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Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

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Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#61

Post by gatlin »

saurik wrote: post #40
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Until Google deletes your account for no specific reason and refuses to give it back (this has happened to more than one person) Google can delete my Facebook account? My Office Web Apps account? How do they manage this? > Every OS ever has had this feature. It's called "Users" No other OS saves OS settings and apps in the cloud, to my knowledge. > What does this mean? That you designed it to be inefficient so you…

> Google can delete my Facebook account? My Office Web Apps account? How do they manage this? You don't use your Facebook account to log into a Chromebook.

It is probably a safe bet to assume the parent knows this.

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#62

Post by arihant »

If they sell this at $49 with a 2-year data plan contract - would rock! Two reasons:

1 - This is a brick if you don't have internet.

2 - This is a brick if you can't use it on road. People have internet at homes.

So consistent always on internet with a very low buy-in cost would probably be better, imo. I mean, this thing needs to sell as a complete experience.

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#63

Post by phillijw »

kenjackson wrote: post #36
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to login at all.

Nice. For some reason I thought you needed a Google account to use it. Now that I know you don't that's a plus. Not enough of a plus, but it's one less thing to worry about.

Wait. Then how are you settings stored in the cloud?

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#64

Post by phillijw »

dstein wrote: post #53

I think Google's strategy for ChomeOS is all wrong. Nobody wants low powered laptops without a proper OS. As soon as the iPad blew up the netbook market Google should have retargeted ChomeOS as a tablet OS. A lightweight (zero-weight) OS is perfectly suited for a tablet. I use an iPad almost exclusively for browsing the net and checking email and I bet I'm not the only one. A Chrometablet with some decent specs and m…

I don't have an iPad though. I like to have a keyboard for typing if I have the option.

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#65

Post by adamc »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #29
eggbrain wrote: post #3

When I first saw the Chromebook, I figured it would be priced around $150, so that it was a no-brainer decision (especially with it's limitations over a normal laptop). But at $349, its still $75 more than an Acer Aspire One. Make it $100-$150, and I'll buy it. As it stands though, its too much money and too little benefits.

Samsung Series 5 cost $334.32 to make.[1] Your price expectations are way off. [1] http://www.thechromesource.com/with-what-it-costs-to-make-is...

Sure, but I think the OP is right that the pricing makes it pretty unattractive given its limited benefits.

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#66

Post by samuel »

mestudent wrote: post #50
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung Series 5 cost $334.32 to make.[1] Your price expectations are way off. [1] http://www.thechromesource.com/with-what-it-costs-to-make-is...

To be honest I expect a chromebook to be priced similar or at the very least $200 for me to be competitive with a more powerful/portable netbook. His expectations aren't off, the manufacturing limitations just don't meet them.

Asus is going to sell(presumably) the eee x101 running MeeGo for 200$, with decent specs for a "net oriented" computer(1 core Atom, 1GB RAM, 8GB SSD), so aren't manufacturing limitations what drive them away from that price tag. May be Google doesn't want to be identified with the somewhat crappy experience that low end hardware may deliver, just as they don't want Android to be associated with cheap smartphones, but with the iPhone competitors.

Which would be silly because their "OS" is much more limited than Windows 7, even the Starter version, and its only compelling feature would be to run on much cheaper hardware.

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#67

Post by bane »

eggbrain wrote: post #3

When I first saw the Chromebook, I figured it would be priced around $150, so that it was a no-brainer decision (especially with it's limitations over a normal laptop). But at $349, its still $75 more than an Acer Aspire One. Make it $100-$150, and I'll buy it. As it stands though, its too much money and too little benefits.

I could see $200-250. It's basically a big netbook with most of the ports and storage removed.

Better to just buy a largish netbook (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220...) and install Chrome OS on it. (http://moreinews.com/google-chrome-os-review-notebook-tablet...)

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#68

Post by smackfu »

eggbrain wrote: post #3

When I first saw the Chromebook, I figured it would be priced around $150, so that it was a no-brainer decision (especially with it's limitations over a normal laptop). But at $349, its still $75 more than an Acer Aspire One. Make it $100-$150, and I'll buy it. As it stands though, its too much money and too little benefits.

The sacrifices needed to make it $100-$150 would result in you not buying it. Like crummy screens and slow processors.

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#69

Post by niels_olson »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #37
vnorby wrote: post #5

Don't buy one. I got the Samsung Series 5 3g Chromebook a month ago, and I definitely regret buying even at its low price point. The OS is still very unstable and not performant. The speakers are very bad (but I wouldn't watch video or listen to music anyway - YouTube/Pandora/Turntable.fm tend to crash quite a bit). The screen is not that great. The only upside is the long battery life but you're better off spending…

This post is referring to the Acer.

it won't matter. The OS is the issue, not the machine. I have a Cr-48 that has the same issues as above, in ChromeOS. In Ubuntu Classic, it's almost dreamy (the two extremely notable exceptions are having to reboot to take advantage of the 3g, which only ChromeOS can seem to start, and the trackpad, which I have no answer for.)

Re: Chromebooks on sale at Amazon for $349

#70

Post by zackattack »

Ronkdar wrote: post #13

> It just works. Can we stop saying this please? > "Your apps, documents, and settings are stored safely in the cloud." Until Google deletes your account for no specific reason and refuses to give it back (this has happened to more than one person) > Millions of apps. [citation needed] > Friends let friends login. Every OS ever has had this feature. It's called "Users" >Gets faster over time. What does this mean? Tha…

Engineers think in features

Customers think in benefits

"men are from mars women are from venus" "apples and oranges"

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