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The Chromebook Pixel

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Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#381

Post by smackfu »

rayiner wrote: post #62
robertst wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One of the things Apple avoids is $1,300 products that are conceptual beta-tests. It's blatantly obvious that "life in the cloud" isn't feasible for most people yet, not when 10 GB of Verizon LTE costs $90 here in the US, then $10/GB. But with that tiny 32GB of flash, that's clearly what the Chromebook is designed for. It's bold, but it's not going to sell. The reviews are going to rip this to shreds ("nice screen, b…

>One of the things Apple avoids is $1,300 products that are conceptual beta-tests.

How about the original Macbook Air? That was $1800 and pretty much a beta test of the good Macbook Airs that are out now (slow CPU, slow HDD, stuck with 2 GB RAM forever).

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#382

Post by aalbertson »

untothebreach wrote: post #121
raingrove wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Action.IO... Cloud9... Koding...

None of which use the $1250+ machine to actually "run or test the code you write." If you are just using a browser for coding, why pay that much money for a machine to run a browser?

One could argue that if a browser is your only environment, that you'll be spending the most time in, then why wouldn't you want the best option for running said browser? The way I see it, if you're going to be working in a completely remote/cloud capable environment, then a powerful, fast, beautiful screened machine to work from makes the most sense.

My current job gave me a Dell Latitude E series machine for work. I work exclusively in AWS. The screen on this laptop is so horrifically bad that I practically get sick looking at it. Compared to my personal (2010 era) macbook pro, or the Retina MBP's I've used at my last two jobs, there is no comparison. I'd much rather have a lightweight powerful little machine that I can ssh from and have some sort of IDE or text editor to work on my AWS projects then worry about a big bulky crappy laptop that is overkill for my work.

Obviously I realize this is MY current use case, however I'd be willing to be that the majority of dev/devops type folks on HN have a similar type of use case. AWS, Heroku, just about any PaaS, Saas, or Iaas, etc... would take advantage of a machine like this beautifully.

Oh and the last time I had an Air (right before upgrading to the rMBP), My use case? Chrome, Chrome, Terminal, RDP, Chrome. That was at a PC Game dev/publisher company where I administrated all windows based desktops, mac laptops as well as all servers of misc variety...

Sooo.....Is this machine useful? I think it is, and I am excited to check it out and may look to getting one.

One more thing, I too am one of the lucky Cr-48 owners and LOVED the concept. Biggest reason I hacked it to load ubuntu? SSH. Had the plugin existed back then? ChromeOS ALL THE WAY BABY!!!

/rant.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#383

Post by cremnob »

mbillie1 wrote: post #363
unalone wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know anybody who only bought a Mac because it was expensive. They bought it because it was worth the expense. Chrome OS is an unproven platform that doesn't have nearly the popular support of Apple's products, and it's coming from a company that's still fairly new at both software and hardware design. That's not to say this will be a bad product, but this is certainly a risky marketing strategy. I'd love it t…

Not many people in the tech industry buy Macs because they are expensive, but I'd venture that (like many other trendy products) there are a good number of people who have bought it for the status/trendiness/cost/whatever. Not that it matters really, but it's an odd claim to make that all Mac purchasers were informed consumers. Most consumers are relatively uninformed, regardless of what they're buying, and loads of…

What's odd is making the assumption that all Mac purchasers weren't informed consumers. Your attitude reeks of arrogance and superiority (which seems to be common in the tech community).

>Most consumers are relatively uninformed, regardless of what they're buying, and loads of people buy things for no other reason than that they saw a commercial on TV and can afford it.

I have a few friends that work in creative at ad agencies and they would laugh at this.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#384

Post by nakedrobot2 »

The absolute best news about this computer is that it has a 4:3 screen, as it should be. This is the first 4:3 screen I have seen in a very long time. On top of that, it is a fantastic resolution. This is great news.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#385

Post by Zenst »

Had a few friends who got invites and have one to play with for a month now.

Must say I'm somewhat feeling meh about this on many levels.

Initialy the price was a wake up and I thought, ok I'm missing something so I did a little digging and still think its too expensive for the sum of parts.

Issues I have are:

1) Price 2) Limited local storage 3) Only USB2 and no USB3 4) No 3g or 4G options in the UK and given the price I'd expect at least 3 years worth of unlimited 3G internet based up consumer prices and that spec. 5) battery life, is somewhat lacking

Concerns that may also be worries when I know more are:

1) Keyboard mic could be used to snarf passwords via applications that have access to the mic 2) No vents apparent and suspect hidden under the keyboard which is worrying in case of spill/splash 3) Screen mooted to have good viewing angles so more mindful to shoulder surfing

But in general for what you get it seems way too expensive and look forward to a teardown.

Now all that said Google did somewhat get burned on the Nexus 4 pricing and I don't know if they are over compensating or what. They may be releaseing at a silly price for those with more money to burn, then gradualy lower the price to fit all price pockets.

Another aspect a friend said was it has 1tb for 3 years cloud storage and whilst nice and with that local storage overly needed I do think such lockins to Google without being able to tap alternatives and cheaper alternatives distracting from the price. Remember Microsoft many years ago got lambasted for tieing in everybody to IE on windows as default and not offing a simple-janet-and-john alternative for the happy people. This ties in more than that, but different times.

When I factor all that it is and is not I still think if I had that money I would get a macbook air and I have never had Apple product and very much a google fan, but this is so over priced to me that it would be insane to buy one at that price, least for me.

I would also add that two wifi ipads with retina screens and a bluetooth keyboard works out cheaper and with that, it does somewhat again highlight the price factor.

So with all that I'll stick with my plans to get a Chromebook (cheap one) and probably get one even cheaper 2nd hand now :) that and my netbook with built in 3g modem and twice the battery life is still nothing to worry about.

I would like to see a resolution like this but with more storage, USB3, built in 3g modem (3G in the UK is faster than USA 4G and CDMA 4G with voice is a battery nightmare apparently as well as a kludge somewhat). Also at the very least twice that battery life.

So I will with for a tegra 4 version, which will make more sence on more levels.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#386

Post by tszming »

No one think this is a good news in fact?

People really need to thanks Google for bringing up the competition all the time. Now Apple have little reason not to add support for retina, lte, multi touch display in the coming MBA models.

On the other hand, it is a little strange that Google didn't mention the weight of the Pixel.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#387

Post by [deleted] »

neverm0re wrote: post #337
pax wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'brain-dead easy ... assemble my own personal distro' :))

* Enable developer mode.[1] * Drop Crouton[2] onto Chromebook to get a full dev stack and unfortunate Ubuntu/XFCE environment. * Set up chroot and start building other people's crap. * Write to SD Card/internal storage and reboot. Which step here is hard? Tedious to roll your own I'd give you, but you don't even need to as there's stuff like ArchLinuxARM[3] which skips the middle two steps. [1]: https://sites.google.…

[deleted]

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#388

Post by neverm0re »

neverm0re wrote: post #337
pax wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'brain-dead easy ... assemble my own personal distro' :))

* Enable developer mode.[1] * Drop Crouton[2] onto Chromebook to get a full dev stack and unfortunate Ubuntu/XFCE environment. * Set up chroot and start building other people's crap. * Write to SD Card/internal storage and reboot. Which step here is hard? Tedious to roll your own I'd give you, but you don't even need to as there's stuff like ArchLinuxARM[3] which skips the middle two steps. [1]: https://sites.google.…

Whoops, serves me right for not double-checking [2]: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#389

Post by RexRollman »

monochromatic wrote: post #361
javajosh wrote: post #58

There are only three meaningful things you can do with a computer with specs like this: development, design, or gaming. And yet ChromeOS can't do any of these things. Perhaps this is a vanity product for the wealthy. But wealthy people are going to just surf the web on an iPad. I really don't get this product.

And who wants to smear fingerprints all over his laptop screen?

This! I just can't understand why it would be desired on a laptop.

Re: The Chromebook Pixel

#390

Post by steve-howard »

watmough wrote: post #376
steve-howard wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own a Series 5 chromebook. It's hands down the worst machine I've ever owned. I really wanted to like it, too. My issue is that I tried to use it for stuff like reddit, youtube, and whatnot, and because it has no swap space it would just kill background tabs once I had more than 3 or so open. Basically it's a machine built for browsing the web, but because of the way I (and possibly others) use the web it's not use…

I have to put in a good word for the Samsung here. My wife's MacBook finally died, so she got a ChromeBook as a stop-gap, but in reality, it's really all she needs for basic surfing, Google Docs/Drive and watching CBS streaming (for stuff not on Hulu/Roku/NetFlix). It's cheap, adequately quick, easy to use and has all-day battery life, and charges up at night with the iPad and iPhone used by my toddler.

I'll grant you that if you only do one thing at a time, it works all right. I just tend to jump around a lot -- I use Tree Style Tab for Firefox just to figure out how I got somewhere -- and the Chromebook is a really bad machine for that purpose.
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