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Every Upcoming Chromebook Will Run Android Apps (laptopmag.com)

Google announced last year that it will be bringing Android apps to Chromebooks. The company has now announced that moving forward all the new Chromebooks will have access to the Google Play Store, the marquee store for Android apps. From a report: The news comes from a single line of text in Google's list of Chromebooks that can support the programs: "All Chromebooks launching in 2017 and after as well as the Chromebooks listed below will work with Android apps in the coming future." We knew this would eventually come, and now isn't terribly surprising timing. There are more Chromebooks with touchscreens than ever, including the Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA and Samsung's upcoming Chromebook Plus and Pro, all of which were announced at CES in Las Vegas.

30 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasis by bogaboga · · Score: 1

    Why not make an office suite that *is8 actually a pleasure to use? I mean a suite that would give Microsoft's "365" product a run for its money?

    I am yet to find serious office users that find Google's offering that appealing. Is there any?

  2. Re:If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasi by Khyber · · Score: 1

    Nope, Google's offering is not appealing as you never know when they'll stop supporting it. I'd prefer open source office software suites to anything Google might put out.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  3. More ways to spy on you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That is all.

  4. Re:If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasi by CrankyFool · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We're #379 on the Fortune 500 with approximately 3000 employees, and aside from tiny enclaves everyone uses Google Office. I don't know that I'd say that we actually enjoy it, or that it's a pleasure to use, but honestly I don't actually know anyone who'd say that about Microsoft's product either :)

  5. Re:How about running real Linux apps too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    And use Google's influence to make Linux on the desktop a reality.

    You can - simply flip your Chromebook into developer mode, add the crouton extension and script, and following a few simple command line steps you can start downloading a linux chroot to run the apps you want. Best part is the ChromeOS stays up in parallel, so you can flip between your custom linux environment and the user-friendly backstop of Chrome.

  6. The Coming Future? by sjritt00 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Too far out. I guess it is better than the retreating future. Let me know when they can narrow it down to the present future.

  7. Re:How about running real Linux apps too by Luthair · · Score: 1

    Security. One of the nice things for normal people is that Chromebooks are largely devices they don't need to worry about.

  8. Google Store? What About F-Droid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    F-Droid capable or no deal.

  9. I see a problem with this by slashmydots · · Score: 2

    Oh good, now I can run all those mobile apps which almost universally require a touchscreen and tilt sensors, which chromebooks don't typically have.

    1. Re:I see a problem with this by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      It gets worse considering most developers never thought about supporting anything bigger than a ~5" screen. It reminds me of when the first iPad came out and a lot of the apps were just stretched out phone apps, which made them ever worse to use since different buttons would be at far-flung corners of the screen that's no longer within convenient range.

    2. Re:I see a problem with this by l20502 · · Score: 1

      Even cheap HP laptops have sensors that combined with their crappy windows utilities should park the disk heads.
      On linux they appear as a standard joystick which can be used to do anything.

  10. Re:How about running real Linux apps too by bazorg · · Score: 1

    ... and who's going to pay for that?

  11. Re:Nope by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

    I will never by one of these limited peices of garbage.

    Chromebooks are cheap Linux laptops without the Microsoft Tax. What's not to like, except for the lack of meta key?

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  12. Eclipse app and a usable terminal app by SpaghettiPattern · · Score: 1

    The Eclipse app and a usable terminal app and I'm good to go. And a 17'' screen of course.

    --

    I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
  13. Re:How about running real Linux apps too by Luthair · · Score: 1

    One of the biggest sources of problems is people arbitrarily (or being tricked) into downloading stuff and running it.

  14. Re:If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasi by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

    Well, you are Netflix so you would expect everyone to use web based technologies and keep their data in the cloud.

    We are not a Fortune 500 company but I try to use Google as much as possible because it eliminates compatibility issues. We have some spreadsheets that do engineering and software development calculations, for example.

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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
  15. Re:If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasi by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    You can also install LibreOffice on chromebooks if you want a local office toolkit.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  16. Re:If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasi by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    You seriously think Google is going to drop Docs?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  17. Re:all ***NEW*** chromebooks by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    "Latest and Greatest" followed by "apps" does not compute.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  18. Re:If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasi by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    And why is that exactly? Please spell out precisely why using Google Docs will lead to this company's demise?

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  19. Chrome OS Systems Support link by technix4beos · · Score: 1

    Since the article has a broken link to Google's page, here is where Google actually makes this claim: https://sites.google.com/a/chr...

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    user@host$ diff /dev/urandom /dev/uspto
  20. Re:If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasi by alvinrod · · Score: 1

    I think the bigger concern is where the data is being stored and who has access. For some documents there's no way in hell that a company would want them to be stored on someone else's servers or having Google's analytics bots looking at the documents even if human eyes will never see it. I don't know if Google sells the ability to install their office software on the company's own hardware, but I suspect that if they keep developing the product they'll get around to it eventually once they decide to go the same service contract / subscription model route that a lot of other companies are using.

  21. ARM Chromebooks? by unixisc · · Score: 1

    If this is the plan, then can't they make Chromebooks even cheaper by making them from ARM CPUs, and maybe up the RAM and storage a tad?

    1. Re:ARM Chromebooks? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      The first Chromebook was on ARM I think. Another one had the Celeron 847 (x86, sandy bridge, dual core dual thread), it was the Acer C7. Real hard drive (320GB), 2GB built-in RAM and a SO-DIMM slot where you can drop another 4GB or 8GB. So regarding cost (sort of), storage and RAM this little thing did it a bit over 4 years ago.

    2. Re:ARM Chromebooks? by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I visited Best Buy today and went to the Chromebook section. I saw offerings from Acer, Asus and Samsung, and all of them were based on either the i3 or the Atom or some other Intel CPU, not ARMs.

  22. Re:Found the LUDDITE! by Mr_Trebuchet · · Score: 1

    LUDDITE Linux doesn't run appy app apps! It only runs LUDDITE software!

    There is a flavor of Linux devoted to smashing large format knitting frames? How oddly specialized. But then again, I guess Open Source software is truly extensible to meet user needs, so why not?

  23. less confusion by smithcl8 · · Score: 2

    If nothing else, at least this will eliminate some confusion in terms of selling Chromebooks. Most of the folks I recommend them for are basic users anyway, and many of them have smartphones already. Having to explain that they can't run the same Android apps as they can on their phones, when both devices have something to do with Google, is a pain.

  24. Re:Nope by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

    I'm generally finding little difference in price between Chromebooks and low end Windows laptops - compare HP's "Stream" series, for example.

    It's also a lot simpler to install Ubuntu et al on a cheap laptop built for Windows than on a Chromebook. I've done the latter, and it's an, uh, interesting experience. Having to patch the BIOS was my favorite part I think. Also awesome was the fact it forgets there's a partition with a non-ChromeOS operating system on it if the battery runs out, so you have to boot into ChromeOS and set a flag to remind it its there.

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    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  25. Re:How about running real Linux apps too by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't say they're simple steps, and Crouton suffers from trying to run both operating systems at once, which can only be done by heavily patching the "guest" operating system, which in turn means only supported revisions of specific distributions are supported - and the only in some configurations. Want to run Cinnamon? Don't even try.

    (There's also very little reason to suppose this provides any real benefits to users either. Why would you want ChromeOS if you're already running Ubuntu? ChromeOS is bare bones GNU/Linux with Chrome as the UI, and Chrome runs fine under Ubuntu.)

    Crouton exists mostly because it's awkward to install a "real" Ubuntu instance on a Chromebook, and so the authors figured that maybe getting bits to Ubuntu to work under the already running ChromeOS kernel might be "good enough". It's an illustration of the problems with Chromebooks, not indicative that Google has some kind of solution to "Linux on the desktop".

    I'm not saying Chromebooks are bad, or even that you shouldn't buy one to run Ubuntu/etc (but use chrx, and be aware that the experience of installation is suboptimal, requiring BIOS patches and barely documented control key combinations at boot) - they can run more open distributions of GNU/Linux, and if you like the hardware, then go for it. But this "Crouton proves its awesome" stuff is overblown. Crouton is a smart, interesting, hack to workaround a problem, but it's probably not going to deliver what the average "I want to run Fedora/Ubuntu/Mint/Debian/CentOS" Slashdot GNU/Linux user wants.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  26. Re:If I were Google, this is where I'd put emphasi by Khyber · · Score: 1

    Given the still-shitty importation and no signs of it improving any time soon? Yes.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.