Chrome OS, What it can and can't do so far

So this has become my beside the bed machine. I have always had a dream of having a laptop or tablet that made it easy to get on quickly to check weather or news or look something up on Google. This netbook fits the bill nicely for that. Plus it isn't a huge machine so it isn't hard to pick up. The fast resume time makes it idea for quick searches and information. So for these tasks I am loving this.

But I love visiting Amazon and digital downloads of  music and books for Kindle (though I do not have a Kindle device, I simply read on screen). The music situation seems to me to be the biggest show stopper, though I admit I had not being able to do Netflix on this device.  But I love music and while I do have an iPod, I actually prefer listening to music on my laptop or PC at work. But it is all duplication of effort. I have to carry my current music on an USB device and copy my current likes to work. If my music was in the cloud and I could use any MP3 player with it, then that would be awesome. Even Microsoft's Skydrive will let me upload music so if Google could hurry up and fix this missing spot or partner with someone to allow me to upload my music library and play it anywhere, that would be awesome. There are rumors of a Google Music store in the works coming first of the year. It seems Google has taken it upon itself to compete against every product Apple or Microsoft come out with.

I used to responsible for anything that ran on a Microsoft platform. My boss would come to me and say, Roy, this runs on Windows so I need you to take care of it. So I was responsible for Exchange, SQL, IIS, System Management Server, and anything that ran on Microsoft platforms, but in the end I had to juggle so much that I could only hit the high water marks and never ever did I have time to ensure things were the best they could be on any one system. I see the same problem for Google. If you try to do everything, you can't necessarily do everything well. Jack of all trades and master of some. That was me and that is the direction Google has been headed for some time.

Chrome OS, about:flags

Okay. so if you haven't come across this feature, try typing about:flags in your Chrome browser on your Cr-48. This gives you additional options like turning on the media player, allow more access to the file system, etc. As it warns these are experimental features. But take a look. I will let you know my results.

about:flags

Chrome OS, lag day

So again I am having strange touch pad troubles. If I click on something, I have to wait a few seconds before any action happens. In fact, it is so laggy at times that I have stop clicking to be sure it doesn't finally "click" and click on a link I don't want to click on. This was after a shutdown and restart.

Chrome OS, The trouble with Mice

So today the mouse has been acting up. The mouse became a highlight bar and wouldn't let me click anything. I kept clicking and eventually it became a pointer again. Also I am still having issues with the pointer not exactly clicking on what I am clicking on. These are minor things. I wish this had a light up keyboard as in the dark it is hard to keep my fingers on the right keys.

I have had some Flash issues like others have reported. But nothing major.

Chrome OS, slow day

The Cr-48 has been slow today. In fact the Chrome browser blew up. I don't know if it is extensions messing it up or what, but it kept locking up and I finally shut it down. Even thought I told it to shut down it didn't feel on start up I had shut it down properly. Wireless performance has been flaky today as well with it. But after the restart it seems to be behaving much better. So today anytime I needed wanted to be on the 'Net, I have used this netbook. It got me to thinking. A friend of mine wants to write a book. What if he had a netbook like this and wrote everything in Google Docs? Then it would save everything he did on the web in the cloud. As I use this device I keep trying to figure out its niche. Where does it make sense? As one blogger said, college students could benefit from a machine like this by putting all their school work in the cloud. But what about a music player? How do I load all my music to the cloud so I can play it anywhere?

I found a way around checking email on my other Gmail accounts on the Cr-48. I crank up an Incognito session and it shells out to a new window which allows me to check my other accounts.

Interesting Chrome links of the day, 12/17/2010

Want to dig into the guts of your Chrome OS Cr-48..
https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/poking-around-your-chrome-os-device

Booting to Ubuntu on the Cr-48 (Dual booting between Chrome OS and Ubuntu intrigues me)
https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/dev/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices/cr-48-chrome-notebook-developer-information/how-to-boot-ubuntu-on-a-cr-48

I like the chrome://service to see the underpinnings a little bit. I am trying to find other switches besides that.

Cr-48: What I have found or discovered so far...

So yesterday I took the Cr-48 to work. I was able to added to the company's guest network but if the device went to sleep, I had to authenticate all over again with the wireless network. I don't have this issue on Windows or Mac based laptops as I stay authenticated all day long. One thought was perhaps it was all the extensions I have added to Chrome to protect my privacy such as it is in this Internet age.  So I disabled all of my extensions, but it made no difference. I noticed on one of the forums and issue with access points that issue certificates and I suspect this is my issue.

In another experiment I wanted to post my pictures to my Blog so I connected my Android based Motorola Droid 2 to the USB port on the netbook. Nothing popped up and recognized it or acknowledged it. Nothing. I had thought while I couldn't put data directly on the laptop perhaps I could upload pictures to a web site by browsing to external storage. Finally I had to connect my  phone to my Mac and upload to Picasawebs so I could add the images of my unveiling to my blog. I will keep working on this. I am hearing rumors of a work around for this, but I haven't seen any write ups yet. I really thought perhaps connecting my Droid to Chrome OS something might work, but no such luck.

I found out today the device has a Bluetooth chip in it, but so far the chip does nothing. Kind of like the bluetooth chip in the early iPod touches, there but with no currently programmed functionality.

I am trying to learn not to hit the trackpad while typing. I keep hitting it while I am typing and moving my cursor around. Speaking of trackpad, this thing has varing degrees of sensitivity. One minute you have to really push to have it click, the next you just barely touch it and it clicks something. Sometimes the right mouse click doesn't work and sometimes it does. Sometimes pointing at something is like trying to play darts, you get close to the target but you miss the bullseye.

I read an interesting article about the usefulness of Chrome OS. It has me thinking, what niche does this device fill? It is along the lines of an iPad. One of the things that appeals to me about the iPad is having a device by the bed I can turn on and instantly see weather and news. I don't have an iPad but I do a cost/benefit analysis in my head trying to figure out how to justify one.  With the Chrome OS netbook, I could do similar. I could have it by the bed, open it up for near instant on, and then go check my weather and news. This is how I start my day every day, with the local news and weather. Then I could quickly check my mail. One issue is I have so many email accounts and many of them are Gmail accounts (I use different accounts for different purposes). But with cookies an issue, I can not easily be logged into multiple accounts at once. I accomplish this on my Droid 2 phone with no issues since it has a Gmail app. But with the netbook, I have only the browser. If had a way to silo each window with separate cookies, then perhaps that would work.

So maybe Chrome OS should drive a table computer instead. Though admittedly Android OS would give it similar abilities. I want to give this device a far shake. I really like the keyboard and the touch pad is livable. I want a device I can watch Netflix on, which currently is a limitation to this device. It plays Pandora okay. The speakers in the device are passable. I want to be able to do Skype on the device too.  I want to be able to upload images from an external device up to the cloud so I can use the images in blogs or for sharing on Facebook. And I want the web cam to have some functionality besides taking my initial picture to put in my logon. I know some of these things will come in time. I can wait.

Remember, this is a beta product. And I am happy to have a chance to pay around with it and help test.

Google Chrome Links

This is a great link about a tear down of the Google Cr-48.

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/google-cr-48-chrome-notebook-teardown/491340

The highlights I was interested in were how big the Flash drive is, 16 Gig.
How much RAM is in the device: 2 Gb.

More to follow.

Chrome OS Netbook: The required by Law Box opening pictures

Okay, so as I visit sites around the web and read different blogs about the Cf-48 netbook (which is what it should be called in my book), I see everyone posts pictures about their unveiling of the netbook from its box. So I guess this is a requirement for me as well.

So here is the outside box. I really like the mouse trap idea.


Here are the warnings about the battery.


The starting instructions...


Screen and keyboard layout info


The netbook in its wrapper inside the box...


The Cr-48 without its battery.


The battery...


The power cord and box


Same thing, different angle


The battery out of the wrapper


Yes, the battery says Mario


Unwrapped...


And now with the battery installed...


The latch


Turn it on and it pops up fast...


Then it asks for language and your network settings...


Terms and Conditions


After that it begins updating...


The screen


Battery came with a partial charge


It's alive, it's alive, it's alive... (check your pop culture references at the door if you don't get that one)


Showing screen size


Let's get it started...


Going through the tutorial


Somehow I missed capturing the login screen. It required me to login with my Gmail account. Note: This system does not want to work with the Enterprise version of Google Apps. It told me my login of that type could not be used with this device for now.

New Adventures in Google: Chrome OS Netbook

Okay. Full disclosure here: I am a Google fanboy. I have been a fan of Google for a long time. I use many Google products and I have tried to utilize as many of Google's products as I could to see if I could indeed live "on the net". At work I have a Google Mini search appliance to search the company's Intranet. I was an early adopter of Gmail back when it was invite only. And I tried my best to find a good use for Google Wave. I am a Google Voice user as well. All this to say, I am a Googler. It is now a proven fact. Today unexpectedly I received a Google Chrome OS Netbook for beta testing. I saw the links to try to apply for one. I really didn't think I would get it but then again, I did. I had this gut feeling I would get one. Why? I don't know.
So I am checking my email and I receive an email from one of my former students of my Linux scripting class. He says that through the Twitterverse someone in my town named Roy was getting one. So he assumed it was me. Well, as I hadn't heard from anyone from Google about this, I didn't figure the announcements had happened yet. Even stranger I had taken a vacation day to work on finishing up the grading in my Fall classes as they are due on Friday. So when the UPS truck arrives with a package with my name on it, I am shocked.
Having seen the screen shots and read the articles that have been coming out of the various tech blogs and magazines, I knew what the box looked like and I have seen the screenshots. So in keeping with that, I took a lot of pictures on the opening of the package.

I will document my adventures with this netbook in this blog so stay tuned..