Chromebook vs iPad: Fun

This is the third section of my comparison between the Cr-48 Chromebook and the iPad. This section refers to how the two devices compare in terms of fun and games and other non-productivity pursuits for me.

A screenshot of a game of UniWar, a turn-based Strategy game on the iPad

Internet vs Apps

I think the paradigm of “Internet vs Apps” comes back to the forefront in this section just as much as it did in my previous post about productivity. The iOS platform’s impressive array of self-contained apps really competes against the Chromebook’s web apps and websites and absolutely wins in this area. The ability to play any of the thousands of games available for iOS really gives the iPad the crown in terms of games. Above is a screenshot taken from a game of UniWar HD, one of hundreds of great games for the iPad. This doesn’t meant there aren't good games available for the Chrome OS platform, there certainly are many Flash-based games available through the browser and several great games on the Chrome Web Store like Bastion, there just aren’t as many games with the quality of the offerings from the iOS App Store. With the introduction of the Chromebook Pixel by Google themselves, hopefully developers will begin to develop great games that will use both touch and keyboard for the platform and introduce them into the Chrome Web Store.

On the other hand, there are several webapps that are absolutely brilliant on the Cr-48 even if they weren't specifically designed for it, including the Spotify app and Tweetdeck that aren’t available in quite the same way in the App system on the iPad. Being able to have tabs open in a browser with the different webapps open at the same time is something the iPad still can’t quite compete with.

Form-factor

The thorny issue of form-factor rears its head again in this comparison. The touch-centric interface of the iPad gives it a massive lead in games and other apps rather than having to use the trackpad and keyboard of the Chromebook. This is often a hindrance when it comes to getting stuff done in the productivity arena, however when it comes to games on the App Store, the touch interface is what is now expected and when it has a good layout, praised. The Chromebook is not able to win this simply through form factor for me as it might be able to in productivity.

Steve Jobs, when he first introduced the iPad in 2010 said that holding the first iPad and watching video on it is an incredible experience and I’m still inclined to agree with him over three years later. There is something to be said for holding and physically interacting with the screen with a game or an app, rather than through a different medium like the keyboard and mouse or a trackpad. Using the video app on the iPad and holding the device is still amazing when watching a great video, as well as playing a gripping game. It is even easier to be ‘drawn into’ it than when the screen is further away, even if the iPad1 that I have is heavier and bulkier than the current generations.

When it comes to the Cr-48, watching a video just isn’t as simple as on the iPad. 480p and above stutter and slow down on the Chromebook, where they are absolutely rock solid on even the first generation iPad. This seems to be a problem with both streaming and local .mp4 files on the Cr-48 and even David Pierce on the Verge mentioned poor local video performance in his review of the Chromebook Pixel, suggesting it is something systemic to Chrome OS. It really detracts from the device as a whole even if the audio and video do catch up with each other couple minutes into the video.

Summing Up

Nevertheless, it certainly isn’t doom and gloom for the Cr-48, it just hasn’t been able to age as gracefully as the iPad. This isn't surprising, especially considering it was never meant to be used by the public and was never put on sale. Of the few games that are available for Chrome Web Store, the Cr-48 simply doesn’t have the graphical power to run them well enough to be usable. The first generation iPad on the other hand, even though it was released about 9 months earlier and has stopped receiving updates from Apple is capable of playing most of the games available on the App Store and should be able to for a while yet. The Cr-48 is still great at performing the vast majority of web-based activities, as long as that doesn’t include anything too graphically intensive like high quality videos on Youtube or Vimeo or saved onto the device itself. For me the iPad is the clear winner when it comes to fun and games, and that is without any reference to the convenience of iBooks, iTunes for its simple syncing. The old iPad is definitely the best secondary machine for fun for me!

iPad or Chromebook?

Part 1

This has been on the cards for a long time, and actually is something I should really have written before the Cr-48/ M11X comparisons. Considering that the Chromebook starts at £199 and the iPad starts at £269, they are far more likely to be compared by consumers, than a Chromebook and a gaming laptop!

This is going to be a strange sort of comparison given that I have the original iPad and the original Chromebook, both released in 2010. This means that neither of these devices are tip top especially in terms of hardware. There have been four newer 9.7" iPads and even a 7.9" iPad that are more powerful than this one. They also have the ability to run iOS 6, giving them access to newer software. The Cr-48 was never commercially available, but has had three different releases of Chrome OS machines coming after it, yet it is still able to run the latest version of the Chrome OS.

While neither of these machines is the best or the brightest, they still allow me to compare their everyday use as coffee table computers, machines you could easily take to the coffeshop or the library. These are uses that I regularly use the Chromebook for, and have previously used the iPad for. The 'productive' ones include adding to this blog, taking notes for university work and writing a story for Nanowrimo, and the 'less productive' include checking social media and watching videos. I will talk about the positives and negatives of using each machine, and how they compare how good they are at being productive and being unproductive!

By the way, this post was titled in Google Docs on the Chromebook, the written in the Drive app on the iPad, and posted using the Blogger app. The photo was taken on my iPhone 3GS, synced via Dropbox and added in the Blogger app as well. Let's see how it turns out!

Another Tale of Two Laptops

My M11X on top the Incase laptop case I currently use with it. Note the non-reflective matte screen. Great for bright days!

This is the second part of my two-part comparison of the Alienware M11X and the Google Cr-48. In this post I talk about the best and worst parts of the Cr-48 and how they compare to the M11X. If you have read the first part, you might already guess what is in here; check and find out!

Best of the Cr-48

Simplicity

The Cr-48 and the Chrome OS makes using a computer very simple as apart from a rudimentary file manager and basic media player, everything is done in the browser by webapps. I love the shortcut function keys and the simple matte exterior which match the Chrome OS. The computer does not require, or allow any complex activities to take place on the machine. From a user’s perspective, that makes the Cr-48 and all Chromebooks very straight-forward, easy to use machines that enable you to get stuff done, all of Google's products and services make this easy, from their Drive app and the laptops online and offline storage, to the different applications which enable online/ offline and collaborative use. All of them work very well together, and have meant I haven't needed to look at Microsoft Office since September.

Speed

It’s great knowing that when I open the laptop up it is either waking from sleep or booting up immediately and takes less than half a minute and turning off the machine takes less than 5 seconds. Opening an app takes less than two seconds with the internet speed often the only bottle-neck on performance. The simplicity of the OS and the SSD makes this possible, something that definitely cannot be said for Windows 7, or even Windows 8 with Microsoft’s attempts to improve speed and lightness in the OS, and it would definitely take an expensive hardware upgrade. Both machines do similar things but go about them in different ways. Chrome OS goes for speed and that works for me.

Hardware Decisions

I see what Google did when they designed the Cr-48. It only has one USB port, doesn’t have an ethernet port and has only 16GB of onboard storage. This is a bare bones work machine built with those constantly online in mind and build down to a budget. Even so, it means I was able to pick up a great work machine for very little money. It is a minimalist’s dream when it comes to work and I am a big fan. While the M11X would eat it for breakfast in almost all specs, when it comes to getting words on the page, it is a great little machine with access to Google Docs and a great keyboard. For the price it was an absolute steal! I cannot necessarily say the same about all of the Chromebooks, which vary greatly from the current Acer C7 when compared to the newly announced, large HP Pavilion 14. I still think the Cr-48 is Google’s idea of what a Chromebook should be, much like their Nexus line of Android products. After using the Cr-48, I'd love to buy a Nexus Chromebook if Google supervised the design and manufacturing process, but then even if they released the Cr-48 with updated internals, I would be happy!

Worst of the Cr-48

The Trackpad

The trackpad is an attempt to match those of Apple’s Macbook line. It doesn’t quite manage it, and so clicking and dragging is a real chore sometimes. The same is true with the two finger scrolling. It just doesn’t meet what I came to expect from an Apple machine, even a first generation MacBook from 2006, the Alienware machine is a worse trackpad, but comes with consistency. On the other hand, the Cr-48 sometimes works one way, and sometimes another, that makes it more annoying than the M11X. I have yet to test out the newer Chromebook models, but I would imagine they would have this sorted by now!

The Little Things

There are a few other annoyances I have with the Cr-48 that detract from it slightly. Not something that makes it awful, but they could definitely be changed in the settings very easily by Google and improve the overall experience.


Firstly, when watching a video full screen, the cursor stays on-screen. I hate that I have to see that throughout my film. There should be a way for it to fade out, just like most other OS I have ever used.

Secondly, when waking from sleep, if there is an SD card in the machine it will automatically minimise whatever you are doing and go to the SD Card contents and ask you what you want to do with them. I would love to click a checkbox to stop it doing that when awaking from sleep and just do it when popped into the active machine. It would just allow me to be lazy and leave it in the device.


Thirdly, while there are several benefits for the Atom processor, the drawbacks include an average ability to watch videos of higher quality than 480p. While it can play 720p video, it generally needs to be completely buffered for it to go ok, and even then the video can slow and stutter somewhat. Perhaps it is too much for the processor, or too much for Flash on the machine. I’ll have to do a few more tests to find out. Either way, it is likely to be no problem for the newer Chromebooks with their faster processors.

Definite Secondary Computer

This machine is a definite secondary computer for most people who use computers for more than browsing the internet and sending emails and I would include myself among them. A Chromebook still isn’t supposed to be more than that, and it is able to do more and more things, but it is not a fully-fledged desktop OS yet. This means that it has to remain a secondary machine for me, just like my iPad. Hmm, now there’s an idea... I could not possibly sell my other computers and do everything I want or need on the Cr-48, whereas the M11X could perform almost everything I would need my sole computer to do straight out of the box, and with a few extras, could do it well.

Conclusion

I guess this comparison comes down to what kind of laptop you need, or want to use. One is built around specs and power, and the other is a pared-down work machine. The power is expensive and the work machine is cheaper, but they both have a different ethos and a different raison d’etre. If I didn’t have my iMac, I would definitely be keeping the M11X, or selling it and buying an iMac! However, as I already have a decent desktop machine, I do not need a powerful laptop to perform double duty as a portable workstation, media hub and potential gaming machine. Finally, with the news that Windows 8 is now an absurd £189 to upgrade from Microsoft, but still £45 to get from Amazon. Although both are more now than they were last month. As much as I love having the M11X for PC games and every so often when I need portable power, to truly maximise its performance and longevity would involve a lot of extra costs. It would probably be cheaper in the long run to hold off on spending more on it, and concentrate on spending money elsewhere, rather than adding to extra sunk costs.

The Cr-48 is not perfect by any means, especially as a prototype Chromebook, but I would definitely be interested in one of the newer models which would likely improve on any of the problems I have with it at the moment, especially the Samsung Series 3 with an ARM processor and the new Lenovo Thinkpad X131e.

A Tale of Two Laptops

Right now I have two laptops, a much publicised Cr-48 Chromebook and the now discontinued Alienware M11X R3. Both of them are massively different machines even if they both have a svelte matte black bodies. I love the simple, inconspicuous exterior of these machines, that usually belies the power underneath.

 M11X (left) and  Cr-48, photo by Zathu at http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/570181-picture-m11x-next-normal-12in-netbook.html

Best of the M11X

Power

The M11X is sub-compact power. Mine has a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, a discrete NVIDIA graphics card  and a 240GB hard drive. It is a middle of the road M11X, but powerful enough to easily run many PC games of the past few years I loved Mass Effect 3 on it. Apart from the ending, but that is another story! I bought it because I thought it was the best subcompact laptop for the money at the time, and the MacBook Air just wasn’t worth the extra cash.

Specs

It is upgradable to any 2.5” drive and 16GB of RAM with a level of future-proofing and flexibility that isn’t available to the Chromebook. The M11X’s specs are among the best for a machine with a footprint smaller than the 13” MacBook and a 1366x768 pixel 11.6” screen, far more pixels than the Cr-48 with a greater density too making pictures sharper and clearer.

OS & Apps

Since the M11X runs Windows 7, and I even had the betas of Windows 8 on it, it can run any of the millions of different programs available for the OS, and run them well online and offline without any problems, something that isn’t the case for the Cr-48. This gives a huge level of flexibility to use the Adobe Creative Suite and other powerful desktop programs that simply would not be able to run on the Chromebook and its netbook specs. There are several apps I use on Windows and OS X that aren’t able to work on the Chromebook, especially Dropbox which is an inconvenience. The full desktop OS also means that I can take the M11x away with me and know that it will be able to perform well as a primary machine for weeks at a time. This is something I am not at all sure the Cr-48 can do.

Worst of the M11X

Windows 8

I have written about Windows 8 and my experiences with it before. I just don’t enjoy it on the M11X. It is well suited for the tablet interface, but it isn’t as smooth on an ‘old’ style laptop like this. This is partially the fault of Alienware’s design - the trackpad is tiny, as they expect you to use an external mouse, but on the other hand, Windows 8 is a very touch-centric interface. At the same time I feel Mountain Lion has actually increased the usefulness of Apple’s famed trackpads and is far better than Lion was at utilising the hardware, I feel the same cannot be said for the M11X on Windows 8.

Cost

The M11X R3 was a high-end machine when it was released and even now is punching well above its size category. I got a good deal on eBay when I bought it, but it is still worth around £500. I bought the Cr-48 for £100 with a bit extra for postage and I know that the M11X just isn’t worth five times more than the Chromebook, at least to me, especially with the upgrades and accessories required to make it a truly great gaming machine. Perhaps that means it is time to sell it and recoup the cash.

Gaming

This is a brilliant laptop, but it cries out for more attention than I give it. It deserves a 1080p monitor, an SSD and an external keyboard and mouse to play games properly and perform unhindered. Yet all of these things add up to an increase in costs and desk space, and considering I already have an Xbox 360 and an iMac, a gaming computer seems an extravagance I should do without.

Conclusion

The M11x R3 is an amazing little machine, that is probably exactly what I want in a gaming laptop with a tiny footprint, but with decent specs, but I am not sure it really fits within my budget or my lifestyle. There can be no doubt that the M11X is a far better laptop than the Cr-48, but I’m not sure that it is better enough to make it worth the increased cost.

My most used Chrome Extensions

Google Chrome allows for extensions to be added for it, just like other popular browsers. Extensions add functions to the browser through buttons or behind the scenes. Since most of us spend much of our time on computers in the browser, these extra functions can be incredibly useful. Here is a small list of my most-used extensions that I use in Chrome OS and Chrome on my iMac, I hope you find them useful!

Chrome To Paper

I am a massive Instapaper fan, and it was one of my first purchases when I got an iPhone in 2008. It is an app that strips out the extraneous things on a webpage and saves only those relevant to the actual article on the page, allowing you to read it later when you have time. This extension adds a new function to Chrome by adding a button which when pressed sends the article to Instapaper and deletes the tab. This means I can quickly go back to what I was doing before without extra tabs hanging around in the browser taking up the resources on my computer or my attention.

Read with Instapaper

This extension is for when I have had more time and I actually intend to read the article when I have the tab open. It uses Marco Arment’s parsing algorithm to show the article as Instapaper saves it. It makes it far easier to read without the distractions of the rest of the website. It isn’t perfect, often missing some pictures, or keeping some things that aren’t pertinent to the article, but it is far better than reading it on the site. It even comes with options to change the font, line spacing, and other things that make the reading easier on the eyes. I recommend it!

Google Dictionary

This extension has been in any version of Chrome I have had for a long time. The ability to just double click on a word and find out what it means and its etymology, has been a great help, when reading papers and articles, and often saves jumping away from the text to search for it in dictionary.com or Wikipedia. Invisible unless required and invaluable to me!

Evernote Clearly

This extension performs a similar function to 'Read with Instapaper' with one important difference- it sends the article to Evernote. I have begun to use this and Instapaper concurrently, but for slightly different uses. Instapaper used to be where I held all important articles and web pages. I am now giving this job to Evernote, especially with its new ability to appear next to Google searches, as described brilliantly at The Verge. I have been copying hundreds of articles to Evernote, and Clearly has been the best way to do it. Once these have all been copied out of Instapaper, it will where I read things later, and then send to Evernote for saving and archiving.

I hope these can be useful to you for your web needs. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!

My most used Apps

Here are several apps I use day to day on my Cr-48 Chromebook, more than any others. I haven't included the Chrome browser here as it is the basis for most of these apps anyway, and since it works the same as on Mac or PC and most people are using it anyway, it won’t be anything new to anyone.

Google Docs

Docs is Google's word processor app and is the best place for on and offline writing built into the Chrome OS platform and also available to anyone else on the web. It allows for a wide array of functions and control over your text and the embedding of many kinds of media in the documents. It also allows simultaneous collaboration on the document which makes it great for academia - I used it on my IT course for late night online brainstorming revision sessions.

Google Docs uses its own file type which means that to edit documents away from the Chromebook I have to use the Google Docs online website in the browser, or in the Drive app on mobile devices. I would much prefer if these Drive apps were taken over to OS X or Windows as well, but that would probably be quite an undertaking, although I have seen a few possible workarounds, at least on OS X. I find it simpler to just open a text editor on that platform and save it to Dropbox or in the Drive folder and work on it later instead.

Docs is nowhere near as feature-filled as Microsoft's Word, but it works great for me as I can just concentrate on the words I'm typing. There are some minor annoyances I have with it, like being unable to insert pictures from the downloads folder on the Chromebook, instead requiring them to be uploaded to Drive, or the lack of spell-check when offline, but I find it more than sufficient for my uses.

Blogger

This is really just a link to the Blogger website and has no offline capabilities whatsoever, but I only use the site when I’m on the Chromebook, so I felt it worth mentioning. This and Docs work fairly well together, and it even appears that the Blogger site is based off Google Docs itself.

I currently create posts in Docs and then copy the text over to Blogger to post on this blog. I find it work pretty well bar a few annoyances, for example, copying a post with photos already embedded in the document doesn’t always work, nor does it copy over some formatting. This has just taught me to do all of the final work to the posts in Blogger and just concentrate solely on the text while in Docs. I find it works pretty well!

Type Fu

As someone who never formally learned to type, my method has been idiosyncratic at best, and slow at worst. I have spent the last few months trying to relearn how to type properly. While there are some very good interactive websites on the subject, this is an app that also has a full-featured offline mode, that makes it king for me!

Achshar Player

While Google have their Play music app where you can store and buy music to listen back to whenever you are online, or a very basic media player built into the Chrome OS, the first only works when online, and the second only plays single songs at a time.

This is the best of the offline music players I have found so far. It allows the user to add albums and create playlists from music in their file hierarchy. It isn’t as pretty or as feature-rich as iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player or Zune but when I don't have my iPhone or iPod with me, it's a great little stop-gap!

Sourcekit

This app has access to my Dropbox files and can open all of the .txt files I have stored there. This makes it easy to see and edit my To Do Lists and other files I have there. The app is fairly basic and far simpler than GDocs, with no auto-save or offline usage, but it does allow for tabbed files open at once, which I find very convenient.

I have found that I use it less and less now I have swapped back to using an iPhone rather than a Windows Phone, as there are some great apps for Dropbox text editing available there. That is probably a post in itself!

TweetDeck

This is a Chrome Twitter app that is actually awesome, especially for free! I love that I can have several different columns which I can fill with whatever content I want and order how I like. It lets me see a great deal of information all at once, and I often have it open when I’m not working to just get the updates to my feed.

Chrome Remote Desktop

This app made it very easy to access my iMac while I was away from my flat. It allowed me to control the computer from the Chromebook, and allowed me to use my Mac apps to do things that I simply couldn’t do on my Chromebook. It also meant I could copy things into my Dropbox folder and access them on the web in a matter of seconds or minutes. Not bad at all!

Overall I have found these apps to be the ones I use the most. While I have everything in a Dropbox-orientated environment, the Chromebook is not really able to truly “shine” as a 100% integrated part of my workflow. At the same time I find the separation of my Chrome stuff and my Dropbox stuff usually works quite well, so perhaps I shouldn’t complain too much!

Offline Mode

After a gap for a busy week or so, this is another section of my Chrome OS and Chromebook series, this time detailing the how my usage of the Cr-48 works away from internet connectivity.

“Chromebooks are only good online”. This is something that I hear whenever anyone talk about the Chromebook and Chrome OS in general. Although WIFI is becoming increasingly available whether at school, work or anywhere else, there are still times when any computer user is going to be away from the internet. All devices should be able to work offline by default. From my usage, by and large, the Chromebook was a good device, but there are a few things I think need improving.

No File Hierarchy

Although Google Drive has a hierarchy of files and folders when online, just like any other computer while, offline, there is no hierarchy, simply a long list of different files, rather than in their correct folders as they would appear online.

While I can understand that this is a simpler system, it becomes a little unwieldy as you have more and more documents. It is especially strang as the hierarchy is shown on the left of the webpage, as you can see below. As a Dropbox user, I am used to having every single file saved for offline use. This is a trade-off I would prefer not to make, but with only a 16GB SSD compared to other machines’ huge HDDs, I can understand why this decision has been made.

My Drive Offline Docs, in a list by "last modified"

Few apps with a decent offline mode

This is a small problem that require a certain amount of understanding. Windows, OS X and Linux programs generally all work online or offline. except perhaps internet browsers. Yet since Chrome OS is based on the browser, the vast majority of apps expect to have an internet connection, unless they have specific settings. Of the apps I have installed on the computer, about half work offline, while the others don’t run at all. Although this is initially jarring, once you understand which apps have an offline mode, you will be able to get by.

My biggest annoyance is the gap in functionality between their online and offline modes. This can be seen most obviously in the Gmail offline app when it is compared to the Gmail app. The offline app is much more like a smartphone or tablet app, whereas the the standard Gmail app is far more fully-featured and is exactly what a user would expected from a desktop operating system. This is especially disappointing as it is one of Google’s tent-pole services, something a user would expect to use day to day.

Offline Gmail and its tablet-like appearance and reduced features

It seems like the Chrome OS developers could do a bit more work to improve the app’s offline usability, rather than just give an excuse that perpetuates the idea that “Chromebooks are only good online”.

The same can be said about the lack of an offline spell-check in Google Docs. I have been used to corrections or suggestions on whatever platform I am on, including iOS devices whether online or offline. Google does not provide the spell-check offline. Strangely enough, I have found the Blogger website actually has a better spell-check than Google Docs, very odd!I imagine this is to reduce bloat on the tiny SSD, but the option to save at least one language of data would be nice. It is not a deal-breaker for me, as I am usually just writing notes on the Chromebook anyway prior to a final read through on my iMac, or at least in my flat when I will have access to the internet, but it still something different to the norm, that I need to remember. It does also mean that I am now forced to reread what I have typed, and it has actually made me edit what I have written previously. Perhaps that increase in self-editing is a good thing?

Usage

Having said all of this, in my usage, the Chromebook still did everything I needed it to do, even if it did not do everything I perhaps would have wanted it to do, making it a very good travel companion.

It was ready to go in seconds, due to its quick boot time and would play the small amount of music I had saved for offline use, or I could listen to the music on my phone. It also played a couple of episodes of a TV series I had on an SD Card, absolutely fine. I was easily able to transcribe handwritten notes in Google Docs and didn’t really need anything fancy. The Cr-48 is still a little too large for an aircraft’s tray table, but until I get my dream machine - an 11” MacBook Air, that would be the case with any other laptop I have.

Cr-48 Hardware

This is the third post in a series about Google's Chromebook and the Chrome OS, in this case the hardware and externals. I talk about the box, the appearance and the difference between the Cr-48 and other laptops, including Apple's original black MacBook which appears to have given many different design cues to the Google designers

Box

This device was produced by Google themselves for release in late 2010, and it has no branding on it at all, from Google or anyone else. About 60,000 were made and were sent to users around the world who signed up to Google’s Chrome OS pilot programme. They arrived in boxes with clever blueprint-like artwork on them with a mouse test pilot. Sadly I got second hand in a plain cardboard box.

Externals

There are no fancy colours anywhere on the device either, it is simply a matte black colour on all sides, which I like. It feels very much like a smaller, slimmer Black MacBook from the now-discontinued 2006 range with a slightly smaller screen, footprint, and thinner body.

Specs

It has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor and 2GB of RAM giving it netbook specs that would wow nobody. It also has a 16GB ssd for storage, which again, is far less than anyone would normally expect to see in a machine this size. This computer relies on Chrome OS to be thin and light and to require as few resources as possible from the machine to run well. The lack of storage is a clear indicator that Google expected users to be running as much as possible over an internet connection, and storing as little as possible in the machine itself. It has a single USB 2.0 port, a full-size SD Card slot, a headphone jack and a VGA port by way of connectivity and doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive. It does not even have an ethernet port, suggesting that internet connections should be made over the air. However it does come with a sim card slot for 3G access, something few laptops come equipped with, even today. As a pilot device, the Cr-48 gives very bold indication of the direction Google expected the Chromebooks to take.

Usage

When you open the laptop it automatically boots. This is a nice touch that I didn’t expect when I opened it for the first time. I had always wondered why laptops often turn back on when asleep or in hibernate mode when the lid is opened, but not from an off state. I like Google’s attempt here to save the user a bit more time before they have a computer ready to go.

The keyboard layout is almost exactly the same as the black MacBook with several exceptions. The directional arrow keys are different sizes, as are the shift, ctrl and alt keys, finally the function keys are completely different. Rather than having the F1-F12 keys, Google has different functions on those keys alone, including forward, back, refresh, brightness and volume up and down. I prefer this, as I found that having to hold the Fn button down to access brightness or volume was overly complicated, especially after having Macintosh computers which had those functions on the keys without having to use modifier keys like Fn.

The trackpad is a button-less yet clickable pad like those on Apple’s MacBook range. It allows the user to use a single finger click for the traditional left-click and a two finger click for the right-click. It also allows for two-finger scrolling like many laptops today. I find I prefer to use it with tapping rather than clicking, something that has hung around from my white MacBook days, and it works just fine for that, However I do find there are problems when scrolling with the page scrolling right down to the bottom of the page or back to the top with very little motion on my part. However, I do find that on the whole the trackpad is a decent approximation of a MacBook’s trackpad, but is unlikely to ever eclipse it as what I think of as the best trackpad on a laptop today.

I think it is one of the most beautifully understated laptops ever, and would definitely put it on par with the MacBook Air in my top two most beautiful laptop designs ever and it is something to behold with its blank, matte black sides. The Alienware M11X I have also has a similar colouring, but is much thicker, heavier, and has a completely different keyboard layout. So far I am a big fan of this machine.

First two images from: http://www.mydigitallife.info/google-cr-48-notebook-with-chrome-operating-system/
Third:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20025349-260.html

The OS and the Desktop

Here is my second post in a series about using ChromeOS and the Cr-48 Chromebook and to see whether they can replace a Windows or OS X laptop.

Chrome OS

Chrome OS is Google's attempt at a fast, lightweight, desktop operating system based around their own Chrome browser. It was started by an engineer in Google who wanted to created an OS that was run entirely from the computer’s RAM. It is meant to boot fast, turn off quickly, and require less processing and battery power than a traditional desktop operating system. It allows for "apps" and "extensions" to be installed into the browser and to be used just like an app on any other operating system. However these applications are "web apps" which often appear to the user to be links to a website which provides the app's content or service.

An example of content would be the Google Drive, similar to the Dropbox and Skydrive services, it allows access to the user’s files and folders from Google’s own cloud storage from anywhere with internet access. To the Chrome OS user, it looks just like logging onto the website and going through its online file hierarchy just as it would a user logging in on their own browser, however it also allows for both ‘local’ access - where the files are downloaded to the device and ‘offline’ access, where files are saved locally and can be edited without an internet connection. Changes can then be synced back to the cloud the next time the Chromebook is connected to the internet. As someone who has used Dropbox for years, and use it as “My Documents” folder, this is something I have been doing for a long time, but it will be interesting to try to integrate this new OS into my computing work flow, after using Windows 7 and the different betas of Windows 8 on a laptop for the past year or so.

Desktop

From first impressions the OS is very pretty. Google has included a good number of beautiful wallpapers and of course you can use your own. I've stuck with one of the picturesque landscape ones, but your mileage may vary! For the version I am using, the desktop appears to be a pared down version of the Windows desktop, with the dock/ tool bar at the bottom and a small list of settings in the bottom corner including a clock, WIFI connection indicator and battery capacity indicator.

Also, just like Windows, you can get rid of the dock if you don’t want it to display unless you need it or to gain extra screen real estate for everything else. You just move your cursor down to the bottom of the screen and it will pop up.

Just like other OS with a window interface Chrome OS has the icons, this time with the icons on the right-hand side like Windows. It has the typical close window cross as well as a square icon which when you hover over it gives you several different options, to maximise, minimise and pin to the left and right. These icons can be clicked or the cursor dragged and clicked to them. I like these options being available, and it does give a good differentiation between Chrome OS, Windows and OS X.

Apps are accessible from a small icon that when pressed reveals a popup that shows a list of apps that are installed on the Chromebook. Each can then be right-clicked to give options as to how it opens and dragged to the dock just like on a Mac or PC.

Sadly these app icons appear in the order they have been installed on the device. There is no way to drag them to the pages you want like the functionality of OS X’s Launchpad app or the folders on iOS and Android. This disappoints me slightly, but I have just put my most-used apps in the dock and access them from there. I can also use the keyboard and press the “Search” button which has replaced the Caps lock key and type in the name of the app I want to open. The desktop works well enough for me, and other than that minor problem with the apps drawer, I like it.

Google’s Chromebook: A perfect secondary computer?

Cr-48 image from Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/07/google-unveils-cr-48-the-first-chrome-os-laptop/)

I bought a Cr-48 on eBay a couple weeks ago. For anyone who doesn't know what that is, and I imagine that is most of you, it is a particular model of laptop running Google's Chrome OS, something Google calls a "Chromebook". There has been an increase in the number of these devices in the past few months with the third generation machines hitting shops this side of Christmas and adverts everywhere for them. I believe they can actually serve some people as decent primary computers and most people as a very good secondary computer. However they definitely can't be expected to perform all of the functions of a fully-fledged operating system like OS X, Windows or a decent distribution of Linux. They are especially attractive in the US with their $199 price tag. They start a bit more expensive over here at £199. I was lucky enough to pick up this Cr-48 for £120 posted in good condition. It isn't as powerful as these new Chromebooks, by Samsung or Acer, but it is already turning into a great little computer for the money.

This will be a series of short posts on the device, its OS and seeing how it fairs as a secondary device to my main iMac computer. I’ll give a small background on each area of the laptop: its OS, specs and how it handles the different things I expect my laptop to be able to perform like word processing, video watching, and general usage over the days and weeks. I'll be able to compare it to the different computers I've used including my MacBook, M11X and iMac, although they are obviously vastly different machines.

Stay tuned for more updates!