The first notebooks running Google Chrome OS will go on sale next month, and Google says right now its targeting the operating system at notebook and desktop computers, not tablets. But behind the scenes we’ve seen plenty of evidence that Google is also considering how to make Chrome OS tablet-friendly. The latest clue comes from some new developer APIs for handwriting input in Chromium OS, the open source version of Chrome OS.
There’s already a virtual keyboard extension for Chromium OS, which enables an on-screen keyboard which could be used for devices that don’t have physical keyboards. The new handwriting support would allow users to write characters using either a fingertip or a mouse/trackpad.
This is just an experimental feature for now, and it may never see the light of day in Chrome OS. But it shows that some of the people working behind the scenes on Chromium are at least thinking about touchscreen input and support for handwritten character recognition.