It’s Chrome Day at Google I/O with Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer (Day 2 Keynote Video Added)

Submitted by lalit on May 11, 2011 - 7:57pm.

If day one of Google I/O 2011 belonged to Android operating system, day two was all about Chrome. Keynote on second day showcased features in upcoming Chrome browser, Chrome OS and devices based on Chrome OS. Here is a brief list of all Chrome related announcements Google made at second day Keynote:

  • New Features in Chrome Browser - Google said that the Chrome team is working on hundreds of APIs, but the two APIs that highlight the development speed Chrome is known for, are Speech input API and graphics hardware acceleration in Chrome browser. The speech API allows users to speak rather than type inputs and it worked perfectly in the demo. To demo graphics acceleration Google showed 10,000 fishes swimming at 30fps. Google is using WebGL for graphics acceleration in the browser. Chrome browser update featuring Speech API and WebGL should be released by end of Q3 2011.
  • Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer – Chrome OS will officially ship on June 15th and Samsung and Acer will be first to bring Chrome OS based netbooks to the market. Chrome OS based netbooks will be called Chromebook. Samsung Chromebook will feature dual-core 1.66GHz Atom processor, 12.1-inch 1280 x 800 screen, 1-megapixel camera, 16GB SSD, WiFi, 3G and SDXC card reader. Acer Chromebook will feature 11.6-inch screen, 1.66GHz Atom processor, webcam, 16GB SSD, WiFi, 3G and HDMI. The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook will have 8.5 hours battery life and will be priced $429 for WiFi version and $499 for 3G version. Acer Chromebook will have 6.5 hours battery life and it will be priced $349 for WiFi version. Both the Acer and Samsung Chromebooks will start shipping on June 15th via Amazon and Best Buy.
  • Chrome OS Desktop – In a surprising move Google also revealed that Samsung would ship Chrome OS based nettops called Chromebox. Like the Chromebook this Chormebox will also be based on Intel Atom processor and will mainly be web-centric. Chromebox from Samsung would come to market by end of this year.
  • Applications for Chrome OS – Not only Netflix and Hulu are coming to Chrome OS, but Google is also bring offline support of Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs this summer.
  • Rent Chromebook – Google will start a monthly subscription plan, which would allow businesses and schools to rent the Chromebook on per user basis. The subscription plan will include regular software and hardware upgrades, as well as Hardware service. The Monthly subscription will cost $28 per user for businesses and $20 per user for schools.

Below we have added the second day Google I/O keynote video. Check it out.