Weekly high-tech hot topics in the blogs: Google Chrome OS, Apple Tablet, GPhone

(Google)

Hot topics in the tech blogs for the week of November 20: Google Chrome OS launch plans announced, bloggers fuel Apple Tablet rumors, Goggle gives internet users a new way to search for images, Google's proprietary phone to be data-based only, Adobe provides touch screen support with AIR and Flash beta updates.

Google Chrome OS
Internet buzz in the technology blogs continues on from last week's November 13 TechCrunch post when the internet blog site revealed Google would launch the Chrome OS "within a week". TechCrunch and other technology sites continued talking about the launch until Thursday, November 19 when Google officially announced its launch plans for next year. Since Thursday, blogs have been busy posting articles about their reaction to Google's Chrome OS. Responses include Mashable's article on how Google "intends to destroy the desktop and Microsoft" and InfoWorld.com's report about why they believe Chrome OS will fail.

Apple Tablet rumors
On November 19 Max Wang from the DigiTimes wrote an article entitled "Apple tablet PC reportedly delayed until 2H10, with OLED model now included." The article revealed that Apple was working on two models of its rumored tablet - an OLED tablet that could retail for up to $2000 and a cheaper LCD model priced from around $800 to $1,000. Bloggers across the globe responded to the article both fuelling the rumours and claiming DigiTime's article was misinformed. A PC World journalist went as far as to say "The Apple Tablet Is Dead" after becoming infuriated with the constant stream of rumors published on technology blogs.

Google Image Swirl
Google provided internet users with a new way to search for images on November 17 with an experimental feature called Google Image Swirl. Bloggers compared the new Google Labs search features with Microsoft Bing's recently launched Visual Search for images that applies similar principles to help users retrieve groups of images that better fit their search terms.

Google to make proprietary Phone
Influential technology blogger Michael Arrington was responsible for starting Google Phone rumous that echoed around the technology blogs this week. On November 18 TechCrunch published his article entitled "The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It's Coming Soon," which was quickly followed up by another article entitled "The Google Phone May Be Data Only, VoIP Driven Device." The second article insinuated Google would avoid breaking its newly formed relationships with mobile phone makers producing phones that run Google's Android OS by creating a Google Phone that would only make data-based VoIP calls.

Adobe Air and Flash Player integrate touch support
Adobe announced new beta versions of its AIR and Flash Player products on November 17, generating much interest from technology bloggers around the world who have been hotly anticipating their release. Both beta versions include multi touch and gesture support for touchscreen-enabled devices.

Technorati's list of Top 5 movers in the Top Technology blogs recorded on November 20:

1. Tech Ticker - http://www.techtickerblog.com
2. Daring Fireball - http://daringfireball.net
3. HotHarware.com News Rss - http://hothardware.com
4. Neowin.net / All - http://www.neowin.net
5. Technologizer - http://technologizer.com