(2011-05-12) Chrome Os Laptop Announced

Google announced the first two Google Chrome OS Lap Top-s, coming from Acer and Sam Sung. The internet giant said because ChromeBook-s are not weighed down by software and applications common to most laptops, they boot up in eight seconds instead of minutes. The company said battery life on the device will last a day, security updates will be done automatically and they will be faster than traditional laptops. I rarely boot up my MacBook, since the sleep function works right. They're also offering a financed version at $28/mo. This smells like it's more for employees who rarely doing anything deep with any apps (so GoogleApps cover them fine), rather than a consumer market where games are important. Hmm, they're also offering at $20/mo for schools (Educating Kids) - that could have some uptake, though again, I want those kids using more creative tools...

Or you can buy a cheaper NetBook and install ChromeOS on it.

Michael Mace thinks they have no chance because they've screwed up GoogleDocs so badly. Rather than doing the unglamorous work of competing with Office, the Docs team seems to be chasing after the latest shiny new startup category. Google says those sexy features were high-priority requests from Docs users, but if so that just shows what's wrong with Google's development process... I know, I fought this battle extensively at Apple. There's a reason why apps have long feature lists -- the feature count drives sales.