Google's new CR48 Chrome laptop. Kinda looks like a MacBook, doesn't it? That's Jon's handsome visage in the account pictures.
My friend Jon was in town for a nice visit, and to smugly show off his cool new Google laptop that he has, and I don’t.
The device looks like a Macbook if it were designed by a normal person instead of a masochist. It’s thin and light, feels sturdy, but has nicely radiused edges for people with oversensitive hands. It’s covered with a grippy/slidey coating similar to a ThinkPad but with already some visible wear on the corners so it isn’t as tough as that. Still, it feels good in the hands. On the bottom surface were four rubber feet.
The screen is nice and bright, with a webcam top-center. The keyboard is a direct copy of the Macbook keyboard, with a huge multi-touch trackpad in front. The battery is easily replaceable. On the left edge is a DB15 external monitor connection; on the right edge is an SD card reader slot, headphone jack, one lonesome USB port, and power adapter. The front and back edges are clean. (Links go to close-up pictures.)
Boot-up time was just a few seconds and user-account management is via Google login. It remembers wireless network passwords between accounts though; I logged into it and connected to my home network, then logged out and Jon was able to log in and connect.
Once you’re logged into the computer, all Google office functions authenticate you – documents, photos, etc. It played YouTube videos very well though that app took 30 seconds or so to “load”. The sound was strong and clear.
Jon wasn’t sure if it could connect to Active Directory shared resources. I don’t necessarily need it to join the domain – my Linux laptops are not – but it would be useful for it to open files from our servers.
The CR48 has no internal storage that you can access; it’s a cloud machine through and through. In practice (says their introductory screen sequence) this means you are safe from steamrollers. If your laptop is suddenly run over by a steamroller… no worries! Unless you were holding onto it at the time; but your data is safely elsewhere.
I did appreciate that they have finally gotten rid of the CapsLock key in favor of a great big Search key in its place. Seriously, how often do you really need the CapsLock key? But for users who simply must have one, they do have a workaround:
The CR48 has a big Search key instead of a Caps Lock key. "If you really need the Caps Lock key so you can post AN INSIGHTFUL COMMENT ON YOUTUBE..."
NOTES:
- I also applied for one but have not heard back yet. Hey Google – I work at a College Of Business! Business, baby! We influence generations of new corporate users. Send me one! I promise to test the hell out of that thing!
- Gizmodo reviews the hardware – All laptops should be like Google’s stark naked notebook
*BLUSH* I’m famous now!
Yes, so far I really like it and it works perfectly as a netbook OS minus a few quirks and design gripes I have. I plan to write another post after I do more testing on what USB devices work and how well they integrate.
The largest complaint I have now? Performance. First few weeks performance was glorious! I couldn’t slow this thing down I was amazed, even after opening 15 some tabs. But now it doesn’t take much to slow it down, whether I’m tethered to my cell phone, connected to home wifi, or friend’s wifi. I think Google needs to do some MAJOR expansion on their Cloud system for this OS, which is to be expected.
And Google, if you read this post and/or my comment, I can vouche for George! He would be your greatest asset in any kind of testing!!
Remembering WiFi authentication between user accounts is NOT a good thing, unless I’m missing something.
Thanks Webs. I’d love to get my hands on one and really make it go; the interesting part is the software and this first-look barely touches on that.
WeeDram, it pretty much has to cache network connections locally; if they were in the cloud it would have no way to connect. But if network resources are properly secured it wouldn’t get them much. And I can think of contexts in which it would be really useful, like a classroom full of students pulling them off a rack and accessing learning management systems like Sakai.
Are you saying it caches tge WPA/2 password? That’s what I take it to mean.
It must. But relax; it’s in beta and I got maybe 10 minutes to look at it including taking the pictures. So on that basis I can’t get into an extended discussion about its security model. The online request-one form I filled out listed “network security” in the list of specialties of the person requesting it, so presumably they’re sending some to people who will really pick that process apart.
There’s just one USB port? That’s not enough, I’m afraid. Not too happy about the lack of a caps lock key, either. I don’t use it for screaming on YouTube. I use it to embed HTML. It’s also becoming more useful as acronyms get longer.
I try* to remember to use the acronym tag, so I can style it in CSS and so it will be picked up as such by semantically-aware content readers. Or will be in Teh Fuuutuure, so I’m told. Of course by the time we get there the standard will change yet again.
*(Yeah realistically I remember about one time out of five)
I’d put up with one USB port and other privations; I just want to get my mitts on the cloud OS and platform to see what it can do. Our college has a mobility initiative going and I want to see how Sakai will interact with this device, test any α system to connect with Active Directory, use it with college WordPress sites, and so on.