GoKawiilis a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.
Google is announcing a new line of laptops coming in the fall called Googlebooks. Details are sparse for now, as the tease is just a small part of various Android announcements during Google’s Android Show. But we do know this is a major new initiative in the laptop space for Google, seemingly designed to succeed Chromebooks with something more capable: a platform running a long-rumored new operating system based on a fusion of Android and ChromeOS.
That operating system, through various leaks, has been referred to as Aluminium OS. Google isn’t announcing the OS’s real name or giving many details about it just yet. “We’ll have more to share on the exact OS branding later this year,” Peter Du of Google’s global communications team tells The Verge. “We can confirm it is not Aluminium — that is the codename, not the official branding.”
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1 / 3 We don’t know what this laptop will be, but it’s branded Googlebook. Image: Google
So, what do we actually know about Googlebooks and their operating system that’s not Aluminium but also not not Aluminium? For starters, Googlebooks are built on the Android technology stack. They’ll run Chrome for web browsing and also run Android apps. They’ll even be able to directly access files from your Android phone and run your apps right off of it so you don’t have to temporarily move your attention across devices. And they’re going to have Gemini Intelligence baked into just about everything — right down to the cursor.
Googlebooks will have a Magic Pointer feature that offers contextual suggestions whenever you shake your cursor and point it at something on the screen. Google’s examples include setting up a meeting by pointing at a date in an email or selecting images of furniture and a living space to visualize them together. Beyond your mouse pointer, Googlebooks will also feature the custom AI-created widgets that Google is also debuting today for Android phones and Wear OS smartwatches. I don’t know what kind of horrors people will be able to make into widgets, but Google gives the example of making one to organize your flights, hotel information, restaurant reservations, and another for creating a countdown timer for an upcoming family reunion. (It’s always flights, hotels, and restaurants, isn’t it?)
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