Google's plan to revive busted PCs

Hey y’all, it’s Austin Carr in Boston. Google is trying to resurrect old Macs and PCs with new software. But first…Today’s must-reads:• Appl [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey y’all, it’s Austin Carr in Boston. Google is trying to resurrect old Macs and PCs with new software. But first… Today’s must-reads: • Apple plans to [slow hiring and spending growth]( in some divisions next year in the face of a potential economic downturn • IBM posted its [highest sales growth]( in a decade • A Goldman legend, a crypto star and a top banker are issuing warnings about the [next big risk]( New life for old Lenovos In recent months, the ChromeOS team at Alphabet Inc.’s Google has been buying up outdated computers on eBay. This kind of long-ago-replaced device—bulky Toshiba laptops, decade-old iMacs—usually ends up dormant or discarded, buried in either a closet or a trash heap. But Google is now trying to give them a second life with a new operating system called ChromeOS Flex. Like ChromeOS, the software undergirding [lightweight Chromebooks](, Flex is a cloud-centric platform mostly designed for web apps like Gmail and Google Docs. Since these sorts of internet services don’t require a ton of computing horsepower to run, the idea behind Flex is that it could potentially help millions of dying PCs adapt to the modern world, reducing substantial e-waste and serving as a replacement to ancient versions of Apple Inc.’s MacOS and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows. According to Michael Wendling, the product lead for Flex, [lots of schools]( and small businesses would love to revive PCs gathering dust in storage, but the perception is that they’re simply too antiquated and slow to operate. Wendling, however, says it’s not necessarily the fault of the machinery; in many cases, it’s the outmoded software running the device that’s causing performance woes: “The operating system accumulates extra baggage along the way and makes it harder to run on hardware 6 or 8 years old.” With Flex, which is less resource hungry than a traditional operating system, Wendling has seen surprising speed boosts and energy efficiencies in initial testing. He says his team has been “scrounging devices” from reseller markets and has already certified Flex for use on more than [400 computer models]( from the likes of Acer, Fujitsu and Lenovo. In some cases, Flex just worked when they installed it, while in other instances they’ve had to iron out bugs with software drivers and component compatibility for it to function smoothly. At times, finding retro PCs themselves for testing has been a challenge. “The only place we could find a copy of one device was a bookseller in Australia, so somebody from the office had to go down there, acquire one, and then fly back,” Wendling says. For individual consumers, Flex is free to download and can be [installed via USB drive](, while for enterprise customers, there are licensing costs depending on the size of the organization. It’s not a perfect solution—Flex has some [functionality and security limitations]( compared to the standard ChromeOS, for one—but it’s certainly a more environmentally conscious alternative to throwing out aging devices or constantly buying new ones for incremental performance gains. It could also prove to be a pretty cheap way for budget-strapped schools to give a fresh sheen to classrooms full of Dell or HP towers. “How do you afford to buy new hardware all the time?” says Thomas Riedl, ChromeOS’s director of product for enterprise and education. “It would be great if everybody had the nicest and shiniest MacBook, but that’s just not life.” The team will continue to hunt for more PCs to certify with Flex on eBay and beyond. Theoretically it could even be used to upgrade the computers the engineers grew up with, a feat that would be helped along by the reality that much of regular modern computing is run on the cloud these days. Wendling wonders whether he could get it running on the Apple II he had as a kid, though he guesses they might run into some memory and installation troubles. Riedl jokes, “You might need 500 floppy disks.” —[Austin Carr](mailto:acarr54@bloomberg.net) The big story The brain-computer interface startup Synchron has [implanted its first device]( in a US patient. The startup’s procedure will help an ALS patient text by thinking, in a major step forward in a nascent industry, with the Brooklyn-based company recently overtaking the progress of Elon Musk’s Neuralink. What else you need to know Instacart investor Capital Group Cos. cut its valuation to $14.7 billion, [far below]( the online grocery-delivery firm’s own calculation of $24 billion.  Bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows has [creditors that include]( some of the biggest digital-asset firms and its co-founder’s wife. Netflix is testing another way to [charge for password sharing]( in five Latin American countries. Bloomberg TV dives into the crypto rebound and the need for [clearer regulation](. Follow Us More from Bloomberg Dig gadgets or video games? [Sign up for Power On]( to get Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more in your inbox on Sundays. [Sign up for Game On]( to go deep inside the video game business, delivered on Fridays. Why not try both? Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights.​​​​​​​ You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Fully Charged newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](