As Andy Rubin, the father of Android, steps down to pursue other Google-based projects

As Andy Rubin, the father of Android, steps down to pursue other Google-based projects, and Chrome lead Sundar Pichai will step up to handle his existing workload as well as instructions to “double down” on Android. It’s pretty natural to assume that there will be some cross communication between Android and Chrome, but how far will that really go?

Imagine the world that we would live in if Android and Chrome OS played together. Android apps running in Chrome tabs, background updates for Android that happen without interrupting the user, and everything in the cloud. There’s plenty of reasons to want this merger to happen, and there’s more than enough talent at Google to make it happen. The line between these platforms has always seemed pretty thin anyway, especially since they are both made by Google. If you take a step back and look at the two platforms from the ground up, however, you’ll see that there’s more than a few necessary differences.

Android grew in popularity by being something open source that any company could pick up and make their own. The Android platform focused on easy sharing and enabling location-aware devices that made your mobile tasks easier. The specific focus there was enabling the user to be able to do more on these tiny pocket computers. Along the way, this design has changed shape a bit, but the overall focus hasn’t changed.

This is wildly different from Chrome OS, which aims to remove as many layers as possible between you and the web. Hassles like file systems, apps, and having to be concerned about the way your computer is behaving are seen as distractions. Chrome OS isn’t about being more productive with a more powerful machine, it’s about being more productive by removing distractions.

In order to see a real merger here, Pichai would have to embark on the same journey he did with Chrome. The browser needs to be something that requires no thought from the user, and in many ways that is exactly what Chrome is. If you apply that same logic to Android you would be looking at an OS where version number is irrelevant. Everything is always up to date, and the hardware is never something you have to think about because it is always something that “just works”. Android is pretty far from that luxury right now, especially since they are part of an aggressive ecosystem whose primary focus right now is delivering the best features.

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Though Canonical released its Ubuntu Touch preview over one month ago

Though Canonical released its Ubuntu Touch preview over one month ago, not all of us have either been brave enough, or had the proper combination of devices and software to give it a test run. For those that fall into this category, but still want to give Ubuntu Touch a look-see, some previews of the core apps have trickled out into the wild.

The core apps are what you’d expect a mobile device’s core apps to be: A calculator, a weather app, a clock, a file manager, Twitter and Facebook clients, an email app, and so on. Interestingly, and because it’s Linux, a Terminal app is being developed as a core app as well. So now you can simultaneously be frustrated with having to pop into the Terminal on your phone, but also feel like a cool hacker since you’re dumping dense text commands into a terminal.

You won’t really be blown away by the artistic direction of the core apps at the moment, but they’re getting the job done. They don’t look bad; they just look a little plain, but unfortunately not plain in the sense that a pleasing minimalistic aesthetic style would be “plain.” The apps do look very Ubuntu, but they could benefit from Ubuntu’s greatest strength: the wonderful, iconic aubergine color.

Granted, the apps are currently in a development stage, and have until October (if Canonical’s aim of having Ubuntu Touch devices available to consumers by then comes to fruition) to spruce up the look. Again, though, they don’t look bad — you just wouldn’t sneak a second glance if they walked by you on the street.

Aside from the core apps, some third party developers are working on apps of their own as well. An alternative weather app makes an appearance, as does Google Reader and microblogging client Gwibber, as well as some staple mobile games like Sudoku and Chess.

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If you use Outlook.com for email, the last few days may have been a frustrating time for you.

Upset that Google is shutting down Google Reader this summer? You’re not alone. The death of RSS, on numerous occasions, has been greatly exaggerated. The truth is that millions of people still use feed readers on a daily basis. They’re a convenient way to sift through the mountain of near-real-time content that gets published every day on the web.
So where do you turn now that Google Reader is being put out to pasture? You could use a desktop RSS reader, but chances are that if you were using Google Reader you’d probably prefer to stick with a web app instead.
Some better-known alternatives are Bloglines and Netvibes. Both are solid options, but Bloglines is a better choice if you’re after something that works a lot like Google Reader does. Netvibes is more of a personal start page, while Bloglines more closely resembles a traditional feed reader. It’s also got loads of personalization options and it’s totally free — Netvibes charges for some functionality.
There’s also The Old Reader which claims to be just like the old Google Reader, only better. It’s getting hammered right now, so you’ll have to take their word for it, but TOR has been a popular alternative for quite some time.

If you don’t mind switching up to something that places more emphasis on aesthetics than Google Reader, have a look at NewsBlur, Taptu, or Pulse. Newsblur is laid out a lot like Google Reader, but “feels” more like a desktop app. The others are all presented in more of a thumbnailed, curated digital magazine format — not a bad thing, just not the workmanlike experience Reader provides.

You may find that all of these services are struggling to keep up with the demand for new accounts, and that’s no surprise. Google might think that Reader was underused, but there are still millions of avid news readers on the web that are out there looking for a new services that works well and isn’t going to be shut down any time soon.

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