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

$149 Chromebooks

chrome.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 425 posts

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#171

Post by bduerst »

kelukelugames wrote: post #106
mariusmg wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The middle class can afford to pluck down a few more bucks and get a device with a real OS...

I've never had a chromebook. How bad is it? What if I just want to browse the web and watch hulu, netflix, and youtube?

They're like fairly-reliable burner laptops. They handle most of the day-to-day things you would ever need a laptop for, but don't leave you worrying that much about price if it were stolen or damaged.

Which is probably why they're so popular with schools. I no longer own one but when I did it was my go to for email and basic web stuff.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#172

Post by kps »

malenm wrote: post #96
alexsop2 wrote: post #3

I think the bigger news here is the Chromebit. A $100 device that turns any monitor into a computer? Fascinating.

I wonder how much thought they put into theft prevention if this is really intended to be used in schools - the ability to just pull this out the the USB port and walk off seems entirely too tempting in a school setting.

Organizationally-managed Chromeb.*s can be remotely disabled by the administrator.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/3523633

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#173

Post by gcb0 »

TheTaO wrote: post #168
jdietrich wrote: post #94

This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Look at the brand names. TRUE, XOLO, Nexian. Recognise them? Consumers in Thailand, India and Indonesia do - they are local smartphone brands. Look at the promo video. Notice how many Asian faces there are? This isn't about cheap Chromebooks, it's about a major strategic effort to court the global middle class. As with the Android One initiative, Google are seeking…

> This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Is it that or is it just an effort to stay relevant? If you can get a laptop/tablet that can do the same thing that this Chromebook does and has a full OS for a few bucks more, would you do it? There are tons of tablets from HP/Dell that cost 100-200$ and run full windows OS and have comparable specs to the Chromebooks. As far as I know they are selling quite well…

exactly. in the US they also launched with the mobile association. leading them to be mostly ignored by everyone.

the only time i heard about chromebooks in the wild was while walking at low income are shopping malls. the Cricket and att stores would often have a little banner on the floor advertising the "cheap kinda of a computer!"

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#174

Post by [deleted] »

CrazyCatDog wrote: post #133
dudus wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These devices are made by other companies not Google. How do they profit from advertisement. Are you implying that Google pays these companies when they sell their own devices with Google software in it?

Yes. It's no longer a secret that Google has begun to share ad-revenue with oem's. Fortunately, Microsoft is in no position to do so.

[deleted]

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#175

Post by nowey »

kakisoop wrote: post #159

I was hearing about $100 laptops from the time, I joined college. Finally, I see it happen. Every developing nation should award highest civilian honour to Sundar Pichai for making this happen. Thanks Google for making this happen.

also thank the component manufacturers for finally selling their chips super cheap!

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#176

Post by andmalc »

Animats wrote: post #165

Can you run those things as a pure Linux system, without any tie to Google? I have an application where I run a Python program that needs WiFi and a USB port, but nothing else. I'm using old EEEpc 2G Surfs now, but they're getting old.

You can in most cases but you wouldn't need to. Most people install Linux using a project called Crouton which creates a chroot running parallel to ChromeOs. The Crouton chroot can see a USB device and of course has network access.

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#177

Post by tolmasky »

dpcan wrote: post #6

Where is the $149 Windows-Based laptop with SSD, 2-4GB RAM, and moderate graphics, that can run your usual Office to Minecraft software? The Chromebook-killer from Microsoft should be here, but all I hear about are the Surfaces. Honestly, the only reason my kids don't have Chromebooks is because they don't easily run Minecraft or downloadable games. Sure they can do their school work on them, but they also like to pl…

Chromebook can now run Android apps (a few now, more as time goes on). That means soon people will be able to play their android games on them, including Minecraft pocket?

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#178

Post by vincentkriek »

nowey wrote: post #175
kakisoop wrote: post #159

I was hearing about $100 laptops from the time, I joined college. Finally, I see it happen. Every developing nation should award highest civilian honour to Sundar Pichai for making this happen. Thanks Google for making this happen.

also thank the component manufacturers for finally selling their chips super cheap!

Yeah, I think this is more because of Rockchip than because of Google. Rockchip manages to make a potent processor for very little, which is what is powering these. Google's volumes help as well but I would give more props to Rockchip

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#179

Post by tluyben2 »

kelukelugames wrote: post #106
mariusmg wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The middle class can afford to pluck down a few more bucks and get a device with a real OS...

I've never had a chromebook. How bad is it? What if I just want to browse the web and watch hulu, netflix, and youtube?

I have an ARM Samsung and I really like it; great battery life and runs Linux with Crouton. ChromeOS is fine for browing and most document writing I do. My wife wrote a few books on it in Google docs. No problem...

Re: $149 Chromebooks

#180

Post by Mikeb85 »

TheTaO wrote: post #168
jdietrich wrote: post #94

This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Look at the brand names. TRUE, XOLO, Nexian. Recognise them? Consumers in Thailand, India and Indonesia do - they are local smartphone brands. Look at the promo video. Notice how many Asian faces there are? This isn't about cheap Chromebooks, it's about a major strategic effort to court the global middle class. As with the Android One initiative, Google are seeking…

> This is a colossal, market-moving play from Google. Is it that or is it just an effort to stay relevant? If you can get a laptop/tablet that can do the same thing that this Chromebook does and has a full OS for a few bucks more, would you do it? There are tons of tablets from HP/Dell that cost 100-200$ and run full windows OS and have comparable specs to the Chromebooks. As far as I know they are selling quite well…

Chromebook sales are constantly rising.

With the eventual capability that they'll be able to run Android programs, as well as PNaCl and Emscripten borrowing from each other and getting better offering opportunity for tons of apps to be ported to the web, and then of course HTML5 and Js becoming the technology of choice for all sorts of apps, Chromebooks are the eventual future.

Maybe they're not the present, but they ARE the future.

And this is the main thing - for millions (hundreds of millions, maybe billions soon), a smartphone is their first entry to the internet. Probably an Android. When they see the Chrome logo in a laptop they can afford, and they already like the Android/Chrome ecosystem, they'll buy it, versus Windows which is associated with viruses, scams, piracy, etc...

Keep in mind Googles current business is still search. The net they're casting has nothing to do with the present, they're gunning for 7 billion people to associate them with computing, and to create the new future of computing.

Go to the third world. Yes some families have cheap PCs running pirated XP, but every kid has a cheap smartphone that they can connect to the internet with. They all have Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc...

Post reply on HN