Chromebooks

Google's I/O developers conference in San Francisco has exciting news for everyone who loves laptops, music, video games, Gmail, and the Internet in general.

The company officially announced Tuesday that Chrome, Google's web browser, now has more than 160 million users. At this time last year there were only about 70 million. Google Senior Vice President of Chrome Sundar Pichai said speech support will soon be available in Chrome, translating speech to text in real time.

As far as hardware goes, the big product bloggers are buzzing about is the Google Chrome OS notebook, their first laptop, debuting June 15 at Best Buy and on Amazon.com. Chrome OS runs exclusively on web-based applications with a modified version of the Chrome browser.

According to Google, the cloud-based operating system means it can start up in 8 seconds or less, as well as maintain a longer battery life.


There will be two versions of the Google Chrome OS notebooks. Samsung's model has a 12.1-inch screen and an 8-hour battery, costing $429 for the Wi-Fi model and $499 for 3G. Acer's model has an 11.6-inch display with a 6.5-hour battery, and starts at $349.

The Chrome OS laptops will be available by lease through a new program called Chromebooks for Business & Education. Schools can get the Chromebook offer for $20 a month per unit, and businesses can get them for $28 each monthly. Google has said it will cover phone, email and hardware replacement