Nearly precisely 15 years since Google launched Chromebooks and ChromeOS—which ushered a wave of low cost, practical, web-based laptops that might come to dominate the US schooling market—the corporate has introduced a brand new laptop computer platform known as Googlebook. It is constructed round synthetic intelligence and Android, and whereas it is not changing Chromebooks, it may give the corporate a extra significant foothold within the premium pc market.
Google introduced the platform on The Android Present on YouTube, the place it additionally detailed new options coming in Android 17 and Gemini Intelligence (you may learn extra about that right here). Google is purposefully not sharing the working system’s title but (it was codenamed Aluminium OS internally); Googlebook is the platform, and Dell, Acer, Asus, HP, and Lenovo have all signed as much as produce Googlebooks coming later this fall.
The corporate says it is going to share extra info later this 12 months, however I spoke with Alexander Kuscher, senior director at Google main Android tablets and laptops, to glean extra particulars. Kuscher says there’s an immense quantity of innovation within the Android ecosystem proper now, and it interprets very well into laptops.
“You need to reap the benefits of the truth that this ecosystem is innovating so quick that you simply guarantee that laptops are on the tip of that innovation wave—constructing on high of Android applied sciences makes that a lot simpler for us,” he says.
Till now, when Google rolls out a brand new set of options for Android or its Gemini assistant, it usually additionally broadcasts a few of these capabilities for different platforms, like Put on OS smartwatches, Android Auto, or Google Dwelling. Chromebooks have been not often a part of that image as a result of they have been developed on a unique tech stack and had their very own improvement cycles. Nonetheless, with Googlebooks, you may count on to see new options that pop up on Android out there on a Googlebook laptop computer, the place it is sensible.
Working example: Create a Widget. This can be a new generative AI characteristic coming in Android 17, permitting customers to generate their very own widget by talking naturally with Gemini. You’ll be able to ask it to make a widget that exhibits the day’s change fee when you’re touring, or a customized climate widget that additionally exhibits wind pace. This characteristic will additionally be out there on Googlebooks.
However the spotlight characteristic Google is teasing on the gate is the cursor, which the corporate calls the “Magic Pointer” on a Googlebook. Constructed with Google’s DeepMind group, wiggle your cursor whereas hovering over an app or picture to get contextual recommendations. For instance, you may wiggle the cursor at a date in an e mail, and Gemini will counsel establishing a calendar occasion. Or choose two footage within the Recordsdata app, wiggle, and Gemini will ask if you wish to merge them.
Courtesy of Google
The Play Retailer is the place you will entry your entire apps. However you may surprise how Google is getting across the traditional Chromebook limitation: In ChromeOS, you may’t obtain desktop-grade apps like on Home windows or macOS—you may solely set up Android apps from the Play Retailer or use internet apps. That is a deal-breaker for individuals who depend on particular apps that will not have as highly effective an internet shopper or Android app.
The reply is adaptive apps. Google has been encouraging app builders to make apps react to the dimensions of the display screen for just a few years now, and that now interprets to encouraging app makers to make desktop variations of their Android apps for Googlebooks. However Kuscher says issues might be totally different from the “constrained” Android app expertise on Chromebooks, which have been initially constructed for a web-first period.
