Last week, the world saw Apple’s long anticipated tablet device, the iPad, for the first time. In the aftermath since that announcement, a few things have become clear: it will be great for some people, but its apparent lack of flexibility (at least in its first iteration) may leave something to be desired. It’s increasingly looking like the best alternative will be Google’s Chrome OS, which is clearly on a collision course with the iPad. And tonight, we’ve come across some very impressive mockups of what Chrome OS may look like on a tablet form factor.
The photos have been posted to the official Chromium site (Chromium is the open source project behind Chrome and ChromeOS). And while Chromium is not actually part of Google, it appears that these mockups were put together by Glen Murphy, Google Chrome’s designer. In other words, there’s a good chance that the final version of Chrome OS will resemble this.
Update: Be sure to watch this video to see a mockup of the tablet in action.
It’s worth pointing out that there almost certainly will be multiple “Google Tablets”, given that Chrome OS won’t be tied to a single device. That said, Google is working with select hardware partners to ensure that it runs on devices that are up to its specifications, and there may be one tablet device that is designated as the “Google Tablet”, much like the Nexus One is the “Google Phone”.
Via TheChromeSource.
Rounded rectangle, black and a screen? iPad copy much /s
And the other options you are conceiving?
Round- Pear shaped – maybe heart shaped?
Maybe GucciGoogle designed?
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Totes McGoats can’t wait to check it out!
A+++++++!!!!!!
+1 for totesMcGoats
LOLOlololol
I think i’t’s a nice design lol.
This rumor has been around even before the slate was unveiled to the public (Jan 27). The UI is very impressive, although I wonder how Google will pull this one off? Now, that iPad is starting to make a name on the tablet-industry.
Let’s just see how this “gPad” plays out. More pictures and details: http://bit.ly/google-tablet-pics-and-details
The lock-in feature should be a cup holder, Apple didn’t think of that as a requirement! I rate the pear shaped suggestion..
So, you’d prefer they do some ugly, over-designed wheel-reinvention for the sake of being different?
apple wasn’t the first one out with a rounded rectangular tablet. Well, unless you’re an apple fan.
whoosh
^double whoosh…
Maybe instead of /s, I should of put
/sarcasm, it didnt appear above
you’re doing it wrong
Should ‘of’ or ‘have’?
There’s something really intriguing about a rumor, it’s a half full half-empty concoction that drives people crazier on what’s real from not. Anyway, the rumored specs is already predicted its not something like so ‘unreal’. And guess what? Chrome will have a netbook as well: http://bit.ly/google-chrome-netbook-rumor-overview
Except that this concept looks way more sexy than the iPad.
And all they had to do is make the bezel smaller and a bit more rounded. If only Apple had did that instead of that giant bezel.
The bezel exists for a few reasons. First, you do not want your thumbs to obscure the screen when you are holding the iPad. Second, you need space for the camera (which might in fact be ready for launch), the home button, etc. It is easy to reduce the bezel on a mockup, but let’s see what happens when Google creates an actual 3D model.
“Second, you need space for the camera (which might in fact be ready for launch)”
Wishful thinking, much?
Hey, you never know…
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/02/01/ipad_photos_show_slot_for_forward_facing_video_camera.html
4 wheels , an engine and windows, they just copied another car!
I’m unsure how they could have made it different than the iPad. The iPad design wasn’t inspired, it’s the only obvious design. All the previous tablet type of devices, which predate the iPad looked pretty much the same. A screen with a bezel to hold it without touching the screen. How would anyone design it?
i agree, all these people who are saying that google is copying the ipad design is right, they are, how else are they supposed to make one? And furthermore, the ipad design is just a screen, and isnt that the premise of the “tablet”. LOL MONSTER TO THE RESCUE
Computers sure do copy one another, too.
Those damn manufacturers.
Any estimate of when it will be released? Looks like quite a battle brewing between Apple and Google.
I believe they’re shooting for holiday season 2010, though I’m not sure if that’s for netbooks or a whole slew of devices including the tablet. In any case, it will be a while.
Wow…Looks awesome..Chromium seems to be a perfect fit for tablet kind of device !
No .. dnt forget that google is also has the same habit of .. launching products half baked .. but I really hope that they have learnt from the Apple’s disaster ….
Best,
Daina
i agree..tablet market is there to be exploited.. I bet Google wont miss on this golden goose.
The Newton 100?
looks like they’re thinking more web browsing than the ipad which was considered more of an ereader. i like this!
I hope they continue with the media capabilities but lower the cost. I also believe that they should come at the product with a result in mind rather than a generalized approach. I am basing my interface visualizations on an implementation of Wave, and although there are a number of iPhone inspired items, it is more Google than iPad OS in my mind.
Media will be shared via streams so design a communication flow like MotoBlur as opposed to a product that can do anything. The interesting thing about Chrome and say the CrunchPad was that it started as an essentially simple object. The thing should launch into a browser immediately.
WHEREZ TEH FALSH?
I’m sure that Google will work closely with Aodbe to get a working Falsh player by the time of release.
Same for Adobe and Flash.
Yes Google is a member of the Open Screen Project and they are working with Adobe to make sure it has the full internet. Flash 10.1 is well optimized for low processors and low memory. It’s fantastic.
To add to what others have pointed out, when Google was demoing Chrome for the first time they showed a chess game that was all done in Flash. So it looks like ChromeOS will certainly include Flash with it.
Flash is not open source. HTML5 is.
Chrome OS = Linux, and Chrome on Linux has flash. :S
Love it. Cant wait.
Google is getting good at entering Apple’s territory by copying them, with little innovation.
Apple’s territory is being good at copying other companies with little innovation.
Just like the iPhone, Newton, Mouse, iPad, iPod.. How has Google innovated in the hardware industry?
Innovation is masked imitation.
+100 Apple didn’t come up with the Mouse though… but Jobs definitely knew the GUI and Mouse were worth licensing from Xerox
Tablets weren’t invented by Apple. Apple too is an imitator then?
Google is going completely in the cloud with this though … iPad is far from a cloud based device … their app store is making sure of that.
Does Google have to follow Apple? I know MS does that, and does so unsuccessfully! I have way more respect for Google!
hmhm copy? Didnt news about a Google Tablet and an Apple Tablet come out at the same time?
The Google tablet rumor came out when the Nexus One rumor came out, but the rumor was a android tablet.
wtf I meant follow not copy……
Yet the iPad ships in 60 days.
Do I wait till they have one in production or get the iPad now?
This is going to slap the crap out of the iTampon
Is it just me or does this thing need only a home button to look like the iPad?
It’s a tablet computer. How many differences can there be in the basic form factor?
Where you’ll see the difference is the gPad won’t be a nightmarish, 1984-esque device straight out of a Steve Jobs control-freak wet dream.
Sorry Jobs… you done some great things for our industry – but you’ve pissed off a lot of people now – including legions of potent and creative Flashers. As a Flash Developer, I intend to do anything I can to make sure your vision of the “Steve Jobs Internet” does not come to pass.
Iam sure this would take another year for public launch and Google is failing in Product Sales when compared to their services business.
If it will allow multi tasking it beats the iPad easily. To me multi tasking is a must for a device that wants to be my Internet device. I am on online student and it would be impossible to do homework, etc. with being able to run multiple applications at once.
Splitting the keyboard in half so you can type with thumbs is so simple but really genius! I would be surprised if Apple don’t move to copy that feature ASAP.
Also, these look really pretty! There is no big massive ugly wide border like on the iPad.
I am sure it’s patented.
How does the title to this article match the content? In no way, shape or form are the pictures or video above meant to be a possible Google tablet mockup. They’re simply showing the OS.
So your saying you dont believe ChromeOS comes out on a tablet within the next 18 months?
What does that question have anything to do with what I posted above?
The original title of the post was “A First Taste Of What The Google Tablet Will Look Like (Pics).” It’s now been changed to “Google Tablet Interface.” My complaint, now amended, was that they used a sensationalist title that had nothing to do with the article’s content.
I don’t think they’d be using a tablet in a mockup that would look terribly dissimilar to the ones we will be seeing in production. In fact, I think the vast majority of tablets will look very similar regardless of what software they’re running (the biggest physical difference will probably be in aspect ratio). That said, I’ve modified the title to be more clear.
Is he serious about this;
It’s increasingly looking like the best alternative will be Google’s Chrome OS
Right and the courier pics from several months back look hell Tom Cruise’s entire office in Minority Report is a better alt the only problem is both an this chromium tablet are vaporware. Hell three weeks ago the iPad was the best alt to a nook or kindle or joo joo. It is still better than the joo joo, which in Chinese means pig but since it is a word and if said by a female in a high pitched whingy voice it would be cute!
shocked i’m not, intrigued i am.
Would be nice if Google did something like that. Might be that were moving towards much more touch devices now.
under statement of the decade (and it just started)
these are just iPad mockups with the Google.com page
summary of Chrome Tablet http://bit.ly/aF1SEe
FAIL.
They need to fix that aspect ratio right quick. The 90’s are over, and so is 4:3.
3 finger slide down the right side will fix that right up
Most books and magazines are closer to 4:3 than 16:9. As such, for a handheld device meant to be read (e.g. where reading book and magazine content is a major use case), 4:3 is more attractive to the average user due to the familiar dimensions.
16:9 is definitely my preference. would like to have the option of rotating the display 90 degrees to take advantage of a longer vertical space especially for newspapers. hopefully will allow Readability or something similar to remove extraneous info before delving into the stuff I want to read. http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
I am happy with it so long as it supports multitasking
So sexy. I want one.
i thought apple copied windows tablet… no?
Interesting.
It could very well compete with the iPad (assuming there will be flash!).
Apple is nice for it’s macbooks, and iMacs but man did they ever slip on the iPad.
Yeah I can’t imagine any major company would release a product larger than a phone that has a browser that can’t display the full internet. Silverlight and Flash included. What childish upper management they have.
Hmmm, I’ve read most of “Steve”’s comments tonight, and I smell Adobe astroturfing.
Come now, how many times shall you repeat the phrase “the full Internet”?
I get by without Flash just fine. HTML5 is going to destroy it.
Flash is to the iPad as the floppy was to the original iMac.
Somebody’s got to step up to the plate and push technology forward while cutting the cord from the past. This has been a core philosophy of Apple’s since Jobs’ return in 97. It’s amazing how many people are still shocked by this.
The iPad/Flash debate also lays bare who’s rooted in the past & present and who’s looking forward.
Those who are rooted in the present are the roadkill of change.
But I thought iPad was for “mums”. Is it for “mums” or geek elitists? Pick a side please!
…. hint – Google Books: http://books.google.com .. need we say more … this one is almost a no brainer
Fantastic! I think google can add more features in it and win the race against Apple.
I can’t get shockwave flash plug in to work on my browser
I am sure this will be great, flash will be supported and HTML5! using google wave on it can’t be too bad. i still think i will get something like the archos 7 with android or some other android device (currently have moto droid), but this will surely be better than ipad, and who cares if it looks similar, like many mentioned, do we have better designs? a rough rigid square? no!
I cannot rely on these pictures because
1) these are CAD designs and not the actual one
2) I cannot figure out the thickness with any of these tablets
3) I already knew how chrome OS looks like. So its not anything new!
Waiting for some fresh news out here.
No one’s “copying” anyone. Tablet and touchscreens AREN’T NEW CONCEPTS, PEOPLE. Christ.