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Google's Pricey Pixel Gets USB-C and a Lower Price
The Register reports that Google's high-end Chromebook Pixel has gotten a few spec bumps, and a lower price. It's still a touchscreen with a resolution of 2,560 × 1,700, but now that screen is backed by 8GB RAM (rather than 4) as a base configuration, and the system is equipped with a Broadwell Core i5 chip, rather than the Ivy Bridge in the first rev. The price has dropped, too; it may still be the most expensive Chromebook, but now it's "only" $999 on the low end, which is $300 less than the first Pixels cost. ($1300, though, gets an i7, 64 gigs of SSD instead of 32, and 8GB of RAM. Perhaps most interesting is that it adds USB type C, and (topping Apple's latest entry) it's got two of them.
I'm a bit disappointed with the 64GB storage.
I would get one of these for as a Linux laptop, but I want 1TB, like my Macbook.
If the wise denizens of /. can tell me I just need to plug thing X into slot Y to get that, I'll send in my order.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Close that parenthesis! I can't take it for much longer, it hurts, please!
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
<sarcasm> Yes, but don't forget, it's running everything through a web browser, so it NEEDS the beefier specs. </sarcasm>
Besides, their next version will be $17,000 and have a fake gold-ceramic housing. Give them credit, though - it'll still be more useful than an Apple watch.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
The pixel is endorsed by Slashdot folk hero Bennett, was coded by female H-1B visa workers, uses the latest technological advances in graphene, interfaces with Tesla vehicles and can end global warming. SystemD makes all of this possible.
Actually that means it runs Linux natively, which is kind of a big draw from my perspective. I'm considering getting one, but will not be running ChromeOS on it if I do.
Being superstitious is bad luck.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
... it only lacks a good web browser.
Right now on my work PC, Excel.exe, which I'm using to reformat the giant big-ass Excel sheets I keep being given by another department into a form I can easily load into our DB, is taking up 14M. Firefox is coming in at 567M (and, to be honest, that's the smallest I've seen it in a while, but OTOH I did restart it recently and it only has a few tabs open.)
So... actually... it makes sense that a device that requires you use the Google office apps rather than native apps, would require you use considerably more memory and power.
Yes, it's ridiculous, but think of it like this: how optimal do you think a Google spreadsheet, implemented over JavaScript, the DOM, and XML, in turn implemented over various abstraction layers that eventually get down to C++ and some kinda linkage to the native widgets of the underlying OS, is, compared to a Microsoft/GNOME Spreadsheet implemented directly in C++, with a little abstraction but not a lot between that C++ and the underlying OS?
TL;DR: A device that forces you to run desktop apps inside a web browser will always need more power than a device that allows optimized apps to run.
Which is probably why we shouldn't be heading in this direction.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
has 16GB, not 8GB, of RAM.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
From what I've seen, web apps and virtualization programs like Citrix deliver 1990s-level-performance on today's processors. All I can think is that at some point someone asked their computer for something, got an instantaneous response back and was terrified. I can imagine that person saying "My God! If my computer responds instantly, how will I take a 20 minute smoke break every 2 hours?" While there's nothing more nostalgia-inducing than watching your UI update with all the speed of a 2400 baud modem, I have to think that companies that don't adopt these solutions will have a huge productivity advantage.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
But is the case 3D-printed?
I don't know. Maybe it works fine as a Linux Machine.
Most Chromebooks have very little local storage. This "high end" Chromebook has 64GB, but 16GB is more typical. They are intended to be used as thin clients, and there many good uses for those. For non-tech office workers, Chomebooks often work well because they are using web docs anyway, and doing "everything in the browser" means it is all on a synchronized and backed-up server. Chromebooks also work well as shared computers for schools. They are cheap (starting under $200), easy to set up (the apps are on the web, not the local drive), interchangeable (you don't have to get the one where you saved your work last time), and somewhat harder to sabotage.
Chrome comes with NaCl plugins for google docs, sheets and other things to make them faster. Yes, google docs and sheets use (I believe mostly) native code when run inside chrome (you can disable the plugins that do that). The javascript is for the other browsers.
You really do not pay extra for the Windows license. Twenty to thirty bucks amounts to 1-2% of the final purchase price.
According to your figures, the minimum people are spending on a computer is $1,000 ($20 == 2%) and up to $3,000 ($30 == 1%).
If you're spending that much, you're more likely buying an Apple laptop, in which case you're not paying for a Windows license.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Nope. You have a fair amount of control as to how much data Google stores, and can tell Google to delete all of your data if you like. See here. I do think Google could stand to do a bit of work improving the interface, and making it more clear that they allow this sort of thing. But they do have pretty good privacy controls.
Even on a Chromebook, you can avoid Google collecting essentially anything connected to you if you simply browse in an incognito window and don't log into Google within that window.
Saying ChromeOS is a 'Linux distribution' is like saying that my iPod Touch runs a version of NextStep.