He best Chromebooks They are all physically different from Windows laptops in one important way: They all have Google's iconic “All” button. It's essentially a search button that can be used to access everything on your laptop and beyond; from your own files and applications to online query results.
However, a new dedicated button could soon be coming to Chromebooks around the world: a dedicated key for Google Assistant. How he saw it ChromeNo boxA file found in the Chromium Repositories (an open source code base behind many of the features of ChromeOS and the Chrome browser) references an upcoming Chromebook model that features a hardware-assigned Assistant key.
The new Chromebook, codenamed 'Xol', a rather indirect reference to Destiny 2, while previous codenames have openly referenced everything from The Witcher to Skyrim, has little information about it, only that it will apparently run on one of Intel's 13th-gen CPUs. It's a strange move, given that Intel's 14th Gen 'Core Ultra' Chips They are already on the table. But as ChromeUnboxed points out, we may not have seen the last of Intel's 13th generation yet.
The return of the king?
More intriguing is the fact that have I've seen a dedicated Assistant button before, but only on Google's own Chromebooks, the venerable Pixelbooks. He Pixel Book Go remained in several of our laptop rankings even after Google killed the product line, and even prayed for a Pixelbook resurgence That unfortunately did not materialize during last year's Google I/O event.
Does this mean that 'Xol' could be a new Pixelbook? Unfortunately, the answer is “probably not”: Google seemed pretty committed to moving away from first-party Chromebooks when it killed off the Pixelbook in 2022, completely disbanding the team responsible for it and encouraging third-party laptop makers to go all out. on ChromeOS with the recent Chromebook Plus initiative. There is probably a much simpler explanation: artificial intelligence.
With AI on the rise almost everywhere, from The new Sora video generator from OpenAI to the seemingly always present ChatGPTIt makes sense that Google (and other Chromebook makers) would want to push AI features as a key selling point for new laptops.
The logical conclusion is a dedicated button to access your onboard AI companion; And if you look at it, Google has a new set of AI tools that we can play with.
AI for the Google guy
Yeah, Google Gemini It's here, a powerful selection of AI software (some new, some rebranded from Google's previous Duet and Bard AI models) that looks like it would be right at home on a new AI-focused Chromebook. Google promises that Gemini will be able to do all kinds of things, from simple chatbot functionality to writing assistance tools that rival Microsoft Copilot.
Most importantly, Gemini will replace Google Assistant, although not yet; It looks like there are still some teething issues to iron out, and Assistant remains present on all supported devices as of this writing. But for a Chromebook in early development, including an Assistant key when Google is preparing to deprecate the virtual assistant seems… inappropriate.
So could this be a Gemini button? 'Gemini Key' sounds great. Along with the All button to access all your stuff, a dedicated key to instantly invoke the full power of Google's AI software suite could be a valuable addition to the ChromeOS roster. Google has always put ease of use at the forefront when it comes to Chromebooks, so this could prove to be a good way to introduce AI tools to less tech-savvy users.
There is only one problem.
As I mentioned earlier, 'Xol' runs on a 13th Gen Intel CPU, which means you won't have access to the powerful Neural processing units (NPU) found in Intel's new Ultra processors. You can click that link for a full rundown, but an NPU is essentially a chip dedicated to running local AI workloads; That's something you'd probably want in an exciting new AI-focused Chromebook Plus, right?
Whatever 'Xol' is, it may never see the light of day; Chromebooks spotted this way don't always make it to final production, so this could simply be a project that ends up half-finished. In any case, I'm still excited to see what Gemini means for ChromeOS, and I'm not the only one.
