Welcome to
#TechTuesdays! The weeks fly by, don’t they? But as always, the one thing that seems to somehow effortlessly keep pace with the passing days is technology news.
Unsurprisingly, Google’s popped back into the blogosphere (do they really ever leave?) with the news coming from
The Wall Street Journal that the folks behind everyone’s favorite search engine are once again doing some major work in the operating system space. We all know — or know of — Android and Chrome OS, but it seems now we’re all about to learn a thing or two about what happens when those two get mashed-up into one happy little hybrid OS.
That’s right. The Android operating system and Chrome OS will soon become one. Let’s take a look at the announcement and delve into the few details known thus far.
Wait, a Combined Android and Chrome OS?
Yes, really. Both
The Wall Street Journal and the fine folks at
The Verge are reporting that Chrome is going to be integrated into and enveloped by Android. This has little to do with Chrome, apparently, and everything to do with Android, because Android is simply the dominant operating system by a great deal.
Sure, the low-cost, uber-affordable Chromebooks with their super-streamlined and ridiculously-easy-to-use Chrome OS have been a legitimate hit, but Google wants the two operating systems to play nice with each other, and what better way to do that than simply have the two join forces altogether?
The move isn’t a completely untelegraphed one, either. Google Supreme Leader, Sundar Pichai (we
believe that’s his official title, at least), began overseeing the development of both operating systems two years ago, and has made gradual steps toward increasing compatibility between the two, such as affording Chrome OS limited ability to run Android apps. However, that compatibility is obviously about to take a huge leap forward as the two operating systems are merged.
When Is This Happening?
We don’t have an exact date when the two operating systems will be meshed together, although The Verge is reporting that Android and Chrome OS are planned to become one sometime in 2017, so you’ll have some time to catch your breath.
There aren’t a lot of further available details yet, but Google reportedly isn’t planning on killing off Chrome OS support — at least not yet — and they are prepping a new name for the combined operating system. Probably something like “Chromedroid.”
Okay, maybe not.
Regardless of naming convention, we’ll have all the latest on the new operating system once Google decides to open up a bit. Stay tuned!
