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Chromebook Gets "OK Google" and Intel's Easy Migration App
An anonymous reader points out that Chromebook users just got a couple of early gifts. "Chromebooks have had a good run thus far in their history, and most recently they've had a stellar year of sales – famously beating out Apple's iPad. However, Google is not stopping there, as the company has decided to include and integrate 'OK Google' into their Chromebook tablets. As it turns out, the feature was possible all along with the code that had been included in the operating system, but was hidden well from users' direct line of sight. Intel has also shown a lot of support for Chromebooks, and the company has now released the Easy Migration app that will fittingly migrate data between Windows devices, iOS devices, and Android devices. The only catch is that users will have to be running a Chromebook that hosts an Intel processor. Intel has provided a website to check if your device is compatible, but it will surely be a significant hit for the Chromebook."
What are those? I know about chromebooks and I know about Android tablets.
What is that?
Internet says it's voice commands, I don't have a smartphone.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
Replying before you get modded into oblivion for bringing facts to the discussion that don't go with the bought-and-paid-for narrative that Google is winning everywhere.
Just saying, someone is going to ding you for posting a story that is pro-Apple from AppleInsider. Never mind that he uses the market research from companies that are constantly fudging the numbers in favor of Apple's competitors to make his point...
My nine year old figured out how to get the "Ok Google" voice recognition working on our Chromebook months ago. He barely bothers typing searches anymore- instead I get to hear his entire search history. I don't think he got far enough into the settings to hit the combo mentioned in the page
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Google is paying IDC a LOT of money to juggle the numbers to show one tiny slice of the market where Google succeeded. Google is not beating Apple with tablets anymore than Apple is beating Google with online services. If they were, you would see Google chrome books and tablets everywhere and the rare spotting of an iPad. Also, every fanboy (Google or Apple) deserves to post whatever they want. Simply put, the narrator of this post didn't do his research, Google is not beating Apple on the notebook or tablet front. Google does own anything search, online apps, maps, etc.. And thats saying a lot.
I've read your reponse three times and it looks like you're responding to an entirely different claim:
Their claim: Chromebooks out-sold iPads.
Your apparent rebuttle: Apple's combined laptops and tablets outsold laptops and tablets running Google platforms in one sector, education, according to an Apple advocacy site.
Their claim may be easy to knock down, I don't know: it's unsourced, and it certainly sounds a little odd (the iPad is a remarkably popular platform, for it to be beaten by something most people seem to have never heard of seems strange and is either wrong, or we've severely underestimated the Chromebook's widespread appeal), but you don't appear to address it in any way whatsoever, and the argument you do make lacks a credible source.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I took a couple of freshman college classes recently(changing major) and I see 3x types of devices in the classroom: 50% Windows Laptops 25% Mac Books 25% Chromebooks
For clarification: that's 0% Apple iPad and 0% Android Tablets.
Cell phones are 50/50 mix of iPhones and Android(usually Samsung).
The only time I ever see iPads in public are people taking awkward photos at tourist hotspots and middle aged business people watching movies on flights. The only time I ever see Android tablets in public are guys with pocket protectors, and poor foreigners(non-english speaking) on flights. At-least as common are kindles and nooks, which I don't count as tablets or Android devices but "eReaders"(regardless of OS foundation).
People get tablets as presents and then quickly realize they want an eReader or Chromebook for the supposed use case they fill. Their battery lives are shit. That's it actually, but that's enough.... Nobody is going to remember to charge a 4000mAh tablet battery off a 1000mA wall charger just so they can get 2 hours of use from it on the airplane. Tablets also have shitty keyboarding experience which for power users is immediately obnoxious, and for everyone else comes as an epiphany when they are lying in bed with their tablet and want to write an email. They frown, think about it, and walk in to the other room to get their laptop out of their bag. From that point forward, their tablet stays in/on their nightstand(sometimes even plugged in to it's charger!) to be ignored until it's so out of date to be embarrassing.
Average hours of use before a tablet becomes a forgotten toy? Answer: ~10
I've owned 3x tablets, 3x netbooks, and a chromebook. The tablets were universally unsatisfying. While the netbooks had their "time in the sun", the idea of "mobile" Windows 7 is sort of laughable to me at this point because the only "mobile" application I use is a web browser.
That is why Chromebooks were invented! I "powerwash" the damn thing everytime I'm about to go through airport security, connect to the shadiest Free WiFi hotspots, and am totally unconcerned with drive by downloads, MITM attacks, malware, trojans, updating Java, installing browser updates, or having my online banking credentials stolen. Chromebooks are the recognition that 98% of all mobile computing is a web browser, so why waste battery life on an x86/x64 processor, or time/energy worrying about or cleaning up malware infections?
2x types of people who need more than a cell phone when they're on the go: iCloud sheep(get an iPad), or people who would benefit from a Chromebook. I'm technically ignoring people who could benefit from a Microsoft Surface, but as a Windows phone owner(I like it better than any of my Android devices except when I'm traveling abroad) I can honestly say that Microsoft Surface shouldn't even exist. Windows will NEVER be energy efficient enough to power a mobile device. They would be better off releasing an "Explorerbook" that was nothing but Internet explorer and a remote desktop'ing app for dialing in to a Microsoft Azure ("RemoteApp"?) or Amazon Workspaces account.
CLOUD!
The Chromebook old sold the iPad in schools for 1 simple reason. Economics. The Chromebook costs $200 while the iPad costs $500. The Chromebook also has a lot of other nice thing going for it in the school environment, such as being able to actually type up a document on it without spending even more money to purchase a keyboard. That, and students can log into any Chromebook and instantly bring up their own account with their own files. In my kids' school, they no longer have a computer lab. When they need to use a computer to type up a document, they get one of the Chromebooks, log in, and start typing. It's very easy for the school because they don't need a Chromebook for every single student because they are so easily shared, and they don't have to worry about managing a bunch of Windows boxes with file servers and all the pain that goes along with that.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
No. The real kicker is the Apple fanboys calling Education an "obscure niche" as soon as someone else gives them a bit of competition.
Even if you take the revised numbers provided by Apple partisans at face value, it still doesn't bode well for Apple. They are seeing stiff competition from a surprise "Dark Horse" product that no one would have ever expected capable of this.
They can try and spin things as much as they like but it won't really change the reality of the situation.
Education has long been thought of as an Apple stronghold which is why anyone cares about this.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you have an appropriate Android device Google Now will (apparently) display information based on your current context (e.g. if your phone learns where work and home are it might display information about traffic jams on the route home around the time it believes you will be traveling). You need a logged in Google account to use this feature.
OK Google is a way of using your voice to interact with your device (or Chrome web browser). So if I have the appropriate phone and it's been set to listen I can say "OK Google" and it will activate an app/mode where it will accept further voice input. On the Android phone I saw (and in my Chrome web browser on OS X) I can then ask it "What's the weather like?" and it pops up some weather related information and speaks back "It's ten degrees in ". Sometimes when you ask it questions just does a web search other times (on the device) it would start applications (e.g. mail) and so on. You do not need to be logged into Google to use this feature.