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Googlebook

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Re: Googlebook

#151

Post by hypersoar »

I attended Google I/O in 2013 and was given a Chromebook Pixel, their $1300 laptop. The hardware was very, very nice, and I quite enjoyed using it for a while. One day, I dropped it and damaged the screen well outside of its warranty period. "Oh no," I thought. "This is probably going to be pretty expensive to fix." So, bracing for the damage, I called up Google and told them what had happened. They replied that there was no fixing it. They would replace the laptops under the warranty, but there was no repairing to be done. I was welcome to call around and ask local repair shops if they could do it. That went nowhere, of course.

I've been pretty skeptical of Google laptops ever since.

Re: Googlebook

#152

Post by xnx »

arjie wrote: post #83

I imagine they're going to do the same thing with this as with Chromebooks: i.e. do enterprise deals with schools and so on? Google's iteration-style structure where they kill products is fine for SaaS type offerings that are free and that you don't build your world around, but buying a laptop they won't support soon enough isn't that useful. Ultimately, just like with Amazon and their phone, it's obvious even prior…

> Then again, maybe the Google brand isn't toxic to the wider ecosystem of buyers.

It's a "most loved" brand according to https://rankings.newsweek.com/americas-most-loved-brands-202...

Re: Googlebook

#153

Post by OisinMoran »

mherrmann wrote: post #145
kommunicate wrote: post #90

I will never buy another google hardware product again after my most recent pixel experience. I was sent a phone with a defective modem that they refused to replace. This is despite having bought 5 other pixels and also using google fi and a bunch of other google products. I will never trust them with a hardware purchase ever again.

As another n=1, I've been happy with my Pixel phones over the years and never had such an experience.

Yeah I've been exclusively on Pixels since the 2 and love them

Re: Googlebook

#154

Post by ActorNightly »

jerojero wrote: post #14

I think if I wanted a cheap laptop I'd probably get the macbook neo, and if i wanted a non-gaming expensive one i'd get a macbook pro. I really don't see the market fit for this, I guess the android integration. But my god, I'd die of cringe if someone asked me about my laptop and I had to say "googlebook". Believe it or not, these things matter a lot, particularly if you're trying to target a young audience.

>I really don't see the market fit for this,

Why pay $500-700 for Mac Book Neo for the same low processing power experience that you can get on a Googlebook for half the price? Especially considering you can install linux on it natively.

Other then that, Gemini is the biggest advantage. Google can offer Gemini for free because its TPUs are orders of magnitude more efficient than Nvidia stuff. Even free tier Gemini is really good considering it can integrate with a bunch of your stuff like google docs, and the lower last gen models have pretty generous usage limits.

Overall, if you are in Android ecosystem, you don't really even need a cheap laptop anymore, considering things like Samsung Dex exist.

Re: Googlebook

#155

Post by satvikpendem »

whodidntante wrote: post #59
jerojero wrote: post #14

I think if I wanted a cheap laptop I'd probably get the macbook neo, and if i wanted a non-gaming expensive one i'd get a macbook pro. I really don't see the market fit for this, I guess the android integration. But my god, I'd die of cringe if someone asked me about my laptop and I had to say "googlebook". Believe it or not, these things matter a lot, particularly if you're trying to target a young audience.

Chromebook users. I loved my Pixelbook, fantastic piece of hardware. When that ended, I went with an Acer Chromebook. Works fine, just not the same. I would go for a Mac Air or Neo, but only if I could install ChromeOS. I will most likely get a Googlebook, and would be more likely to do so if it was not named Googlebook and did not have Gemini built in.

Why would you want ChromeOS and not Linux?

Re: Googlebook

#156

Post by jeffbee »

arjie wrote: post #83

I imagine they're going to do the same thing with this as with Chromebooks: i.e. do enterprise deals with schools and so on? Google's iteration-style structure where they kill products is fine for SaaS type offerings that are free and that you don't build your world around, but buying a laptop they won't support soon enough isn't that useful. Ultimately, just like with Amazon and their phone, it's obvious even prior…

I think you're underestimating Google's ability and willingness to launch and maintain multiple competing products that appear redundant. But you are overstating the lack of support for past ChromeOS devices, because for the enterprise and education markets the support timelines for Chromebooks have been the same as "forever".

Re: Googlebook

#158

Post by damjon »

hypersoar wrote: post #151

I attended Google I/O in 2013 and was given a Chromebook Pixel, their $1300 laptop. The hardware was very, very nice, and I quite enjoyed using it for a while. One day, I dropped it and damaged the screen well outside of its warranty period. "Oh no," I thought. "This is probably going to be pretty expensive to fix." So, bracing for the damage, I called up Google and told them what had happened. They replied that ther…

[flagged]

Re: Googlebook

#159

Post by jumploops »

As someone with a closet full of dead Google devices, I just can’t get excited about new hardware from them.

I think LLMs have the potential to make computers work how we’ve always envisioned them to (i.e. 60s sci-fi), but I’m also not convinced a dedicated laptop is the right form.

With that said, a 128GB RAM MacBook Pro is getting tantalizingly close to running useful local LLMs.

If the Googlebook was announced as a machine capable of running a small Gemini model locally, I’d probably enter back into the abusive relationship I have with Google hardware and preorder it…

Re: Googlebook

#160

Post by tdb7893 »

Raed667 wrote: post #70

Off topic i know but, who goes from SF to Tokyo for a 6 day "vintage shopping trip" ? Who do they think their audience is here?

Like most things in tech, it's targeted at upper middle class or rich people since they have way way more disposable income. It's a "premium Chromebook" which, as much as I like Chromebooks, seems like you would need a lot of disposable income before considering since most actually resource intensive stuff (video games, video editing, etc) you wouldn't get a Chromebook for.
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