Google devs reveal Chrome OS will have media player

If you thought Chrome OS was all about the Chrome, here are some words of reassurance from Google's Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for the project. In a marathon interview with Ars Technica, he notes that Chrome OS will have its own integrated media player, and although the focus remains on being "lean and mean," it'll not neglect basic system functionality. Current thinking is to keep JPEG and other media file handlers within the tab structure, with native and web apps being melded seamlessly into the browser experience. That may all still change, of course, since development is also noted to be a good year away from a consumer release. Hit up the read link for more, much more, on the past and future of Google's featherweight OS.

[ango Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:16AM]

googplayer or cromeplayer

[Rick James Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:51AM]

@ango

I don't care what its called, but if they tie it to amazon and support a laundry list of codecs (flac in particular), then they could have a really kick-ass player.

Although I personally think they should call it 'Rick James's Music Crack Pipe'.

[Smart People Play Tuba Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:55AM]

I hope the icon for it looks nothing like the logo for this post. Having two Chrome icons next to each other like that looks reminiscent of . . . well . . . something other than music notes.

[canny Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:15AM]

@ango
GooPlayer... fits on several layers.

[dez Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:37AM]

@Smart People Play Tuba

... laser eyes?

[Wesscoast Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:09AM]

@canny

GTunes!

[JeremyBenthem Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:31AM]

@ango
Chrome Tunes beta

[Rodneyj14 Posted Jan 22nd 2010 11:18AM]

@ango Booyah player!

[DeFlanko Posted Jan 22nd 2010 11:40PM]

@Rick James
watch it be a port of Adobe AIR... Google allready has it hands on Adobe Reader as apart of its google install Pack.

And if its adobe AIR this is good news for Pandora, and its Desktop app.

[DeFlanko Posted Jan 22nd 2010 11:44PM]

@JeremyBenthem

in spirit of its "chrome " name i think the media player will be called Google "Vinyl" or Google "Listen"

http://listen.googlelabs.com/versions.html

[Slick Posted Jan 23rd 2010 3:29AM]

@Rick James

or you could just adopt songbird

[Kavoriken Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:18AM]

Game Changer!

Seriously, you didnt need fairy powers to predict that.

[phearme Posted Jan 22nd 2010 11:29AM]

@Kavoriken yeah, I don't even understand how an OS could work in the real world nowadays without a mediaplayer.

[crapple Posted Jan 22nd 2010 12:04PM]

@Kavoriken

WTF?? Game changer?? It's a bloody media player! If you OS _doesn't_ have one it's a pointless pile of crap.

OOoooooo Google is making a thing that plays music. People suck.

[hyperACTIV Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:17PM]

@Kavoriken
If you put on a media player though then what else do you have to put on? Pretty soon you have a dumbed down version of Windows for less, admittedly, but without the maturity. Personally, I would have preferred some awesome Google cloud media service.

[doomlordis Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:19AM]

i cant wait for this , i think it will be revolutionary!!!

[crapple Posted Jan 22nd 2010 12:01PM]

@doomlordis

Yeah, it's probably going to be a Flash application on a local web page.

Chrome is so *yawn*.

VLC FTW!

[rhezaganteng Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:20AM]

come on google, your company already rich!!.
leave something for others.

[JoeDawson Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:20AM]

@rhezaganteng

This is the most nonsensical thing i have ever heard.... Leave what to the others? They are creating a FREE OS based on Linux... *eye roll*

[MeepMo Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:28AM]

Clearly Skynet, I mean Google, wants their terminators, I mean employees, to rock out as they conquer the world, I mean...wait a minute...

[Hellios Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:29AM]

Didn't Google have a a video player in the early days of Google Video?

It was a standalone application that... Well I don't remember the purpose but Google already had that media player.

[Titanium Man Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:30AM]

Chrome OS sounds like a flop.
After the Apple Tablet unveiling, I expect Google to come up with a customized version of Android to compete with the new device.

[ChazClout Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:52AM]

@Titanium Man
Did you miss all the Android tablets being shown at CES then? Android tablets are already here anyway.

Chrome OS is perfect for the Netbook craze anyway and as far as I can tell, Apple offer no Netbook computers.

[Nitesh Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:52AM]

@Titanium Man Like....The Dell Streak?

[Titanium Man Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:11AM]

@ChazClout
Google is not directly involved with these tablets.
I expect Google to develop a new ui especially for tablets that will run on top of the Android operating system. We probably won't see a shipping product with the new Google Android tablet UI until Q4.
Chrome OS will never gain mainstream appeal, it will simply replace most of the linux distros in today's netbooks.

[sebmason Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:32AM]

Looking forward to the finished product! But In my mind, something has to be extra special to take me away from what I know and love.

For example, I use windows 7. It does everything I want it to do and more.SO if Google wants me to switch they have to offer something really beneficial to me.

What i'm confused about is, Google want everything to be cloudy. then Android doesnt make sense?

Maybe 5-6 years down the line they will fuse together?
Chromedroid?

Who knows? Buts its all good news for us consumers! more choices, better pricing, and much faster development. If it was still only M$, I guarantee we would still be using Windows ME!

[iamlilysdad Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:49AM]

@sebmason the idea of a netbook is to be a second or third computer. If google puts a media player and hard drives big enough to hold it all i'm sold. They will be (theoretically) cheaper and do 90% of a win7 netbook.

[tikijeff Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:32AM]

If it's anything like the Android player, I'll pass.
2.1 saw a huge improvement in Android's Gallery app; where's the love for the music player?

[Dr Yusuf AlKindi Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:37AM]

The Sixth International Pledges Allegiance to LeNovo and Google.

[manwithacamera Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:43AM]

Nice picture!

[Level 5 Posted Jan 22nd 2010 7:52AM]

Seeing two Chome logos side by side makes me honestly ponder what Transformers would look like if they had boobs.

[rdeagle3 Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:05AM]

I can't wait for this either. I'm loading this on my laptop as soon as it drops!

[shockr Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:09AM]

The real question is, will it play optical media?

[MarkB Posted Jan 22nd 2010 2:20PM]

@shockr I'd guess a definite "maybe" since Chrome OS is supposed to be a Netbook kinda thing. With that said, if no, it would be only a matter of time before someone would figure out how to.

[htd Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:11AM]

I doubt it would play mkv/rmvb etc, why not maemo?

[slipdisc Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:38AM]

A media player? Now we're talkin'.

[DDragon Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:42AM]

Palm recently made Web OS and it was seen as a good platform. Everyone seems to have faith in Google's good nature. However MS tried integrating their OS and browser years before everyone else. Most people hated the idea (and still do) of Microsoft making a web OS because they feared it would give MS too much control over internet standards. Microsoft has gone through hell dealing with legal system in Europe. I guess that's what you get for actively trying to change open internet standards to your own.

[Veraxus Posted Jan 22nd 2010 12:22PM]

Fewer people would have problems with IE if Microsoft bothered to follow web standards and keep the damn browser up-to-date. I don't have a problem with the IDEA of a browser-OS hybrid, I have a problem with Microsoft's sloppy, incomplete, inaccurate, unsupported implementation.

[AlexNC Posted Jan 22nd 2010 8:54AM]

This will not be a media player like we are used to seeing. I doubt it will allow ripping, tagging, buying music, etc. I will more than likely just be a very light weight, hidden media player. For when you click a link, the player automatically handles the file playback in a very discreet, unseen way .... rather than having a bulky. slow player take forever to start up.

[Joao Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:07AM]

Here comes the bloat...

It was inevitable.

[AlexNC Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:12AM]

This will not be a media player like we are used to seeing. I doubt it will allow ripping, tagging, buying music, etc. I will more than likely just be a very light weight, hidden media player. For when you click a link, the player automatically handles the file playback in a very discreet, unseen way .... rather than having a bulky. slow player take forever to start up.

[gpmoo7 Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:22AM]

The Chrome browser already have a media player. I just watched the latest TheEngadgetShow with the integrated media player.
Anyway, all HTML5 tag compatible browsers should have their own basic video player ...

[limaxray Posted Jan 22nd 2010 10:00AM]

@gpmoo7 Exactly. And not just any media player, they use FFMPEG which means you can play just about any format you can throw at it - and do it using multiple threads!

[N900 Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:33AM]

Oi, with WMP12, iTunes9, Zune4, WMC, VLC and even MediaMonkey, what would be the point of this? You know besides, harvesting our data and evaluating us for deletion in 2017?

[PancakesForLife Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:41AM]

My money is on an extension of Picasa that organizes all media (nit just pics and video), plays them of course ... and shares them over your network. Plus, it's already got a web element for pushing media online.

[RaZe42 Posted Jan 22nd 2010 9:59AM]

Spotify would be a perfect fit for Chrome OS!

[Xoy Posted Jan 22nd 2010 11:07AM]

As far as i'm concerned Android should be on computers and Chrome on phones

[egy11micro Posted Jan 22nd 2010 11:36AM]

CMP Chrome media player....sounds like WMP lol

[Veraxus Posted Jan 22nd 2010 12:20PM]

Google should just buy out the VLC Media Player guys and use that. It will play just about anything, no codecs required, and it's very, very low-profile. VLC + Chrome is a match made in heaven... and, of course, VLC would be yet another badass Google product.

[Prestidigitator Posted Jan 22nd 2010 12:38PM]

I understand that this os is very internet dependent, so I think this will be the first of many concessions to that concept. I don't know any webapps that play media files off of my hard drive, just like I don't know any webapps that open video or text docs off of my hard drive... or is google expecting me to upload to youtube and google docs first?