Chromebox • Hacker News Board

Re: Chromebox

#101

Post by Angostura » Thu, May 31, 2012, 9:48 AM UTC

webignition wrote: post #78

i386 wrote: post #73

This is a terrible page and the product manager of this thing should be ashamed. The inmates are truly running the asylum. The technical specs are completely irrelevant to the interests of the majority of consumers. This page needs to show what this is capable of without the foreknowledge of what Chrome OS is or is capable of or what Googles other offerings are. Sell me a story! Tell me why my life is going to be bet…

The Chromebox is a fast, compact home or office device. The first sentence describes this as a device not a computer . This seems like a poor choice, as is that the page mentions the word 'computer' not once.

And "device" without context is as appalling word without context. When I was an editor I always banned it without context, telling the writers "Would you use the word 'thingy'? Because that's what you've just called it."

Re: Chromebox

#102

Post by mda » Thu, May 31, 2012, 9:50 AM UTC

cooldeal wrote: post #74

CrazedGeek wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge_%28microarchitectu... Although I did forget about the Xeons.

That reference(even if Wikipedia) seems to imply that the first Sandy Bridge processors released were the Core processors, not that all Sandy Bridge silicon will be or is branded Core. Are there any cases of laptops or PCs with Celeron processors being referred to as having Core processors?

See my post for specs: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4046998

Re: Chromebox

#103

Post by jeffool » Thu, May 31, 2012, 10:02 AM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #86

i386 wrote: post #73

This is a terrible page and the product manager of this thing should be ashamed. The inmates are truly running the asylum. The technical specs are completely irrelevant to the interests of the majority of consumers. This page needs to show what this is capable of without the foreknowledge of what Chrome OS is or is capable of or what Googles other offerings are. Sell me a story! Tell me why my life is going to be bet…

It's still early (in the life of this device). Early adopters will be techies. It's OK to be geeky at this stage. They can dumb-it-down later.

But the complaint (and a legit one I feel) is that this page is the opposite. This page has very little information that techies want (as seen by all the complaining here.)

Re: Chromebox

#104

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Thu, May 31, 2012, 10:02 AM UTC

jeffool wrote: post #91

cooldeal wrote: post #29

Looks like there's major spin on this on that page. Whats a Intel Core(TM) processor? Dig deeper and it's an anemic Celeron, not a Core i3 or i5 or i7 as the name implies. Why is there no mention of storage AT ALL? Because it's a 16GB(!) SSD. The Amazon page says "No Blue Screens"? What happens to ChromeOS if RAM gets corrupt? It doesn't crash and magically keeps running? Most BSoDs nowadays are due to hardware issue…

>Looks like there's major spin on this on that page. To be fair, it is Google's page. I don't expect anyone trying to sell me anything to tell me the negatives unless they're legally obligated to do so.

It's bit like complaining that Samsung doesn't tell you about their phones having poor battery life on their website.

Re: Chromebox

#105

Post by jasomill » Thu, May 31, 2012, 10:05 AM UTC

Given the 16GB SSD, clearly Google assumes users will be storing most everything online. First question I'd have as a consumer, then, is, does it include some "cloud" equivalent of a Mac mini's Time Machine? Specifically, if my Google account is hacked and the attacker deletes all my music, photos, documents, email, etc., can I recover them?

If not, saving a couple hundred bucks plus the cost of a USB backup drive seems short-sighted at best.

Re: Chromebox

#106

Post by SandB0x » Thu, May 31, 2012, 10:10 AM UTC

What a travesty of a launch.

What can it actually do? Stop telling me about "multiple USB ports and multiple display options". Should I get one instead of an iPad or a new laptop? Is it a new name for a Google TV device?

"Place it anywhere" ? As opposed to what?

Buy now? OK I'm in the United Kingdom, that's lucky. Let me buy it from...PC World? This leads to a page with a screenshot of a netbook/Chromebook and a Chromebox somewhere in the background. The word "Chromebox" doesn't even appear on the page.

Re: Chromebox

#107

Post by 89a » Thu, May 31, 2012, 10:13 AM UTC

Funny how many USB ports it has when it's capabilities are limited to a web browser. What on earth would you be plugging in to them.

Re: Chromebox

#108

Post by 89a » Thu, May 31, 2012, 10:15 AM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #2

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 th…

> I'm curious how this stacks up against e.g. a Mac mini

Easy… one of them is a full computer and one of them is a web browser with 6 USB ports and 16 gig of storage

Re: Chromebox

#109

Post by g-garron » Thu, May 31, 2012, 10:16 AM UTC

I prefer to add 270 dollars and get a Mac Mini, that may even run as a server If I want to. (I can even install Chrome on it). There is maybe a market for Chromebox, but for sure we are not that market. :)

Re: Chromebox

#110

Post by 89a » Thu, May 31, 2012, 10:17 AM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #47

wavephorm wrote: post #19

Raspberry Pi makes products like this completely obsolete. I see nothing here worth paying an order of magnitude more money for. Google seems to have a really bad habit lately of building products that nobody wants.

Not _quite_ true. At the very least - theres _lot_ more RAM on board the Chrome Box, theres a "16G hard drive" (presumably ssd/flash?), there 6 usb ports, there's a power supply built in, bluetooth onboard, and there's a nice (enough) case wrapping it all up. For _some_ people that's not worth ~$280, but there's not very many "general public" who're planning on plugging a RaspberryPi into their TV as part of their ho…

What would you plug into 6 USB ports when the "computer" only has a web browser?