New blow for Microsoft Surface: Touch Chromebooks 'on sale in 2013'
Google has developed a new touchscreen Chromebook that will be out this year, claim industry sources. It's the latest story to surface about a touch-driven netbook powered by Google's Chrome operating system, which is based on open-source Linux. A video leaked earlier this month appeared to be an advert for a touchscreen Google …
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Re: What's a Microsoft Surface?
Shiny and bald, rounded- a bit sweaty.
and yet...
Everyone's looking for the next form factor... The next demographic shift. Yet, the average consumer still hasn't caught up with the last one.
Eadon. Unfortunately for you, Microsoft will continue on. Well past your inevitable rage based heart attack.
Re: and yet...
No not everyone's looking for the next form factor. I'd have been extremely happy with a couple of the older formats but certain software companies decreed I wasn't allowed them.
Its not about catching up - nothing has really changed for a long time except in the marketing world.
I was GIVEN a Chromebook last year...
...and to tell you the truth, I can do more on my Smartphone, than I can on the Chromebook. For my needs...it's totally useless. The one I have is sitting on a shelf next to my copies of MS Bob.
I don't care if this latest one is touch centric or not.
Re: I was GIVEN a Chromebook last year...
@ItsNotMe - this is a new generation - so it might be less useless.
Re: I was GIVEN a Chromebook last year...
maybe it IS You...?
Re: I was GIVEN a Chromebook last year...
I am pretty sure when Windows Phone 8 was announced, you didn't deflect criticism of the present incarnation on the basis that 'this is a new generation - so it might be less useless.'
@hplasm
"maybe it IS You...?"
On many occasions it IS me...but not this time. Just need to run programs that the CB can't, nor can a Surface RT, for that matter. Good for some, not for others. But I also wouldn't purchase a Surface Pro either. Most of the applications I run are not touch-centric...so what would be the point of having either one of them?
And I seriously doubt the new CB will affect Surface sales...such as they are. Two different animals with different purposes. One is an actual computer, and the other is simply a Terminal. Everything old is new again...
Re: I was GIVEN a Chromebook last year...
@cap'n - good point. Usually google stuff improves with generations. Android 4 was better than 3 was better than 2 was better than version 1.
Conversely, with Microsoft there is not that sense of progress. They remove useful features and add poor features at the drop of a hat. There are features in XP that are not in Windows 7, those useful features were killed, and people lament that. To give one example.
Surface killer?
Nope, Surface doesn't need a killer, it commits suicide very well on its own.
But surface pro has software that people actually want to use.
Productivity apps, office apps, development tools and so on. You aren't going to be coding XBox games on a Chromebook.
Blow?
Chromebook sales so far make the Surface look downright successful.
Re: Blow?
Ahhh that must be why I had to wait 4 weeks for one to come into stock after xmas.
Re: Blow?
Yes - Im still waiting for a 128GB Surface Pro as well...
Customer: I get a strange prickling sensation when using the touch screen on my Chromebook
Salesperson: Oh that's nothing to worry about, sir. Google is just sampling your blood so we can give you adverts relevant to your diet, health needs etc...
Or on more serious note. I would rather know what information I am handing over to Google. I don't want them in charge of my whole digital existence. Chromebook would make me (more) paranoid.
New blow for Microsoft Surface?
Maybe for Surface, though I doubt it.
But anything which makes PCs with touch screens gain interest is massively GOOD for MS because their main OS is focused on that.
Re: New blow for Microsoft Surface?
@JDX - You can get MS systems with touch screens now. They are not selling. The reason? Metro. MS was selling tablets before Apple and Google but Apple and Google did it right. It is not the hardware - it is the software.
When I say that, there's another factor too. The brand. The Windows brand is toxic. People think of Windows as something that takes forever to boot, is crippled with crapware and AV systems and runs boring spreadsheets (the work association).
Windows is not cool and people want to be free of it. That factor will work in Google's favour. MS recently attacked Google on the spying / privacy front. whilst such attacks are hypocritical, they're a good tactic.
Re: New blow for Microsoft Surface?
But they are selling?
I was on the at the start of the month, pretty much everyone was swiping away at their laptops? Even at work, the Windows 8 touch enabled laptop is being used in almost every meeting I attend at the moment ( I use an Android tablet instead to get my point across).
Even my bloody daughters and her friends now have these things.
Again, this is to do with hardware, not software. Do you think manufacturers would be making these devices if they were not going to sell?
Isnt there even an Ubuntu build that can use touch enabled laptops as well? If there isnt now, then the release of a touch enabled chromebook will soon spawn one...
Re: New blow for Microsoft Surface?
>People think of Windows as something that ... ... runs boring spreadsheets (the work association).
And games. Games are boring, right? and Photoshop, video editing, CAD, music production... really boring software.
If all you do with a computer is to use a browser to post tedious comments on The Register, it doesn't matter a damn what OS you use.
Re: New blow for Microsoft Surface?
>>You can get MS systems with touch screens now. They are not selling. The reason? Metro
No, the reason is people aren't keen on touch-screen laptops. Possibly for good reason. As a touch-screen UI, Metro is quite fine even if you hate Windows underneath it. If Apple or Google can popularise the touch-PC so it's more common, suddenly MS get what they wanted.
Damn... replied to this as a serious post before seeing it was Eadon.
Google touchscreen?
All your fingerprints are belong to us.
For the love of Beelzebub, when will tech companies understand that:
Tablets / Phones that are used in one hand - touch screens = Good.
Devices with keyboards that sit on a dek or table - touch screens = Bad
No body wants to reach across a working keyboard and track pad like a Zombie to wipe mucky fingers on a screen. Ever!
Although note that first point applies to 10" tablets too (and I agree - at that size, it's less efficient than a mouse, as your hand is moving further, and it's awkward having to hold it at the same time).
At least with PCs, even if they have touchscreens, it's an optional extra, in combination with mouse and keyboard (which yes, Windows 8 still works with - e.g., it's still fastest to launch software by typing the name, than clicking the icon, with both 7 and 8; I assume ChromeOS would work with both too).
>No body wants to reach across a working keyboard and track pad like a Zombie to wipe mucky fingers on a screen. Ever!
I think the idea is that you write your novel on the machine when it looks like a laptop, then you proofread it (or catch up on your favourite TV show) sat on a comfy chair when it is in tablet mode.
Personally, I'm more connived by the idea of a laptop and tablet working together seamlessly, with the tablet acting as second display and input device.
typing fail
@mark - "fastest to launch software by typing the name"
Yes, IF you can remember the name. If it's something you don't use so often, then you need a GUI.
Suddenly Windows apologists magically think typing is GOOD now that windows requires you to type stuff in to run a program or find a doc. Yet they are terrified of the command line. Suckers.
If it's a GUI that requires you to type to be productive then that GUI is
WINDOWS 8 GUI FAIL!
Re: typing fail
"Yes, IF you can remember the name. If it's something you don't use so often, then you need a GUI."
I feared that would be an issue, but most of the time it's not. Yes, if you don't know the name, you fall back to the GUI, but how is Windows 8 worse than 7 (or indeed XP) in that regard? What platform solves this problem in a better manner?
The "classic" menu did have the ability that you could organise things manually into subcategories making the search faster, but that went away with XP. Also this is nothing to do with "only for touch", if I'm looking through a list for an application, it's just as fast or slow either with touch or mouse.
"Yet they are terrified of the command line."
I'm not. Though typing a name is far easier than using command line. By your logic, anyone who can type words into Google to search should be able to use a command line (or alternatively, you think that typing words into Google is just as hard as a command line, and a better search UI would work purely with a mouse, but oddly not with a touchscreen).
"If it's a GUI that requires you to type to be productive then that GUI is WINDOWS 8 GUI FAIL!"
No, the claim being made is that Windows 8 has abandoned everything other than touchscreens, which are most notable by their lack of keyboard (since a touch UI will still work with a mouse). My example is a counter argument. So which is it - Windows 8 is bad because it only works with pure touchscreens, or that it works well with a keyboard?
@ElsieEffsee: "No body wants to reach across a working keyboard and track pad like a Zombie to wipe mucky fingers on a screen. Ever!"
No body wants to move their hands off a working keyboard just to wiggle a 'mouse' around like a moron. Ever!
Sorry, thought I was in 1984 for a minute there....
Re: typing fail
I'm getting tired of people whining about the start menu. What is call Metro or Modern is really an redesigned and expanded start menu. For those of you who are having difficulty finding programs in W8, just go to the start screen (By either using the start button on your keyboard or using you mouse) and right clicking on the screen. A toolbar will appear at the bottom of the screen with a single button labeled 'All Apps'. Left click on this button and all you programs will be graphically shown grouped by purpose, including system tools. There are more with W8 than any other OS that I have seen. To show administrative tools, move the cursor to the right corner and select settings. Click on tiles and you can show the admin tools on the start screen.
Not sure what to make of the Surface
I did briefly look at getting a Surface but the thing that puts me off the most is that the one I can afford uses Win RT. RT seems like the odd one out somehow because it's the only device so far that uses this operating system and (although I'm not a dev myself) I can't really see developers spending time and money creating applications for such a small market. If the smaller Surface had run Windows Phone 8, I suspect it'd be a more popular choice (although the pricing weighs it down unfavorably versus its rivals).
It's the same problem they had back in Round 1 of the Smartphone Wars, when there was the three-way between them, Symbian and Palm OS. They had the Pocket PC version of their OS (Windows Mobile), the smartphone version that cropped on on the SPV 500 phones and then Windows CE as well. Although Symbian had three different versions as well (Series 60, Series 80 and the very limited Series 90) they had a far larger resource pool to draw from, having several companies chipping in for R&D rather just one alone.
Can someone please call
Eadon's carer? It looks he missed today's session.
Re: Can someone please call
Scroll up? Or are you using a Surface?
Re: Can someone please call
Whoosh! hplasm totally misunderstands someone's post. Again ...
Re: cum?
Means "with" doesn't it? So laptop-cum-tablet means "laptop with a tablet" (or tablet with a laptop) - nearly works.
Re: cum?
In Latin it means with. However, Chambers says (inter alia): 'used in combination to indicate dual function, nature etc. e.g. kitchen-cum-dining room'. So not just nearly but spot on (IMHO).
not bad
I find the windows RT tablet a pretty good device if you do not require all the power that afull fledged OS has.
Seriously slapping around this VS that is just a bunch of crying babies wanting pole position to stay in the lead.
The only way you can do that is presenting the best GUI. So far only Apple and Microsoft have done so.
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