While Chrome OS is still a pretty rough sketch in our mind's eye, the Google boys have hosted a press conference to answer a few burning questions. Among the myriad revelations, it turns out Eric Schmidt wasn't stoked on building a browser when Sergey Brin and Larry Page brought it up about six years ago, given the fact that Google was still relatively small, and the browser wars were still fresh in everyone's minds. After he saw an early build of Chrome, however, he changed his tune. He says Chrome and Chrome OS are "game-changers," and Larry describes Chrome OS as the "anti-operating system" and indistinguishable from a browser.

Luckily, they also hinted at some native development possibility (hopefully) outside of the browser, stating that Microsoft is free to build a version of Internet Explorer for Chrome OS if they'd like, and that it's an open source project. According to Eric: "Even if we had an evil moment, we would be unsuccessful." He also mentioned there were plenty of "commonalities" between Chrome OS and Android, and that the two might grow even closer over time. Interesting. As for his role on Apple board, Eric will be working out with those folks as to when he needs to recuse himself from OS talk like he already does with iPhone talk. Most of the rest of the talk was spent making old person digs at Schmidt, Mr. BlackBerry himself.

Here's an interesting one. While one would assume that Intel would be quaking in its boots with the emergence of Chrome OS, Michael Chen -- director of Intel's embedded sales group and ultra mobility group in Asia-Pacific -- recently proclaimed that the company isn't worried at all. In fact, Intel seems pretty stoked that Google has introduced an operating system that will undoubtedly rival its own Moblin. To quote: "Our long-term goal is providing hardware for devices with different operating systems... more competition will drive up more innovations and that's good for consumers." Furthermore, we're told that Intel is looking forward to providing chips for machines based on Chrome OS, and frankly, we reckon that Intel's foothold in hardware and software makes it easier to brush this whole thing off. Must be nice, right?

Peek always has been a company for the people, with its suits sitting down late last year to listen intently to input from users regarding hacks and tweaks. Now, the outfit's looking for a bona fide Linux guru, someone who could get Linux running on the Peek's ARM7 processor and look suave doing it. The kicker? Should you succeed (and impress), you could score a "mini-consulting gig" with the top brass at Peek, and your work could one day revolutionize the fabled email-only handheld. Seriously, there's nothing but fear and debilitating hesitation stopping you, so once you're over that, hit the read link and get to work.

[Via SlashGear]

Just as we heard, Intel and Nokia have today announced a long-term partnership that just might / might not revolutionize the way you live. The all-too-mysterious release doesn't go into great detail about what exactly the partnership will lead to, but it's clear that the two are joining hands in order to "shape the next era of mobile computing." Indeed, the duo has stated that they expect "many innovations to result from this collaboration over time" and they are hoping to "define a new mobile platform beyond today's smartphones, notebooks and netbooks, enabling the development of a variety of innovative hardware, software and mobile internet services." It's hard to say if we'll be seeing a Nokia UMPC, MID or smartbook in the near future, but we have to wonder if the world is even interested. An Intel-powered smartphone? Color us interested. An Intel-powered Nokiabook? Meh.

Well, here's a nice start to what Jeff Bezos was saying about giving the Kindle reader team some competition: Amazon just released source code for all its Kindle devices. It's fairly basic Linux underneath (kernel 2.6.22 on the latest 2.1 software), but obviously includes E Ink drivers and other relevant hardware support. What's unclear without compiling one of these and booting it up (to our untrained eyes, anyway) is whether Amazon stripped out its various DRM and licensed codec support -- MP3 and Audible seem very likely candidates for explosion, even if turns out Amazon did leave in its own Kindle Book DRM. We're also lacking an actual specific license for the code, though the folder we unpacked the OS to is called "gplrelease," so hopefully we're looking at the GNU General Public License -- which would mean manufacturers can take and repurpose this code to build their own Kindle clone / destroyer / gentle homage.

What's that, you're still holding your breath waiting for the G60 release? Breathe, child, breathe, it's still going to be a little while before you can get your nav on with this celly. Obviously it didn't make the first half of the year as initially planned, but the Garmin-Asus partnership is now saying that the phone will still arrive at its retail destination before 2010, with some places seeing it in just two months time. Why the delays? Apparently its custom flavor of Linux is at least part of the problem, leading the corporate couple's marriage counselors to suggest a move to Android for all future, non-WinMo handsets -- devices that, contrary to earlier reports, will also launch before the end of the year. So, G60 in August, or potentially even hotter Android nav phone a few months later? Decisions, decisions.

The NEC USB 3.0 controller is due to hit the streets this month, and already Sarah Sharp (the, um, "Geekess") has been able to crank out a Linux driver for the device. Sharp states that she is "working with Keve Gabbert (the OSV person in my group at Intel) to make sure that Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Red Hat" pick up the driver, meaning that Linux users will likely be the first to have their Super Speed dreams become a reality. Are you a hardware manufacturer with some hot USB 3.0 controller prototype that wants to out this guy through its paces? Hit that read link to get started.

[Via Ozel Web Tasarim]

Linux just gets sexier and sexier, and Fedora 11 just joined Ubuntu 9.04 in the ranks of super modern Linux distros released this year. Fedora doesn't have all the desktop refinements of Ubuntu, or the wild popularity, but it does act as the underpinnings of Intel's Moblin, and the Sugar OS, and doesn't shy away from the future. Fedora 11 makes the bleeding edge ext4 filesystem the default for installs, which speeds performance and improves data integrity -- Ubuntu offers ext4 as an option, but some application incompatibilities have caused data loss problems, so hopefully Fedora has overcome that. Fedora 11 also has boot times in its sights, with a goal to be at the login screen in 20 seconds, new versions of GNOME and KDE desktop environments (GNOME is default, but KDE 4.2 is looking great) and plenty of other minor and major tweaks. Sure, it's still Linux: most folks who expect to just swap out their Windows environment wholesale are sure to be sorely disappointed, but it's clear the steady march of progress continues unabated -- and hey, it's good enough for Intel and the children.

You may be doing your best to plug your ears and pretend that Moblin's no big deal, but blissful ignorance is only effective for so long. At a Moblin press event over at Computex, the Inventec handset you see pictured above was demonstrated. Reportedly, the MediaPhone was a working unit based around Intel's forthcoming Moorestown platform, and the talking head made it clear that we wouldn't see a "netbook experience" simply shoved in here. We also get the idea that this particular device is just the beginning of a short to medium list of similar products, but there's obviously no word yet on what other handset / MID / UMPC makers are swallowing the Moblin pill. Live demonstration video is just past the break.

Remember that Wistron PurseBook we peeked back in early April? Yeah, that's not just some one-off creation to wow folks on a show floor. We just sat down with Qualcomm to hear all about the newest small form factor machine that it has a hand in, and while we're still unsure if the market can handle it, smartbooks are coming. The machines are currently in development by a handful of Qualcomm partners, and while exact specifications have yet to be disclosed, here's what we do know. These devices will be marketed as companions to smartphones and bona fide laptops, and honestly, they kind of look like a stripped down version of Sony's VAIO P. Within the Snapdragon-based rigs, you'll find a 1GHz CPU, a battery good for eight to ten hours of use, WWAN, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, built-in GPS, HD video encoding capabilities and screen resolutions as high as WXGA (1,280 x 768). As with NVIDIA's Tegra, this chip also promises pretty awesome 3D graphics considering the low power draw. Click on for more.