Apple and Google have a rather interesting competitive relationship as they battle it out in the mobile front with iOS and Android. When one comes up with a good idea, the other seems to quickly adopt it as well, although this flow of ideas seems to trickle from Apple to Google more often than the reverse; touchscreens, app stores, instant search, tablets, etc.
With this in mind, check out the pictures of the new Google CR-48 Chrome Notebook, it’s a dead-ringer for the older black MacBook. From the chiclet style keyboard, to the matte black finish, to the overall shape, the resemblance between the two is striking. Here they are side by side:
Check out the keyboards too, the MacBook is on the left and the Chrome CR-48 is on the right:
The black MacBook was a pretty good looking machine so I can’t really blame Google for taking some design cues here, and isn’t imitation the highest form of flattery?
While the hardwares appearance is very similar, the OS’s couldn’t be more different. I haven’t used one of these Google Chrome laptops yet, but Chrome OS looks intriguing in a minimalist sense. It’s basically the web, and that’s it. If you want to try out Google’s new OS, you can run Chrome OS on top of Mac OS X in a virtual machine, but it’s essentially like running the Chrome browser in a VM.
You can see more pictures of Google’s Chrome OS notebook at BGR.com and Engadget.
Oh, and if you want to test drive a Chrome notebook, you can apply to use one in Google’s pilot program. Why not try to get your hands on one?
http://osxdaily.com/2010/12/11/googles-cr-48-chrome-laptop-is-a-macbook-lookalike/
