Google Chromebook?

Discussion in 'Tech Talk' started by Ryld Baenre, Feb 22, 2013.

  1. Ryld Baenre
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    Insulting to peoples intelligence. Seems like google is trying to be the next mac. For what is essentially a glorified web browsing laptop you can spend 1/4 the price and be perfectly happy or you can spend 3/4 the price and get a pretty good ultrabook. I mean shit, my playbook has more storage than that thing, costs less, does everything it can.

    Fuck these guys.
     
  2. EniGmA1987
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    Thats because you are smarter than the average person. THe majority of Americans buy a $1300 Apple laptop to browse facebook, read email, and watch YouTube. There may be better things out there, but the masses dont know that unless it gets a lot of press and fancy commercials.
    This would have been nice had Google shipped with the rumors price of $600. I would personally like to see a cheaper version of this with the i5 swapped out to an Exynos 5 octo processor and an ABS plastic case instead of the metal. I dont really see this being able to compete with Apple laptops like Google wants.
     
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2013
  3. s o k a r
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    Apple and anyone owning an apple is an insult to intelligent life everywhere.

    Why not try to grab some of that dumbass market?
     
  4. Vangelis
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    Google also makes Chromebooks perfectly suited for web browsing and Facebooking starting at $199. This Chromebook Pixel on the other hand is pure self indulgence.
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2013
  5. Ryld Baenre
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    Fair enough. I was under the impression this was their only model hey were going to push. I still stand by my evaluation of this product though >.<
     
  6. Rbstr
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    The hardware specs really aren't absolutely terrible for the price on the cheaper one, when you factor this screen is really beyond anything else. Plus everything says this thing pretty much has the best build quality.

    The "free" terabyte of "cloud" storage is also worth about $500 a year from Amazon.
    If you think of it the other way, you're getting a pretty cool device and a rebate with a $1300, 3 year 1tb cloud contract.

    So, I've kind of changed my initial position of "that's just insane" to "Well...if you want to be 'cloud based' it's a pretty decent deal"
    Some kind of professional that doesn't require more than Google aps to get work done could be pretty well suited to this thing.

    The world is going to RISC/ARM low power, computing as a service, stream everything and incremental bandwidth charges. This is an example of the way things are going. The days of the desktop are already over. The time of the laptop is quickly coming to an end.
    People like us, who want to keep piling on performance without really shrinking form factors and resisting "appification" are an afterthought in overall computer trends.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2013
  7. Ryld Baenre
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    :( I really wouldn't trust someone else with all my data. I like it all here in arms reach!
     
  8. Rbstr
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    Yeah, the cloud is shitty for all sorts of reasons IMO. But most of those things aren't noticed by people.
     
  9. Ryld Baenre
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    I will admit that the last month google drive did save my ass and allow a group I was in to work on a powerpoint in a pinch and it is what I am using for the spreadsheet in the OC competition but that is stuff I really don't care about losing. I can just imagine people uploading photos and a server exploding wiping all their precious photos not backed up somewhere else. I wonder how much redundancy is built into these systems. It must be absurd if they are encouraging businesses and hospitals to move all their info to the "cloud".
     
  10. Rbstr
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    They are very redundant. Data loss, AFAIK, can really only happen if there's a failure while uploading, before it gets spread out to other data centers.
    It's probably the best place to keep data from being destroyed

    My problems amount to three things:
    Bandwidth - K, I want to watch this this 5+gb high-quality 1080p movie on the cloud with my national-average 10mb/s line. I don't even want to think about uploading it in the first place.
    The lovely coming synergy between streaming/cloud services and incoming ISP incremental bandwidth charges that'll rape your wallet.
    Privacy - "it's probably the best place to keep data form being destroyed"

    A 4th that has to do with cloud computing rather than storage: It's inherently high latency.
     
  11. mwhays
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    I just bought one, thank you. I got it because I have a girlfriend in doctoral school.She wanted something that would take notes, last forever on battery, surf the web, and would turn on and off in a snap.Seems like this was the perfect prescription to me. Why such negativity? It works extremely well. And, I NEVER have to worry about when Im not around to repair it. Nothing to break. Google drive, google docs. Perfect.
     
  12. EniGmA1987
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    The main issue I have with cloud storage, and this may only apply to US citizens or people who anger the US government, is that it has already been decided that anything you upload is no longer owned by you at all. This has been standard practice forever now with Facebook and such with uploading content, but is new for your own personal data stored on the cloud. The US government is allowed to seize your data without a warrant of any kind if they suspect at all that there is someone (doesnt have to be you) storing copyrighted content in the same server that you are storing your content. The fourth amendment does NOT apply to your digital data stored elsewhere besides your own personal computer. And the government is also not required to give you back any of the confiscated data, no matter if it is your business data or what. Doesnt matter in the slightest if that data is your livelihood. I will never move the business I am in to cloud based storage for our data needs, I would never give away my companies rights to its own data.

    Sorry for the massive thread hijack.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2013
  13. mwhays
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    Its a reasonable point- and a realistic concern. However, my girlfriends google drive and the files she stores are really not an issue, in my book. Privacy is definitely forfeited by using this service, but I find the convenience and support worth the trade-off for the purposes of her school studies and casual use. If this became an issue, I'd simply create my own vpn and set her up off my own server. Its just not an issue at this point.

    Back on topic. Google chromebook. Good stuff. I recommend it to anyone buying a computer they dont ever want to use themselves. Its a hand-it-to-the-wife-or-kid-for-school-or-fun usage kind of thing. The new touchscreen version will be interesting.But I dont understand why anyone would get that over my own Asus transformer with keyboard addon. The android operating system has sooo much more it can do to take advantage of the touchscreen ability. In retrospect, I'd probably replace this chromebook with another Asus Transformer TF300T and keyboard dock. Their on sale at newegg right now.