The Chromebook Pixel Is Real, and Expensive

nope by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 08:04 · Score: 4, Insightful

nope

Re:nope by symbolset · 2013-02-21 20:26 · Score: 2

That's what people said about the Galaxy Note. Somehow though last August they hit 10 million sales after less than a year. Many billions of dollars in revenue will help soothe the pain of being made fun of.
Actually when Android first came out phone makers didn't want to make a high-end "candybar" phone because it would be ridiculously expensive, so Google paid to have one made and the demand proved itself enough that phone makers came onboard and Google could retire their own-brand phone. Now Android is the number one smartphone OS, nearly 3x ahead of its nearest competitor and by itself over two thirds of global unit sales. This is probably that evolution again.
OEMs ought to buy a hint one day and when Google says "we're thinking of making an X..." leap into that briar patch. God knows OEMs have made enough failed Wintel and Windows Phone products to hit their career fail quota, and on the winners they make bupkiss, nada, zilch. Google doesn't want to own-brand their products and they're not great at it, but if OEMs will stand in the the way of progress Google needs must march around them and move on. Waiting and begging for people to let go of their Windows obsession was for the old way when Google was not a more influential, successful and bigger company than Microsoft is. Google are becoming less patient with impediments to their vision of the future. Once it was "we think this might be neat." Now it's "help or get out of the way."
Driving Google to get good at product manufacturing, sales and delivery is not a good incumbent device OEM survival strategy. If OEMs make them do that, Google will be as good at it as everything else they set their minds to. I.E. Google will eat the entire client device OEM ecosystem if they must to drive progress. They'd rather not - the progress is what they want and if the OEMs will deliver it they can put their effort in other places. But if they must, they will.

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Re:nope by tehcyder · 2013-02-21 21:27 · Score: 4, Funny

Fine for regular folk. Us enthusiasts have vastly higher expectations, and we're not a shrinking market.
Well aren't we a bunch of precious fucking snowflakes?

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Re:nope by BasilBrush · 2013-02-22 00:40 · Score: 2

Actually when Android first came out phone makers didn't want to make a high-end "candybar" phone because it would be ridiculously expensive, so Google paid to have one made and the demand proved itself enough that phone makers came onboard and Google could retire their own-brand phone.
Yeah right. It's not as if the iPhone hadn't already demonstrated demand for that form factor.

God knows OEMs have made enough failed Wintel and Windows Phone products to hit their career fail quota
They rode that pony for 25 years. What have you done that's so great?
Google is an advertising company. I've never head anyone quite so hungry for products that are specifically designed to spy on them and advertise to them.
Re:nope by dreamchaser · 2013-02-26 15:21 · Score: 2

Fine for regular folk. Us enthusiasts have vastly higher expectations, and we're not a shrinking market.
Maybe not a shrinking market, but enthusiasts are a rather small slice of the overall market.

x86? REALLY? by ButchDeLoria · 2013-02-21 08:05 · Score: 2

Oh well, at least this will (hopefully) allow me to install a real version of Linux.

Re:x86? REALLY? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 09:51 · Score: 2, Informative

OS X upscales non-Retina-aware applications by pixel-doubling. That's the facts, jack.
You can turn on the resolution-independent stuff with the developer tools. In practice, it doesn't look good -- too many bitmaps and hardcoded resolutions. Just like Windows and probably Linux.
Re:x86? REALLY? by shutdown+-p+now · 2013-02-21 10:15 · Score: 4, Informative

Sure, it has that code - but its UI stack does not use it for widgets etc. Which is why it still doesn't have an option to e.g. make text bigger in all applications, like you can in Windows or most Linux DEs.
Re:x86? REALLY? by shutdown+-p+now · 2013-02-21 11:47 · Score: 3, Informative

This isn't necessarily true. Apple has been shipping this for years as a developer features (open Quartz Debug, set your UI scale, logout, login.)

Yes, they did. Have you ever tried actually enabling this option? It didn't just break third-party apps - it broke the core OS UI, such as the top-level app menu. I don't know on what level the UI stack actually supports this, but it clearly doesn't extend to all stock widgets.

Looks pretty good. by h4rr4r · 2013-02-21 08:07 · Score: 2

Assuming I can flop it into dev mode and easily install Chrubuntu it looks interesting. A nice laptop is not going to be cheap and the old chromebooks were cheap pieces of shit. I just wish someone made one of these ultrabooks run a normal linux distro out of the box. Please don't respond with links to the POS dell one. Last I looked the screen resolution was pathetic and the build quality was typical dell.

Re:Looks pretty good. by BanHammor · 2013-02-21 08:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

Still, it's like 1 million dollar vodka - it does its job for sure, but it is surely a little expensive for that.
Re:Looks pretty good. by beelsebob · 2013-02-21 09:05 · Score: 4, Insightful

I don't get why you'd want this – it's only $100 less than a 13" rMBP, while having 4GB less RAM, a much much smaller SSD, and a far inferior OS.
Re:Looks pretty good. by swillden · 2013-02-21 09:50 · Score: 4, Interesting

Inferior OS? I dunno. I have a Samsung Chromebook and a MacBook Air, and for most work I prefer the Chromebook -- mostly because the OS gets in my way a lot less than OS X does.

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Re:Looks pretty good. by rsborg · 2013-02-21 13:48 · Score: 3, Interesting

Inferior OS? I dunno. I have a Samsung Chromebook and a MacBook Air, and for most work I prefer the Chromebook -- mostly because the OS gets in my way a lot less than OS X does.
If your "work" cosists entirely of web browsing, then I guess ChromeOS is a better OS. Sorry but most of us actually have to use non-web apps like spreadsheets, IDEs, and groupware/office. Also, I can't use Chrome in all cases even for web usage because I need to test my code on multiple client architectures.

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Re:Looks pretty good. by h4rr4r · 2013-02-22 01:51 · Score: 2

The OS is pointless on pretty much all laptops. I will be removing Windows, OSX or Chrome, so it does not matter to me.
Name one laptop as nice for half the cost. The next nicest laptop I can find is a mac pro retina. Build quality is another thing I am willing to pay for.

Seems expensive for a notebook. by rajanala83 · 2013-02-21 08:08 · Score: 2

Is it worth the money?

Re:Seems expensive for a notebook. by h4rr4r · 2013-02-21 08:37 · Score: 2, Funny

Just like a normal laptop and just like a normal laptop you can install linux to your hearts content.
Re:Seems expensive for a notebook. by AmiMoJo · 2013-02-21 09:24 · Score: 2

How so? ChromeOS isn't as flexible as Windows, but it isn't "crippled". You can install any software you like on it, and enable developer mode to get a root shell. You can compile it from source (Chromium OS) if you like.

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MICROSOFT TAX! by CajunArson · 2013-02-21 08:09 · Score: 5, Funny

This thing would obviously only be $2.99 + S&H if it weren't for the Microsoft tax! I'm tired of M$ driving up the price of hardware with ... interruption... whispering .... uh... I'm tired of the GOOGLE TAX!

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Netbook??? by nomel · 2013-02-21 08:13 · Score: 5, Insightful

Since when is Core i5, Intel HD 4000, and 4GB of ram, and a screen with an absurdly high resolution, considered a netbook?

Sure, it has a netbook os installed...but that doesn't mean anything. I could also install windows 3.1...big deal.

Re:Netbook??? by jythie · 2013-02-21 08:20 · Score: 3, Interesting

As specs evolve and advances slow down, what software something runs will probably increasingly become the differentiating factor.
Re:Netbook??? by hedwards · 2013-02-21 08:50 · Score: 2, Insightful

If you filter out the MS astroturfers, a netbook is a low cost, minimalist computer with low specs that's mostly useful for the net.
MS had a cow when Asus had success with the Eee PC line and started to apply pressure to release Windows netbooks. At which point, the whole definition was pretty much broken as the specs had to be just about doubled to make that work with XP and the cost went above what normal people would pay.
As for your definition, that would include UMPCs as well, which is sort of a problem.
Re:Netbook??? by gl4ss · 2013-02-21 09:23 · Score: 2

premium means just premium "quality" and more importantly premium pricing.
you can buy a premium car with a shitty engine and be still paying premium for the badge.

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Re:Netbook??? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 10:05 · Score: 2

The original Eee PC Linux stack sucked shit and had an enormous return rate. Asus put Windows on it so they could actually sell them.
Microsoft didn't force them to put Windows on it, that's the crazy voices in your head talking. I'm glad you like your Eee, but the product category died due to lack of demand.

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by h4rr4r · 2013-02-21 08:14 · Score: 2, Insightful

Then you are not going to get a machine of this caliber. The display is expensive, the method of construction is expensive, plus like all luxury goods there will be a good deal of markup.

Re:Cheap alternative to Retina MacBook by alen · 2013-02-21 08:16 · Score: 4, Informative

Apple just dropped the price on all their retina laptops

OMG, the display! by dabadab · 2013-02-21 08:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

The only interesting thing in the whole machine is the display.
It has sane proportions (3:2) and it has a very decent resolution (2560x1700). Basically these were the worst problems of the notebooks of the last few years: the 16:9 display that made no sense whatsoever* and the laughably low resolution. Now it seems that these may go away.

*: please note that I'm talking about the really portable size range where basically the keyboard determines the width of the notebook - in this category the displays did not get wide; they got short, with huge unused spaces above and below them.

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Real life is overrated.

Re:resolution and monitor size by h4rr4r · 2013-02-21 08:21 · Score: 2

I just touched the screen on my MacBook air. I seem to still be alive. I think you can touch it all you like. It does not treat it as input, but that does not prevent you from smudging up the display if you like.

Touch on a laptop seems like a terrible idea. It already has better methods of input. It works for phones and tablets because there really is no other option.

Re:Well.. by rtfa-troll · 2013-02-21 08:30 · Score: 3, Interesting

Depends...

On if you can hack it. As long as you can still open up the developer mode and if you can upgrade the local storage, even with some difficulty then this becomes a way of getting a MacBook Pro workalike without giving money to either Apple or Microsoft then I'm for it. Actually I will go for the more "expensive" 64G / LTE version too. It's still cheaper than the $2,199.00 Amazon pops up with for a retina Macbook.

I especially love the idea of having a proper shape of screen. I would sacrifice very much performance for that.

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No. by Richy_T · 2013-02-21 08:32 · Score: 4, Interesting

In the last few days, I have switched over to the "Google is evil" camp and will be moving away from them as much as possible.

If anyone cares what pushed me over the edge, it was when I found they now require you have Google Plus to write a review in the play store. A move worthy of Microsoft at its vilest. This is not the only issue by any means though.

Re:No. by squiggleslash · 2013-02-21 09:31 · Score: 2

You know who also forced people to join Google Plus when they wanted to write reviews of apps they'd bought?

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Re:No. by Dan+East · 2013-02-21 09:39 · Score: 2

One thing that has annoyed me lately is that you now have to be signed in to a Google account to use the PDF preview capability in search results. These aren't "Google Books", but just PDFs on 3rd party sites that Google has retrieved and converted, so the documents are already sitting out there one the web. There's no good reason a person has to be signed in to Google view a preview version of a PDF found in a Google Search.
I can see now, if Google could get away with it, they would require you to be signed in to do just a general web search. Fortunately they would lose too much traffic if they went that far. For now.

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Re:No. by paulpach · 2013-02-21 10:24 · Score: 3, Informative

If anyone cares what pushed me over the edge, it was when I found they now require you have Google Plus to write a review in the play store. A move worthy of Microsoft at its vilest. This is not the only issue by any means though.
As someone who sells a game in google play I appreciated this move. Before, when a customer had a problem with the game, I had absolutely no way of helping the customer. Now at least I can help some of them by contacting them on their google play.
I would really prefer if I could simply reply to reviews and keep it anonymous, many of the problems people have are just misunderstandings or are a checkbox away. Any change that allows me to respond to reviews is very welcome.
Re:No. by DrEasy · 2013-02-21 11:06 · Score: 2

Yup, the consolidation of the YouTube and the Google accounts made me logout from Google forever. I want to keep my YouTube identity separate from my Google identity, and since it's impossible to do so without constantly logging in and out of them, I gave up on the Google side of things (so I just use my old YouTube account). What made the decision even easier is when they announced the impending death of iGoogle.

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Re:No. by MSG · 2013-02-21 12:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

That seems like an overreaction. You can't purchase anything from the Google Play Store without a Google account (which automatically means Plus). Why would they allow someone who can't use the Play Store to review an app there? That's nothing more than an open invitation for abuse.
Re:No. by Nimey · 2013-02-21 14:53 · Score: 2

JULIUS CAESAR!

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Google Docs and the Cloud Problem by ideonexus · 2013-02-21 08:33 · Score: 2

What keeps me from buying into the Chrome OS is the idea of having everything in the "cloud." A few months back I switched to Google Docs for all my writing, and the experience hasn't been the best. On my laptop, I've got local versions of all my docs, so it isn't too big a problem, but on my tablet, the local versions won't work unless there's an internet connection. I live just outside of DC, but Verizon's DSL is still unreliable. Many times I'm writing and docs looses the internet connection and freezes up, making me sit there waiting until it can sync my last edit with its servers.

What's worse is that Office 2013 is starting to go the Cloud-drive route too, so Word freezes up when I'm not connected to the Internet. You know what else freezes up when I'm not connected to the cloud? Mass Effect 3, right in the middle of my game play. Even though all the content is on my hard drive.

I am all for the cloud, but developers need to make sure their products work when I'm not connected to it. I have no intention of shelling out a $1000-plus dollars for a device that turns into a brick when I'm riding in a car just because my hot-spot can't get a cellphone signal.

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Re:Taking a queue from Apple by Tough+Love · 2013-02-21 08:35 · Score: 2

The only good thing about Google beating on this dead horse till the end of time is, it's a great source of decent Ubuntu laptops.

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Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by rwa2 · 2013-02-21 08:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

Hmm, the price would make sense if they actually had a nice video card in there...
But an Intel HD 4000 ?

I'm not expecting that to keep up with the high-res display. Though I guess with all of the touchscreen smudges, it wouldn't matter as much...

needs more ram as well 4gb is small at that price by Joe_Dragon · 2013-02-21 08:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

needs more ram as well 4gb is small at that price also flash size is small.

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by h4rr4r · 2013-02-21 08:55 · Score: 4, Informative

It should not be a problem. I have a very similar built in intel card driving a 1366x768 and a 1920x1080 screen at the same time.

Re:Storage! by JDG1980 · 2013-02-21 08:56 · Score: 2

Google should know better than to gimp the storage!

Google does this on purpose with all their devices, because they want you to live your entire life "in the cloud" (i.e. no data security and no privacy). This is why most newer Nexus devices don't have SD card slots. At least the Chromebook Pixel has one so you can add external storage for your stuff.

The real question is whether the Chromebook Pixel has its SSD in standard mSATA format, or if it uses some proprietary crap like the Macbooks do. If it's a standard mSATA drive, it wouldn't be hard to upgrade – you can get a decent 256GB mSATA drive for less than $200, and you're still paying less than you would for a comparable 15" Retina MacBook Pro.

That said, you can fit Windows 7 on the default amount of space – I've run it for a while on a 30GB SSD boot drive on one of my systems. The install comes to 10-15GB before adding any extra software. Of course, you need to keep all your actual data on a different drive.

Re:Cheap alternative to Retina MacBook by tlhIngan · 2013-02-21 08:58 · Score: 4, Informative

Hey, it's an x86 PC, even if it runs a crappy OS. I suspect most of these will eventually wind up running Windows, unless there's something about the hardware that prevents this.
For people who liked the Retina hardware on the new MacBooks but couldn't justify the price (and don't care about or don't want OSX), this could be a good alternative. I'll wait a while, though: I don't see this price point lasting very long.

You can't run Windows on a Chromebook. The BIOS doesn't exist - just a small loader that can boot Linux and that's it. You can flip a hidden switch into "developer mode" where it'll let you have a command prompt, but that's really all there is. You can modify ChromeOS at that point to have a Linux system (there are instructions for installing Ubuntu, but it involves a bit of work with DD).

In regular non-developer mode, ChromeOS is quite locked down.

Cheaper than 3 years of 1TB Google Drive Storage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 09:10 · Score: 2, Informative

At current prices, 3 Years of 1TB Google Drive Storage (that they throw in for free with every Pixel purchase) goes for 12x3x49.99=1799.64.

Basically you get a laptop for free and some discount if you prepay for it.

Seems like a good deal (if you *need* that kind of storage)

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by Bill+Hayden · 2013-02-21 09:22 · Score: 4, Informative

But an Intel HD 4000 ?

I'm not expecting that to keep up with the high-res display.

It doesn't seem to be a problem for the Retina version of the MacBook Pro 13", which uses the same chip.

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Re:Well.. by EGSonikku · 2013-02-21 09:25 · Score: 5, Informative

The 13" Macabook Pro Retina starts at $1499.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro

For that you get:

2.5GHz Core i5
8GB RAM
128GB SSD

And out of the box you can run OS X, Windows, or Linux.

So for $200 more than a Chromebook you get 4x the storage, and an actual OS and apps.

Seems a no brainier to me, assuming you HAVE to have a super HD display.

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- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"

Re:needs more ram as well 4gb is small at that pri by AmiMoJo · 2013-02-21 09:26 · Score: 2

Intel 4000 graphics are more than adequate for 2D and some occasional web based 3D. 4GB of RAM is fine for running a browser and a few other mobile style apps.

Look at it another way, plenty of 11" Ultrabooks in that price range come with Intel 4000 graphics and 4GB of RAM, yet cope with the demands of Windows reasonably well.

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If you HAVE to have a Retina/Pixel display... by EGSonikku · 2013-02-21 09:39 · Score: 5, Informative

Get a Retina MacBook Pro.

Lets compare:

13" Chromebook Pixel
1.8GHz Core i5
4GB RAM
32GB Storage
5 Hour battery
Only runs Chrome
$1,299

13" Retina MacBook Pro
2.5GHz Core i5
8GB RAM
128GB SSD
7 Hour battery
Can run OS X, Windows, or Linux
$1,499

Seems to me that extra $200 gets you a LOT more bang for your buck. And if you don't care about the display then that same cash gets you a much better hardware spec'd laptop from many other places.

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- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"

Re:If you HAVE to have a Retina/Pixel display... by gman003 · 2013-02-21 10:02 · Score: 2

Good.
Re:If you HAVE to have a Retina/Pixel display... by AmiMoJo · 2013-02-21 11:27 · Score: 2

For my mum I'd get the Chromebook because it is easier to use and harder to break.
For myself I'd get an Ultrabook. Better spec, cheaper, better screen. Yeah, better screen, because the effective resolution of a retina display at 200% scaling (for optimum image quality) is lower than full HD and text isn't any easier to read (looks a bit sharper perhaps).

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const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC

why the hate on integrated video? by Chirs · 2013-02-21 09:39 · Score: 2

Unless you're gaming, integrated video is fine. It'll drive multiple monitors, it drives modern UIs with all the graphical effects enabled, it plays basic games just fine. It'll do hardware-accelerated video decoding, proper HDMI support, etc. Plus it uses less power than dedicated video and has better Linux driver support.

I've got two 2yo laptops at home with integrated Intel video and given my current usage pattern I haven't had any issues with either of them. The only caveat is that I don't do gaming.

Re:Unask by theVarangian · 2013-02-21 09:46 · Score: 5, Informative

Wouldn't a 'premium' notebook have a real OS?

This isn't a 'premium' notebook, with Chrome OS installed it isn't even really a notebook, it's a portable $1299 thin client.

Re:Well.. by the_B0fh · 2013-02-21 09:48 · Score: 3, Informative

$1349 for the cheapest 13" Retina display.

http://appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/#%23

$50 more only if you do comparison shopping. :)

How much can I mod it? by edmicman · 2013-02-21 09:48 · Score: 2

My initial questions are:
What is the effective resolution? I.e., 1388x768 or whatever? It doesn't actually display at that resolution, does it?
Can you replace the HD?
Can you wipe it and run another OS like Linux or Windows on it?
What 'touch' features does ChromeOS use?

Seems like it might be a sweet little portable dev machine, that's not a Mac. Why is it that the only ones coming out with hires laptop displays are Apple or Google? Where's my 14" Lenovo with that resolution?

Pricing strategy by DogDude · 2013-02-21 09:49 · Score: 2, Interesting

Clearly, they're using Apple's pricing strategy. It's a Business 101 classic: many customers WANT to spend too much on stuff. Those customers see high prices as some (twisted) source of prestige. As a retailer, I see it every day. There are products that you can sell MORE of if you increase the price.

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Re:Gee whiz by aristotle-dude · 2013-02-21 09:49 · Score: 4, Interesting

Similar form factor and specs to a Mac Book Pro .. and guess what .. similar price. Take that you Apple Apologists .. um .. err .. [Facepalm]

Right but half the ram (4GB versus 8GB) and a quarter of the storage (32GB versus 128GB) for only 200 dollars less than the 13" rMBP. Shouldn't it be a lot less considering that it does not come with a fullblown OS and apps?

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Re:Cheap alternative to Retina MacBook by Derek+Pomery · 2013-02-21 09:58 · Score: 4, Informative

Bit of clarification on the linux instructions.
http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/

Has the typing commands portion of the instructions simplified down to:
wget http://goo.gl/34v87; sudo bash 34v87

run at least twice.

And:
sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/mmcblk0

To set ubuntu as the default boot.

So. No need to type in anything too complex w/ dd

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Hell no to touchscreens on laptops!!! by Xaedalus · 2013-02-21 09:58 · Score: 4, Funny

As a proud member pervert in good standing of the Congregation for Appreciation of Internet Pr0n, I must heartily decry, deride, protest, and shake every conceivable appendage I can muster at the idea of a laptop having a touchscreen. I care not for access to dev mode and ease of conversion to Linux, nor do I care about comparisons to MBR, MBP, or any other model in its market class, nay; what I care most about is that when I am using internet on my laptop for the purpose that the Good Lord Snookums intended--the transmission of digitalized lewd images at 0.999999 percent of c to my eyes for transitional enlightenment of my load--that any incidental contact of whatever airborne fluids I may be generating will not hit my screen and be registered as input. I have a hard enough time keeping my screen nice and clear as it is, I really do not need the fruit of my loins sending me to yet another morally dubious website when I'm not yet done with the one I'm on! So NAY! I say! Nay to touchscreens on laptops! I will NOT be a consumer of this product!

As a side note, I do not use my iPad for this very reason... well, that and my wrists tend to get crimps in them.

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Re:needs more ram as well 4gb is small at that pri by derGoldstein · 2013-02-21 10:05 · Score: 2, Insightful

Those 11" Ultrabooks come with a copy of Windows, so you can actually do something useful.

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I wouldn't say "lol @ poor people" but... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 10:09 · Score: 3, Interesting

$1300 doesn't sound outrageous if the build quality and features were decent for an ultraportable nOtebook.

With an i5 CPU (Note: the "i5" in it is only a 1.8GHz dualcore) and a hi-rez touchscreen it sounds OK at first. But the reason you spend this kind of money for an Ultraportable is because a $500 netbook can't hack it. and that's because your Outlook inbox has been archived a dozen times and is still pushing 2GB. And while the home office network can do 20MbPS up/down you're in the field (hence the Ultraportable) and the exchange server really sucks over a 1.5Mb/256Kb connection. Oh wait this Chrome and it only has a 32GB HDD. So I'm not sure what it is good for. I don't need an i5, 4GB RAM and a hires screen for "cloud stuff", I can do that on my phone.

Really your just paying $1300 for an "I'm Stupid" sign.

Re:Super expensive? by EGSonikku · 2013-02-21 10:14 · Score: 2

How so? The 13" Retina MacBook Pro does costs $200 more, but for that $200 you get:

2.5GHz i5 instead of the Chromebook Pixels 1.8GHz i5
Double the RAM (8GB)
4x the Storage (128GB SSD)
Longer battery life

Seems to me it's the Chromebook that's a ripoff here.

http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD212LL/A?

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- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by rwa2 · 2013-02-21 10:17 · Score: 2

OK, but
2560x1700 = 4 MP
1920x1080 = 2 MP
1366x768 = 1 MP

And you're probably only doing something full-motion video or 3D intensive on one of those screens at a time.

I'm pleasantly surprised it made it to the "High End GPU" list, albeit pretty far down.
http://videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

And yes, I'm pretty happy with the Intel GPU in my wife's $400 Toshiba Satellite. And I'm looking forward to when Intel is a more serious contender in the GPU arena with solid OSS drivers. But the only reason I'd pay more than $1k for a laptop would be to get a half-decent nVidia or Radeon onboard. For most of what I would do on high-end hardware, I'd rather have higher FSAA & FPS than more pixels, but I'm strange like that.

Re:needs more ram as well 4gb is small at that pri by ColdWetDog · 2013-02-21 10:24 · Score: 4, Interesting

Those 11" Ultrabooks come with a copy of Windows, so you can actually do something useful.

Is that a feature or a bug?

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Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!

Re:Super expensive? by aristotle-dude · 2013-02-21 10:38 · Score: 2

What would you call Apple's offerings? The chromebook is a steal by comparison.

What are you smoking? The base model 13" Retina Macbook Pro is only 200 dollars more than the base model Pixel but has twice the ram and four times the storage.

The only thing it has is a slightly higher resolution screen at 2560X1700 versus 2560X1600 on the 13" macbook.

The Macbook comes with a real OS and content creation apps (garage band and iMovie) as well as iPhoto for retouching photos.

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Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by jbolden · 2013-02-21 10:57 · Score: 2, Informative

I'm sure it is a problem. I have the 15" rMBP. The Nvidia 650M can have problems keeping up with 5mp. The Intel 4000 definitely lags if you force the laptop to use integrated graphics. I would never buy the 13" rMBP for that reason.

Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by jdev · 2013-02-21 11:24 · Score: 4, Informative

I'm not clear what the hardware is worth, but people are ignoring why this is priced so high. What nobody mentions is the laptop comes with 3 years of 1TB Google Drive storage. If you check out pricing for that much storage, you are looking at $50/month, which translates to $600/yr or $1,800 for 3 years.

So if you are a Google Drive power user and need a ton of storage space, this thing is a bargain. You get the storage at a discount and a nice free laptop. Sure, that seems like a crazy amount to spend on cloud storage space but this thing isn't exactly a laptop for the masses.

The big question here is who needs that much cloud storage space. It sounds like something that would be nice to have, but I wouldn't spend $600/yr. I'm not the target audience though.

Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by jdev · 2013-02-21 12:19 · Score: 5, Informative

Here, 1 TB of always-available, portable storage for $99.99, perhaps less if you shop around for a discount.
Yes, portable hard drives are almost exactly like cloud storage. Except for the reliability. And the convenience. And ease of sharing. And accessibility. But besides that, it's exactly the same.
Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 16:14 · Score: 2, Insightful

Portable hard drive...
+1 reliability vs. TheCloud
+1 convenience vs. TheCloud
+1 easy of sharing vs. TheCloud
+1 accessibility vs. TheCloud
I'd take local storage over even infinite cloud storage any day.
Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by Patman64 · 2013-02-21 18:20 · Score: 2

Here, 1 TB of always-available, portable storage for $99.99, perhaps less if you shop around for a discount.
Except for the reliability. And the convenience. And ease of sharing. And accessibility.
And unless you live in Kansas City, you aren't going to be able to fill it up in those 3 years. ;)
Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by ignavus · 2013-02-21 23:27 · Score: 3, Insightful

Here, 1 TB of always-available, portable storage for $99.99, perhaps less if you shop around for a discount.
Yes, portable hard drives are almost exactly like cloud storage. Except for the reliability. And the convenience. And ease of sharing. And accessibility. But besides that, it's exactly the same.
In what universe is the cloud more reliable than a local drive? I can sit in a train in the underground and use my 1TB portable drive with confidence. I cannot get internet access there for love or money. This is a real use case for me. Internet access is only reliable at work and to a *lesser* extent (less in speed and uptime) at home. I cannot even get a 3G signal inside my house, only slowish ADSL2+ (I live more than three miles from my nearest telephone exchange). The cloud is not at all reliable outside those two locations. My portable drive is reliable everywhere, and it is never congested with other users sharing inadequate bandwidth.
The cloud is my biggest reason for not buying a ChromeBook. Gaaah!

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I am anarch of all I survey.
Re:Pricing Is For Cloud Storage by BasilBrush · 2013-02-22 01:10 · Score: 2

If you manually back up regularly. Something I hardly ever do for external drives...
Manually? OSX backs up automatically, every hour. And will include external drives when they're plugged in. Has that functionality not been included in Windows and Linux yet?
Of course you need more total space on your backup drives than the drives you're backing up.
For that, I get to selectively restore any version of any file or set of files from my backups. Does your cloud solution offer that? Or is it just a disaster recovery system?

Carring your external hard drive across a continent and an ocean in your bag and having it be subjected to searches for illegal content when entering certain countries is more convenient than just accessing your files over the web when you get there?
If you have dodgy files, you probably don't want them up on the cloud either.
Personally I'm not always connected to the web, so cloud solutions are worthless to me.

What were they thinking? by Ol+Olsoc · 2013-02-21 11:44 · Score: 3, Funny

"You'll never ever see another pixel in your life," says Chrome VP Sundar Pichai.

Considering that the name is Chromebook Pixel, they might want to rethink that marketing talking point.

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The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.

Re:Well.. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-21 12:28 · Score: 2, Insightful

On if you can hack it ... a way of getting a MacBook Pro workalike

But OSX doesn't support touch screens so that kind of defeats the purpose of buying this machine. You can build a cheaper hackbook.

without giving money to either Apple or Microsoft then I'm for it.

Personally I'm much more concerned about what Google gets from me than either Apple or Microsoft. That's why I'd never use any Android device, and if Chrome were the last browser on earth I'd surf the net with wget.

Developing applications for iProducts by tepples · 2013-02-21 15:49 · Score: 2

If you're not a Mac fan, you generally don't give a fuck about OSX

Developing applications for iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad doesn't require being a Mac fan. It only requires owning a Mac.

Re:lol @ poor people by lxs · 2013-02-21 23:03 · Score: 2

Not for a house. For a facebook terminal it's a lot of money.

Re:wow, that's a ton more expensive than I expecte by Psyborgue · 2013-02-21 23:47 · Score: 2

So far as I know the newer intel integrated gpus all have hardware h264 encoding and decoding built in so full motion video shouldn't be a problem. Benchmarks also indicate the 3d performance isn't horrible, although still not what you'd get from a dedicated solution. For a notebook where battery life is more important than performance, it's a good choice.

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