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Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

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Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#131

Post by euyyn »

jimjimjim wrote: post #127
AckSyn wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the design of the CAD software were designed around the usage of a touch screen, and I don't think one would have to be constrained to require its use. I'm not saying they'd have to use the on-screen keyboard but build the interface to work well with a touch screen using what's already established in most programs (pinch, twist, tap and drag an item off a pallet or adjust its size etc).

I've spent a bit of time working on an imaging application (not CAD but building plans) and whenever desktops vs tablets comes up everybody eventually realizes just how huge their fingers are and the meeting moves on to another topic.

I thought the iPad had pens like the Surface?

Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#133

Post by userbinator »

spot wrote: post #107

from the post: > Schools in the US are now buying more Chromebooks than all other devices combined -- and in Q1 of this year, Chromebooks topped Macs in overall shipments to become the #2 most popular PC operating system in the US*. that's pretty amazing actually. congrats to google & the chromebook team!

I hate to be the contrarian one in a thread full of Google fans, but I'd consider this trend of schools flocking to locked-down and largely cloud-dependent computing devices to be pretty freaking scary. Start them young, get them accustomed to and comfortable with the idea of some huge company having great knowledge of and control over their online lives... it's a great business plan, but one that I would certainly object to my kids participating in.

Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#134

Post by jimmcslim »

skuunk1 wrote: post #116
jimmcslim wrote: post #109

Why are Chromebooks such a US phenomenon... Here in Australia retail availability is pretty dire. I wonder if this development might see that start to change?

You can get them on Kogan.com.au

Only the mediocre ones it seems.

Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#135

Post by sotojuan »

userbinator wrote: post #133
spot wrote: post #107

from the post: > Schools in the US are now buying more Chromebooks than all other devices combined -- and in Q1 of this year, Chromebooks topped Macs in overall shipments to become the #2 most popular PC operating system in the US*. that's pretty amazing actually. congrats to google & the chromebook team!

I hate to be the contrarian one in a thread full of Google fans, but I'd consider this trend of schools flocking to locked-down and largely cloud-dependent computing devices to be pretty freaking scary . Start them young, get them accustomed to and comfortable with the idea of some huge company having great knowledge of and control over their online lives... it's a great business plan, but one that I would certainly…

To be fair most of these schools probably already have iPads anyway. My mom's school gave out iPads and MacBooks to teachers and classrooms like crazy.

Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#136

Post by userbinator »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #88
jimjimjim wrote: post #55

year of the linux desktop?

Well it already dominates everything else. I realized every aspect of programming had me interfacing with a Linux system in some way and then decided to just make the switch. I was already using Android, RasPi, IoT devices, linux web servers, linux containers, linux in a VM on Windows, and I'd probably be trying to use "bash on windows" now if I still used Windows. I finally realized that Windows was just getting in…

It's ironic that, despite its intrinsic openness, the biggest users of Linux are in the most closed ecosystems like smartphones/tablets, Chromebooks, various proprietary IoT devices, etc. where being open-source essentially means very little to the ease of users modifying, recompiling, and tweaking the software on them.

Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#137

Post by VikingCoder »

NetStrikeForce wrote: post #75
kakarotoismygod wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having offline apps is game changing because not everyone has access to the Internet all day long, and doing tasks like image and video editing on your laptop will be much easier and faster than using web services.

So, like having a Mac or Windows laptop, but restricted to either webapps or walled garden. This is not game changer. It is exciting and might help grow the Android ecosystem. I just hope Google learned from the Honeycomb fiasco.

You can side-load Android Apps on Android.

I'd be pretty surprised if you won't be able to side-load Android apps on ChromeOS.

Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#138

Post by Adaptive »

userbinator wrote: post #133
spot wrote: post #107

from the post: > Schools in the US are now buying more Chromebooks than all other devices combined -- and in Q1 of this year, Chromebooks topped Macs in overall shipments to become the #2 most popular PC operating system in the US*. that's pretty amazing actually. congrats to google & the chromebook team!

I hate to be the contrarian one in a thread full of Google fans, but I'd consider this trend of schools flocking to locked-down and largely cloud-dependent computing devices to be pretty freaking scary . Start them young, get them accustomed to and comfortable with the idea of some huge company having great knowledge of and control over their online lives... it's a great business plan, but one that I would certainly…

I understand this concern. I've helped deploy chromebooks and linux based laptops and pcs at my daughters school. I am pro open source and would love to see lots of digging into understanding the systems. However I am also in favor of chromebooks. Here's why:

The alternative to chromebooks isn't a glorious world of non-locked down non-cloud dependent machines. It's a world of poorly managed, crappy windows boxes. A world where students pass around USB keys. A world that is at least as locked down as a chromebook but much less secure and in many ways less flexible.

Chromebooks, as locked down and hermetically sealed as they are as an ecosystem, are great for one simple reason: they free up time and resources. I'd rather see a fleet of chromebooks that are dead simple to manage and deploy and then take all that extra time and money and spend it on equipment a linux or osx or whatever based lab full of machines students can hack on and learn to code on and hook up to actuators or whatever they want to do.

90% of computer management in a school is dealing with day to day "can't print / how to load a document / etc". I've seen this completely evaporate at my daughter's school after rolling out chromebooks. It's amazing.

So bring on chromebooks as locked down, easy to manage dedicated "get homework done" devices and free up time and money (because man are they cheap) to teach programming and hardware and everything else in a real computer lab.

Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#139

Post by jalami »

spot wrote: post #107

from the post: > Schools in the US are now buying more Chromebooks than all other devices combined -- and in Q1 of this year, Chromebooks topped Macs in overall shipments to become the #2 most popular PC operating system in the US*. that's pretty amazing actually. congrats to google & the chromebook team!

Congrats on the adoption, although I still don't think it's moving our public institutions in the right direction. It's really just moving a lot more kids into a walled garden. I know Google has been in hot water for collecting student data recently and has since taken steps to fix it. That's their primary business model though. "Anonymizing" promises always follow and then it's a trust game again.

I can see a future where a mandatory Google account follows you up the grades. Educational software is released exclusively in Google's Play store. Assignments and homework are handed in with Google Drive and Google Docs.

Sure this is great for Google, but I think our public institutions suffer from such a third-party centrality. I remember at school, it was annoying having to pay for a semester long subscription to whatever the professor decided was a good cms for the class, but at least the costs were explicit and there wasn't a monopoly player in the field that everyone had to use. IMHO, Google is more interested in getting people into the garden than it is in selling hardware or fostering education.

Re: Play Store and Android Apps Coming to Chromebooks

#140

Post by proyb2 »

kakarotoismygod wrote: post #72
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What game is this changing, really?

Having offline apps is game changing because not everyone has access to the Internet all day long, and doing tasks like image and video editing on your laptop will be much easier and faster than using web services.

If it's get too affordable with a low-end hardware, most users will still opt for LAN cafe which is popular in China and some countries and is cheapest option for gaming and surfing Internet.

The cheapest notebook is about US$200.

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