Google Chromebooks

[rm88]

I use a Google Chromebook that I bought about 2 weeks ago. It is ok, but there are a few things I cant seem to understand. It doesnt recognise the USB drive that has my CV on it. Also Everything seems to be online, you cant do anything offline, even google docs has to be online for auto saving. I hope these little tweeks are sorted soon.

It did not even recognise my mobile broadband dongle, It thinks its using the ethernet, well its getting me online so im not complaining, lol.

 

[Giugiaro]

Chromebook is supposed to be a fully online device. Take it away from line and you have somewhat of a demonstration machine. They don't seem to have changed this issue from the beggining since this goes agaisnt the philosophy of the Chromebook itself.

I'm not going to say what device would have been better given the details you've shown, unless you'd like to know.

 

[87 027]

Also Everything seems to be online, you cant do anything offline, even google docs has to be online for auto saving

From Wikipedia:

A Chromebook is a personal computer running Chrome OS as its operating system. The devices are designed to be used while connected to the Internet and support applications that reside on the Web, rather than traditional applications that reside on the machine itself. All the data is stored in the "cloud" accessed by an internet connection. A Chromebook is an example of a thin client.

 

[jon0844]

It did not even recognise my mobile broadband dongle, It thinks its using the ethernet, well its getting me online so im not complaining, lol.

Most new dongles present themselves as a normal Ethernet connection (even via USB) which does away with the need for drivers and also speeds up connection times.

 

[87 027]

At the risk of taking things off topic, I find it it increasingly difficult to get 3G mobile data at the major London terminals - signal shows as strong, but minimal data throughput (as confirmed by speed testing websites). Most frustrating when there are disruptions and I want to check realtimetrains!

 

[jon0844]

I'm on EE and used to have loads of problems with data in and around London, but now it's usually fine. Three has never been a problem either. Vodafone and O2 have always suffered heavy congestion, but as 4G rolls out things should get better. Firstly, 4G is more efficient for data. Second, as people move to 4G, the 3G spectrum will become less congested.

3G will for some time still be perfectly usable (and necessary for voice communication for a while) more so than the prospect of dropping down to 2G for data, which is painfully slow.

 

[maniacmartin]

I just don't get the whole Chromebook thing. You're effectively just buying a machine that can only be a web browser, but for a similar amount of money you could get a more versatile machine that also has a web browser...

 

[jon0844]

I think the battery life is quite significantly better, partly because of the need for less power sapping hardware because of what a Chromebook is designed to do, over just about any other laptop.

I can think of many people that might only need to operate in a location that has some form of connectivity, like Wi-Fi or a portable hot spot (or dongle). And there are many advantages of working in the cloud. (And a few disadvantages, such as what to do on those admittedly rare days when the service goes down).

It is limited in what it can do, and Google perhaps needs to make that a bit clearer, but if I was at event where I might need to enter text all day long, battery life would be more important than anything else.

And I'm pretty sure you can do some things while offline? Surely entering text in its own word processor would work, and you can cache the files locally until you get another Internet connection?

I'm happy with the battery on my MacBook Air (but that cost about four times as much) so I doubt I'd ever get a Chromebook, but they serve a niche of the market - much as Samsung found a new market for the Galaxy Note. As long as Google can sell enough to make it worthwhile, I think it will stick around.

However, I'd rather see something where the Chromebook OS merges in some way with Android, and you can begin to run more powerful apps and perhaps have more internal storage to work offline on different things. But then it begins to change the whole purpose and will definitely destroy the battery life benefits.

 

[Nick W]

I just don't get the whole Chromebook thing. You're effectively just buying a machine that can only be a web browser, but for a similar amount of money you could get a more versatile machine that also has a web browser...

But unless your company can provide it, you won't get the level of remote management including backup which google provide?

 

[87 027]

I just don't get the whole Chromebook thing. You're effectively just buying a machine that can only be a web browser, but for a similar amount of money you could get a more versatile machine that also has a web browser...

Microsoft have a marketing campaign which makes precisely this point

http://www.scroogled.com/chromebook

Make of it what you will...

 

[jon0844]

As silly as their Bing 'challenge' which was rigged (by showing different results from what you actually got from Google) , yet I still picked Google 5 out of 5 times!

That says how had its own search engine is!

 

[asylumxl]

Use Crouton to install Ubuntu. Plenty of applications on Linux available for ARMHF architecture. Not for the feint hearted if you're not very tech savvy.

 

[Giugiaro]

The Chromebook is like a answer to the Netbook trend that was going on.

I never liked Netbooks and never wanted to have one. They're small and stuff, but they are mostly for internet interaction and do some minor chnages into documents. And they aren't that innovative. And the Chromebook failed miserably by attacking that market, so dependant on Internet Access.

Tablets are the actual solution to these kind of portable market and such explains the great success of devices like the iPad, the iPhone and Google tablets and smartphones.

I decided to pick my personal best: The Surface Pro. I've been leaving my college classes swiped away with the versatibility of this device.
And to complete the charm, a Windows Phone 8 as its tiny companion at a very reasonable price for a smartphone of the kind.

 

[jon0844]

Some netbooks were okay. Most were awful. Too slow and not enough RAM, and super low-res screens.

But for basic needs, like word processing (some keyboards were okay) and web browsing, their advantage was clear - better portability and good battery life. For me, at the time, battery life was paramount for me.

But then along came the (new, more affordable) MacBook Air and it was, well, goodnight netbook (irrespective of the price difference). Performance, screen and battery life - and super slim. Get in!

Tablets fill a gap, but are still not powerful enough to replace the laptop. However, you can see where Apple is going with its 64 bit iPad. I fully expect OSX and iOS to merge in some ways, so we might see an iPad air Pro (or whatever) and one that can run OSX apps.

And, despite what Steve Jobs said, I could also see that the MacBook will get a touchscreen - and the MacBook and iPad lines will converge in some way.

 

[Giugiaro]

The Surface Pro already is a tablet laptop. That's why I think that Microsoft wrongly advertises the Pro as a tablet, because it isn't an ARM one like the Surface RT, but an Intel full fledge 64bit PC.

It also makes it hard for people wanting to have a Windows 8 tablet to understand the difference between the two types of device. The Surface RT and other Windows RT tablets are pretty nice with Office 365 RT already installed and USB ports but, as always, people will tend to ask to do a bit more, a bit like what people demand of Windows. That-s were Surface Pro and other Windows 8 Pro tablets kick in. They're laptops reduced to the size of a tablet.

This is more of a discussion to be debated in a new thread.

 

[jon0844]

The Surface is indeed in the right direction. Even better is the likelihood that RT and Windows Phone will merge, as RT as it stands today is a bit of a waste of time.

I love the keyboard cover too.

 

[maniacmartin]

Maybe I'm a bit old school but I don't like tablets. I find them too big to fit in your pocket like a smartphone, but too small and lacking in a real keyboard to be useful. It fills a gap in my needs that doesn't exist.

I'm also not very trusting on the cloud, for a few reasons:

• I work in an industry where data security is very important
• I read too many stories of third parties having shoddy security practices - and you can't check what they're really doing
• If you're not paying for a service, whats to stop the company just cutting you off or changing the T&Cs or discontinuing the service?
• I like tech and tinkering, and find running servers at home fun
• My internet connection at home is slow and unreliable

II like the idea of thin clients as a concept, but for me it has to be backed by something I control and understand to be able to trust it. Obviously my needs may differ from the average joe's: Someone who's just storing pictures of their cat and either isn't technologically savvy or doesn't have the time to faff around and wants something that just works out of the box may be very well suited to such devices.

 

[jon0844]

I can fit my Nexus 7 in my rear jeans pocket (not that I would carry it like that!) but a 7-inch tablet has too small a screen to be really productive on.

If I hold it and type on the on-screen keyboard then I can edit documents, but if I put it down and use with a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse, the screen is then too far away and way too small.

To be honest, I use a tablet 99% of the time for consuming information that I'll have entered on a desktop or laptop computer, or received by email for checking. I am, however, considering a 10-inch tablet to try and work from a bit more - but so far I've not found one that I want. The Xperia Tablet Z was awesome but too expensive, so I'm holding out for the 2nd generation Nexus 10 - although the new Nokia tablet is quite interesting (and a bloody good spec).

In terms of using the cloud, I use Google and Dropbox but nothing I have is ultra top-secret.

I can't see myself ever getting rid of my computer with 27-inch display, but can imagine more and more people will not ever really see the need for a full-blown computer at home if they don't need to work. Many will have a laptop instead today, and might now be perfectly happy with a tablet - having a keyboard (attachable or remote) for the odd occasion they need to write a letter or something.

I don't like the iPad (because of the restrictive OS) but have to admit that without Apple, the tablet would never have become this mainstream.

 

[Giugiaro]

I believe the iPad may sooner or later fuse with the MacBook Air like you said before jonmorris0844. If you look closely to how Windows 8.1 devices work all together in sync, there's no doubt shuch thing may happen.

I'm pretty good with my current Windows 8.1 setting.

A Desktop built purposedly to work with games and simulators, 3D modellers, raster and vectorial editors and anything you can throw at it, while keeping track of everything you've done and manage all your files around with the other two devices.

A Surface Pro tablet great for drawing and painting (the Pro uses Wacom technology), write down things in OneNote while attending classes and meting with groups, get some documents done with the TypeCover inserted, add information about car refuelling and similar expenses and use it to do other medium to small things, both at home and in other buildings. It also fits perfectly in here: http://images03.olx.pt/ui/27/85/45/Pasta-Academica-Sao-Joao-da-Madeira_442198045_2.jpg

A Nokia Lumia 620 Windows Phone 8 smartphone to call people, send texts, add and check appointments in the calendar, check incoming mail immediately, check my task lists in OneNote while shopping and stuff and take some photos and videos (it has one heck of a camera!).

All while the three exchange data through SkyDrive and Outlook, always keeping my data safe and all-around until I decide to archive some things on my two external hard-drives back home.


For some people the Surface RT would be a better, cheaper option than the Pro, while there are other, less or more expensive, Windows tables there, either Pro, either RT, either with keyboard cover, either with a Bluetooth one.

 

[jon0844]

I think the tablet/notebook market will be changing quite a bit in the coming year or so.

Just as well, as I think we're pretty much at saturation point with smartphones (or soon will be). We've also got devices now that are way above the needs of most people - full HD screens, crazy speed CPU/GPUs, 20-41MP cameras etc.

You only need to look at how awesome the performance is on the Moto G (a phone costing just £135 SIM-free or £100 from Tesco on prepay) to see the manufacturers are now going to struggle to add new things we need. Yes, Samsung will invariably squeeze a 4K screen onto a future Note, and we'll see octo-core chipsets.. but a total waste of time for most.

But tablets and notebooks (and hybrids) are still in their relative infancy.

Getting back on topic, I do think we'll need to see Google doing something pretty major with Chromebooks. We've now got a touchscreen model, and rumours of more, but I think Chrome OS and Android will need to merge in some way. Chromebooks have been rather ignored, but not as much as Google TV - which went off in another direction with the Chromecast.

As I said, exciting times ahead to get all of this sorted out. Microsoft does appear to have the right ideas, but is - as yet - struggling to get traction on Windows Phone, Windows RT and even Windows 8 in general!

 

[asylumxl]

II like the idea of thin clients as a concept, but for me it has to be backed by something I control and understand to be able to trust it. Obviously my needs may differ from the average joe's: Someone who's just storing pictures of their cat and either isn't technologically savvy or doesn't have the time to faff around and wants something that just works out of the box may be very well suited to such devices.

Crouton. Make a chroot and run Ubuntu, Debian or ArchLinux. Click me! You surely know Linux? Since ChromeOS is based on Ubuntu/Gentoo linux it's possible to use the COS kernel to run them, and switch at will between them in real time.

Most of the OPs complaints could be fixed with a Linux distro :P.

 

[Nick W]

Maybe I'm a bit old school but I don't like tablets. I find them too big to fit in your pocket like a smartphone, but too small and lacking in a real keyboard to be useful. It fills a gap in my needs that doesn't exist.

I'm also not very trusting on the cloud, for a few reasons:

• 
  ...
• I work in an industry where data security is very important
  ...

I presume that your data and services are replicated at least across two locations, each of which having two redundant power supplies. Unless you work for a very big company, I presume this means at least one location is a commercial data centre anyway. If you have to trust them with your servers, you might as well go a step further and trust them with your data?

ps I am also "old school", avoid using tablets, and long for the day I get a mobile phone which is equally or less restricted than the computers I've been using 1993.

 

[Bevan Price]

Maybe I'm a bit old school but I don't like tablets. I find them too big to fit in your pocket like a smartphone, but too small and lacking in a real keyboard to be useful. It fills a gap in my needs that doesn't exist.

I'm also not very trusting on the cloud, for a few reasons:

• If you're not paying for a service, whats to stop the company just cutting you off or changing the T&Cs or discontinuing the service?
  

Yes - your data storage company may do a "fotopic", and unless you can do an external backup, all your data might go "walkabout" into oblivion.

 

[87 027]

The average length of a Google service, based on their historic track record, is about 4 years

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/mar/22/google-keep-services-closed

 

[jon0844]

Google is, like many companies including Samsung and Motorola (the latter in the 90s mostly), willing to invest in new ideas and technologies and see what works. I don't see a problem and clearly the big ones like Gmail won't one day be shut down.

Charles Arthur is also extremely pro Apple and has for as long as I've known him been rather critical of Google and Android, so reading his articles and expecting impartiality is much like Andrew Gilligan talking about HS2!

 

[maniacmartin]

I presume that your data and services are replicated at least across two locations, each of which having two redundant power supplies. Unless you work for a very big company, I presume this means at least one location is a commercial data centre anyway. If you have to trust them with your servers, you might as well go a step further and trust them with your data?

Yes, we have kit in commercial datacentres, but its a lot harder to have a peak at data on a server without someone noticing - they don't have any user accounts on them so would have to pull the disks or boot into single user mode or boot off some other media, which would be noticed. Contrast that to data in 'the cloud' which could just be snooped on and you'd be none the wiser.

Of course I don't need the same level of security for my personal files, but old habits die hard.