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posted by on Saturday April 04 2015, @04:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the even-more-to-love dept.

Google announced an Asus “Chromebit” HDMI stick running Chrome OS, plus four new low-cost Chromebooks, and opened its Android-to-Chrome OS app porting tech.

Google took the Linux and Chrome browser based Chrome OS a step closer to a potential convergence with Android as it announced the first embedded form-factor Chrome OS computer, as well as the most affordable touchscreen Chromebook yet. Google also opened up its App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) technology for porting Android apps to Chrome OS to all Android app developers, and revealed a beta Chrome Launcher 2.0 with greater integration of Android’s Google Now application.

The Haier Chromebook 11 and Hisense Chromebook — two 11.6-inch models aimed at educational and emerging markets — each go for $149, down from a previous Chromebook low of $199. The convertible, touchscreen-enabled Asus Chromebook Flip sells for $249, which is $30 cheaper than the touch-ready Acer C720P-2661 and $50 less than the $299 HP Chromebook 14 G3.

All four Chromebooks integrate the HD-ready RK3288SoC, as well as 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 16GB of eMMC flash, a microSD slot, an HDMI port, dual USB 2.0 ports, 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.0.A front-facing 720p camera is also available, as well as 100GB of free Google Drive storage for two years.

 
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  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2015, @01:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05 2015, @01:53PM (#166658)

    That's mostly for security. Some people are their own worst enemy when it comes to computer use and would blindly follow almost any instruction that circumvents security to install malicious software, I'm not suggesting that they know what they are installing is malicious, just that they will install anything if it promises something they want.

    If Google REALLY didn't want you getting into the system they wouldn't even have that switch on them.

    That was worth mentioning though, for those who are unaware.

    What puts me off Chromebooks more than that is that their keyboards have had a few too many keys removed, I could lose a few of the Fkeys but other than that I use pretty much every key on my current netbook.

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  • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Sunday April 05 2015, @06:04PM

    by JNCF (4317) on Sunday April 05 2015, @06:04PM (#166711) Journal

    If Google REALLY didn't want you getting into the system they wouldn't even have that switch on them.

    I'm really not sure of that. It's interesting to me that some models have metal pins that you have to make a connection between instead of a switch. Maybe this is meant for when they're putting the BIOS on in the factory, and whether they have a switch or a couple of pins is a decision on the part of the hardware manufacturer? Google could still be purposefully putting a barrier between the user and a clean OS so that they can continue being Google in your computer, and just not care enough mandate what kind of hardware write-protection the manufacture puts in. Or maybe they think a mandate could potentially be bad PR. I certainly can't model Google's decision making processes accurately, and I can't rule out the possibility that the barrier between the user and a clean OS is strictly a matter of user security... but it seems fishy. Google has a very obvious motive to not want their OS removed.