I really wish they would have provided Google TV features with the Chromebox...that would make it compelling from where I sit.
Chromebox
191–200 of 305 posts
Re: Chromebox
#192This 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…
Whilst I agree to an extent, it is still useful to have some idea what the machine is likely to be capable of.
For example, does it have enough USB to accommodate a mouse/keyboard as well as an external disk and a digital camera?
Can I plug it into my Monitor and my HDTV at the same time?
Or does it have sufficient oomph to run HD video or graphically intensive games?
At this point google will be targeting early adopters who will be more tech savvy, and also hoping that they recommend it to their family and friends.
Until we can offload close to 100% of our computing to the server, specifications for client side machines will still be relevant.
Re: Chromebox
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Ummm, I'm pretty geeky. But I haven't been following Chrome in detail, so I don't have a clue what this box is for or what it actually does. Reminded me of this: http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece...
You weren't immediately aware that this was a desktop version of the Chromebooks that you've probably heard of?
Re: Chromebox
#194It'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.
16gb SSD of hard disk spare really limits your options if you're loading up a Linux distribution. But seriously you can something with cheaper and better specs for less that $329 to run Linux.
But seriously you can something with cheaper and better specs for less that $329 to run Linux.
But as small and quiet and that can drive two 30" monitors?
I have an Eee Box running Linux; it's physically larger, only supports one monitor (as far as I can tell), and the hardware video decoder can only do 720p. (The hardware video decoding is important because the Atom cannot decode 720p H.264 in real time itself.)
Re: Chromebox
#195nice specs, I would put Debian on it and use as a portable network analyzer. I'll probably do so as soon as it's available in my country
Re: Chromebox
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, Apple shows that showing specs is not necessary: http://www.apple.com/macmini/ If specs help sell the things, by all means Google should include them. Whether they are "relevant" or not. Also note that the info that it is _not_ an Intel Atom CPU is highly relevant IMO, because the Atom is slow as molasses.
Most consumers don't even know what an Intel Atom CPU is. A large portion might have some vague brand awareness of Intel, though, so mentioning Intel is good in general. For a consumer product to succeed you can't sell it and market it to only people who know the difference between different processors. That's a very small group of people.
Intel "Core" is a brand that's got nice soft rounded-rectangles and friendly blue lettering. It's designed to appeal to consumers. They don't have to know what it is exactly, they just have to recognize it and buy it.
Re: Chromebox
#197This 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…
Lets face it the technical specs are needed because you are just going to hack this baby and turn it into a media server or something.
I wont lie, turning it into an HTPC was the first thing my mind went to.
Re: Chromebox
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly, I get to 10 tabs and it grinds to a halt. That's 10 sites with nothing more than text and a few images (hardly 5 plugins)....its seriously underpowered as is and with the new UI update its as slow as a dog on the Acer.
Being slow because it is underpowered is different to what I'm referring to - becoming slower over time because web technologies move past the capabilities of the hardware.
Well its creaking at the seams right now, I think given the progression of web technologies (even if they begin to use more hardware acceleration) it is going to become much slower over time as more intensive tasks are offloaded to the Hardware, its not an good indication at the moment that after a UI update its noticeably slower (at least for me) and a lot buggier.
Re: Chromebox
#199Looks 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…
There's no mention of storage because this box is not for storing things. It's a client device. It's supposed to show content from servers.
Re: Chromebox
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's still not good enough for me, though it is a million times better. "Go fast". The set top Androids are also pretty fast. Also, as someone said, who reboots these days? (though it's a selling point for a media player replacement) "Stream HD movies without a hitch", ok, that's a selling point, though my cheap Android phone does well enough on "good enough" quality, so I'd expect the Android set top boxes or equiva…
Why are you comparing this to Android? Also, I've never heard of an Android set-top box.
I'm comparing them because the form factor and use case look to be exactly the same (heck, the UI looks very similar too, both being made by Google).
Examples of Android set top boxes (the first one has 4 GB):
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/google-android-2-2-hdmi-tv-set-...
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/mele-1080p-android-2-3-internet...
They were featured recently by a local supermarket chain.