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Old Feb 6, 2013 | 07:22 PM
  #1  
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Google Chromebook

Does anyone here have one???


This was leaked today... google working on making its own chromebook



I've been curious on what it would be like to have one or just any chromebook in general.
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Old Feb 6, 2013 | 07:30 PM
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theres good chance that video is fake....


but continuing with topic, does anyone have one?? Whats your experience with it if you have one or played with one
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Old Feb 7, 2013 | 02:30 AM
  #3  
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video could be real, I wouldnt be shocked.

I want to like the idea of the Chromebook, but I don't. The price difference between a Chromebook and a low end Windows laptop isnt enough to justify a laptop that just runs Chrome. I get that most of what people do is on the Internet, but there will be times where you need more.
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Old Feb 7, 2013 | 08:00 AM
  #4  
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No way Google would push out an ad that, near the end, looks exactly like a MBP commercial.

And I agree with Whiskers price comments.
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Old Feb 8, 2013 | 04:34 AM
  #5  
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interesting point

I mean in no way is this suitable to be your only computer, but for some people I can see it being fine but I'm actually not sure who that is... for me as an engineering student, sometimes when i take my laptop to campus I'm taking it because I want a program I have on my computer. So I would only take this sometimes when i just need to read, or just pull up hw assignments that doesnt require coding or other softwares.
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Old Feb 8, 2013 | 08:19 AM
  #6  
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Originally Posted by Whiskers
video could be real, I wouldnt be shocked.

I want to like the idea of the Chromebook, but I don't. The price difference between a Chromebook and a low end Windows laptop isnt enough to justify a laptop that just runs Chrome. I get that most of what people do is on the Internet, but there will be times where you need more.


Tis what I have a tablet for. I'm not gonna buy a laptop for the sole purpose of surfing the web.
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 02:18 PM
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Chromebook pixel announced today. Looks like that video.

$1300
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 02:29 PM
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239ppi

i5
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 02:30 PM
  #9  
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INPUTS
Gorilla® Glass multi-touch screen
Backlit Chrome keyboard
Fully clickable, etched-glass touchpad
HD Webcam
SCREEN
12.85″ display with a 3:2 aspect ratio
2560 x 1700, at 239 PPI
400 nit screen
178° extra-wide viewing angle

DIMENSIONS
297.7 x 224.6 x 16.2 mm
3.35lb / 1.52kg

PORTS
2 x USB 2.0
mini-display port
2-in-1 card reader supporting: SD, MMC

INNARDS
Intel® Core™ i5 processor (Dual Core 1.8GHz)
Intel® HD Graphics 4000 (Integrated)
4 GB DDR3 RAM
32 GB solid state drive (64 GB for LTE model)
AUDIO
Headphone/microphone jack
Built-in microphone array
Integrated DSP for noise cancellation
Powerful speakers tuned for clarity
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Active cooling with no visible vents
Machined from anodized aluminum
ENERGY STAR® certified

BATTERY
Up to 5 hours of active use (59 Wh battery)
NETWORK
Dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2×2
Bluetooth® 3.0
GOODIES
One terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage, free for 3 years
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 02:33 PM
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:ibyummy:
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 02:43 PM
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Idiots.
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 02:49 PM
  #12  
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way tooo expensive for a computer that's, well a browser...

I dont see where they saw a market for this?

Google's been on a roll but not with this...
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 03:12 PM
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LOVE the design and hardware, but yeah... I'd rather just buy a giant touch screen monitor and build myself a PC in a small shell and then get a tablet for portability.
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 03:23 PM
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Yeah. Too expensive for what it is. On the other hand, you could do a dual boot and install a proper OS on it. Maybe Google is planning something with more powerful Chromebooks but they should've done that before releasing this. Or its to fill in their premium price range for their supposed store since they already have a budget and midrange Chromebook.
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 03:27 PM
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It's only to make the cheap Cromebooks more desirable.
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 04:45 PM
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Whats the resolution of the N10 again?? Might as well get that if you want to be delved in google like that. Probably just as high resolution, apps that are optimized for touch responses, and cheap!

Sure you're missing that 1TB but I'm sure you'll be fine.
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Old Feb 21, 2013 | 05:12 PM
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Not feeling this one, but only b/c I'm a cheapo. Upmarket move for Google?
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Old Feb 23, 2013 | 10:32 AM
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I know some people had some questions on how the Chromebook experience is and wanted to try one out before maybe purchasing one. Well you sorta can with Chromium. Download and installation instructions:


http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/

OR

http://arnoldthebat.co.uk/wordpress/chromium-os/


**NOTE** This will not work on every desktop/laptop/USB stick combo out there. Certain hardware may cause the builds to not work and hang simply due to drivers not being there yet and there's nothing you can do but wait for a future build to maybe incorporate them. In my case, I tried the Vanilla and Lime Chrome OS variants by Hexxeh last year and it failed to boot on the same laptop I'm using now.


Instructions on how to install Chromium on a USB stick, VMWare or VirtualBox via Windows, Mac or Linux are on either site linked above. First boot may take a while as it uncompresses the image and installs necessary hardware onto the USB stick/Virtual platform. You'll have a better chance using VMWare or VirtualBox as certain USB sticks don't like being booted up from which may cause the builds to hang at boot.



So what's different from Chrome OS and Chromium? Well, from what I found out last night, Chrome OS is the one built specifically for the hardware that Google sells in its Chromebook. It includes all the licenses, plugins, and the basic necessary stuff to run the OS out of the box. Chromium, on the other hand, is the open sourced version of Chrome OS, with a more general compatibility and doesn't include the licenses and plugins which is why its free. Why is this a big deal? Because those plugins include Flash, PDF, Java (yeah I know about the fiasco), and MP3. For Android users, think of it as CyanogenMod or custom ROMs without GApps. (Its a bit different though as the Chrome Webstore is still there but all the other proprietary Google stuff isn't there if that makes sense.) Luckily, some people created scripts on how to get them. So how do you get these plugins?

This is the method I used:

https://gist.github.com/rikels/4031126

how to install?

start Chromium OS.

log in.

press alt+ctrl+F2.

log in as user: chronos password: facepunch.

enter the command: sudo su, and log in with the password: facepunch.

enter the following: curl -L http://goo.gl/R4Amj | bash

wait for it to finish, you will be taken back to the login screen and everything should be working.

As this method didn't work:

https://gist.github.com/dz0ny/3065781

How to use?
Simply run as root user

curl -L http://goo.gl/qPrfd | bash
or if you prefer wget

wget -qO- http://goo.gl/qPrfd | bash

Then reboot computer!
Both require you to access the Terminal in Chromium, gaining SuperUser access and then running a curl or wget command. You ONLY need to run either one of them not both!

For reference on how to get SuperUser access:

Username: chronos
Password: facepunch

I had some hiccups initially at first boot as I wasn't sure if my computer froze or was doing something. I'd get a black screen and it would stay there. It was only after a while did I realize that my laptop dimmed the screen and I had to raise the brightness values. After initial start up and logging into my Google account, it syncs all of your data from your Chrome Browser on the OS. Everything was pretty fast and smooth but as it wasn't the full build (missing plugins) I had some issues.

After figuring out the Flash, PDF, MP3, Java plugins thing, I searched on how to install GTalk/Voice/Hangouts plugin. (Again, this is only for the Chromium builds). I wasn't able to find a script for it so I never got to test it out. Searching in the Chrome Webstore brought up Windows/OSX compatible apps and it got confusing to know which apps did or didn't work in Chromium. I tried to find a codec plugin for videos as my DIVX movies didn't work. Never solved that one either. FLAC files also didn't work which kinda surprised me.

Overall, the experience was good. For a regular consumer who just wants to browse the internet, watch some videos, look at some images and do some light word processing its an excellent proposition. I could see my grandparents or parents using something like this. For power users, stay away for now unless you just want to have fun with it. It has a lot of potential but its definitely not there yet. As for the $1,3000 Chromebook, I have a feeling Google has something up its sleeve for I/O that we haven't seen yet. They will probably be giving them away there as well to I/O attendees (wish I could go) as they always give stuff away. That would make the $300 for students, $900 for developers price tag well worth it on the Pixel alone then you got the Nexus phones and tablets on the other days.

Last edited by CGFebTSX04; Feb 23, 2013 at 10:36 AM.
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Old Feb 23, 2013 | 11:45 AM
  #19  
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I tried and gave up. So I just used my chrome browser.
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Old Feb 23, 2013 | 12:34 PM
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^



Here's a pretty good read as to why this thing is important for google, and it makes some valid points, I believe.

Yesterday, Google did what Google does best: announce a first version of something that is completely ridiculous, very few people care about, most folks mocked, and that will ultimately end up forgotten in the annals of internet history. No offense, Goog. Some later products are spectacular, but let's be real. Very rarely does Google get it right on the first try.
However, the Chromebook Pixel is still a huge deal and the savvy analyst should take notice, because things just changed in a big way. Google isn't selling a product with this new laptop, it's making a statement. It's planting a flag on the future because, well, no flag, no future.
So, what exactly is Google thinking, here?
Contrary to popular belief, the market for full-size laptops (and to a lesser extend desktops) hasn't completely died off. Tablets are growing at an incredible rate, but there still remain quite a few people who want or need to own laptops. This is largely due to software. Windows and OS X remain the most powerful operating systems on the planet. Partly because they were built during times when command lines, file explorers, and automated scripts were the best ways to get things done, and they still retain much of that low-level tinkering ability (yes, even OS X is pretty powerful in that regard). More importantly, though, there are decades of app development behind them.
However, as long as people continue to sit down and do work for long stretches of time (read: until the universe ends), there will always be a market for full keyboards, larger displays, and more precise tools. This is why desktops and eventually laptops took off. You don't always need something that fits in your pocket or handbag, and electronics are cheap enough that realistically we don't have to choose one or the other. How many of us have a laptop and a phone and a tablet? It's not that uncommon.
The trouble is, Google is completely unprepared for this world. The company was founded in 1998 (yes, Google is barely a teenager), whereas its main competitors, Microsoft and Apple, have been around since the mid-70s. Despite appearing to be peers, if the companies were humans, Microsoft and Apple could be Google's mom and dad. (We'll leave you to decide which one gets which gender role.)
In that context, Google has a very pressing need to catch up to the real PC market. No, it's not the sexiest product segment, nor is it a huge growth driver, but as I'll get to in a bit, this isn't about growth. This is about completeness. Unfortunately, as much as we (and the world) love Android, it's not enough. If you're an Apple fan and you want to have nothing but Apple products in your life, you can do that. Google fans can't. Otherwise I might not be writing this on a Windows desktop.
Chrome OS has very obviously been the company's attempt at a fuller operating system and it's sort of worked. Chromebooks are decently popular. Acer says 5-10% of its shipments are Chromebooks, and Samsung's model is still the best-selling laptop on Amazon. That's big. But that's also because of the price. A $200 laptop is an easy purchase.
Up until this point, we've all operated under the assumption that Google has been content to let Chrome OS be a side project, something it updates once a year and lets other companies release cheap hardware for. It's not for most people. The Chromebook Pixel changes all that. Google is saying, "No. This the OS we're sticking with for laptops and we are prepared to see it through."
Google has a lot of ground to make up with its software. It's hard to deny that. As long as you can't use Photoshop, play AAA gaming, or do most of the stuff that you would need that Core i5 for, Google will continue to have work to do. You know where they're killing it, though? Hardware.

Disregard, for just a moment, the price and software. This is just an unannounced laptop running either Windows or OS X. Whichever you'd prefer. Look at that hardware. Does that look like something that Google made? Actually, yes. Yes, it does. Which says a lot about the company's reputation for design over the last couple years. More importantly, though, it looks good. It's not going to please everyone (in fact I can already picture at least some of you rushing to the comments to tell me how ugly it is and how wrong I am), but compare this to most laptops and between the high-density touchscreen, the glass touchpad, and the unibody frame, this thing is clearly on the high-end (aside from the bizarre and offensive 3:2 aspect ratio).
The biggest deal of all, though, is the name. This is the Chromebook Pixel. Not the Samsung Pixel. Not the Acer Chromebook P107. Not the Lenovo PixelPad. It's just the Chromebook Pixel. Google makes it. More specifically, it works with ODMs to manufacture the hardware. This is more or less exactly what Apple does. Apple works with Foxconn, for example, to build many of its products. Foxconn is an ODM. Apple does the designing and Foxconn does the building.
Only now Google's getting a piece of that pie. And the implications for that are staggering. Google has, until very recently, been purely a software company. It never made its own things (aside from the Nexus Q). That was silly! Heck, it couldn't. When the main OS it was pushing was Android, there was almost no way to manufacture its own stuff without pissing off other OEMs.
Today, the landscape has changed dramatically. Not only has the meteoric rise in Apple's profits proven that the best way to make money is to build your own hardware, but we also continue to see proof that it's the best way to make products. When there are as few gaps between hardware and software as possible, the engineers, the designers, and the consumers all win.
Google couldn't do that with Android. It still kind of can't (though we'll see what kind of effect the Motorola acquisition has), but Chrome OS is a whole different ball game. We're still kind of unsure why we would want a web browser to replace a whole operating system, but here's the thing: maybe it doesn't have to?

Here's what makes Chrome OS powerful. It can make use of NaCl, which is a sandboxed method of running native code inside a browser environment. In other words, while Chrome OS may be "just a browser", it's a browser that kicks ass, and can do a whole lot more than Firefox or IE can. For example, Bastion. Not only is this an immensely popular game (that costs $15 on Steam right now, implying this is a step up from your average Android game), but it can be run in Chrome on your Windows machine or on a Pixel. Right now.
One game isn't enough, though, right? Well, how about a productivity suite? Remember QuickOffice? Google bought the company several months back. We all figured it would be to improve Google Docs Drive. Well, we were wrong. It's actually going to come built in to the Chromebook Pixel. This $1,300 laptop will come with an office suite for free.
The software isn't there yet, but when you start adding up all the pieces, suddenly you start to see a model, a framework for selling laptops that looks remarkably familiar. If you were to seriously consider buying a Mac right now, most of you would begin by trying to justify the price over a comparable PC. Invariably, one of the arguments in favor of Apple is that it comes with all the software you need out of the box (this is more true for some than others, but go with it).
Here's the crazy part: Google is already most of the way to providing all the basics that people need. Email. Word processing. Calendar. Document storage. Maps. Video. Photos. Social networking. Google does a lot of what the average user needs and the web fills in most of the gaps. While the holes that exist are big, they're almost exclusively in areas where a lot of money is spent like gaming and content creation. These need to be addressed. They absolutely need to be addressed. And Chrome OS will continue to be a niche product until they are addressed.
However, Google knows that the future of software is the internet. Apps are at their best when they integrate with the online universe as fully as possible. Take Google Now. This is one of the most innovative products in the world, and most of it happens on servers halfway across the country or the world. The line between local and global is blurring.
Google Is Doing Things, But It's Not Nearly Done Yet
Is Chrome OS there yet? No. Not even remotely. But that's not the point. We will almost certainly hear some cool new announcements about the platform at I/O this year because what else can we get excited about? Some new version of Android with one or two cool features we'll play with for a week and then ignore until it's time to complain about how the carriers aren't updating phones fast enough? Call me crazy, but I'm not looking forward to that song and dance again.
There is one major area that Google needs to address, though: laptops. The future is ubiquitous platforms and self-branded hardware. Microsoft knows it. That's why we're seeing the company push so hard with the Surface. Sure, it wants to see other companies produce touchscreen hardware and fully utilize Windows 8, but ultimately, Microsoft wants to control its own destiny. Awkward and disjointed as it may be, it even has the platform to do it. Windows is on phones, tablets, laptops and desktops.
Apple has it covered, too. iOS powers media players, phones, and tablets, while OS X runs laptops and desktops. It doesn't have one unified, ubiquitous OS, but it's close enough for right now. Google has no such luxury. Whether it's scaling Android up, or building out Chrome OS's capabilities, it needs to do something.
That's what the Chromebook Pixel is about. It's a statement that Google is not just an internet company. It's not just the Android company. It's not just here to provide the software for other people's devices. It wants to sell its own products, be an electronics company in its own right, and to stand next to its elders and say "I belong here among giants." Whether it sells a ton of Pixels or not, Google accomplished two things: one, it's learned (and will continue to learn) lessons about making and marketing laptops, and two, it proved to the world that Google hardware is awesome.
The Chromebook Pixel won't sell. But the vision Google's pushing just might.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/02...ne-in-a-while/
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Old Feb 24, 2013 | 12:01 AM
  #21  
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Can this $1300 laptop with a touchscreen do pinch to zoom?
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Old Feb 24, 2013 | 02:59 AM
  #22  
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Yes
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Old Feb 24, 2013 | 02:59 AM
  #23  
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you gone one didnt you whiskers?
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Old Feb 24, 2013 | 03:10 AM
  #24  
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Must resist.
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Old Apr 22, 2013 | 10:11 AM
  #25  
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How about something like this for $250?

http://www.staples.com/Samsung-XE303...duct_SS1095023

Or would I be better off picking up a low end Dell Netbook with Celeron and Win8 for $300?
I'm looking for something to surf the web as my work laptop has spies.
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Old Apr 22, 2013 | 12:18 PM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by doopstr
How about something like this for $250?

http://www.staples.com/Samsung-XE303...duct_SS1095023

Or would I be better off picking up a low end Dell Netbook with Celeron and Win8 for $300?
I'm looking for something to surf the web as my work laptop has spies.
If your strictly looking for browsing they that would work great for you. I'd also consider a tablet if it's really truly only going to be web browsing.
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Old Apr 22, 2013 | 06:00 PM
  #27  
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I'm going to give it a shot.
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Old Apr 22, 2013 | 06:41 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Mizouse
Chromebook pixel announced today. Looks like that video.

$1300
Fuck
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Old Apr 22, 2013 | 11:42 PM
  #29  
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This is probably old news but the Chromebook Pixel can run any Linux distribution along with Chrome OS. Not a dual boot but actually be able to switch between the two on the fly:

http://liliputing.com/2013/02/how-to...ook-pixel.html

Dual boot is also very possible with the device so if you still need a full OS like Windows you could install a dual boot. You can even install Android on it. With that still said, $1300 is a lot of pennies to drop unless you strictly code for the web and need the higher resolution.
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Old Apr 23, 2013 | 10:49 AM
  #30  
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It is possible to install Ubuntu on the $250 Samsung. Pretty cool that it can fit on that tiny SSD drive. Seems pretty responsive. Interesting.

Last edited by doopstr; Apr 23, 2013 at 10:53 AM.
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Old Apr 23, 2013 | 05:27 PM
  #31  
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Damn, I like this little thing. It's very light and even though made out of cheap plastic it feels okay. The keyboard is very nice. Surfing the web on the Chromebook is much better than my iPad. I even like the track pad which has multi-touch gestures. I also like that is is fan less, completely silent.

The only downsides I see so far are no Java support, no Skype support yet, and printing support sucks if you don't have a printer that supports Google Cloud Print. Fortunately I have a printer that supports HP E-Print and Cloud Print is compatible with that.

For $250 it's a great machine, I see why it gets good reviews.
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Old Apr 24, 2013 | 01:50 AM
  #32  
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You still need to be online to use the internet, right???






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Old Jul 17, 2013 | 07:00 AM
  #33  
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I know why this is, because they are awesome.

Lightweight, long battery life, and the FBI hasn't infected them yet, are my top reasons to buy. Oh yeah, almost forgot, models like my Samsung ARM with SSD boot in 8 seconds.

Chromebook Sales to Rise 300% This Year, ASUS To Join the Fun
http://www.omgchrome.com/new-chromeb...p-sales-surge/
Sales of Windows PCs may be crashing but Chromebooks are set to continue surging ahead.

Analysts are predicting that sales of Chromebooks, powered by Google’s Chrome OS, will rise by as much as 200% in the latter half of this year.

The report follows news on strong sales of the lightweight devices in the sub-$300 laptop space during the first quarter of this year.

Devices in this category will, according to industry blog Digitimes, either double or triple in the second half of 2013.

They also add that the sudden success of Chromebooks will see ASUS release their first – albeit long-rumoured – Chromebook, said to be a hybrid tablet/laptop powered by a Tegra 4 ARM processor.

Existing Chromebook makers, such as HP and Lenovo, are ‘expected to increase their Chromebook orders in the second half compared to the first, while Acer will dramatically raise its orders by three fold and Samsung four fold, helping to raise overall Chromebook shipments in the second half,‘ the site say.

Additional American retailer, including Walmart and Staples, started stocking Chromebook models from Acer and Samsung earlier this year.

Whether these predictions come true there’s no denying that it’s an exciting time to be a fan of Chrome right now.

Last edited by doopstr; Jul 17, 2013 at 07:08 AM.
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Old Jul 17, 2013 | 07:52 AM
  #34  
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From: PA
meh, I give them a year.
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