Thursday Tech Round-Up!

Look out Apple and Microsoft, Google's Chromebooks are coming next month. Was Microsoft's purchase of Skype a good deal? Facebook's secret anti-Google campaign and tagging your favorite brands on Facebook, Lady Gaga moves to Farmville and much more!

1. Google's Chromebooks are coming! They made their debut at Google's I/O conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. Google's vieing for space against Apple and Microsoft's popular operating systems. The approach of Google's OS is drastically different. With no desktop software, all of the computer user’s information, like documents, photos and e-mail messages, will all be stored on the Internet on Chrome. The computers will start with a pricetag of $349 and will be available in June via Amazon & Best Buy. [NYTimes]

2. Was purchasing Skype a good move? Earlier on this week the internet was abuzz following rumor then news regarding Microsoft's aquisition of Skype. By now, everyone should be familiar with Skype. If not, shame on you. Amongst the program's many features, Skype grants the unbelievable ability to have online video chats with friends next door and all around the globe. On Tuesday Microsoft made its purchase of Skype official via 8.5 billion smackers. But then one wonders, what does this mean for Skype? What does this mean for the 170 people who login to the app monthly? There is the inevitable thought- are they going to what was cool into something completely lame? Like your parents learning your generation's lingo and completely running it into the ground until even the faint sound of it angers you. Will Microsoft suck the cool out of Skype? [Wired]

3. Facebook, sneaky-sneaky. Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm was hired by Facebook to run a smear campaign surrounding Google by running anti-Google news stories and spreading that Google is not honoring user privacy. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Seems like there's more information regarding Facebook's secret operation to discredit Google. [HuffPost]

4. Speaking of Facebook, you can now tag items from your favorite brands. [HuffPost]

5. Lady Gaga plans to stream music on FarmVille. From May 16th-26th, 46 million Farmville users will be able to music from pop's reigning empress while they harvest their online crops. There, of course, will be exclusive virtual items related to Gaga and her Born This Way album that users will be able to download after passing certain levels of the game. No love shown for Angry Birds I see. [Yahoo]

6. Twitter for Mac gets a much-needed facelift. The new twitter client for Apple systems just got a revamped user interface: ability to view multiple timelines at once, updated design for Direct Messages and user profiles. [Techcrunch]

7. YouTube launches its Top 100 Chart for music videos that are mixed with user-uploaded viral videos. The chart will be published weekly and will archive charts for trend-tracking. Oh Rebecca Black, there is finally a place for you. She's currently at Number 8. [Mashable]

8. Is it me or does this guy own entirely too many digital cameras? Hong Kong's TM Wong set a Guinness World Record in April for having the most instant cameras in the world, with his collection of over 1,042 cameras. [Gizmodo]