Anyone else intrigued by the new Chromebook?
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/
For $250 you get:
11.6 inch 1366x768 screen
2 gigs memory
Solid State drive(16gb) free upgrade to 100gig google drive
6 hour battery
Samsung Exynos Processor(basically same thing in some cell phones)
I'm interested purely because of the price and size. I use my laptop to browse the web and do school work. I'm not sure I could live inside google docs(or skydrive web apps if online) but I'm pretty sure I'm going to try one soon.
This has been my first year teaching and I've been truly shocked by how many kids still do not have computers at home.$250 seems like it could be a great entry level machine. Compared to the processors in most netbooks this thing would be considered slow but because of the solid storage and fine tuned OS it could seem quite fast.
Unfortunately rridgely there are many families (not just in the US) whose financial circumstances are such that spending $250 on a computer is not possible.
Some of us are fortunate enough to have a pc at home, for other folk they can only dream. You will get who will say ''well if they just put so much away each week they would soon be able to get one'' The type of people who say that are those who have no ability to put themselves in someone else's shoes.
Is there no possibility perhaps of setting up a club at your school where pupils can bring their old broken machines and with help could learn how to mix and match parts and repairs so that the re-vamped machines could then be made available to those who don't have any?
Yeah there definitely are families who cannot afford computers of any kind. I wouldn't expect students who truly cannot afford computers to buy one of these.
What interests me with these computers is that many school systems could provide them for students. The school I work in is buying iPads for use at school. Each student doesn't have one but there are literally carts of iPads rolling around to various classes. You can buy 2 of these for what one iPad costs.
iPads have great software and they are easy to lock down which would be a concern with these laptops, but I would much rather have these.
One of the schools in my district has bought each student a macbook air. Its a trial run but if it goes well all high school students will eventually get one(awesome). I just saw these and thought they looked pretty cool for the price.
Running a computer club would be a neat idea. To be honest I'm barely keeping up as it is right now.(planning for 3 subjects each day and working toward my masters degree is kicking my butt) But maybe later I can set something like this up. I'm definitely interested but it would be quite a bit of extra work. ![:)]()
Good luck with your masters degree rridgely. The out of hours class for taking machines to bits and putting them all together again to make a working machine would be very popular, I have seen how interested kids are in this sort of thing. It often appeals to kids who are really gifted in practical skills but aren't given the chance to show them in an academically focused environment.
Now back on target... I can see the appeal in the Chromebook, real handy for fast casual use in a media focused world.
Found a video run down of the chromebook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoK8p1OZDV4&feature=related
I think best buy is selling these. As soon as I can see one and play around with it, I may pick one up. If anything it will make a good gift for a family member if I don't like it. ![:)]()
Edit:
Didn't expect the forum to embed the video automatically. Kinda neat.
Just seen the ad for it on TV within the last two hours. Have at it -- if you trust Google.
I can see this being very useful for students, parents, or people who just want an OS that "works".
No problems. No worries. Simplicity in web surfing, email, & keeping in touch. Very quick boot (5 sec) & shutdown (2 sec).
But the biggest thing with it, is, what will you do when chromebook crashes? How will you re-install it?