Arrival

I'll start things off with the PR blitz we saw last week concerning the new Google Books.

I had reported a couple of episodes ago, or perhaps more than a couple of episodes ago, that Google had planned a press-only Google Book event which was to be held on September 15th.

Well, that date came and went with nary a report from the tech press.

In the last episode, I found out that Google had started sending out invites to an event which will be held on October 5th in New York City called Opening Night.

It's suspected that the Google Books are to be officially demonstrated to the public at that event.

I had assumed that the original report of a press-only event to be held on September 15th was most likely false, being that I hadn't heard anything about it.

And yet, we've been getting wall-to-wall coverage of Google Books over the past week.

Kind of strange, isn't it?

Yes.

Because of these reports highlighting Google Books from the tech press, with most of these outlets dropping the story at the same time, I'm assuming that this press-only event actually did take place and those outlets that attended were under some sort of media blackout imposed by Google.

Well, that would explain this sudden explosion of articles and videos about Google Books.

I guess.

Anyway, not much info about these new computers was given by the numerous reports.

Either it's a conditional blackout or the hands-on reports were given so far wasn't long enough for them to report on usage details.

I might say, though, that these new Google Books sure look nice and will give Android users their first truly integrated computer experience like Apple gives its users.

Though I feel that these new Google Books are more of a challenge to Microsoft Windows operating system and aren't really aimed at competing with Apple.

Remember, after dropping Windows Phone, Microsoft went all in on integrating Windows with Android but haven't been able to make Android seamless with Windows as Apple has made iOS seamless with macOS.

I'm sure the decision to drop Windows Phone in an attempt to integrate Android into Windows made sense at the time because Google really didn't have a real computer operating system.

Most Android users relied on Windows for serious computing at the time the decision was made.

Now with Google Books, Android users have that seamless integration as well as a platform for some serious computing.

Be that as it may, many including myself have questions.

The main one concerns video games.

Windows has a lock on the gamer community.

A lock that Apple has been trying to pick for years now, but with no success.

The Steam company has had the most success with this, but hasn't been able to put enough of a dent into Windows' domination of the video game industry for Microsoft to even notice.