Cr-48

How did you score it?

I got an e-mail the other day saying I was a candidate, filled out the online application and in two days it was sitting on my door step. I'm tempted to take it with me to work today to try the 3g connection for a bit.

It looks like they were going for a prototype/skunkworks look for the pilot program.  I suspect the first ones that come to market will look pretty different.

It's rumored they're giving out 60,000 of them:
http://www.crunchgear.com...y-to-google-from-inventec

There are efforts to track packages and guess if you're getting one here:
http://addicted-gamer.com/cr48-tracker/

Sign up by 12/21:
http://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program.html

Impression time:

Hardware: Won't spend much time on this. You can tell the power of this machine is weak. Watching shows on Hulu is choppy where on my desktop or other laptops is not with the same browser. Maybe a little bigger processor and ram would be good. Battery life is easily 6+ hours so the power tradeoff is there

OS: It's a browser, Chrome, and nothing else. There is no real way to look at file structure or whatnot (a picture editing app does let you upload pictures so I was able to see some structure but no files) but it looks like a Linux base OS. It does boot up fast, <30 sec.

I have used Google services for several years now (Gmail, Docs, Sites, Maps, Earth, Chrome, etc...) so using this has been nothing new. I equate it using a dummy terminal vs a computer. Does it have limitations? yes, but for average use it's fine. The idea is solid for the application.

Does it have problems? yes. It has locked up on me twice, webcam use is iffy, compatibility issues (can't watch Netflix). I'm sure there are others too. But this is expected and I am sure as this becomes more mainstream it will be fixed.

Apps: The idea of an App in a web browser is hard to grasp. They are basically web pages. If done right they present a different view. Amazon is a good example. It's like walking down isles in a store, you see pictures, item label, and price. There are about 15 items on the page and you can scroll up/down and left/right. Click an item and it opens a small window that lets you examine it more. To buy it takes you to the actual web site.

Done wrong and an app is just a bookmark. Is that good or bad? Guess that depends on how you look at it. If you expect more out of an "app" then a bookmark is a waste. If you look at it as a nice visual button to go to a favorite website then it serves it's purpose. Kind of like on the iPhone you can save a webpage to one of the screens for quick access to that page. Not really an app, more of a convenience.

For me, I would prefer this over an iPad. And once the bugs are worked out where it works like it does on my desktop, then it would be a great little companion. I wouldn't expect to play Black Ops or anything like that (that's what the desktop is for) but for most of what I do (and everything I was doing on my laptop) this would be a perfect replacement).

I have some running around today so I will take it with me and see if it is a viable portable solution (to the iPad). It is light, and with a 3g chip built in, it very well could be.

I just had one delivered today!!!

I'm thinking about the laptop when it comes out!