Chromebook

mrc1

Calling all techies!

What are people's opinions on these?

Thinking of one as a possible alternative to an Ipad for LDT. Need something that we can use to access email anywhere, stay in touch with social media and add posts to the LDT website blog etc. Key criteria is "always on" (or at least very fast boot up), access to 3G and wifi, long battery life and something with a bit of shelf life.

We already have an Iphone so we have most of these features but it's a pain to do most of the above on such a small screen.

Cheers

Rob

notsoblue

I really like the idea of it, but they seem to be ambiguous about how it handles when not connected to the net. There is apparently an offline mode for Google Docs, but for example I'm not sure if you would be able to store music/movies to list/watch while offline.

fizz

If you want a good portal into google apps / google docs. Or just to browse the web and are happy to be restricted on which browser yo use, i.e it only runs google chrome so you want use firefox or I.e. for example. Go for it, if you want to do anything else, forget it.

We've got one at work for eval. I still cant find a single thing I'd use it for, I'd rather have a full blown laptop running Windows or an Ipad. It does boot fast and it is light and portable, lighter than an Ipad, battery life is supposed to be good, but I turned it on spent 5 minutes fiddling with it and then thought "is that all it does"

UndercoverElephant

One of the biggest tech flops of this year. Well that and Google TV. I wouldn't imagine it will hang around for long.

ddraver

Unfortunately we re about 10 years behind some countries in Europe so this sort of thing simply doesnt work. My broadband limits have come down nearly every time I have to renew it! What's the point of me putting all my music/photos/documents into "the cloud", It would take me over a year to download them all if my HD crashed!

My parents went to the far east recently (Borneo, Vietnam etc) and everywhere you could go had free WiFi there, I can't think of a single cafe in Leiden with free WiFi...

Meanwhile my smartphone has a 500MB limit/month so no use there (and T-mobile's "unlimited"is actually 750MB)

I'm with fizz, a laptop for work/a "tablet PC" for holiday fun...

Initialised

Avoid for now. It's a Netbook Shaped Object.

Get a decent Tablet, a good Netbook or a budget Ultra Portable instead.

ZoomZoom

Not tried one yet, but IMHo we are in the tablet age and I think it is too late for this form factor to take off. I use an iPad and a bluetooth Wireless keyboard http://www.scosche.com/consumer-tech/product/2083.

Would consider an ultra book when funds allow.

mrc1

So a resounding no! Glad I asked first!

Initialised wrote:

Get a decent Tablet, a good Netbook or a budget Ultra Portable instead.

Any recommendations on the above as I wouldn't know where to start?! Lets say a budget of £500 max?

Cheers

UndercoverElephant

Get an iPad, they're great (and if you buy one today, there's money off at the Apple store - that never happens!)

jamesco

Until 'net access on the move is 100% reliable and ultra-fast, I can't see the point. There're plenty of laptops that can take a 3G SIM, but they're not reliant on the connection as you can store everything locally and use it while offline.

Also, uploading stuff is usually painfully slow, and giving absolutely everything to google is going a bit far to me.