Google launches Android-powered Nexus One, opens up own Web store

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Google has finally blown the lid off of its worst-kept secret: the Android-powered Nexus One mobile phone, the first of many new smartphones that will be sold either through carriers or from Google itself, with its newly opened Web store accessible at google.com/phone.

Google's Nexus One reviewed in full

There's a new Android smartphone in town, and some people have gone so far as to call it, "The Messiah." This seemingly all-powerful new smartphone is called the Nexus One, and a newly established blog has just published a full review of it complete with photos and comparisons with other leading smartphones of this generation. I'll spare you the details, which you can go on and read for yourself, but I think this is the Android smartphone everyone has been waiting for.

Source: [NexusOneBlog]

Acer netbook with Google's Chrome OS coming in 2010

Acer is reportedly planning to launch a Google Chrome OS-based netbook in the second half of 2010, as they are already developing one and have been since mid-2009. This is according to industry sources cited by the Chinese news site DigiTimes, which also mentions that Acer chairman JT Wang expressed confidence in the idea that they will launch the first Chrome OS-based netbook in the market. Hardware-wise, I don't think there's anything worth looking forward to about this upcoming netbook from Acer, since Chrome OS is design to run on low-powered devices. But you never know what the Taiwanese computer company is cooking up, so keep watching out for updates.

Source: [DigiTimes]

2010 will be the year of the Android smartphone

DigiTimes is reporting that come 2010, there will be a "flood" of Android-powered smartphones from nearly all current mobile phone manufacturers, which includes Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics, HTC and Motorola. The Garmin-Asustek combo is also expected to launch new Android smartphones. Here's a quick list of Android phones to expect in 2010.

Google Chrome OS outed one year early as open-source Chromium OS

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Google's highly-anticipated open-source operating system, Chrome OS, apparently won't be seeing a release until the latter part of 2010. However, Google has decided to release an early open-source version called the Chromium OS, due to their eagerness "to engage with partners, the open source community and developers." The code for Chromium OS is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions, as the official Google blog puts it. It's different from many of the most popular operating systems available today because it's all about the Web--as in, all of its applications or programs run in the Web browser (Google Chrome, that is). And besides being free, Google also touts security as a feature of their open-source Chrome OS. If I were Google, I'd be pretty excited about this as well. See a couple of more screenshots and a video showing what the Google Chrome OS is all about after the break.