apps at it. build once for the web, put in zero extra effort and have a chrome app.

  4. simplified target for developers: web standards

  5. no need to learn another framework for another device

As such, I think a Chrome OS tablet could become a very succesful, yet quiet, replacement for the iPad. As (I believe) Google said before, the internet is Chrome OS's killer app.

You may be right that Chrome OS is a more attractive target for devs. But for the consumer, an iPad (which includes Safari) seems strictly better than a ChromePad. No?

I'll believe it when I see it.

Google needs to get serious in regards to shipping a ChromeOS tablet for cheap. They made the nexus one happen, so chromeos tablet is doable. They would need to do it far cheaper than the iPad too though and have 3G I believe.

Also worth keeping an eye on: the TouchBook, a netbook with a detachable touchscreen display: http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

I'd love to see an open-source product that rivaled the utility and UX (and fun!) of the iPad, but I'm not holding my breath. Put simply, the free software community doesn't have a great track record when it comes to interfaces and behavioral design. What makes the iPad great isn't the hardware, it's the OS and the APIs.

Come on, can it really be so hard to build a serious iPad contender? You don’t have to differentiate yourself by adding loads of crap just because the iPad happens to not have it, why not something minimalist just like the iPad?

I don’t want Apple to get crazy so please buckle up!

So is the FSF opposed to Chrome OS? Stallman's latest essay (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-se...) seems to suggest this.

Looks like he confuses control with freedom. Sometimes I get a lot of freedom exactly by giving up control for someone else to worry about.

Now I then I see Amazon's Kindle incident mentioned. And in context like this they conveniently forget to mention that Amazon made it possible to download the book again or get a refund. Nor do they quote Amazon spokesman: "We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances."

First don't use Word and iWorks, now don't use SaaS. Don't use this, don't use that. I can now longer grasp Stallman's vision of freedom, but now I am pretty sure it scares me.

If RMS is willing to paint himself into the corner of his cave, all power to him.

Whats wrong with the existing array of tablet PCs with superior features? Not enough marketing hype to make them "good" enough?

Unless I'm entirely wrong, most of those older tablet PCs have keyboards (and larger screens, worse battery lives, and so forth). That's the difference - and, because multitouch/touchscreens as the only input is a big thing right now, it's ignoring all the older ones which are basically laptops with rotating touchscreens.

cough flash support cough

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