As I’m fairly well known for my distrust and criticism of all things Google, so it probably comes as something of a surprise that I’m REALLY looking forward to a Google Operating System … allow me to explain …First off I’m a big fan of cloud computing, there are very few desktop apps

• Itunes – for syncing to/from my iphone and iPod
• Ultra Edit – text editing and PHP files and HTML
• Flickr Uploader – for moving pics in bulk to flickr
• VZ Access Manager – For my USB modem when I travel
• Windows Live Sync – For keeping folders on my laptop and netbook in sync.
• Carbonite – for offline backups (highly recommended)
• Quickbooks – I’d love to get off the desktop version and go online but the accountant says the version I need isn’t online yet.

I do have several other more intense and few non public programs and scripts but those all run on a dedicated server and not on my laptop or netbook. I don’t use word or excel I use google docs in apps for domains. I don’t use outlook or thunderbird I use google email for domains. I don’t use photoshop, or other desktop photo software, I use Picnik for all my photo editing, and I don’t do any video editing. So I pretty much live in my browser.

Since I don’t use many desktop apps, there’s really no need for any of my computers to have a lot of hardware horsepower, in fact the most resource intensive thing they run ran was Windows Vista. The three laptops I own all came with Vista pre-installed and ran slow, very noisy due to the fan constantly being on, and extremely hot. When I downgraded each of them to XP they ran perfectly fine. To put a fine point on it, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay for hardware just to run an operating system.

While not everyone operates in a computing style like I do, there are lots of web workers and digital nomads who do, in fact I suspect this is the prime reason for the crunchpad being built. Truth be told I could probably run a linux install, but most people need want a simple GUI, and this is where the Google OS has an opportunity.

There will always be people who need a powerful OS and computer with substantial hardware, but for most it’s overkill. For most people it’s a cycle of operating system upgrades, followed by by a need to upgrade your hardware to run the new operating system. However if Google releases an OS, and makes it easy enough for everyone to use, we may finally have an option that doesn’t require paying for computer hardware just to run an OS. I understand Windows 7 is supposed to be easier to run than vista, but if Mircosoft doesn’t pay attention and service the “light computing” or netbook segment they allow google the opportunity get a foothold.

That’s not to say there aren’t privacy and “phoning home” issues that google needs to handle properly, but competition and options is a good thing … and I’m looking forward to a Google operating system
photo credit: Marcin Wichary

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Why I’m Looking Forward to a Google Operating System

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While there were numerous reports of Amazon being one of the few retailers who were positive this holiday season. One of the things that was didn’t receive a tremendous amount of press was the release of Amazon’s iPhone application. This program harnessed the power of the mobile platform, turning a mobile phone into a portable cash register, allowing customers to make purchases to make purchases when it was convient for them, without the hassle of black friday shopping woes.The amazon App for the iPhone has all of the features you would want in a mobile shopping platform, it allows you to search, shop, add or buy from wishlists, and even check on open or recent orders. However where the program really excels is it allows you to use any stored credit card, and shopping preferences from the Amazon website to complete your transaction without having to enter them everytime. It even allows you to use amazon prime.

That’s a difference that I can’t stress the importance of, here’s a screen shot of an item from the Target Mobile shopping app:

Compare this to the same item in the Amazon App

The price is $24.99 at Amazon versus $29.99 at target.  Because I’m an amazon prime customer I get 2 day free shipping. If buy from the amazon app, I don’t have to shop on target.com, worry about the shopping cart breaking on my mobile phone, fill out the forms, enter my credit card info, and hope any of the other things that break during a shopping experience happen. This is really a key point and I can’t stress it enough, Amazon removed all of the friction from a mobile shopping experience, making it as pain free as possible.

Here’s a really neat feature that has a lot of potential, the application also makes use of your camera, you take a picture send it to them and they try to identify it.

You take the photo and usually within 5 minutes you get an email letting you know if they were able to identify your item or not. Also the app lights up with the number of matches:

I’ve tried about 50 items and have gotten about a 90% match rate. I’ve found that if it’s not common item it sometimes help taking a picture of the bar code. I can then buy directly from the amazon app

This has tremendous potential, you can comparative price shop in a physical store, and if Amazon has a better deal have the item shipped without having to schlep it home. You can purchase an item a friend shows you, or you see while you are doing your daily errands. As more and more devices come equipped with cameras, the potential becomes huge. Personally I’m looking forward to using it make my weekly shopping list and save a trip to the grocery store, but currently most of the food items amazon sells are only available in bulk packages.

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