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Googlebook

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Re: Googlebook

#281

Post by jake-coworker »

Most comments here are about Chromebook/Googlebook hardware. But IMO the more interesting part is AI-native OS features. Unfortunately it seems like not a ton, but I think the future is in custom software created from user prompts.

Ie the other day I wanted to track my clipboard history, and I preferred to trust a locally coded & executed AI-generated clipboard history mac app over a random github project.

Now obviously trusting AI has its own concerns vs trusting people, but interested in other ways companies will reimagine interfaces with AI

Re: Googlebook

#282

Post by Havoc »

No thanks. Google is heading for a similar closed ecosystem setup as Apple.

Except given their recent behaviour I have very little trust that they won't execute that in the most user hostile fashion they can come up with.

Re: Googlebook

#283

Post by toast0 »

jeffbee wrote: post #156
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".

> 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".

ChromeOS devices fall out of support on a timeline. Google sometimes extends the timeline for some devices, and new devices have a longer timeline than in the past; maybe it's better for Education targeted devices, but the Chromebooks I've had for personal devices stopped getting updates and you're left with whatever state it is in; my first one stopped getting updates in the middle of the printing switch where cloud printing was discontinued and local printing didn't actually work.

My understanding is that Google has announced they will stop development for new ChromeOS devices and ten years after the last device is released (not purchased) support goes poof ... and I imagine support activity for the last 5 years of the last device's ten year support will be a lot less than the first 5 years.

Re: Googlebook

#284

Post by fooker »

Who thought wiggling the cursor to invoke AI is a good idea?

People do this when the system is stuck or something is not working for some reason, and this will just add extra burden when that happens.

It's such a bad idea that I can see Microsoft immediately adopting this! (Opens up three variants of copilot, one deprecated and spins without getting the API handle right.)

Re: Googlebook

#285

Post by mavamaarten »

ryukoposting wrote: post #252

What is the product here? A chromebook with a different name, and some Gemini stuff thrown on top of the UI? This really just feels like an incremental upgrade to ChromeOS, with a new name to distance it from a brand that's synonymous with "cheap crap schools give to kids."

Yeah especially the AI stuff is so... not a driving force for anyone to buy this?

For me, unless you can run LLM's and whatnot locally (which is not the case on this undisclosed low-end hardware), "AI" just means doing some API call to a web service and have it serve me some freshly made up tokens. You can do that on a potato. The fact that they happily announce something that can be done on any other cheap-ass laptop as the main selling point, means this product is nothing special at all.

Re: Googlebook

#286

Post by andriy_koval »

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 think if I wanted a cheap laptop I'd probably get the macbook neo

8GB of RAM for MacOS is a concern. ChromeOS is probably more RAM efficient..

Re: Googlebook

#287

Post by colinrand »

frevib wrote: post #266
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…

Please not the schools. We don’t need privacy-invading closed systems with built-in slot machines. We need deterministic open systems where kids’ privacy is protected. Please not schools…

I could not agree more. We need less tech in classrooms, not more.

Re: Googlebook

#288

Post by bityard »

siva7 wrote: post #277
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…

What are they trying to gain with this product? Financial incentives obviously won't be the reason as this can only be a loss leader. They have zero chance competing against Apple in the entry market after Apple introduced the neo and obviously no chance in the lucrative premium market against the Apple.

This is not an Apple competitor, this looks to me like a rebranding of Chromebook with a bunch of AI sprinkled on top. (There's very little market overlap between the Chromebook and practically any Apple product.)

My guess is that they wanted to name this Geminibook but couldn't for some ultimately uninteresting reason.

Re: Googlebook

#289

Post by Forgeties79 »

efskap wrote: post #185
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…

Looks and feels premium, but ultimately fundamentally disposable. This pattern extends to so many goods in modern life. Washing machines, microwaves, etc aren't worth the time of a local repairman. Repair is economically incompatible with its life cycle. Clothes are replaced, not stitched. And after a few washes at that. Cars, phones, etc, consist of proprietary parts all sealed up.

>Clothes are replaced, not stitched

Unlike a lot of hardware and such in our homes, this mostly just boils down to people refusing to learn and is incredibly easy to remedy. Basic stitching is not super difficult. My partner has very light knowledge of stitching, learned it mostly as a kid and never used it much, but has repaired plenty of my clothes. I'm wearing stitched jeans as we speak (pocket got caught on a hook and tore nearly off). Typically gives my regularly worn clothes an extra year or two of life.

Re: Googlebook

#290

Post by pydry »

spiralcoaster wrote: post #280

What's funny is that these days if I see a Google product that I'm even remotely interested in, I just immediately write it off because I know it's something they will kill in a very short time frame. It's just never worth the hassle of buying/using a Google product. Never.

It will also vacuum up your user data and use it to train AI models and such.
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