10 ms·

Introducing Pixel C

133 points by pearjuice 11y ago

throwaway000002 11y ago
Why is this running Android instead of Chrome OS? Internal politics are clearly at work. Moreover, why isn't there a stylus. I really, really, appreciate 1:sqrt(2), but without an accurate, ultra low-latency stylus you can't treat it like a pad to express ideas on. The build looks fantastic, though. Arrrrgh, so much promise...
- fpgeek 11y ago
  > Why is this running Android instead of Chrome OS? Because you can already get convertible touchscreen Chromebooks (e.g. ASUS Chromebook Flip, ThinkPad Yoga 11e Chromebook). Yes, a Chrome OS Pixel C would add a detachable keyboard, but overall it would be a much smaller step from existing Chrome OS devices than the Android Pixel C is from existing Android tablets.
- devopsproject 11y ago
  the hardware has never been a problem, it was the terrible tablet apps. Seems to be getting better.
- wvenable 11y ago
  It makes more sense to run Android; a tablet without apps isn't nearly as useful.
- georgemcbay 11y ago
  One could argue that internal politics (in the form of the rise of Sundar Pichai) are what propped ChromeOS up to the point where it was even a question whether a device like this should run Android or not given that ChromeOS's functionality is theoretically a subset of Android (given a full-featured Chrome browser for Android). I realize that in practice many people buy ChromeOS devices primarily to run Crouton or their own bootloaded Linux build which this is a complication for, but I don't believe that is relevant to the internal politics issue.
  - fpgeek 11y ago
    I disagree. I see them as very different value propositions. Chrome OS is about giving you a baseline (80-90%) computing environment with as little administrative overhead as possible (easy to setup, easy to share device, no driver issues and so on). That's why Chromebooks are doing well in the education sector. By contrast, an Android convertible like the Pixel C is about giving you a general-purpose Android environment in a different form factor. There's some blurring around the edges (Android has a Chrome browser missing some desktop features, Chrome OS can run some popular Android apps), but they're nevertheless aiming at very different targets.
    - cwyers 11y ago
      And a device like this points up those distinctions rather well. It's a 2-in-1, like the iPad Pro and the Surface/Surface Pro line. But, and I'd say weirdly even more than the iPad Pro highlights the dichotomy between iOS and OS X, the Pixel C really drives home the difference between Android and ChromeOS. To get the full Google 2-in-1 experience (something that offers all the promise of a tablet AND all the promise of Google's version of a notebook, you'd want something that can run the offline versions of Google Docs that ChromeOS has (not the Android versions that seems geared more towards consumption) and the tablet apps that Android has. So it's a 2-in-1 that's an Android tablet AND an Android notebook. (And honestly, I think this also points out how weak Google's OSes are outside the smartphone space. Android still doesn't have the sort of high-end creation apps for tablets that iPad and Surface have, and ChromeOS doesn't have the sort of productivity apps the Windows, OS X or even Linux offer.)
- hspak 11y ago
  What would be the point of having Chrome OS on a tablet? I can't think of anything that the Chrome OS would be better at doing on a tablet over Android.
- bitmapbrother 11y ago
  Android M has Bluetooth stylus support as standard.
  - fpgeek 11y ago
    Also, I wouldn't give up on native pen support just yet. NVIDIA's DirectStylus technology is supposed to be processor-based and, more importantly, uses standard touch sensors (no active digitizer required), though it does seem to require support for a faster-than-normal touch refresh rate (NVIDIA's DirectTouch). With luck, good pen support on the Pixel C might be just a software update away...
- bobajeff 11y ago
  If anything running Chrome OS instead of Android would be a display of internal politics at work. As Android is way more popular than Chrome OS. Plus, Chrome OS aligns better with Google's primary business.
- fr0styMatt2 11y ago
  I've never understood the point of Chrome OS's existence as a separate thing from Android. So I'm glad it's an Android device.
  - eitally 11y ago
    I used to question this, too, but then again, I also sincerely appreciate having a Chromebook that boots in about 5 seconds ... compared to my phone that takes about a minute to go from off to "useful". I know it doesn't matter for consumers as much, but it's far easier to centrally administer ChromeOS devices than Android devices, too.
    - fr0styMatt2 11y ago
      The funny thing about that is that my MacBook Pro boots in a few seconds to a full desktop OS, just as my Windows 10 machine does. The cold-boot time of Android is pretty terrible. Admittedly the devices are pretty slow that it boots on, but still.
- amluto 11y ago
  ChromeOS may have the best security architecture in any networked consumer device ever sold. Android, on the other hand, is not.
- Navarr 11y ago
  I think this marks a step in Google's jump into hardware. An important one to denote that "Pixel" does not mean Chrome - it means Google. The previous Pixel, even the first was the "Chromebook Pixel" This is the "Pixel C" One might fathom we could see a "Nexus Pixel" in the future.
  - cwyers 11y ago
    What "Pixel" denotes is "cargo cult dogfooding." It's when you sell your customers dry kibble dog food and you have some high-end dogfood around for your engineers, some of the canned stuff that you let the really clever dogs cover in veal demi-glace through Crouton. (Yes, I understand that I'm comparing Ubuntu to something top of the line, it's not a perfect metaphor.) Google, outside of their smartphones, makes computer products for children. I'm serious about this, I'm not being condescending to Google users, I mean actual children. Android tablets are the tablets you give to a four-year-old to occupy them on a long car trip or while you're making dinner. They're small enough for a child to hold comfortably and they're cheap enough for you to not stress out what the child is going to do with them. Chromebooks have caught on in exactly one market, education, because children can be real assholes and giving them a computer that can't actually run software eliminates a lot of the headaches that come from giving Turing-complete devices to real assholes. But Google engineers aren't children. They want real computers. What they probably really want are MacBooks, just like everyone else. But MacBooks aren't dogfood. The Chromebook Pixel exists pretty much entirely so that Google can claim to dogfood ChromeOS and engineers can get a laptop that works for them, if you consider putting up with Ubuntu over OS X working for them. It's all an elaborate charade, in that running a high-end Chromebook Pixel and using Ubuntu through Crouton or just wiping the thing has about as much in common as the $200 Chromebooks that most ChromeOS users actually have as just giving the Google engineers their MacBooks, but Google seems to regard dogfooding as something more honored in the breach than in the observance, so that's just par for the course. So why is this a Pixel and not a Nexus device? Well one, because Google makes it themselves. But why are they making this themselves? Or at all? Because Google engineers want a Surface or iPad Pro. And people who work for Google are about the only market for a Surface or iPad Pro knockoff running Android, because Android is such a terrible tablet ecosystem for anyone who has app needs beyond Netflix and Toca Pet Doctor and I don't see this thing moving the needle on that point. And since it's running Android and not ChromeOS you can't even get any of that Ubuntu demi-glace on it. So even by the standards of the Pixel line this is such an awkward compromise between dogfood and something edible.
p4bl0 11y ago
I was recently whining about the lack of a modern Sony VAIO P replacement. If this has a built-in 4G/LTE modem, I may want one, especially if it is possible to run Linux on it (maybe via Deploy Linux?). That's something else I recently whined about: why there is no 4G/LTE modem in any ultrabook (except for one or two unaffordable chromebooks not available in my country anyway)? It seems to be only in tablets and high-end 15" laptop. That makes no sense to me.
- ac29 11y ago
  The Lenovo X series Thinkpads have an optional LTE modem.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  I wondered this as well. My last laptop purchase was the Lenovo X1 Carbon 3443CTO, which I believe is the 2013 version. It's not easy to get to the WWAN card and replace it, and no idea if the BIOS would even let you. Shortly after I got the laptop, Optus rolled out LTE in my city on a non-standard frequency (LTE-A on 2600mHz). This is one of the reasons I prefer a USB dongle or Wifi "hotspot".
bsimpson 11y ago
The rumors expected this to run ChromeOS because its codename is apparently Ryu. If that's true, there are still changes being pushed to the ChromeOS codebase regarding this device: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/ec/+/18295c9bb2649b6e0b4a177d8e6c409ed9e9ba60 https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/ec/+/1... which tells me there's still more to know about this device. I'm curious what it is. Even though I'm typing this on my first generation Pixel, is there really enough of a difference between a Chromebook and Chrome for Android to justify porting both OSes to the same piece of hardware?
- bergie 11y ago
  Devtools and Crouton would make this a pretty interesting device
  - zmmmmm 11y ago
    Key problem is it's ARM and not Intel processor. How much of a real developer experience a crouton style solution enables on ARM, I'm not sure. But I'm guessing it's a lot more limited.
    - voltagex_ 11y ago
      Limited in what respect? There's plenty of Linux distros which run on ARM/ARM64.
      - zmmmmm 11y ago
        I guess I was only referring to being able to install anything precompiled for Intel linux, which would include just about any proprietary software. I had a few problems running things in my past attempts with this (running Ubuntu on an Android tablet). However I was surprised to see from Googling around that people have indeed now got most common dev tools working on the Samsung ARM chromebook so I might be completely wrong about it
        11y ago
userbinator 11y ago
Perhaps not such a great choice of name as years of web browsing have me instinctively associating the "pixel.*" domain with a tracking pixel - and that's what I initially thought this would be about.
- simoncion 11y ago
  Pixels have been shipping since February, 2013, so your comment is a few years too late. :)
  - userbinator 11y ago
    Chromebook Pixels, yes. Those have a page at https://www.google.com/chromebook/pixel/ https://www.google.com/chromebook/pixel/ which is definitely far less unambiguous.
    - simoncion 11y ago
      shrug People get kerfluffled about the strangest things.
dragonwriter 11y ago
Once there is some information this might be interesting, but just the visual sneak peak doesn't seem special: its clearly a not-too-small Android tablet with a (standard? available?) keyboard case, but what makes this different from, e.g., Samsung's top-end Android tablets? I'm sure there are technical features that distinguish it, but this sneak peak isn't highlighting them
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
gaara87 11y ago
As @bsimpson had mentioned, i see this as a smart(political?) move to be the first hybrid chromeOS running android apps (or Android OS itself). I've tested Android apps running in Chrome and it seems very promising. Excited to see if there is going to be a convergence/overlap! :)
berntb 11y ago
Does "Linux Deploy" work? I am an iOS user, but I would go Android (a clean one, with O/S security updates) if I can have a tablet GUI with a working Emacs, Bash etc under Debian.
pdknsk 11y ago
What a poor product page. And the official blog post is very light on information too. Only the press conference had some details. https://youtu.be/Jc-LEG0T_4c?t=4382 https://youtu.be/Jc-LEG0T_4c?t=4382 I was hoping for OLED, which wasn't mentioned. What I did notice is that the screen is incredibly reflective.
- fernly 11y ago
  Right. Could you POSSIBLY design a less-helpful, less-informative page?Maybe one with even more annoying keyhole-cropped images? Maybe! But you could not possibly under-improve on the random little rainbow bug bottom right that does nothing and says nothing.
  - wingerlang 11y ago
    You guys are misunderstanding the purpose of the page. It clearly says this is a SNEAK PEAK. It's like a teaser instead of a trailer. Obviously it will suck if you look at it as a product page, because it simply isn't one.
    - fpgeek 11y ago
      Exactly. The point of the page is to pique your interest, ideally to the point where you decide to sign up for email updates. In many ways, giving more concrete information works against that goal, so the page doesn't do that.
      - creshal 11y ago
        But we don't want that, hence the complaints. Sign up for a newsletter just to get the technical specs for a random tablet? Come on. Marketers needs to stop taking drugs.
        wingerlang 11y ago
        The complaints I replied to above were directly to a product page, and this is no product page. Therefore their complaints are simply misguided. And what you want is irrelevant, are they not allowed to put up a website like this you think?
PaulHoule 11y ago
Google has Microsoft envy? This might be the first convertible to lack a trackpad...
- flogic 11y ago
  If Microsoft is going to get solid hold on Mobile, it will be through tablets. The Surface line is relatively well liked. The number one detractor for Windows in mobile is the lack of apps. If Microsoft can use their desktop dominance to push their way into tablets. Life could get very uncomfortable for Google and Apple.
- Zigurd 11y ago
  That's because it's a touch-first mobile device. Surface Pro is a PC in tablet form-factor.
dalien26 11y ago
This is something made at the last minute, Google saw the Ipad Pro, so they made a tablet quickly to show / to compete with Microsoft and Apple.
leisurebot 11y ago
Why do all the Pixels look like Gen 1 Apple products?
halayli 11y ago
> The Pixel C takes an entirely new approach to the tablet experience. It looks like any other tablet.
- davvid 11y ago
  If only it had an ESC key (vim), and backtick (markdown) above the Tab key. I don't get it.. they had me for a second, but then that kind of ruins using it for anything "serious". I know, I know.. I'm probably not the target market...
  - ridiculous_fish 11y ago
    The lack of bracket keys [ and ] is most serious.
    - wingerlang 11y ago
      How do you know?
  - nfoz 11y ago
    It's missing: `~[]{}|\ I wouldn't be able to type some of my passwords or URLs on this thing. I thought the Chromebook keyboards were bad enough.
    - morpher 11y ago
      In the nexus presentation, they mentioned that a few symbol keys were moved up to soft keys to fit the keyboard while keeping a laptop-like distance between keys. So, it might not be super convenient, but you can likely still type your passwords.
    - andybak 11y ago
      I've switched to longer passwords but all lower-case - mainly to ease the pain of entering them on a phone. On a proper keyboard it takes the same amount of time to type, it's easier on my brain and you can achieve the same entropy with just a few more characters. (And then some f%£$ing website will tell me my 16 character password is insecure because it's all lower case.)
macspoofing 11y ago
Want it to be a productivity tool? Include proper mouse support. Include proper multitasking.
davesque 11y ago
If this is a response to the Surface and iPad Pro, the apparent lack of a stylus is going to make this a tough sell.
tempodox 11y ago
Meh, it's not a C library nor a compiler. The name fooled me.
jevgeni 11y ago
And there I was excited for a minute of a new C language variant focused on graphics...
- em3rgent0rdr 11y ago
  me too!
- dlsym 11y ago
  You are not alone.
- kelvin0 11y ago
  Kids with high Karma post the darndest things ... Daddy, when I grow my Karma will I be able to post such content and have it fly high on the first page?
fsloth 11y ago
There seems to be an Ars Technica coverage of it http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/09/google-pixel-c-hands-on-a-well-built-but-clunky-convertible-android-tablet/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/09/google-pixel-c-hands-...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
tpio 11y ago
The only thing I took away from that page was the fact that they removed the pipe symbol. Basically rendering 20 years of linux programs garbage. (I guess we can remap it, but wtf). The pipe symbol is like the windows-button of linux – except way more powerful.
- masklinn 11y ago
  It's not just the pipe. * no braces or square brackets * no tilde * no backtick * no backslash * no ESC key * the TAB key has also been severely shrunk, the quote/double-quote key is also much smaller than normal > all the function/quick access keys are gone
- mtw 11y ago
  Its most likely optimized for YouTube, Netflix, google docs and hangout... You should look out for Chromebooks if you are looking for a small laptop to hack on and install Linux
- Zigurd 11y ago
  Hard keyboards on mobile devices are meant to make typing faster. Soft keyboards enable you to easily access symbols and other less-often used parts of a character set quite a bit more easily than using shift keys on a hard keyboard. You also have handwriting recognition that recognizes diacritical marks, which makes those easy, too. You can also use any bluetooth or usb keyboard with any Android device.
skratlo 11y ago
No function keys? C'mon, the keyboard 'looks' good, but lacks the keys you need for work.
guessmyname 11y ago
From a Google related website I would except at least a CSRF protection [1]. [1] http://cixtor.com/pastio/dp9zi0 http://cixtor.com/pastio/dp9zi0
lugus35 11y ago
Well, Pixel Java actually...

133 points by pearjuice 11y ago

Why is this running Android instead of Chrome OS? Internal politics are clearly at work. Moreover, why isn't there a stylus. I really, really, appreciate 1:sqrt(2), but without an accurate, ultra low-latency stylus you can't treat it like a pad to express ideas on. The build looks fantastic, though. Arrrrgh, so much promise...

fpgeek 11y ago
> Why is this running Android instead of Chrome OS? Because you can already get convertible touchscreen Chromebooks (e.g. ASUS Chromebook Flip, ThinkPad Yoga 11e Chromebook). Yes, a Chrome OS Pixel C would add a detachable keyboard, but overall it would be a much smaller step from existing Chrome OS devices than the Android Pixel C is from existing Android tablets.
devopsproject 11y ago
the hardware has never been a problem, it was the terrible tablet apps. Seems to be getting better.
wvenable 11y ago
It makes more sense to run Android; a tablet without apps isn't nearly as useful.
georgemcbay 11y ago
One could argue that internal politics (in the form of the rise of Sundar Pichai) are what propped ChromeOS up to the point where it was even a question whether a device like this should run Android or not given that ChromeOS's functionality is theoretically a subset of Android (given a full-featured Chrome browser for Android). I realize that in practice many people buy ChromeOS devices primarily to run Crouton or their own bootloaded Linux build which this is a complication for, but I don't believe that is relevant to the internal politics issue.
- fpgeek 11y ago
  I disagree. I see them as very different value propositions. Chrome OS is about giving you a baseline (80-90%) computing environment with as little administrative overhead as possible (easy to setup, easy to share device, no driver issues and so on). That's why Chromebooks are doing well in the education sector. By contrast, an Android convertible like the Pixel C is about giving you a general-purpose Android environment in a different form factor. There's some blurring around the edges (Android has a Chrome browser missing some desktop features, Chrome OS can run some popular Android apps), but they're nevertheless aiming at very different targets.
  - cwyers 11y ago
    And a device like this points up those distinctions rather well. It's a 2-in-1, like the iPad Pro and the Surface/Surface Pro line. But, and I'd say weirdly even more than the iPad Pro highlights the dichotomy between iOS and OS X, the Pixel C really drives home the difference between Android and ChromeOS. To get the full Google 2-in-1 experience (something that offers all the promise of a tablet AND all the promise of Google's version of a notebook, you'd want something that can run the offline versions of Google Docs that ChromeOS has (not the Android versions that seems geared more towards consumption) and the tablet apps that Android has. So it's a 2-in-1 that's an Android tablet AND an Android notebook. (And honestly, I think this also points out how weak Google's OSes are outside the smartphone space. Android still doesn't have the sort of high-end creation apps for tablets that iPad and Surface have, and ChromeOS doesn't have the sort of productivity apps the Windows, OS X or even Linux offer.)
hspak 11y ago
What would be the point of having Chrome OS on a tablet? I can't think of anything that the Chrome OS would be better at doing on a tablet over Android.
bitmapbrother 11y ago
Android M has Bluetooth stylus support as standard.
- fpgeek 11y ago
  Also, I wouldn't give up on native pen support just yet. NVIDIA's DirectStylus technology is supposed to be processor-based and, more importantly, uses standard touch sensors (no active digitizer required), though it does seem to require support for a faster-than-normal touch refresh rate (NVIDIA's DirectTouch). With luck, good pen support on the Pixel C might be just a software update away...
bobajeff 11y ago
If anything running Chrome OS instead of Android would be a display of internal politics at work. As Android is way more popular than Chrome OS. Plus, Chrome OS aligns better with Google's primary business.
fr0styMatt2 11y ago
I've never understood the point of Chrome OS's existence as a separate thing from Android. So I'm glad it's an Android device.
- eitally 11y ago
  I used to question this, too, but then again, I also sincerely appreciate having a Chromebook that boots in about 5 seconds ... compared to my phone that takes about a minute to go from off to "useful". I know it doesn't matter for consumers as much, but it's far easier to centrally administer ChromeOS devices than Android devices, too.
  - fr0styMatt2 11y ago
    The funny thing about that is that my MacBook Pro boots in a few seconds to a full desktop OS, just as my Windows 10 machine does. The cold-boot time of Android is pretty terrible. Admittedly the devices are pretty slow that it boots on, but still.
amluto 11y ago
ChromeOS may have the best security architecture in any networked consumer device ever sold. Android, on the other hand, is not.
Navarr 11y ago
I think this marks a step in Google's jump into hardware. An important one to denote that "Pixel" does not mean Chrome - it means Google. The previous Pixel, even the first was the "Chromebook Pixel" This is the "Pixel C" One might fathom we could see a "Nexus Pixel" in the future.
- cwyers 11y ago
  What "Pixel" denotes is "cargo cult dogfooding." It's when you sell your customers dry kibble dog food and you have some high-end dogfood around for your engineers, some of the canned stuff that you let the really clever dogs cover in veal demi-glace through Crouton. (Yes, I understand that I'm comparing Ubuntu to something top of the line, it's not a perfect metaphor.) Google, outside of their smartphones, makes computer products for children. I'm serious about this, I'm not being condescending to Google users, I mean actual children. Android tablets are the tablets you give to a four-year-old to occupy them on a long car trip or while you're making dinner. They're small enough for a child to hold comfortably and they're cheap enough for you to not stress out what the child is going to do with them. Chromebooks have caught on in exactly one market, education, because children can be real assholes and giving them a computer that can't actually run software eliminates a lot of the headaches that come from giving Turing-complete devices to real assholes. But Google engineers aren't children. They want real computers. What they probably really want are MacBooks, just like everyone else. But MacBooks aren't dogfood. The Chromebook Pixel exists pretty much entirely so that Google can claim to dogfood ChromeOS and engineers can get a laptop that works for them, if you consider putting up with Ubuntu over OS X working for them. It's all an elaborate charade, in that running a high-end Chromebook Pixel and using Ubuntu through Crouton or just wiping the thing has about as much in common as the $200 Chromebooks that most ChromeOS users actually have as just giving the Google engineers their MacBooks, but Google seems to regard dogfooding as something more honored in the breach than in the observance, so that's just par for the course. So why is this a Pixel and not a Nexus device? Well one, because Google makes it themselves. But why are they making this themselves? Or at all? Because Google engineers want a Surface or iPad Pro. And people who work for Google are about the only market for a Surface or iPad Pro knockoff running Android, because Android is such a terrible tablet ecosystem for anyone who has app needs beyond Netflix and Toca Pet Doctor and I don't see this thing moving the needle on that point. And since it's running Android and not ChromeOS you can't even get any of that Ubuntu demi-glace on it. So even by the standards of the Pixel line this is such an awkward compromise between dogfood and something edible.

p4bl0 11y ago

I was recently whining about the lack of a modern Sony VAIO P replacement. If this has a built-in 4G/LTE modem, I may want one, especially if it is possible to run Linux on it (maybe via Deploy Linux?). That's something else I recently whined about: why there is no 4G/LTE modem in any ultrabook (except for one or two unaffordable chromebooks not available in my country anyway)? It seems to be only in tablets and high-end 15" laptop. That makes no sense to me.

ac29 11y ago
The Lenovo X series Thinkpads have an optional LTE modem.
voltagex_ 11y ago
I wondered this as well. My last laptop purchase was the Lenovo X1 Carbon 3443CTO, which I believe is the 2013 version. It's not easy to get to the WWAN card and replace it, and no idea if the BIOS would even let you. Shortly after I got the laptop, Optus rolled out LTE in my city on a non-standard frequency (LTE-A on 2600mHz). This is one of the reasons I prefer a USB dongle or Wifi "hotspot".

bsimpson 11y ago

The rumors expected this to run ChromeOS because its codename is apparently Ryu. If that's true, there are still changes being pushed to the ChromeOS codebase regarding this device: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/ec/+/18295c9bb2649b6e0b4a177d8e6c409ed9e9ba60 https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/ec/+/1... which tells me there's still more to know about this device. I'm curious what it is. Even though I'm typing this on my first generation Pixel, is there really enough of a difference between a Chromebook and Chrome for Android to justify porting both OSes to the same piece of hardware?

bergie 11y ago
Devtools and Crouton would make this a pretty interesting device
- zmmmmm 11y ago
  Key problem is it's ARM and not Intel processor. How much of a real developer experience a crouton style solution enables on ARM, I'm not sure. But I'm guessing it's a lot more limited.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    Limited in what respect? There's plenty of Linux distros which run on ARM/ARM64.
    - zmmmmm 11y ago
      I guess I was only referring to being able to install anything precompiled for Intel linux, which would include just about any proprietary software. I had a few problems running things in my past attempts with this (running Ubuntu on an Android tablet). However I was surprised to see from Googling around that people have indeed now got most common dev tools working on the Samsung ARM chromebook so I might be completely wrong about it
      - 11y ago

userbinator 11y ago

Perhaps not such a great choice of name as years of web browsing have me instinctively associating the "pixel.*" domain with a tracking pixel - and that's what I initially thought this would be about.

simoncion 11y ago
Pixels have been shipping since February, 2013, so your comment is a few years too late. :)
- userbinator 11y ago
  Chromebook Pixels, yes. Those have a page at https://www.google.com/chromebook/pixel/ https://www.google.com/chromebook/pixel/ which is definitely far less unambiguous.
  - simoncion 11y ago
    shrug People get kerfluffled about the strangest things.

dragonwriter 11y ago

Once there is some information this might be interesting, but just the visual sneak peak doesn't seem special: its clearly a not-too-small Android tablet with a (standard? available?) keyboard case, but what makes this different from, e.g., Samsung's top-end Android tablets? I'm sure there are technical features that distinguish it, but this sneak peak isn't highlighting them

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

gaara87 11y ago

As @bsimpson had mentioned, i see this as a smart(political?) move to be the first hybrid chromeOS running android apps (or Android OS itself). I've tested Android apps running in Chrome and it seems very promising. Excited to see if there is going to be a convergence/overlap! :)

berntb 11y ago

Does "Linux Deploy" work? I am an iOS user, but I would go Android (a clean one, with O/S security updates) if I can have a tablet GUI with a working Emacs, Bash etc under Debian.

pdknsk 11y ago

What a poor product page. And the official blog post is very light on information too. Only the press conference had some details. https://youtu.be/Jc-LEG0T_4c?t=4382 https://youtu.be/Jc-LEG0T_4c?t=4382 I was hoping for OLED, which wasn't mentioned. What I did notice is that the screen is incredibly reflective.

fernly 11y ago
Right. Could you POSSIBLY design a less-helpful, less-informative page?Maybe one with even more annoying keyhole-cropped images? Maybe! But you could not possibly under-improve on the random little rainbow bug bottom right that does nothing and says nothing.
- wingerlang 11y ago
  You guys are misunderstanding the purpose of the page. It clearly says this is a SNEAK PEAK. It's like a teaser instead of a trailer. Obviously it will suck if you look at it as a product page, because it simply isn't one.
  - fpgeek 11y ago
    Exactly. The point of the page is to pique your interest, ideally to the point where you decide to sign up for email updates. In many ways, giving more concrete information works against that goal, so the page doesn't do that.
    - creshal 11y ago
      But we don't want that, hence the complaints. Sign up for a newsletter just to get the technical specs for a random tablet? Come on. Marketers needs to stop taking drugs.
      - wingerlang 11y ago
        The complaints I replied to above were directly to a product page, and this is no product page. Therefore their complaints are simply misguided. And what you want is irrelevant, are they not allowed to put up a website like this you think?

PaulHoule 11y ago

Google has Microsoft envy? This might be the first convertible to lack a trackpad...

flogic 11y ago
If Microsoft is going to get solid hold on Mobile, it will be through tablets. The Surface line is relatively well liked. The number one detractor for Windows in mobile is the lack of apps. If Microsoft can use their desktop dominance to push their way into tablets. Life could get very uncomfortable for Google and Apple.
Zigurd 11y ago
That's because it's a touch-first mobile device. Surface Pro is a PC in tablet form-factor.

dalien26 11y ago

This is something made at the last minute, Google saw the Ipad Pro, so they made a tablet quickly to show / to compete with Microsoft and Apple.

leisurebot 11y ago

Why do all the Pixels look like Gen 1 Apple products?

halayli 11y ago

> The Pixel C takes an entirely new approach to the tablet experience. It looks like any other tablet.

davvid 11y ago
If only it had an ESC key (vim), and backtick (markdown) above the Tab key. I don't get it.. they had me for a second, but then that kind of ruins using it for anything "serious". I know, I know.. I'm probably not the target market...
- ridiculous_fish 11y ago
  The lack of bracket keys [ and ] is most serious.
  - wingerlang 11y ago
    How do you know?
- nfoz 11y ago
  It's missing: `~[]{}|\ I wouldn't be able to type some of my passwords or URLs on this thing. I thought the Chromebook keyboards were bad enough.
  - morpher 11y ago
    In the nexus presentation, they mentioned that a few symbol keys were moved up to soft keys to fit the keyboard while keeping a laptop-like distance between keys. So, it might not be super convenient, but you can likely still type your passwords.
  - andybak 11y ago
    I've switched to longer passwords but all lower-case - mainly to ease the pain of entering them on a phone. On a proper keyboard it takes the same amount of time to type, it's easier on my brain and you can achieve the same entropy with just a few more characters. (And then some f%£$ing website will tell me my 16 character password is insecure because it's all lower case.)

macspoofing 11y ago

Want it to be a productivity tool? Include proper mouse support. Include proper multitasking.

davesque 11y ago

If this is a response to the Surface and iPad Pro, the apparent lack of a stylus is going to make this a tough sell.

tempodox 11y ago

Meh, it's not a C library nor a compiler. The name fooled me.

jevgeni 11y ago

And there I was excited for a minute of a new C language variant focused on graphics...

em3rgent0rdr 11y ago
me too!
dlsym 11y ago
You are not alone.
kelvin0 11y ago
Kids with high Karma post the darndest things ... Daddy, when I grow my Karma will I be able to post such content and have it fly high on the first page?

fsloth 11y ago

There seems to be an Ars Technica coverage of it http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/09/google-pixel-c-hands-on-a-well-built-but-clunky-convertible-android-tablet/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/09/google-pixel-c-hands-...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

tpio 11y ago

The only thing I took away from that page was the fact that they removed the pipe symbol. Basically rendering 20 years of linux programs garbage. (I guess we can remap it, but wtf). The pipe symbol is like the windows-button of linux – except way more powerful.

masklinn 11y ago
It's not just the pipe. * no braces or square brackets * no tilde * no backtick * no backslash * no ESC key * the TAB key has also been severely shrunk, the quote/double-quote key is also much smaller than normal > all the function/quick access keys are gone
mtw 11y ago
Its most likely optimized for YouTube, Netflix, google docs and hangout... You should look out for Chromebooks if you are looking for a small laptop to hack on and install Linux
Zigurd 11y ago
Hard keyboards on mobile devices are meant to make typing faster. Soft keyboards enable you to easily access symbols and other less-often used parts of a character set quite a bit more easily than using shift keys on a hard keyboard. You also have handwriting recognition that recognizes diacritical marks, which makes those easy, too. You can also use any bluetooth or usb keyboard with any Android device.

skratlo 11y ago

No function keys? C'mon, the keyboard 'looks' good, but lacks the keys you need for work.

guessmyname 11y ago

From a Google related website I would except at least a CSRF protection [1]. [1] http://cixtor.com/pastio/dp9zi0 http://cixtor.com/pastio/dp9zi0

lugus35 11y ago

Well, Pixel Java actually...