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Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

chrome.blogspot.com

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Re: Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

#151
post #45

It's only mentioned briefly in the blog post, but one of the biggest wins with this system (and the aspect that I absolutely love when using it internally at Google) is the simplicity of screen sharing into a meeting. Anyone who wants to present can simply join the hangout from their laptop and then share their screen. Not only does it mean you don't have to fuss with cables/adapters (which can also break/wear out),…

> Anyone who wants to present can simply join the hangout from their laptop and then share their screen

This is in line with every other solution like IBM Smartcloud or Citrix GoTo meeting, there isn't anything new or innovative about this it's just a little cheaper. Also comes with the nice vendor lock-in that it's not self-hosted so all those sensitive business conversations are going over google servers - see how that goes down at audit and also that you are required to have google apps.

Re: Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

#153

While this sounds interesting, it seems like a major branding error. Why mix "Chrome" with a meeting-room appliance? Extending the Chrome brand to a browser-UI-based OS makes sense, since your interaction with the OS is basically using the browser. But this...

It runs on a Chromebox

Re: Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

#154

Google has an internal version of this called GVC and it is hands down better than any other system I've used. The interface is easy and intuitive to use, and being able to screenshare/present is as simple as visiting a URL. No installation of anything needed on the part of attendees. Hangouts also allows widespread distribution, so for example, with the GWT team's weekly meetings, we have sometimes recorded them, or…

The live broadcasts, is that like private Hangouts on Air? I know some people who would like to do private HoAs. Currently they do them and then delete the public posts that are generated.

Re: Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

#155
post #45

It's only mentioned briefly in the blog post, but one of the biggest wins with this system (and the aspect that I absolutely love when using it internally at Google) is the simplicity of screen sharing into a meeting. Anyone who wants to present can simply join the hangout from their laptop and then share their screen. Not only does it mean you don't have to fuss with cables/adapters (which can also break/wear out),…

> Anyone who wants to present can simply join the hangout from their laptop and then share their screen This is in line with every other solution like IBM Smartcloud or Citrix GoTo meeting, there isn't anything new or innovative about this it's just a little cheaper. Also comes with the nice vendor lock-in that it's not self-hosted so all those sensitive business conversations are going over google servers - see how…

Just wait for WebRTC to take hold. If the vendor didn't need to stream all that video through their nodes, they'd happily let consumers take the bandwidth hit.

Re: Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

#156
post #45

It's only mentioned briefly in the blog post, but one of the biggest wins with this system (and the aspect that I absolutely love when using it internally at Google) is the simplicity of screen sharing into a meeting. Anyone who wants to present can simply join the hangout from their laptop and then share their screen. Not only does it mean you don't have to fuss with cables/adapters (which can also break/wear out),…

See, that sounds awesome. However, my company uses Google Hangouts exclusively for our weekly business meeting (owing to everyone being remote), but we can't afford the price tag of the Chromebox. If there was a cheaper (order of magnitude cheaper) version, we'd be interested.

This is a FAT market. Company I used to work for used a top of the line German VC vendor. €1000/hr was the rate to use those boxes. This is a steal for the enterprise market.

Re: Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully the 250 a month includes a customer support phone line or at least a chat room. Might be almost worth getting one of these just for that. Google isn't known for it's customer support.

$250 per year, not per month.

Oops, mistype. I realized that just didn't type it right. Thanks.

Re: Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

#160
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't get cable in many locations, and cable often isn't as reliable.

I remember trying to replace a T1 with Comcast Business Cable. It was faster in the office, but variable latency, dropped packets, less usable remote access (just ssh and scp) and more frequent maintenance outages killed it. IIRC, SDSL turned out to be the better answer (and we really, really wanted to try FiOS, but they didn't support our building).

Has anyone tried some kind of bonding between the T1 and cable? A reliable but slow connection and a fast but variable connection seem like they could be much cheaper than a fast and reliable connection.
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