Chromebox

#1

Post by zoowar » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:01 AM UTC

Re: Chromebox

#2

Post by Groxx » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:38 AM UTC

Interesting. Too bad the 'specifications' tab is so anaemic - I'm curious how this stacks up against e.g. a Mac mini, or other mini computers.

edit: Amazon has a lot more info: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-XE300M22-A01US-Series-3-Chrome...

edit the second: it seems pretty competitive with a Mac mini, actually. 1.9ghz Celeron instead of 2.3 i5, same RAM, and same graphics card. The 16gb SSD vs 500gb HDD might make the Chromebox feel snappier, though. And at $329 vs $599, it's quite a bit cheaper.

Re: Chromebox

#3

Post by wamatt » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:43 AM UTC

Hope this works for Google, but my suspicion is consumer segment will be tough for them.

Iterative design methods ("lets release and see what happens") in consumer hardware, may not be as suited as the Apple method viz. highly designed, integrated (aka ecosystem) and engineered approach.

Re: Chromebox

#4

Post by tbundy » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:43 AM UTC

Looks fun, but $329 isn't throw-away money. Given that I don't need another computer, the price just isn't cheap enough to say "yeh, why not:.

Re: Chromebox

#5

Post by markessien » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:45 AM UTC

Try answering the question "What does it do?" by reading the copy on the website. Almost impossible. The questions I wanted to know were: Will VLC run on this? Can I download stuff and put on a hard drive? The website does not seem to indicate this.

Re: Chromebox

#6

Post by robin_reala » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:46 AM UTC

I’d assumed Displayport had died off in favour of mini-Displayport. Is this common any more?

Re: Chromebox

#7

Post by llgrrl_ » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:47 AM UTC

It'll be a very capable PC or thin client if that's at all possible.

I wonder how feasible it is to put a Linux distribution here and get it working. I know it is possible with the Chromebook, and if it's gonna work for the Chromebox, then shut up and take my money.

Re: Chromebox

#8

Post by Groxx » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:48 AM UTC

markessien wrote: post #5

Try answering the question "What does it do?" by reading the copy on the website. Almost impossible. The questions I wanted to know were: Will VLC run on this? Can I download stuff and put on a hard drive? The website does not seem to indicate this.

I'd guess everything the Chromebooks can do. Which essentially means: run Chrome. They're meant to be (rather exclusively) always-connected devices, and not for heavy offline use. And you can run VLC if/when they target NaCl.

That said, I don't have a Chromebook, and haven't watched the changes for a while. Anyone have a link or something handy for what they're up to lately?

Re: Chromebox

#9

Post by ksat » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:48 AM UTC

I think it's a good choice in india. We have customers who bought our software but first they need a computer to use it. $329 is not cheap but there's the 'google' brand to it, so to customers 'we are not recommending something bad'. Wonder how much will it cost in india though.

Re: Chromebox

#10

Post by recoiledsnake » Thu, May 31, 2012, 7:49 AM UTC

Hope it does better than the dismal sales of Chromebooks last year.

The consumer space between cheap laptops/netbooks and an iPad is vanishingly small.