Sony Ericsson’s Google phone demo shown in this video on Gizmodo is possibly the slickest UI I have seen yet on a mobile phone, possibly even more slick than the big-daddy of them all, the iPhone.
Google working on Chrome based OS
It’s been long rumored that Google were working on an OS, and maybe the launch of the Google phones through people of the scent slightly. But it was true, Google announced last night they are building a lightweight OS based on their Linux and their Chrome browser as the basis, supported by the raft of other apps/technologies they have been slowly rolling out.
The OS will be targeted to netbook type devices, and will run the majority of apps from the cloud, like Google Docs etc, rather than on the machine itself, but with Google Gears providing offline capability they’ve got their bases covered.
Funny how Microsoft has tried this approach twice and never managed to make it stick – first with the Hailstorm initiative, hosting apps and data online, and secondly with their half-hearted live.com attempt that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere right now.
More details here.
Online store/photo gallery using PixelPost
Windows 7 ‘Start up repair’ – Cancel cannot cancel
If you startup Windows 7 beta and press F8, which used to take you into ‘Safe Mode’ in prior versions, the only option you have now is a ‘Repair Mode’ which attempts to do something to repair your install. While it’s running there is a dialog with a Cancel button on it. If you press it it says ‘The repair operation cannot be cancelled’. Hmm – that’s useful. A bit more polish needed there I think.