Google To Offer Chrome OS Notebooks For $20/month 277
An anonymous reader writes "Hot on the heels of the $25 ARM computer, Google is to offer a $20 per month package for students, which includes a Chrome OS laptop (like the Cr-48) and an online component, which will likely include a storage bump for a user's Google Docs, Gmail, Picasa Web, and Google Music files. This would serve two purposes for Google: first, Google will be able to expand its existing user base for Chrome OS. For half the price of a typical cell phone contract, students will be able to pick up a netbook with 3G connectivity. Second, Google will be able to test the package offering publicly prior to eventually adding an enterprise version for Google Apps users."
more importantly (Score:2)
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Asian culture is far more like European than African.
Next.
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A common mistake city people make. Another is confusing hillbillies with rednecks. I come from a hillbilly family, but we had a few redneck neighbors.
Same Price as a normal laptop (Score:3)
A basic thinkpad costs around $800
Thinkpads last 7+ years, assuming a useful life of 5 years, cost per year = $160 $20/month
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That was supposed to be "Less Than" $20/month
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Thinkpad R60's were given out to my seniors and some faculty by the college. Right now they are 5+ years old.
Apart from accidental damage, and a few hardware failures covered by warranty most of them are in perfect condition.
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but are they useful? can you load modern software? Can you meet todays needs?
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They do run windows 7, Office 2007 and other basic software without struggling much
Also, you get a 4:3 screen
A RAM upgrade from 1GB to 2GB is all thats needed
Gaming and 1080p are outside their capability I think
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can you load modern software? Can you meet todays needs?
If the answer to any of this is 'no', I'll give even odds that a resource-sucking OS such as Windows is at least partly to blame. Not exactly a problem for Google.
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I'm running modern software and meeting today's needs on a desktop with far lower specs than the R60.
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Then replace the fan, it's all of a $5 part.
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Not to mention the Google netbook seems to include a 3G data plan which would cost more than $20/month all by itself on your ThinkPad.
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And the other shoe drops... >:-D
You're talking more akin to $70-80/mo for it to be even remotely useful- and I can show you places that you could use a Laptop just fine and the Chrome "Laptop" would make for a poor doorstop. (Heh... Somewhere in the middle of the Front Range in Colorado, for example... They'd be usable in most of Estes Park, but in the large, worthless elsewhere along US-36, US-34, CO-7, etc...)
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Not true, You can get 1GB of 3G service for $20. A real 3G plan will come with 5x the transfer.
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Depends on the laptop and what it's being used for. My father is using one of my old laptops, and is quite happy with it. It's being used for surfing, word processing, e-mailing, web development, and has a linux virtual machine with apache/mysql/php to test the webpages he develops. Said laptop has an Athlon 64 3500+ in it and 1GB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive, which should give you an idea of how old it is.
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It has not been my experience that the useful lifetime of a laptop is 5 years, 2-3 for a laptop that is regularly moved day-in-day out seems to be more realistic. Not saying that the machine drops dead after 36 months, just that the life cycle is usually shorter than 5, certainly for college 4 would be a better comparison, you get a computer right before you start school and keep it to the end.
The Cr-48, however, can't match the performance (or come close to the available software library) of the 5-7 year old Thinkpads described in your parent post, however, so I think the comparison is valid. The main thing it brings to the table is 3g "connectivity," which is nice if it means a 3g data plan included in the $20 a month price and not very impressive if it simply means it has a 3g modem but no plan.
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You obviously know nothing about the durability of ThinkPads, and the processors out today should still be quite useful in 5+ years. If you've been paying attention you would notice that the main improvement with newer processors is lower power consumption. How many notebooks can survive being throw into a wall or having liquid poured into the keyboard?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X10MxY_YHCY [youtube.com]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZlANt-vjA [youtube.com]
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Still worthless. If you don't have Internet access, you don't have a Chrome notebook that's usable. That's the problem with ANY "Cloud" premise to begin with- it's only as useful as your access to the 'Net. With a Laptop, I can still do LOADS of things. Yes, there's a risk of losing something if the device is trashed, but what Google's selling isn't any better an answer- and this doesn't get into the security aspects of what they're selling here- or the privacy ones either.
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Google's laptop comes with 3g service.
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How many college campuses do you know of in the USA without 3G coverage?
This offer is limited to students...
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How many college campuses do you know of in the USA without 3G coverage?
This offer is limited to students...
I see no place where they say "college students". I have a kid in high school who'd love one.
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How many high schools do you know of that allow students to use a personal laptop in class? It is considered a distraction.
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who has the money to waste on 3G. on campus wifi is free.
... 3g service is included in the $20 /month rental.
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But you don't get 3G data included with your Thinkpad. That's gotta be worth at least $5-10/month.
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Uh, it said you had a 3G modem in the device- not that this included the plan. There's LOTS of netbooks that've got 3G or WiMax included in the device- but the service doesn't come with the device. Try somewhere along $20-ish per month for the Chrome "laptop" and another $20-50 (or MORE if you're a heavy user...) for the 3G access deal. So, the device is in keeping with a netbook offered by the Telcos coupled with a data plan... Nothing special, and certainly nothing cheaper, really.
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The Forbes article I read said "Google tomorrow will announce sales of the new Chrome laptop in a $20 a month “student package” that combines both hardware and online services, according to a senior Google executive." It wouldn't really make sense any other way.
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Replying to myself -
venturebeat.com says:
"The Chrome laptops will likely feature the same mobile broadband capabilities as the CR-48. That computer shipped with built-in 3G access and included 100 megabytes of monthly internet free for two years. You could also opt for daily unlimited internet for $10, 1 gigabyte of mobile internet for $20 a month, 3 GB for $35 a month, and 5 GB for $50 a month."
I'd say that 100 megabytes per month is worth $5 or so; it wouldn't be good as your only data, but for a student
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If you're using a ThinkPad you bought seven years ago...
eww.
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Mines only 3 years old.. Want to see how long I can drag it on
Have seen operational ones which are 6+ years old (Dont know the exact age/model, but they run Win 95 and have a floppy drive)
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The googlebooks are more netbooks than notebooks, and a good netbook is $300 tops. I'd rather pay that, have local storage and access to my apps while off line... and get to own to hardware and the software, and keep using it for free as long as I want.
Google's announcement combines many things I don't like:
- renting things for a very high monthly payment, which means you could actually buy the thing for only 1 year's worth of rent. Imagine if they did that with appartments. (sorry, couldn't fit in a pizza.
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Imagine if they did that with appartments.
It's not comparable; 1 year is around 1/4 of the lifetime of a laptop, while a house lasts for decades.
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But who wants an $800 ThinkPad that has none of the options? A decently configured ThinkPad T-Series will run you $1500 or so (less if you use a coupon during a sale). That comes out to $25/month over 5 years, and you can actually get stuff done with the machine.
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I really doubt i3 based machines with 4GB RAM are going to be useless in 5 years..
Re:Same Price as a normal laptop (Score:4, Insightful)
not worth it (Score:4, Interesting)
i have a beta cr-48 and haven't used it in months. even my wife rarely uses it anymore unlike her iphone.
it's OK and pretty fast but completely useless unless you have a network connection. ipad runs rings around it in hardware quality and functionality.
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What exactly does the 48 do that is so fabulous and amazing? Pretty much any netbook can run a web browser (which is about the sum total of functionality of the Cr-48).
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$240 a year is free? and they are making you pay for current free services
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So if I put an ipad in a $65 keyboard/case, what exactly is it that the 48 does that makes it better? I have a netbook, and I certainly think that for what I use it for a tablet would be better.
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The problem here is that it won't. The laptop is essentially free and the 3g data plan it comes with for $20/month would cost you $50-80/month to get it some other way.
K12 (Score:4, Interesting)
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What about a Thinkpad with the corporate management features and a 5+ year lifespan?
At $800 it works out to $160 per year
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Indeed. However...it's nothing special. No access, no use. With a Thinkpad, you're going to have it's use and a lot more capabilities for that slight increase in expense. With the Chrome "laptop", you'll need 3G/WiFi access to use it- period. And if you think that you're getting it, including the 3G for $20-ish per month, I've got a bridge to sell you. Only slightly used and it's cheap.
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Have you thought of the legal implications of turning over all those minors' data to a third party?
I just bought something better (Score:3, Insightful)
A $300 netbook that I can use for $0/month! That's right, ladies and gents, zero dollars per month!
And that's not all. It's even capable of storing up to 320 GB of data INSIDE the device itself! How amazing is that? You can carry your data right along with you, and not have to depend on "the cloud" or have problems with their data breeches.
If I keep it for 5 years, that's $1200 saved compared to a $20/month plan. And since I have both 802.11 and a cell phone anyway, I can still get network connectivity anywhere.
It's a damn amazing thing, I tell ya what.
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I doubt that Google is going to let you have this thing for only 2 months at a time.
You won't keep it for five years. (Score:2)
So your math isn't realistic. This is a dumb terminal for $20/month. I can give you a shovel, and you might find an old Televideo in a landfill some place that might be adaptable to WiFi.
Google believes convenience is going to rule, but there's little compelling for $20/month.
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Yep. Amazing, isn't it? My Nook's in the same class of tool. And, we won't get into my Iconia Tab, or my netbook (Heh...) or the Laptop I've got. Sorry, I wish people wouldn't gee-whiz over this stuff. Seriously. You can actually GET the same basic deal Google's peddling with your described setup plus 3G/4G access for $150-200 purchase and $50/mo. If you subsidize it via credit card, it ends up being...wait for it...$20/mo for the life of the service contract and a $50/mo service contract from ANY of
Re:I just bought something better (Score:5, Informative)
I think you're missing something important with this.
It's $20/month/user for K12 and College, and $28/month/user for businesses. With this you get an auto-upgrading OS, warrenty and support, and hardware upgrades as the hardware gets old. So in 2-3 years when your current laptops are old, they will send you new ones for all your users. Because everything is stored online, the upgrade is nearly seamless for the users.
As well, this includes "domain" management for all the laptops you buy this way. As an IT admin, you manage all the laptops you get this way, setting up users, policies, and other junk that IT admins have to deal with.
This is a lot more than a stand alone laptop.
(Note: I'm at Google IO right now and I'm getting one of these things for free, so I may be influenced by the magic).
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Are you getting a Cr-48, or one of the production units?
If it's a production unit, what are your impressions?
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It'll be one of the production models (not sure which). But they are going to be sending us info on or around June 15 (when everyone else gets them) with a voucher or something. We aren't getting them today.
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It's a production unit, but people at the conference don't actually get them for another month.
CS/SE majors? (Score:2)
It's $20/month/user for K12 and College
But how well would it work for students majoring in software engineering or computer science?
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Awesome! (Score:2)
Now you just need to make sure you never lose your connection to the internet, otherwise you're screwed.
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You can use it without a connection, you know. Of COURSE you loose features that require web access..just like every other fucking device.
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No, with HTML5 LocalStorage you can have the application working with a small cache, like they did in the days of Google Gears.
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Necessity (Score:2)
As an owner of a Chrome OS laptop, the only way I'd get one of these (or recommend it to a friend) is if they came with unlimited 3G. The 100mb cap is not nearly enough.
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Is that per day?
I hope so.
Proof? (Score:2)
Is Chrome OS still around? (Score:2)
I thought they would give it up after the lukewarm response to their beta devices.
That's Google for you, not afraid of failure--even when it's staring at them squarely in the face.
-dZ.
Ellen 2011: (Score:2)
I was writing a paper on the PC^W Google laptop, and it was, like, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep^W^W^W^W^W Google Docs crashed, and then, like, half^W all of my papers was gone. And I was, like ? meh. It devoured my paper. It was a really good papers. And then I had to do it^W them all again and I had to do it^W them fast so it^W they wasn't as good. It's kind of^W^W^W really a fucking bummer.
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I've been curious for a while, but have to ask
What does ^W mean??
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It's like ^H but for the entire word.
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And, whats ^H ?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backspace [wikipedia.org]
I forsee a new reality show (Score:2)
One where they film people going around repossessing laptops.
Some of my classes (Score:2)
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And so google misses the mark. All that strategizing, and they miss the fact that canada needs flying moose.
Re:And for Canada? (Score:4, Funny)
No. Canada does not need flying moose.
But Moose needs Flying Squirrel!
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You Canadians build your homes out of snow and drape yourselves in nothing but beaver pelts to stay warm. With no electricity, what in god's name do you need computer network services for, eh?
Re:And for Canada? (Score:4, Funny)
What's Canada?
Is that near China?
Does it have money?
Re:And for Canada? (Score:5, Informative)
The second largest nation on earth.
Canada is above the US in every possible way.
Yes, and it is worth more that US currency.
I know you were trying to be funny... Try harder next time.
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>The second largest nation on earth.
How much of it habitable? By bikini models?
>Canada is above the US in every possible way.
I'll inform Alaska of your Northocentrist worldview.
>I know you were trying to be funny... Try harder next time.
If Woody Allen can say he's not an artist, then I'm comfortable saying I'm not a comedian.
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What's Canada?
Probalby it's the country you call Canuckistan.
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Sara Palin can see it from her front yard.
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That would make it one of the few things for which she doesn't have a massive blind spot.
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Sarah Palin never said she could see another country from her yard, that was Tina Fey on SNL. What she did say, and is true, is that you can see part of Russia from one of the Aleutian Islands. Not that facts matter to Democrats, all they ever do is name call because they are incapable of critical thinking and just blindly do what their party tells them to. In fact I have yet to meet a Democrat who actually knows what it was that they voted for.
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What's Canada?
Sorry, the answer is classified. Or nobody knows. We're not sure.
Is that near China?
Not really, but its only land border is with a large authoritarian police state which often ignores international law.
Does it have money?
Well, they have Loonies... which is better than the stuff used by that police state.
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Re:what next... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, if you believe you're losing nothing of value by granting Google access to all of your data, as well as a transferable, non-revokable, worldwide license-in-perpetuity to exploit all of your data as they see fit, it'll be totally free.
But honestly, with this plan, you're already granting Google a frightening level of control and access into every facet of your data... and paying them $20 a month for the privilege. I suspect Google will keep charging people a nominal fee, simply because they can.
Wait, no, I meant to say, "Yay Google, everything Google does is for the benefit of mankind because they mouth trite platitudes about not being evil. If they say it, they MUST mean it!"
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Can't we have a discussion about [dictator] without [deaths] being raised?
We can, but expect any positive points about [dictator] to be put in the context of [deaths].
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While I have no doubt that Google's rapacious desire for information rivals the wildest dreams of Honecker and Goebbels combined, all I was saying was that you can't expect anyone making an honest appraisal to ignore the elephant in the room. To do so brings to mind the sort of ridiculous fanboyism you get for the most extreme ideas, where adherents can't stop mentioning the positives but refuse to acknowledge the negatives.
Also, every few years I've returned to /. and created a new UID. I think I first pos
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The only Godwinning has been done by yourself. Perhaps all geeks are fairly ignorant outside their field and can't think of any dictator except Hitler, so they insultingly simplify the experience of the hundreds of millions who have lived under dictators other than Hitler. Or perhaps it's just you.
By showing how ridiculous the behaviour of fanboys are, akin to cultish followers of an inhumane political philosophy who refuse to see or hear the negative, I appear to have received fairly angry responses. If yo
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Fanboyism has the same characteristics whether it's applied to Kirk vs Picard or Libertardianism vs Fascism. Sometimes a point is best made by finding the most extreme example which doesn't cause the audience to have a seizure.
The Internet is not serious business, so people online who "OMG how can you compare that to _____ that's so insensitive!" are either very new, trolls or a bit silly.
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If you're asking "can we talk about Google without talking about reprehensible data mining?" the answer is no. Next question.
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