On the heels of the Chromebook Plus and Pro, Samsung’s next-generation Chromebook is likely to feature a tablet design with a detachable keyboard. This is according to the Chromium Repository, with the latest entries now hinting at the presence of a stylus.
Back in November, references to a Chromebook codenamed “Nautilus” emerged in the Chromium Repository. Available details suggest a “tablet mode” and a “base” component that it can connect to. The latter is likely the keyboard where the screen can be docked for longer typing and charging.
Given the numerous and recent enhancements, Chrome OS on a touch-only tablet would definitely excel and might ultimately prove to be a better experience that existing Android tablets.
Meanwhile, if Samsung is indeed the manufacturer, a stylus accessory is not all too surprising given the presence on the current generation Chromebook Plus/Pro.
The entry found by Chrome Unboxed (via Android Central) also notes the existence of a place to store the stylus, with removal launching Chrome’s “stylus tools” menu.
Nautilus has a PEN_EJECT signal that is routed to 2 CPU GPIO pins:
B19: We need an input driver to use this to emit SW_PEN_INSERTED event. (This patch enables the B19 usecase).
B21: This is used for wakeup (configured by ACPI)Kevin uses gpio-keys driver to do this but the driver only understands device trees or platform data. Hence we instantiate the gpio-keys with the platform data.
BUG=b:71329519
TEST=Verify that the “stylus tools” menu gets launched when I eject the pen on nautilus.
Hopefully, the stylus included with Nautilus will have access to the same tools as the Pixelbook Pen, namely searching with the Google Assistant.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments