Google unveils Chrome web store, Sports Illustrated app impresses

Interested to know how you were gonna fill up that Chrome OS app page? Google just announced its new online web app store at I/O. So far they've shown off Dark Room for image editing, a pretty slick version of TweetDeck, and yes, like every other platform known to man, there's Plants. vs. Zombies and Lego Star Wars. Paid-for software will be offered -- Dark Room is $4.99, if you want to go ahead and put that money aside. No word on a launch date, but we'll keep pushing for more. We were just shown a demo of Sports Illustrated's interactive magazine, and we gotta say, it's mighty impressive -- embedded video, fully searchable, and some pretty clever tricks with geolocation that frankly exceed most anything we've seen on the iPad thus far. The web store -- for Chrome and Chrome OS -- will hit the dev channel "soon."

Sports Illustrated Chrome app

[BHolst Posted May 19th 2010 1:47PM]

I love that the guy from Roo was using a Nexus One, running Sense UI, with a keyboard replacement from the Android Market..... next to an iPad. Too funny.

[commenter7 Posted May 19th 2010 1:59PM]

@cherryboom

failure, I think your posts are automatically downranked

[Dale P Posted May 19th 2010 2:02PM]

How to win anything: Plants Vs Zombies. I'm in.

[Tes Posted May 19th 2010 2:09PM]

But...but..Plants Vs Zombies isn't out for Android yet!

[jonmall1441 Posted May 19th 2010 2:11PM]

REALLY impressed by the camera ad in the sports illustrated demo! I mean WOW! I want to get that camera just because of that ad

[bigcow05 Posted May 19th 2010 2:18PM]

I would gladly fork over $5 for Dark Room as long as it can process Pentax RAW files. I've been avoiding Photoshop like the plague because I think it is extortion; I hope Google can make more profits from DR than Adobe does with PS.

[jiggpig Posted May 19th 2010 2:23PM]

This is huge. I might actually buy a Chrome OS device now.

[fontendet Posted May 19th 2010 4:00PM]

@jiggpig
Yeah. In your dreams!
Is it right to invest money on something with a little bunch of apps?

[Kenzu Posted May 19th 2010 2:26PM]

I must admit, Google is very clever, their core revenue are ads, and even though their products are all over the place and they keep making half baked products ( except Android ), they are making a killing with ads. Google and Apple are going to an all out war. These are definitely good times for the consumer. MS, where are you?

[fontendet Posted May 19th 2010 4:12PM]

@Kenzu Hey!
Read some book at last!
This all Google thing called "monopoly".

noun ( pl. -lies)
1 the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service : his likely motive was to protect his regional monopoly on furs.
• [usu. with negative ] the exclusive possession, control, or exercise of something : men don't have a monopoly on unrequited love.
• a company or group having exclusive control over a commodity or service : areas where cable companies operate as monopolies.
• a commodity or service controlled in this way : electricity, gas, and water were considered to be natural monopolies.

[FrankDTank Posted May 19th 2010 7:03PM]

@Kenzu microsoft is chilling watching this 2 companies battkle each other out for the #2 spot.

Then they will do like they did with the xbox 360 and fucking dominate.

Sincerely yours,
'
Microsoft,apple, google fan

[cptaszek Posted May 19th 2010 2:40PM]

Give me my Chrome OS!

[MVMNT Posted May 19th 2010 2:43PM]

This looks more like the SI app that they showed off when touting their future tablet plans

[krizoitz Posted May 19th 2010 2:47PM]

So they are going to charge me for apps that I can't even use unless i'm connected to the net? Try playing Plants vs. Zombies on a chrome OS device (whenever that happens) on your next plane flight.

Looks impressive, but unless it has local storage for Apps, i'm not remotely interested.

[jakey Posted May 19th 2010 6:49PM]

@krizoitz
Plants vs Zombies in the demo actually runs on flash. If the browser can cache the swf file, then it can run offline. However, I think Google has always been pushing for an always connected kind of environment, so their idea is actually eventually having applications all online.

[Lucian Armasu Posted May 19th 2010 7:19PM]

@krizoitz Chrome OS will have some kind of local storage/advanced cache for web apps. They are already implementing stuff like that in the Chrome browser. After they're done they just need to promote that to developers and give them tools to build webapps with those capabilities.

[Eastman Posted May 19th 2010 2:54PM]

Darkroom ? Really ? Sounds like the perfect App Name for Gay Guys and Straight Swingers ..
:-)) Awesome ..

[AFBiker Posted May 19th 2010 2:56PM]

I am starting to feel as though a turning point is culminating around the "google experiance". It seems as though the time has come where it may be harder to avoid google rather than just succumb to their inevitable world domination. I can already see the cults starting on the horizon....googletheism.

[newjaruz Posted May 19th 2010 2:59PM]

Go Google go!

[Meow Mix Posted May 19th 2010 3:19PM]

@cherryboom
Your obviously joking. One trick Pony? Bing overtaking google search? Eric Schmidt getting bitched out, really? You sound like a crazy religious zealot preaching about the end of days with the wild predictions about the demise of google...I wanna try!! When the apple monument is built, Mt. Rushmore, and all other monuments will close due to poor attendance. Steve Jobs will soon be able to shoot rainbows from his nipples! ...this is fun =D

[enstriel Posted May 19th 2010 3:26PM]

Was it running Flash?

[fontendet Posted May 19th 2010 3:46PM]

@enstriel
If it was written in Flash - who need this store and especially - pay for this a real money?
And main question - how and where your purchased apps will be stored? In the cloud?
No, thanks. We don't need another Google monopoly.

We need competition on the web and we need more other web services besides google.

[jakey Posted May 19th 2010 6:52PM]

@enstriel
It wasn't made very clear, but I think the SI app runs on HTML5 (although the video may be flash, that point wasn't made clear). Plants vs Zombies runs on Flash (which will be built into Chrome). Lego Starwars runs on native code, which Chrome supports (although it is unclear if other browsers will support it). So there are lots of different kinds of apps being showcased in this store.

[Lucian Armasu Posted May 19th 2010 7:21PM]

@jakey Yes it was built with HTML5. He says in the begining of the presentation.

[Johnny Rockets Posted May 19th 2010 3:47PM]

Ahahahahahahaha TheLondonExchange's apple fanboy comments were deleted in the first comment.

What a tool!! hahaha

[foxh8er2 Posted May 19th 2010 4:46PM]

Okay, how can they run Lego Star Wars, a full fledged desktop/console game, as a webapp?

I mean, without it being a crappy flash version or using Gaikai/OnLive.

[jakey Posted May 19th 2010 7:03PM]

@foxh8er2
Lego Star Wars runs on Google Native Client, which basically runs native code using a plug-in. So basically it is a different plug-in (which obviously will be incorporated into Google Chrome since it is owned by Google). So far it only supports x86 code, but I think there is an ARM version coming up. That is how they got a full game running in the browser, it's basically just using the browser as a wrapper, while running native code.

So technically, it is not really a webapp as we commonly know it (something that runs without plug-ins).

[FrankDTank Posted May 19th 2010 7:00PM]

ijava + html5=FUCKING WIN.

I am so over this. jumping into to it like right NOW!! to learn all this shit.

[Mr Blurrycam Posted May 19th 2010 7:00PM]

That's a nice wallpaper.

[SmoothMarx Posted May 19th 2010 7:25PM]

does anyone know what nightly build they're using to enable the webapps on the "new tab" page?

[davewils55 Posted May 28th 2010 4:08AM]

I'm a chrome extension developer and am very excited about this news... You can check out some of my extension here: http://sites.google.com/site/developerdave1
There are also links on my site to some of my favorite extensions :)