ChromeOS and Me

Just three days ago, a mysterious package arrived at my door. It came from an unfamiliar name in Kentucky. Being near Christmas, I thought perhaps my wife ordered something online for me, so I set it aside for her when she got home. She inspected it when she arrived and was equally confused by the box and return sender address. I insisted I didn't order anything, so she started opening it. Inside, she found another cardboard box with a graphic on it.

Well that's... interesting. Baffled, she brings it to me. I inspect the box and notice the lithium-ion warning on the bottom. After a moment of trying to figure out what in the world it could be, I remembered the ChromeOS pilot program form I submitted no more than a week earlier. Thanks, Google!

In the last three days, I've been doing my best to include the CR-48 ChromeOS notebook into my day-to-day life. It's really such a handy companion. The 12" form factor and super lightweight design makes it easy to lug around with you everywhere. It's thin, minimal, and does exactly what it's supposed to. The roughly 13-second boot-up time and a hair over 1 second wake-up time means the CR-48 (Mario) will be at your beck and call at a moment's notice. I can get to the web faster by waking up the CR-48 than I can by waiting for my Android's web browser to load, and that's impressive. Did I mention roughly 10 hours of battery life? Especially on the cusp of utter battery failure in my Dell Inspiron (with a mind-blowing 10-15 minutes of battery life), the CR-48 has reopened the doors to anytime quick access to a computer. I don't have to worry about hunting for a power cord.

The hardware is impressive for a test platform. The keyboard feels great, screen resolution is impressive (higher than my 15" Dell!), and the integrated microphone and webcam are a nice addition. I've heard this thing has bluetooth, but there doesn't seem to be a way to utilize it in the OS yet. The touchpad is almost identical in size to the Macbook touchpad's area and features only a single clicking button nestled below the touchpad's flush surface. On the left edge, the CR-48 notebook features only a VGA port, a vent, and the left speaker. On the right resides the charging port (would have preferred this on the back), USB port, headphone jack, MMC/SD card slot, and the right speaker.

The CR-48 isn't without it's problems, however. Although very light and thin, it can feel somewhat flimsy. Every time I use the tap-to-click on the touchpad, there's an unpleasant "thud" as the case impacts the internals. A few extra screws and maybe a mil or two thicker materials aught to solve that easily enough though. The touchpad itself is also a nightmare. The area above the touchpad's button is motion sensitive. Imagine laying your finger flat on any laptop touchpad, then roll to the tip of your finger without lifting up; the cursor will move. That's what happens on the CR-48 when you depress the button. Dragging and/or selecting groups of things is equally painful at times as the multi-touch results in a jumpy cursor and if you're not careful, resting an extra finger on the touchpad renders it useless. The display also seems far too cool and the contrast is washed out on all but the brightest settings which can strain your eyes indoors. Considering this is what you're looking at the whole time you're using it, some improvement on the display would be a godsend.

What about the software? I think I'll wait for another blog post to go further in depth on that subject so I can better elaborate. I already expressed my concern that Google's lineup of web apps aren't ready for the concept of ChromeOS, so I'll revisit that idea later. Keep an eye on my Google Chrome OS Notebook set on Flickr as I update it with notable shots as I discover new things.