Chrome OS Gets Ready for Gaming

When Google's new Web-based operating system Chrome OS launches later this year, it may be ready to serve not only as a simple netbook and tablet OS, but also as an interface for playing casual games like those currently found on Apple's iPhone and iPad.

On Apple mobile gadgets like the iPhone and iPod Touch, a combination of hardware-based motion sensors allow the device to know how you're holding it - up, down, sideways, etc. - and changes the orientation accordingly.  And in the iPhone 4, a new gyroscope allows for additional motion-sensing capabilities, too, like the ability to track orientation, velocity and rotation.

But Web browsers, like IE, Chrome, Safari and Firefox, haven't traditionally been able to detect which way is up. That may soon change for Google Chrome, the browser that forms the core of the upcoming operating system of the same name - it's getting orientation capabilities that will tell apps running in the browser which way the device is being held. 

Read more...