Internet titan Google has lifted the veil on its much-anticipated Chrome OS project…in part by releasing the project as open source under the name Chromium OS to encourage developers and partners to hop on board. In doing so, Google has also revealed some of what will be included in Chrome OS when it hits the streets a year from now…and what users won’t be seeing.
First of all, Google envisions Chrome essentially as a Web-only experience: although users will be able to connect USB mass storage devices like cameras, thumb drives, and phones to devices running Chrome OS, there will be no “desktop experience” like most modern operating systems: instead, everything will take place inside a Chrome-based browser. All applications will be Web applications, and users will never have to deal with a file system or the complicated processes of installing and managing applications.
Google is also gearing the Chrome OS for speed, with the idea that users should be able to turn on a Chrome OS device and be surfing the Web in just a few seconds. And security is at the forefront of Google’s efforts: every time Chrome boots it verifies the integrity of its code base and running each application in its own security sandbox so, even if an individual app gets compromised, it will be very difficult for malware or viruses to impact the Chrome OS device.
The Chrome OS’s model essentially uses local storage only for caching and to speed operations: the entire operating system is geared to store individual users’ data in cloud-based applications and services. This is handy for people who need to tap into their online lives from a variety of machines and locations, but also means that Chrome will decidedly not be appropriate for everybody.
Google is working with hardware developers to outline requirements for Chrome OS-based device, and expects Chrome OS will start reaching consumers in about a year.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.