20 minutes with my Chromebook

It's a lot better than a netbook, something short of a full laptop like an MBP. The SSD makes a big difference; the main shortcoming of my CR-48 was the poor GPU integration. I think it is priced at bit high, though. The problem of the Chromebooks is that the market for them is being cannibalized by tablet devices, not least the Android ones, several of which are excellent. The Asus Eee pad comes with a rather nifty dock that provides the usual keyboard+hub functionality and has extra battery built in as well.

a more general problem that no reviewer seems to have commented on: netbooks where you browse the internet most of the time derive little from their horizontal aspect ratio, because so many web designers insist on formatting for 800-pixel widths or the like, so that your netbook has 30-40% of the screen devoted to whitespace. A vertical format is considerably more useful for anything except spreadsheet work.

That's exactly what I thought. It's like comparing a bycicle to a 600cc motorbike and complaining that the first doesn't reach enough speed.

I'm thinking of getting a Chromebook for my father, and this is a man whose only been online via a library and who has no internet connection at home (or even a TV for that matter).

The things I'm curious about are:

1) How is the 3g? Is it invisibly always connected like a mobile phone is, or is it more like a laptop where you have to connect and disconnect?

2) How is the Camera? And how easy is it to upload a photo to flickr (or Picasa if it's easier) having taking a photo? My father also doesn't have a digital camera, but is selling a camper van... I want him to be able to take a photo using the Chromebook and to be able to figure out how to upload it to somewhere useful... would this be effortless for someone not deeply familiar with computers?

3) How is the battery life? In real usage, of occasionally accessing the internet, opening and closing it, etc... how does it fare? Also... can you buy spare batteries? Especially batteries that are chargeable off a car socket? i.e. Could he charge the battery whilst driving along, and without needing the laptop to all be wired up which he might consider weird.

4) How are the prompts? So it asked for an update... but did it do that in language that even my father would not find confusing or intimidating? Are the alerts and prompts too numerous so as to dumb him down, or are they are few and far between and phrased in such clear English that anyone could really grasp them even without knowing why or how software updates happen?

5) How are the native apps such as Maps? I realise that the Chromebook is designed to be online all the time, but one of his use-cases will be searching for a place, driving to it, and then referring to the previous search to do the last bit of navigation (he's too old school even for sat-nav). So... is there caching for when signal fails? Is it adequate and useful enough to be helpful?

Basically... the Chromebook for me, is going to help get the last few people in my family and network online. In a way that even the iPad hasn't. I cannot tell you the number of times my father has walked into a computer shop intending to get online, and walked out as soon as what he regards as techno-babble starts.

The Chromebook really could be the thing that works for him... he hated the iPad (couldn't grasp modality of being in apps and not in apps, and was frustrated that things he felt should work together - apps - didn't).

So I'd love it if someone who has a Chromebook does a review either watching someone who has virtually never used a computer use one, or who sits there and really is able to consider how a new user might find one.

That or someone here in the know just answer the questions above ;)

Actually it's called "20 minutes with my ChromeBook" and I haven't seen anything that suggests a full review. But it was interesting to read through someones first impressions.

You missed the point. You can of course choose the Search Engine but not the browser. Chrome calls home frequently. As Matt Cutts outlined in one of his posts(http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-chrome-communication/)

"If you are typing a search or url in the address bar, Google Chrome will talk to the current search service to try to offer useful query/url suggestions."

And since its "only cloud" device, most of the applications you will end-up using are Google products. Mostly because other players aren't yet convinced that all applications should exist in the cloud.

As far as trusting Apple and Microsoft is concerned, I think it is about the business model. Apple and Microsoft make money by selling Products and Software. Google on the other hand makes money by collecting your data. I do not understand why people fail to understand the difference.