Nearly precisely 15 years since Google introduced Chromebooks and ChromeOS—which ushered a wave of low cost, useful, 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 might give the corporate a extra significant foothold within the premium laptop market.
Google introduced the platform on The Android Show on YouTube, the place it additionally detailed new options coming in Android 17 and Gemini Intelligence (you may read more about that here). Google is purposefully not sharing the working system’s identify 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 can share extra info later this yr, 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 rather well into laptops.
“You need to make the most of the truth that this ecosystem is innovating so quick that you just guarantee that laptops are on the tip of that innovation wave—constructing on prime 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 typically additionally pronounces a few of these capabilities for different platforms, like Wear OS smartwatchesAndroid Auto, or Google House. Chromebooks had been not often a part of that image as a result of they had been developed on a distinct tech stack and had their very own growth cycles. Nevertheless, with Googlebooks, you may anticipate to see new options that pop up on Android accessible on a Googlebook laptop computer, the place it is sensible.
Working example: Create a Widget. It is a new generative AI characteristic coming in Android 17, permitting customers to generate their very own widget by talking naturally with Gemini. You possibly can ask it to make a widget that reveals the day’s alternate price if you happen to’re touring, or a customized climate widget that additionally reveals wind velocity. This characteristic will additionally be accessible 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 teamwiggle your cursor whereas hovering over an app or picture to get contextual ideas. For instance, you may wiggle the cursor at a date in an electronic 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 marvel how Google is getting across the basic 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 won’t have as highly effective an online consumer or Android app.
The reply is adaptive apps. Google has been encouraging app builders to make apps react to the scale of the display for a couple of years now, and that now interprets to encouraging app makers to make desktop variations of their Android apps for Googlebooks. However Kuscher says issues will likely be totally different from the “constrained” Android app expertise on Chromebooks, which had been initially constructed for a web-first period.
