While most of the tech world was abuzz today with the announcement of Google’s Chrome OS, another piece of interesting news slipped through the cracks: Cisco announced that Ned Hooper is being promoted to chief strategy officer.

With the appointment, Hooper enters a much bigger role at the company. He will not only continue to be the lead for consumer acquisitions, but he’ll help shape overall Cisco strategy and acquisition activity. And if Hooper & Co. can tie the pieces together, we may now have a new and very serious entrant to fight the big boys in the connected consumer marketplace. Continue »

Google’s Chrome OS has added a very interesting wrinkle to the future of online gaming. As we reported back in May, Google reportedly plans to fully integrate O3D, the company’s rich 3D graphics plug-in, into the Chrome browser by the end of this year. That gives Google a platform for game development that’d be a seamless part of its OS when it’s released next year. A number of developers are already creating games for O3D; for instance, here’s a demo for Infinite Journey (a screenshot of which is on the left), a visually engaging, Mario-style title showcased at the recent Google I/O conference. If consumers embrace netbooks pre-installed with Google OS, I think we’re likely to see O3D become an increasingly popular platform for games — at the expense of Windows-based PC games and web-based games powered by Flash.

But what do game industry insiders make of Chrome OS? I just reached out via email to several leading CEOs; here’s a sampling of their takes: Continue »

There sure are a lot of people writing about the Google Chrome OS. The pair of Googlers who wrote the blog post that kicked off the media frenzy included all the right buzzwords: “open source,” “lightweight operating system,” “netbooks,” and “community.” So exciting! I almost think the working title should have been “Google Chrome OS Is Going To Change Everything.”

The sentiment in the Chrome OS announcement is that there is nothing that Google can’t improve upon. “[T]he operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web…[Google Chrome OS is] our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.” An auspicious goal, to be sure — much like Google Wave, the company’s attempt to re-think, in its words, “what email would be if it were invented today.” But go a little deeper down the rabbit hole, and suddenly Google Chrome OS looks awfully familiar to another breakthrough product: the iPhone. Continue »

The fight for the netbook operating system just gained a new challenger in Google with the announcement of its Chrome Operating System. Although the Chrome OS is slated for various x86 computers, its initial target is netbooks, on which Google expects to see it running by the second half of 2010. Which begs the question: What’s so special about netbooks that they need their own operating system? And which of the current or planned OS environments is best suited for these devices? Continue »

The rules surrounding the release of $4 billion in federal funds aimed at providing better broadband and creating jobs announced last week have so far disappointed applicants hoping to deliver advanced broadband services such as fiber to the home. Instead, the rules associated with the first release of grant funds appear to be targeted at getting connectivity to rural areas – ignoring places where customers can get the minimum standard of broadband, which the government has set at 768 kbps. This means projects like a downtown fiber optic pipe in tiny Canby, Ore., aren’t going to get money, since that area of Canby already has service that meets the definition of broadband. Continue »

Without a doubt, Google stole the spotlight with the announcement of its upcoming Chrome operating system late yesterday and sent everyone buzzing about the search giant’s very public swipe against Microsoft. But amid all the chatter on the Web, Stacey Higginbotham warned on GigaOM that we shouldn’t get too excited just yet since Google still has to tackle the gargantuan task of convincing carriers that selling netbooks with the OS is the way to go. Instead, the Chrome OS announcement signals the company is another step closer to creating an advertising operating system that “extends across all devices and all screens.“ Across the GigaOM Network at WebWorkerDaily, Simon Mackie had a hunch that Google would be making this move soon (read his post on GigaOM Pro; subscription required) and says it makes a lot of sense now that the majority of people’s computing activity happens on the web. Continue »