Google unveils $279 Chrome laptop made by HP

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131008/DA9A81A83.html

By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK (AP) - Google is introducing a $279 laptop that runs its Internet-centric Chrome operating system, borrowing many of the high-end features found in models that cost $1,000 or more.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) makes the new HP Chromebook 11. Although its price is in line with most other Chrome OS notebooks, the new model sports many design features found in pricier devices, including the $1,299 Chromebook Pixel.


A dozen HP Chromebook 11's, are displayed at a Google event, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 in New York. The new $279 laptop, based on Google's Internet-centric Chrome operating system, borrows many of the high-end features found in a model that costs about $1,000 more. Speakers are tucked under the keyboard so that sound comes out toward the user, even when the laptop is used on the lap. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)


Unlike Windows and Mac laptops, Chromebooks rely heavily on continuous Internet connections to run Gmail, Google Docs and other online services. Many apps don't run directly on the device but over the Internet. The devices also have relatively little storage, as documents, photos and other files are supposed to be stored online.

Google promotes Chromebooks as affordable laptops for a wide range of people, including schoolchildren and merchants who can use Google's tools on the Internet without the extra expense and hassle of installing more sophisticated software such as Adobe's Photoshop photo-editing software or Microsoft's Office word processing and spreadsheet package. Chromebooks come with a lightweight photo editing package and Quickoffice, a Microsoft Office alternative that Google bought last year.

FULL story at link.

[RKP5637]

1. Chromebooks work extremely well and with all of the benefits of a Linux OS. n/t

[madokie]

4. Would it be possible to put Ubuntu or Mint on one of these

and run firefox

[RKP5637]

10. I've googled and have seen people discussing this. I've been in computer

R&D/IT for years and have never seen anything out of the box work as well as these chromebooks. I'm always near a wifi point so being internet-centric is OK for me. If, one were trying some other OS the caution is, local storage is minimal, they are cloud based.

[madokie]

11. Thanks

[Recursion]

2. This 20-year Linux user says go for it

It's all the advantages of Linux, in a pre-packaged box, and at a darn nice price. Well worth it.

[Berlum]

3. "All your data are belong to us." - Godgle, Inc.

?1328846304

[RC]

5. It is Cloud based. Why would anyone want to share their information on anybody's cloud?

It is much easier for the NSA and any one of other of the alphabet soup agencies to tap a cloud, than to hunt though hundreds of thousands of individual computers looking for subversive info, like maybe your Uncle Joe's Terrorist Chili recipe, or your sister's Liver and onions recipe, made in a pressure cooker.
Nope, I'll keep and be responsible for my own data, information and backups, thank you.
But it's encrypted you say? Well, some well known Clouds do not accept your pre-encrypted data. They may take it with their version of encryption in transmission, but then decrypt it for storage. Can't be making it too hard to keep us all safe now, ya know.

[onehandle]

6. A tablet with a keyboard, that doesn't run any non-tablet apps, plus spies on you...

You can get a free full fledged PC for free from 'People PC' that spies on you, and have ten times the functionality to boot.

[B Calm]

7. looks like a good Xmas present for my son.

[hobbit709]

8. Basically an oversized tablet with a keyboard and without a touchscreen

for the same price you can get a regular laptop with at least a 320 Gb hard drive, DVD-RW, 4Gb RAM and doesn't need an internet connection and the cloud to do anything..

[sammytko]

12. Yep

I had a net book for a while. I'm a small person and hated that thing. It was too small and keyboard too cramped.

I do use my iPad a lot.

[DireStrike]

9. HP? No thanks.