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Chromebook Pre-Orders Now Available to All

13 points by dcawrey 15y ago

MatthewPhillips 15y ago
I just ordered mine (opted for the silver Samsung with 3G), here's hoping they start shipping before the 15th!
melvinram 15y ago
At this price, why would I want this instead of iPad? (serious question) Some possible answers: keyboard, open for hacking on, not locked into App Store, cloud storage for everything, throw-away and restore on new system immediately. Anything else? Am I missing something? If not, I don't see this being a hit. Keyboard - you can buy keyboard for iPad Open for hacking on - I'd want a real computer to do hacking on. Not locked into App Store - On iPad, you can use the web just as you will on Chromebook... except on Chromebook, you don't get all the apps that have already been built. Cloud storage for everything & throw-away and restore on new system immediately - iCloud?
- niels_olson 15y ago
  I posted a detailed critique elsewhere but I wanted to mention here that I have left my Cr48 open and on in the kitchen for three weeks now, parked in front of a barstool. Google's CloudPrint is configured. We still walk right past the Cr48 and sit down at the 27" iMac in the living room to look up recipes on Chrome and print them to the same printer. I don't see the selling point of "the cloud" saving this product. Which makes me a little sad. Why don't we use it?
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    Could you link to your critique? I'd love to read it.
    - niels_olson 15y ago
      http://wherein.posterous.com/i-review-the-cr48 http://wherein.posterous.com/i-review-the-cr48
- Pewpewarrows 15y ago
  The short answer: it's not directed towards you. It became blatantly obviously during Google IO that they're going after very specific markets: Education and Business private sector. No IT overhead, constant pushes of the latest security updates, and free hardware upgrades for as long as the line of products still exists with a low monthly price per machine. For the small fraction of use-cases that still need proprietary software there's virtualization. They're not going after the home sector here (they have Android phones and tablets handling that for them nicely). They're going for the throat with Microsoft's last dominance: schools and businesses. If they can start upsetting the decades-long lock-in that Microsoft has had in those giant areas, then Chromebooks have succeeded. (And before you ask, no the iPad isn't a suitable product for those areas. A proprietary cloud solution where a business doesn't control their own data is never going to fly. Also, while mobile Safari has made excellent strides, it's still not even close to a traditional browser.)
  - stcredzero 15y ago
    Also, while mobile Safari has made excellent strides, it's still not even close to a traditional browser. That's not going to last very long.
    - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
      Nitro on the iPad 2 is orders of magnitude behind V8 on a netbook with most every test that I've run. Like I said, it's gotten a lot better in their latest iterations, but it's still slow as molasses with complex web apps in comparison.
  - niels_olson 15y ago
    I think you're right. Having used ChromeOS at home, it's not intended for that market. But getting out from under Exchange and SMB and WinXP has gotta sound like the land of milk and honey for a lot of businesses. Is citrix up and running now? The one big sticker for the Feds will be FIPS compliance so we can use smart card authentication. And, yeah, I can see my kids' school district having the same thoughts.
- scrame 15y ago
  <i>At this price, why would I want this instead of iPad? (serious question)</i> I dislike apple and apple products, but I have the same question. Even netbooks can do quite a bit more than they could when ChromeOS was announced, and often for less. I really don't see the benefit in only having chrome, even if Native Client can promise more functionality in the future.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  You don't have to choose between an iPad or Chromebook just as people didn't have to choose between an iPad or a laptop (although some did, and some will). As for your point about the iPad having a browser too, Chrome is among the elite (if not THE elite) browsers on the market; comparing it to a mobile OS browser and saying they are equivalent is not fair. Forget about Flash, the iPad cannot render javascript at near the speed that a desktop browser can, nor does it support as many of the cutting edge HTML5 features. Additionally, Chrome is updated at a much more rapid pace. The CR48 doesn't even have the same UI that it had 6 months ago, not to mention additional HTML5 support (such as Speech input, which iPad doesn't have). Lastly, Chrome syncs extremely fast. In fact, they specifically omitted a sync button in the settings page because it is designed to sync faster than you could get to the button. If a change isn't synced instantly it's considered a bug in Chrome.
- dstein 15y ago
  These will probably not sell well. I guess Google didn't expect the iPad to be such a big hit, and now the netbook market is already over with. If Google had more foresight ChromeOS would've been a tablet OS right from the start.
dotBen 15y ago
Weren't Google IO attendees supposed to be getting one of these on/before launch? I've heard nothing. Anyone else?
- kreneskyp 15y ago
  Google never said when the emails would go out.
juiceandjuice 15y ago
I already have mine.
- juiceandjuice 15y ago
  http://goo.gl/niwt5 http://goo.gl/niwt5
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    Nice, is this the "titan silver"?
    - juiceandjuice 15y ago
      Arctic white on the back.
- sahaj 15y ago
  I got mine a few days ago from Gilt.com Things I like: Fast. Amazing battery life. Good trackpad. Chrome! Nice keyboard. Light weight. Things I don't like: It stutters sometimes with flash objects. Display only opens at about 130 deg angle. I wish it went further back. The display hinge closes when it is open at 45 degs and chrombook is out held with screen facing down. No shortcut to jump to end or beginning of line when typing. Microphone is not very good - you sound like you are in a tunnel when talking. No way to change the keyboard repeat rate. No delete key. Things I wish it had: Magnetic power connector. I love this little thing. It's extremely fast and the battery lasts longer than my MacBook (which is going to my parents). It's a pleasure to surf the web on.
  - juiceandjuice 15y ago
    Yeah, the arctic white from Gilt. I haven't got the Rickshaw case yet though, but I like it for the most part. I'm playing with it to decided what I want to do with it. I'm probably going to end up mostly giving it to my parents for my little sister since I feel its a bit better than Ubuntu in some respects and I don't have to worry about malware or supporting it. I've already enabled dev mode on it, which is kind of interesting. Also, there really needs to be support for archives and zip files and stuff. I downloaded a zip file of photos expecting to be able to unzip it at least and maybe upload to Picasa, but couldn't unzip it. I do want to develop some chrome apps now though, it's nice to have a blank slate platform and play with something to see what it needs.
klbarry 15y ago
I very much like my CR-48, but it is not as much a necessity as a netbook is.
ry0ohki 15y ago
Seems overpriced by about $200. Competing with Netbooks that can do more and iPads that can do more and are more stylish...
steveh73 15y ago
"Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S." Not available to all.
fondue 15y ago
Google: "Security built in Chromebooks run the first operating system designed from the ground up to defend against the ongoing threat of malware and viruses. They employ the principle of "defense in depth" to provide multiple layers of protection, including sandboxing, data encryption and verified boot." Thank god Best Buy is selling Anti-Virus with these! Sarcasm off ... why are these $429+?

13 points by dcawrey 15y ago

I just ordered mine (opted for the silver Samsung with 3G), here's hoping they start shipping before the 15th!

At this price, why would I want this instead of iPad? (serious question) Some possible answers: keyboard, open for hacking on, not locked into App Store, cloud storage for everything, throw-away and restore on new system immediately. Anything else? Am I missing something? If not, I don't see this being a hit. Keyboard - you can buy keyboard for iPad Open for hacking on - I'd want a real computer to do hacking on. Not locked into App Store - On iPad, you can use the web just as you will on Chromebook... except on Chromebook, you don't get all the apps that have already been built. Cloud storage for everything & throw-away and restore on new system immediately - iCloud?

niels_olson 15y ago
I posted a detailed critique elsewhere but I wanted to mention here that I have left my Cr48 open and on in the kitchen for three weeks now, parked in front of a barstool. Google's CloudPrint is configured. We still walk right past the Cr48 and sit down at the 27" iMac in the living room to look up recipes on Chrome and print them to the same printer. I don't see the selling point of "the cloud" saving this product. Which makes me a little sad. Why don't we use it?
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Could you link to your critique? I'd love to read it.
  - niels_olson 15y ago
    http://wherein.posterous.com/i-review-the-cr48 http://wherein.posterous.com/i-review-the-cr48
Pewpewarrows 15y ago
The short answer: it's not directed towards you. It became blatantly obviously during Google IO that they're going after very specific markets: Education and Business private sector. No IT overhead, constant pushes of the latest security updates, and free hardware upgrades for as long as the line of products still exists with a low monthly price per machine. For the small fraction of use-cases that still need proprietary software there's virtualization. They're not going after the home sector here (they have Android phones and tablets handling that for them nicely). They're going for the throat with Microsoft's last dominance: schools and businesses. If they can start upsetting the decades-long lock-in that Microsoft has had in those giant areas, then Chromebooks have succeeded. (And before you ask, no the iPad isn't a suitable product for those areas. A proprietary cloud solution where a business doesn't control their own data is never going to fly. Also, while mobile Safari has made excellent strides, it's still not even close to a traditional browser.)
- stcredzero 15y ago
  Also, while mobile Safari has made excellent strides, it's still not even close to a traditional browser. That's not going to last very long.
  - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
    Nitro on the iPad 2 is orders of magnitude behind V8 on a netbook with most every test that I've run. Like I said, it's gotten a lot better in their latest iterations, but it's still slow as molasses with complex web apps in comparison.
- niels_olson 15y ago
  I think you're right. Having used ChromeOS at home, it's not intended for that market. But getting out from under Exchange and SMB and WinXP has gotta sound like the land of milk and honey for a lot of businesses. Is citrix up and running now? The one big sticker for the Feds will be FIPS compliance so we can use smart card authentication. And, yeah, I can see my kids' school district having the same thoughts.
scrame 15y ago
<i>At this price, why would I want this instead of iPad? (serious question)</i> I dislike apple and apple products, but I have the same question. Even netbooks can do quite a bit more than they could when ChromeOS was announced, and often for less. I really don't see the benefit in only having chrome, even if Native Client can promise more functionality in the future.
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
You don't have to choose between an iPad or Chromebook just as people didn't have to choose between an iPad or a laptop (although some did, and some will). As for your point about the iPad having a browser too, Chrome is among the elite (if not THE elite) browsers on the market; comparing it to a mobile OS browser and saying they are equivalent is not fair. Forget about Flash, the iPad cannot render javascript at near the speed that a desktop browser can, nor does it support as many of the cutting edge HTML5 features. Additionally, Chrome is updated at a much more rapid pace. The CR48 doesn't even have the same UI that it had 6 months ago, not to mention additional HTML5 support (such as Speech input, which iPad doesn't have). Lastly, Chrome syncs extremely fast. In fact, they specifically omitted a sync button in the settings page because it is designed to sync faster than you could get to the button. If a change isn't synced instantly it's considered a bug in Chrome.
dstein 15y ago
These will probably not sell well. I guess Google didn't expect the iPad to be such a big hit, and now the netbook market is already over with. If Google had more foresight ChromeOS would've been a tablet OS right from the start.

dotBen 15y ago

Weren't Google IO attendees supposed to be getting one of these on/before launch? I've heard nothing. Anyone else?

kreneskyp 15y ago
Google never said when the emails would go out.

juiceandjuice 15y ago

I already have mine.

juiceandjuice 15y ago
http://goo.gl/niwt5 http://goo.gl/niwt5
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Nice, is this the "titan silver"?
  - juiceandjuice 15y ago
    Arctic white on the back.
sahaj 15y ago
I got mine a few days ago from Gilt.com Things I like: Fast. Amazing battery life. Good trackpad. Chrome! Nice keyboard. Light weight. Things I don't like: It stutters sometimes with flash objects. Display only opens at about 130 deg angle. I wish it went further back. The display hinge closes when it is open at 45 degs and chrombook is out held with screen facing down. No shortcut to jump to end or beginning of line when typing. Microphone is not very good - you sound like you are in a tunnel when talking. No way to change the keyboard repeat rate. No delete key. Things I wish it had: Magnetic power connector. I love this little thing. It's extremely fast and the battery lasts longer than my MacBook (which is going to my parents). It's a pleasure to surf the web on.
- juiceandjuice 15y ago
  Yeah, the arctic white from Gilt. I haven't got the Rickshaw case yet though, but I like it for the most part. I'm playing with it to decided what I want to do with it. I'm probably going to end up mostly giving it to my parents for my little sister since I feel its a bit better than Ubuntu in some respects and I don't have to worry about malware or supporting it. I've already enabled dev mode on it, which is kind of interesting. Also, there really needs to be support for archives and zip files and stuff. I downloaded a zip file of photos expecting to be able to unzip it at least and maybe upload to Picasa, but couldn't unzip it. I do want to develop some chrome apps now though, it's nice to have a blank slate platform and play with something to see what it needs.

klbarry 15y ago

I very much like my CR-48, but it is not as much a necessity as a netbook is.

ry0ohki 15y ago

Seems overpriced by about $200. Competing with Netbooks that can do more and iPads that can do more and are more stylish...

steveh73 15y ago

"Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S." Not available to all.

fondue 15y ago

Google: "Security built in Chromebooks run the first operating system designed from the ground up to defend against the ongoing threat of malware and viruses. They employ the principle of "defense in depth" to provide multiple layers of protection, including sandboxing, data encryption and verified boot." Thank god Best Buy is selling Anti-Virus with these! Sarcasm off ... why are these $429+?