Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Chromebook Pixel

chrome.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 507 posts

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#41

Post by dragonwriter »

pm90 wrote: post #20

What kind of apps can you run on this? Chrome OS wasn't a touch based OS as far as I recall... have they integrated touch into the OS now?

> What kind of apps can you run on this?

Well, its Chrome OS, so anything that runs on Chrome browser anywhere (including Native Client apps), plus additional apps using the Chrome OS-specific APIs.

> Chrome OS wasn't a touch based OS as far as I recall... have they integrated touch into the OS now?

Chrome browser (and, therefore, Chrome OS) has been integrating touch features for several versions. Since I don't use Chrome on touch devices (except Chrome on iOS, which is a different beast) I'm not that familiar with it, but my understanding was that the support was pretty far along by now.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#42

Post by robertst »

jbail wrote: post #14

So, it is real! It looks awesome, but at $1,299, I don't think it's priced well. That's $100 more than a 13" MacBook. I just don't see that much value in a Chromebook at this point in time.

I honestly think the high price tag is the point. Google is trying to establish itself as a major brand that isn't just offering alternatives to Apple hardware for a lower price. Think of the plans to build retail stores, and how the Android brand is given less prominence these days: they are working hard to build a consumer "Google" brand that's as strong as Apple.

So far most of the devices they sold were priced to be cheaper than Apple's counterparts. This pricing move is trying to say "we have better technology than Apple and it's worth the price", possibly in anticipation of other high-end products such as Glass.

I have no idea if it will pay off, but it's a bold move.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#43

Post by recoiledsnake »

druidsbane wrote: post #36
recoiledsnake wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An install of Windows 8 takes only 10.2GB. Add swap and hiberation files and maybe it will reach 15 to 20GB overall.

I think this is really trying to push the hardware to do something it isn't designed for. Why get this when you can get a Retina Macbook and install Windows on that for less. I believe they are available for around $1350 right now on sale. You'd get 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD and better performance/battery life. Plus you can then run Chrome on that :)

>I think this is really trying to push the hardware to do something it isn't designed for

We wouldn't be on Hacker News if we didn't try to push things to do something it wasn't designed for :)

Anyway, the Retina Macbook you talk about is missing the touchscreen part which is a big thing for Windows 8.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#44

Post by habosa »

This is pretty incredible. Not for me, but definitely a great product. I take issue only with the 32GB internal. I know it's a cloud device but it would be nice to be able to store some local videos to watch on that incredible screen. I guess that's what USB 3.0 is for, but still.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#45

Post by jjcm »

I know this is going to seem like a nitpick, but laptops without magnetic power connectors these days just feel cheap. It's such a simple addition that greatly improves the product. I don't see why larger companies aren't all converting over to them. I know apple has a patent on them, but there's tons of prior art for heaven's sake. I think the only non-apple product out there I've seen with them on it is the microsoft surface (though admittedly the surface one is pretty bad, it's still better than this style of connector).

Overall though it seems like a nice product. I'd probably be interested if I could install ubuntu on it.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#46

Post by _delirium »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #30
KevinEldon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The offer is 1 TB free for 3 years.

Whoops, still a good deal though.

Yeah, if you do use cloud storage in that vicinity, it makes the deal much better. At current prices, 500GB at Dropbox is $500/yr, and 1TB at G-Drive is $600/yr. Those will probably drop before the three years is up so you can't just multiply by three, but let's ballpark it and say it comes with at least $1k in cloud storage. Of course, that's only really worth $1k for people who were actually going to use that much cloud storage, but if you were, it makes the net cost of the device, vs. just buying the storage, quite small.

On the other hand, if you weren't going to use that much originally, but buying this machine lures you into storing everything on Google Drive, and prices don't drop a lot in the next three years, it might in the long-term be a very expensive device...

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#48

Post by ConstantineXVI »

That is one beautiful laptop (note that it's not 16:9 either). I feel like we're missing something, there's no way Google would be blind enough to build such a powerful machine (vs existing Chromebooks) that's so limited by the OS. There's either something we aren't being told or Google's jumped entirely off the deep end.

(Alternative: there's no way they could do a "Retina" Chromebook for reasonably cheap, but the Nexus 10 would seem to disprove that)

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#49

Post by sharkweek »

ok_craig wrote: post #26

I wonder if they are doing this, at least in part, because they really want a Chromebook that is high-end to display in their physical stores? Maybe having a really nice, really expensive Chromebook will make the brand not seem cheap to casual store browsers.

Interesting theory -- it especially makes the other Chromebooks seem like better deals

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#50

Post by gtr32x »

This is actually ringing a bell in me right now. For such a high end Chromebook, without the ability to feasibly add in another OS, the price tag seems far out of reach for all the current offerings online with regard to what one may achieve.

In fact, I really won't be surprised if Google has a bag of online goodies under its table right now just waiting to be unveiled alongside with the launch of the Pixel. Unless they push with this, I just don't the current market place for such an expensive Chromebook. If Google does push forward a new set of online tools/cloud offerings, it might be groundbreaking.

Post reply on HN