I was super excited that when I got home yesterday my Chromebook was sitting on my doorstep fresh from the shelves of the closest Amazon fulfillment center (Google gave them to Google I/O attendees and used Amazon to get to everyone, smart!).
After opening the box, I was pleasantly surprised with the size and weight of the Chromebook! At first glance it seems like the perfect size and weight. Not as tiny and compact as a netbook, like an Eeepc (eeew), or too big like a Macbook.
The first Bootup was fast. Not instant, but fast! And after a pretty quick software update and Google login, I was in!
My first impressions: This is a pretty big paradigm shift.
All you have is a browser, which is really all you really need anymore. Whether people realize this or not is another story which will determine the success or failure of ChromeOS.
At home, all my wife and I do at this point is check email, read (blogs, news, twitterz), share pictures of our daughter with family, and some light blogging/word processing/spreadsheeting tasks.
For these tasks, so far, the Chromebook seems perfect! (especially at free.99)
Already I realize that I cant haz codez at home, but that is the only real limiting factor I have seen so far.
The Chromebook seems to be the best in between for a work computer and a tablet.
This is some interesting insight from Albert. At first I thought the Google +1 was an interesting idea, a little but of a little brother, tag-a-long move, but an interesting idea, at least as an experiment.
BUT, what Albert points out is VERY interesting. Google is admitting that implicit data signals are seemingly not enough anymore. Could the underlying signal of this move be that something might be rotten in the state of denmark? Probably not, but something is up, and it’s more than just a new product called +1.
continuations:
Adding an explicit signal button with +1 is an admission that the implicit data sources are not enough. Clicking on +1 is saying to Google explicitly: I think this is interesting. Now the real challenge for Google will be making this an actually useful signal.
Thanks to Google Tranlsate… really the open source peech synthesizer eSpeak, you can now pick your language and say hello, bonjour, hola, hei, you get the picture.
English
French
Spanish
Finnish
Chinese
Vietnamise
and more!
Giving this a shot… #test
Log in and hear your personal twitter stream or search for something and hear what everyone is saying about it!
Pump up the volume!
Today (or last night) Google added a function to Google Voice that lets you use their voicemail system for YOUR cell phone number, that’s in addition to using their system for your Google Voice phone number (mine is 646-80-SZTUL).
This is their first killer really good add-on.
For the past 6-12 months I have been using YouMail to “host” my voicemail which is nice because it lets me create custom ringtones for people, it emails me my voicemails, AND their is a Blackberry app that gives you a “visual voicemail” system on your phone without having to go through my providers service (read: free vs paid). YouMail has been great but since I started using Google Voice, I have found it redundant having two apps hosting two different voicemail systems.
In steps Google to the rescue.
Now, one app, Google Voice, that hosts my cell phone voicemail AND my Google Voice stuff (including SMS!).
The beautiful part… it will work WHEN I switch to Android 2.0! [cough… droid]
Google “ascii art” and you get… ASCII ART!
From Google:
“In experimenting with a number of different landing page layouts, the link to Standard Edition was inadvertently dropped from one of the variations. We are in the process of restoring it and you should see it soon. We have no intention of eliminating Google Apps Standard Edition, and are sorry for the confusion.”
Google Apps for a domain, a service that lets users that own a domain, like say Sztul.com, host email (gmail style), a calander, online documents, a start page and more is now a paid service.
If you go to http://google.com/apps you will see that now it costs $50/user per year after a 30 day free trial. It used to be free (as in beer) for up to 50 users. hmmm…
I guess I am glad I have several domains setup with them already so I seemingly don’t have to pay for anything (as of now).
On the one hand I think it makes sense to have this service as a freemium service (ie a free version and a paid version) BUT I will end this post with saying GOOD FOR GOOGLE! In reality they SHOULD charge for this service. It is a valuable set of tools (an online Word, Powerpoint, Outlook etc) and $50 / user / year is the going rate I guess.
I have been using Google Voice, and previously GrandCentral, for some time now. I don’t use it a lot, but I have been using it to give out to people who I don’t want to necessarily have my actual cell number.
Well, today I did something that will keep me a user for a long time I think… I got a new number:
(646) 80-SZTUL
Thats right, I have a vanity phone number. Take that Facebook/Go-daddy/twitter/etc!
I can’t wait to have a blackberry google voice app or hopefully a iphone app one day!
Call me!
Thinking of going…
This is AWESOME! What a great way to learn and play with AJAX!
