The Chromebook One Month Later: Tantalizingly Close, But Still Feels Beta

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Wait. Why Do I Have A Desktop?

This is the desktop on my Samsung Chromebook.

Two things should jump out at you.

1. It’s awesomely reminiscent of Mac OS (but slightly sexier)

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2. Why the heck do I have a desktop on my Chromebook?

The answer to 2 is that I shouldn’t, but I have to.

As everyone who’s been reading lately knows, I am an unabashed fan of the idea of ChromeOS and Chromebooks in general. A super light, super quick OS that is essentially just a web browser with a file manager built-in? In a world where most users either do, or could if properly informed, spend all of their time in a web browser, ChromeOS is a computing philosophy that feels perfect. It’s certainly the shape of things to come.

In practice the idea mostly holds up. I’ve used my Samsung Series 5 as my primary machine for the past month and, with very few exceptions, it’s functioned exactly as I’d expected it to. Samsung’s claims of an eight-hour battery life have more than held up; I do most of my work from coffee shops and client’s offices and I haven’t had to pack my charging cable once. In fact, most days I get home and still get an hour or two of use out of the machine before I finally see the low battery warning.

Likewise, the Chromebook’s footprint is nigh perfect. I hate the cramped feel of a netbook, but I also hate the weight and bulk of most laptops. The Series 5 straddles the gap between the two quite nicely. It’s almost as compact as a netbook, but the slightly larger screen and full size keyboard make it feel far less like a toy than comparable offerings from ASUS, Acer and Dell.

Web browsing is terrific; the wi-fi radio seems to have a better range than that in any of the notebooks I’ve used in the last year, which means that, compared to my wife’s Macbook on our home wi-fi network, I get far less signal and drop issues. Occasionally I’ve run into the too-many-tabs= uber-lag issues that others have reported, but with every OS update those occurrences happen less and less frequently.

But the Chromebook does have a few failings. And, unfortunately, the areas it fails at are fairly crippling.

Mobile Is Dooming Itself: Cool Things Shouldn’t Destroy The Continued Development Of Useful Things

 

I know, I know, I said I didn’t care about what CES had to offer this year. I figured that if I spent the next few days just reading web comics and Mac news, I’d be able to avoid any news coming out of that once hyper-exciting event.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Leander Kahney, the editor over at Cult of Mac, wrote up this little ditty about the current state of Consumer Electronics and where all the sales are coming from. In short, smartphones and tablets are eating up all of our spending dollars, to the exclusion of pretty much every other device type, other than high-end cameras (which are kind of niche comparatively, anyway).

I say this as someone who is passionately committed to seeing the mobile space and cloud computing grow; this is very bad news for all of us.

I spend the majority of my days away from my office. I work out of coffee shops, client’s offices and, occasionally, Mexican villas. I love and depend on mobile technology to make my work life possible. But I also, even though I hardly ever use them in person, depend on things like my desktop, standard sized laptops, Blu-Ray player etc. Without those tools, my mobile life would significantly less convenient. 

Gadget Fatigue: After All The Crazy, I’ve Simplified My Mobile Footprint

Right around the time I started playing with my Chromebook, I got really, really tired of  reading the Tech feed on my Feedly app. I don’t care what new and exciting pile of new Android phones are going to be released at CES this year; I’m already bored by the array of Ultrabooks that have hit the market, each one aiming for and utterly missing both the point and beauty of the MacBook Air, and, so help me, if I hear one more iPhone 5 or iPad 3 rumor, I will set the internet on fire. Which might prevent the passing of SOPA so we’ll keep that idea on the back burner.

My wife will be happy to hear that I’m more interested in her than in Tech-Crunch again.

To say that I’ve been tech obsessed for the last 2 years would be a lie. I’ve been a tech stalker. If you could legally charge someone with creepiness towards gadgets, I would be the first case on the docket.

My name is Julian, and I’m a technology fetishist.

Of Apples and Androids: The Technological Minefield Part 1

First came the iPhone. That was my gateway drug. The 3G and I had a love hate relationship that ended with the launch if iOS 4; a bitter breakup involving much hanging of apps and screaming at “Geniuses.”

The screaming landed me a free 3GS and there was much rejoicing in the land. At least by me. For about a week. The green dragon of envy had started to rear its ugly head each time I saw a stranger lovingly stroking the iPhone 4, you see, and I had to have one.

My own.

My precious.

Er…anyway.

One Format To Rule Them All: Now That We Live In The Future, How Much Machine Do You Need?

Thin is in. Or maybe I should say light is right.

The MacBook Air is no longer an object of ridicule in consumer circles. Amazon is launching a ridiculously light on storage tablet, built utterly around Cloud integration. The Chromebook¹ is settling into it’s groove as the first browser only OS. The days, it seems, of ever increasing HDD space and laptop bottoms that can scald the hair right off your legs, are over.

Or are they?

Intel is now touting its own sponsored line of Ultra Portables, starting with the Dell XPS 15z; a super light, specced out the gills PC that seems more than a little, uh, “inspired,” by the design of the MacBook Air.

Reading over the ad copy and seeing phrases like, “unmatched sophistication,” and, “uncomprimising² power;” the 15z is a machine that’s going after the Air in a way that no other PC has thus far. Microsoft and Intel have to know that the ultra thin, ultra trendy Air is sparking a bit more drool lately than, say, the latest Lenovo workhorse. Not necessarily because it’s better, but because it’s sexier.

But the phrase that Dell is has chosen for its prime real estate; the one that seems to be their tagline for this little venture, begs the questions: “Where exactly are we headed? and, What exactly do we need?”