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Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

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Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#81

Post by Pigo »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #59
j7ake wrote: post #40

Cool dev machine but for 1200 dollars I want to be able to run Microsoft office when people send me documents without asking them to reformat and also edit and modify images with standard software when necessary. In a collaborative world it is not worth the pain to pay 1200 and not be able to work with people who do not code. Chrome books are acceptable at the 200 dollar price point (I have one that dual boots archli…

Can't new Chromebooks run Android applications? Microsoft has Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Android so it seems like the only think you might be missing out on is Access. I can't speak to the quality of the Android applications, but the iOS versions are surprisingly well done.

My couple years old Pixel runs the Play Store, and most apps are compatible. You run into some apps that don't support every tablets and larger devices, but the big players know what they're doing.

Honestly though, once I bought the thing and tried out Google Docs, I haven't bothered to see if Office works on it. It reads and saves to .docx, and it's nice not having to send or store documents, I just share them.

Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#82

Post by yohui »

shasheene wrote: post #31

I've been using the Samsung Chromebook Plus (ARM chip) laptop/tablet hybrid the past 4 months and it's one of the best devices I've ever owned. Very cheap and has high build quality (great screen and aluminium body). The 4 years prior I used the first ARM Samsung Series 3 Chromebook (much lower build quality, but it was great before it died). I currently use tablet mode for 2-3 hour session for portrait reading (Wiki…

> 3. Two finger touchpad scroll doesn't work on Android apps for scrolling -- painful as heck when Wikipedia links open in the Android app in laptop mode

I think that's a bug with the Wikipedia app. Touchpad scrolling seems to work in most Android apps. The Firefox app also had this bug, but they fixed it.

Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#84

Post by amdavidson »

mattmanser wrote: post #74
refulgentis wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pixel sold incredibly well and far beyond expectations, it was sold out for months.

Looking into it a bit more, it does seem to be completely dependant on who you read. Depending on who you read, the 1-2 million speculated to have sold is good or bad.

It's not dependent on who you read. Selling single digit millions of phones is not impressive.

Apple sells 80M iPhones in a quarter. Samsung is estimating 20M per quarter for the S8.

The Pixel is insignificant in the larger market.

Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#85

Post by Pigo »

nickjj wrote: post #73

I think I'll stick with my Toshiba Chromebook CB35. - It runs native Linux - Works awesome for every day web development - 1080p IPS display - $350 bucks total If anyone wants to see how to set that up (it requires installing GalliumOS which is a native Linux OS for Chromebooks) and read a full review it's over at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromeboo... .

I bought a Pixel a few years back, knowing full well that it was a luxury expense compared to the other Chromebooks out there (and yet still cheaper than what I'd spend on just about anything else out there). One of the coolest parts was getting so much free drive storage with it, but now that seems to be something you get with a lot of Google products. I always have a Windows machine from work, but VS Code runs on both machines.

I have to say I still use my Pixel everyday and it's held up very well, I can still open it with one finger, it's as fast as the day I got it even after updates, and I use it with anything after I got a USB-C docking station from Plugable (and learned how to run Linux with Crouton). Before I got the docking station I didn't even realize USB-C actually does network connections too. I also learned how much i don't really care for touch screens, they either get dirty really easy or I'm a lot greasier of a person that I ever realized.

Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#86

Post by sumitgt »

jordanthoms wrote: post #55
shasheene wrote: post #31

I've been using the Samsung Chromebook Plus (ARM chip) laptop/tablet hybrid the past 4 months and it's one of the best devices I've ever owned. Very cheap and has high build quality (great screen and aluminium body). The 4 years prior I used the first ARM Samsung Series 3 Chromebook (much lower build quality, but it was great before it died). I currently use tablet mode for 2-3 hour session for portrait reading (Wiki…

I don't usually plug on here but Kami ( web.kamihq.com ) lets you markup PDF documents on chromebooks, everything is kept as PDF annotations so they can be modified later. Stylus drawing on the Chromebook Plus works, though there's still some improvements I want to make to that - I have one as well and it's a great device, definitely my favorite out of the dozens of chromebooks we have at the office! (I'm a founder @…

I want to use Kami, but I am worried by the fact that it asks for permission to your entire Google Drive.

Why doesn't Kami use the "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file permission" scope that gives only access to files created or opened with the app?

Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#87

Post by gangstead »

camus2 wrote: post #50

To people tempted by the Pixelbook, why not by a Macbook for that price? instead of getting a machine which OS basically amounts to a browser forcing you into google cloud services? You're basically paying a premium to get data-mined... And MacOS runs Chrome so I don't see the big deal here.

That's what I'm thinking. I've bought 2 Chromebooks, most recently I bought a 2013 Chromebook Pixel new-in-box in 2017. I don't know where it sat all those years but for $300 it was an amazing deal and I've come to appreciate the amazing build quality. When I first heard rumors of a new Chromebook Pixel the rumored price was $799. At that price it'd still be the top-of-line for Chromebooks - the nearest "premium" one would be a Samsung Chromebook Plus for $499 and my first was a $249 Asus Flip. But at $799 I wouldn't also have to consider whether I'd be better off getting a Macbook.

I guess what I can infer from that is there is no way to make a premium build (strong metal body and hinges, keyboard that feels nice, good screen) for a lower price even with an OS that allows you to skimp on more of the internals (slower processor, less ram, less storage).

Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#88

Post by colemickens »

donquichotte wrote: post #76
toast0 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you install a new bios? If you're only ever going to run Linux, it's probably better not to run the stock bios in legacy mode. Standard bios booting roms are here https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware/rom-download... or if you want to futz with UEFI, https://mrchromebox.tech

This is great news, I didn't know there were BIOS updates available for the C720P! I'm not going to use UEFI if it's avoidable.

> I'm not going to use UEFI if it's avoidable.

... why? normalizing hardware quirks, better HW support from Linux, direct Linux kernel boot support, a sane, documented way for OSes to interact with the boot manager... there are a lot of good reasons to use UEFI and I've yet to hear a compelling reason not to.

Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#89

Post by GrinningFool »

mattmanser wrote: post #74
refulgentis wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pixel sold incredibly well and far beyond expectations, it was sold out for months.

Looking into it a bit more, it does seem to be completely dependant on who you read. Depending on who you read, the 1-2 million speculated to have sold is good or bad.

Yeah, the goodness or badness of those numbers really depends on what Google's intent is in selling them directly. Is it really trying to get into the business of selling phones for profit? If that's the primary goal, then 1-2mm is pretty 'meh' in terms of making a dent in the global high end phone market.

Without knowing what their intent is, the goodness or badness of it can only be speculation. Which won't stop people from stating either position as fact.

Re: Google Pixelbook Is Google’s New Chromebook

#90

Post by leggomylibro »

patwolf wrote: post #4

As someone who has attempted to use the original Chromebook Pixel as a development machine, I'm glad to see they've added more storage options. The original Pixel had 32GB of storage, and this one offers 512GB. For those unfamiliar with ChromeOS, it allows you to run Linux application using Crouton/chroot, so it really has a lot of potential as a Linux dev machine. However, I ultimately ran out of storage space, and…

This is actually a good reason to go with a 3rd-party manufacturer. Almost all non-Google Chromebooks include microSD card slots, so you can get another 128GB of persistently-mounted executable flash for large builds and similar.

Google does not want you to use microSD cards. Google wants you to use Google Drive.

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