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Google Chrome for Mac: Don't hold your breath
Gather around, Apple fans. I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that there is a preliminary version of Google Chrome up and running. Sort of. Google's Mike Pinkerton has posted a couple of screenshots of Chrome for Mac on his blog, including the very first time he used it to load a webpage. It's coming, folks.Now the bad news from Mike himself, "We've got a very very long way to go." He says that the WebKit that ships with Mac OS X doesn't do what they developers need right out of the box, and it took a lot of cajoling to get it to comply. If it's anything like the acrobatics I must perform each weekday morning to get my kids out the door in time to catch the school bus, Google's Mac devs will be busy indeed.
VIA-owned S3 Graphics crashes the GPGPU party
We know the past couple years haven't been kind to VIA-owned S3 Graphics -- market share has declined, and NVIDIA and ATI keep introducing fancy new technologies, making it tough to keep up. That said, we're inspired by S3's ardent attempts to stay relevant in an industry that won't easily make room for small competitors. The latest case in point: the company has released a photo-editing app to demonstrate the newly-programmed GPGPU (general-purpose computing on graphics processing units) functionalities of its DirectX 10.1 Chrome 400 line of discrete graphics cards. S3 claims its hard work has produced an HPC environment that can be used to reduce processing time for scientific and other applications from days to seconds -- we'll believe it when we see it, but you've gotta admire the tenacity.[Via CustomPC]
Stainless: Another attempt at Chrome for OS X
At this rate, Google won't even have to release Chrome for Mac OS X -- our devs will have done it all already themselves. We've already reported about CrossOver putting their own port of Google's web browser together just to show they could do it, and now word has come in about Stainless, another attempt to bring Google's Chromium kit over to our favorite operating system.Unfortunately, it's still just a tech demo and not really a full-fledged browser (and the guys behind it, Mesa Dynamics, say that they didn't even try doing the cool stuff that the real OS X Chromium team is working on). But they did create a multi-process browser (one per tab), and they used some of the tech from their other app, Hypercube (Edit: NOT HyperCard, sorry -- I would have been more excited about that, too) to do it. I haven't tried it (I haven't tried the real Chrome on Windows either, Firefox is good enough for me so far), but like the other OS X Chrome, this app really only exists just so it can.And it shows just how desperate OS X users are to get their hands on Google's browser. Just how much longer do we have to wait?
OmniWeb 5.8 released
The Omni Group has released version 5.8 of OmniWeb, its venerable browser software. OmniWeb 5.8 is now based on the same version of Webkit as Safari 3.1.x. It also fixes bugs with Spaces, and adds support for non-POSIX file URLs. Users can also choose Google Chrome in the list of user-agent strings. Full release notes are also available. OmniWeb 5.8 is available from Omni's website, and works with Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later. The software is $14.95, with upgrades starting at $4.95 for users of Omniweb 4.
CrossOver creates Chromium just to show they can do it
Mike Rose and I were chatting about this on the Talkcast a few weeks back -- virtualization and emulation programmers get all John Locke from Lost when you try to tell them what's not possible. And so when the guys at CrossOver heard that Google wasn't releasing Chrome for the Mac, they decided to put together a release themselves. CrossOver Chromium is a proof-of-concept release of the Chromium browser (which Chrome is built off of) that allows Google's base code to run on Mac and Linux platforms.It's designed to show off just how well Wine works to bring Windows-based code to other platforms, and wake Google up to the fact that if they wanted to port Chrome over, they could. CrossOver says they did this to prove a point (and the point seems proven), but it's likely not only that Google wants to run the code natively, but that they wanted to focus on their largest audience first, which anyone can tell you is likely still the Windows crowd.Even CrossOver says their version isn't ready for prime-time yet, they just wanted to show how fast it could be done. Let this be a lesson, Google: don't tell virtual software developers what they can't do.
Google's Brin says Chrome headed to Android, probably
As the root of our name implies, desktop browsers aren't really our thing in Engadget-land. Still, we're pretty sure that you've managed to learn about Google's new Chrome browser even without our assistance. However, when we hear Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin discussing Chrome on Android, well, we're all in. Even though neither has been released out of beta yet, Brin said that the Webkit-based Chrome browser is expected to soon supplant the Webkit-based browser in Android. "Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack," Brin said before adding, "My guess is we'll have 'Chrome-like' or something similar," when asked about the brand name. While we have lingering doubts about the likely stability of the initial 1.0 Android OS release, version 2.0 with Chrome is likely to be killer in every sense of the word to Symbian Nokia, Microsoft, and Apple. Of course, we'll be first in line for the HTC Dream regardless.[Thanks, Coral]
Google creating its own browser based on WebKit
Google is developing a new web browser built from the ground up and based on WebKit, the same rendering engine that Safari uses. The browser, called Chrome, is open-source software built with security, compatibility and speed in mind. Each tab in the browser will be its own separate running process. For example, if JavaScript hangs in one tab, the other tabs will remain unaffected. The approach is similar to the way Mac OS X isolates applications in their own private areas to prevent one crash from taking down the whole system. Google picked an interesting way of announcing the project: They commissioned illustrator Scott McCloud to draw a 38-page comic book about the project, and distribute it under a Creative Commons license. The result is a very readable, fascinating way to learn about the new browser. For web developers, Chrome will include strong Gears integration, and a JavaScript virtual machine that generates super-fast machine code out of JavaScript instructions. For end users, it will include a new start page that lists the last several pages and search terms you've used. It also includes a private browsing mode. Google is planning on formally launching the project on Wednesday, but the Chrome website isn't visible to the public yet. Update: Google is releasing a version for Windows tomorrow, with Mac and Linux versions coming soon, once Chrome is "faster and more robust." (Thanks, Bryan!) [Via Macworld]
Deck your Wii out in chrome [update 1]
Appealing to the inner Biggie Smalls in all of us, this replacement shell for the Wii is less spectacular than some of the other ones out there, but we figured some of you might be enticed by the sheer shininess of it all. We like shiny things too, y'know. So in giving our Wii the chance to really shine (or audition for the role of SkyNet in the next Terminator flick), we thank these fine folk responsible for the above replacement shell and ask them to take pity on us when the cruel robotic overlords take over the Earth.Update: whoops, was short an "o" there. Thanks for the help, WhatIsThatThing!
Sony shipping silver PS2 to the States October 24th?
Sure, most Sony fanboys these days are probably saving all their pennies for one of those shiny PS3s just around the corner, but if they can't quite swing enough hundies to grab a next gen unit along with enough games to keep them occupied, they can always settle for this "limited edition" silver PS2, which looks to be quite shiny in its own right. GameStop has been listing the $130 unit for pre-order for a while now, but now we've got word from a Target employee that confirms the price and date (October 24th) and reveals the quantity of the limited edition run: 500,000. While we'd hardly call that a limited edition with a new console on the way and current-gen sales waning, it's good to have this silver edition finally in the States after eyeing those Japanese units jealously for a year and a half. It'll also go well with that silver PSP we spotted last month, though hopefully we won't have to wait quite as long for that one to get here.
Pimp your 360 controller
Good news if your lack of confidence with a screw driver is inhibiting your desire for nerd bling. TeamXtender.com has released detailed step-by-step on how to pimp your 360 controller with some flashy chrome.
Screw chrome! Silver is the real bling
Our fine friends at Luxist have dropped the curtain on this swanky piece of 360 luxury: a solid silver faceplate. The faceplate is made by (presumably very rich) Christofle -- the name just begs to be italicized -- and designed by (also presumably very rich) Andree Putman. There will only be five (count 'em, five) manufactured in the whole wide world, and, at a cool €1000 ($1250), you'll be hard pressed to get one any time soon. Still, if you're dying to be the King of Bling or...um...the Duke of Krunk, you can go check them out in the Collette boutique in Paris.[Via Luxist]
Bling bling! Chrome shell now available
Coming to you from Team Xtender is the full chrome controller shell, complete with LEDs for seizure-inducing fun. How's that for a pimpin' accessory? They say more pictures of the wireless controller shell will be put up soon, but the current ones are just as impressive. These kind of awesome additions could go great with some creative faceplates too.
Cheaper PS3 loses HDMI, slots, Wi-Fi, 40GB
As you can see above, there are a few things different between the two PS3 SKUs planned. (Hint: the obvious alterations concern high-def output and wireless connectivity -- though Bluetooth controllers should work just fine with both, with or without any chrome case highlighting.)So what's HDMI, built-in multimedia card-reader slots, wireless internet connectivity, and an extra 40 gigabytes' hard disk space worth to you? $100? Now that Sony's gone with the 2-SKU approach with its next-gen hardware (a la the Xbox 360's premium and "Core" systems), we can expect some tough consumer choices after six months -- with console shortages possibly for another six months after that -- as $100 separates the base $499 and premium $599 versions of Sony's "Clear Black" hope.HDMI is important to those who want to take full advantage of Blu-ray high def and have the new screens to use it; MemoryStick, SD, and CompactFlash slots would be nice for the PS3 memory-card users and those will run multimedia on the system; Wi-Fi's the only way to avoid stringing ethernet cables for online access; and 360 owners might appreciate the full 60GB available to potential buyers of the premium PS3 model. Neither model comes with a second HDMI port; thankfully, one should hopefully be all most users need. The details are laid out in a feature-comparison table at the end of Sony's official PS3 hardware press release, available in both Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word formats. Determine what's most important to your PS3 ambitions there.[Image pieced together from the PlayStation.com forums; thanks, Guru]
