Googlebooks Have a Tiny Intel Problem - DTNS 5367

Tom Merritt (0:08)

This is the Daily Tech News for Monday, October 5th, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you some important context to try to help each other understand.

Robb Dunewood (0:17)

Today, Google Books have an Intel problem, and Sam Altman thinks we need to allow some bad things to happen in order to get some good things to happen.

Tom Merritt (0:24)

Oh, I bet his PR agency loved that quote.

I'm Tom Merritt, and I'm Robb Dunewood. Let's start with what you need to know with the big story.

Let's start with the Google Books. Google Books began shipping this week. They have started arriving in the hot little hands of several tech reviewers. I know I as Actar has got one. Paul Therotte has a post up about his. Three of the models, three of the five models that are coming out, the ones from Acer, Asus, and Lenovo, run on Intel processors. That means, if you want to run an Android app, one of the big perks of Google Books is that you can run all your Android apps, you need to use a hardware translation layer in Google Book OS to do it, usually. Google offers a curated group of optimized apps, which is great for the Google stuff, but Google has previously noted that those that aren't optimized, you can still use, they just might result in reduced performance and battery life. Well, Android Authority thought to ask Google if Intel-based machines would not be able to run well at all, and Google pretty much said yes. They said, since Android apps are designed for ARM, in most of cases, complex apps or games need some developer tuning to run their best on Intel-based platforms. And Google, of course, is working with developers and chipmakers to expand that compatibility as far as possible. They say that it's not that many that will be a problem, but they didn't certainly put a number on it. Robb, does this affect your Google Book optimism?

Robb Dunewood (1:59)

Not really, because I'm probably going to pick one of these up. And the Acer is the least expensive of them, and I'm really getting it to test it out just to see what the new operating system is like. So I kind of want to get this one, because if there are flaws, it would allow me to point it out.

So that is the reviewer in me. The actual, if I were just a consumer, I want whatever I get to work to the best of Google's ability to make it work. So I would be watching the news to see if there is a degradation in performance on things that are running Intel, that might make me just choose another model that has a Qualcomm processor in it, just because I want to have the best of what I can get in this brand new device that is not inexpensive.

These are not the MacBook Duo price. It's starting at $899, but they very quickly go up from there. And many of these devices are literally in the $1300, $1400, $1500 range.

Tom Merritt (2:53)

Yeah, I read Paul Thuratt's post on his Lenovo that he got, and he pointed out that the Panther Lake chip in it is wildly more than you need to run a Google Book. And so he hoped that would make up for the performance you get because of the hardware translation layer. I think when Android Authority was asking, and what Google, I thought in a fit of transparency admitted to was like, yeah, if an Android app is really complex and it's built for ARM, then you might even on that powerful Intel chip, you might have a problem.

But I will probably not be surprised if most people go, yeah, most of the Android apps run just fine on Intel. It's only this particular app or this really huge game or something like that.

Robb Dunewood (3:37)

So I am personally waiting for apps like DaVinci Resolve to come out.

We know that Adobe Premiere is coming out for this. So my gut would tell me is that if you are coming out with one of those big flagship applications that has people like me saying, I don't know if I can go to a Google book because I need to be able to run this kind of app. Those are the apps that would definitely want to work with Google to make sure that they run very, very optimized on regardless of which hardware platform you go with. That just seems like it kind of makes sense. So I'm with you that I don't know that I would be terribly worried about this, but I'm going to look at the reviews if I'm just a regular person going to buy one, I'm going to look at the reviews because I could just as easily spend $1,400 on an ARM-based chip as compared to spending $1,400 on an Intel.