Chromebooks - latest news and discussion

[pesh]

so MacBooks 15% share, Chromebooks 12% share then?

this thread is up there with KE's Apple Maps one for unbiased accuracy.

 

[editor]

so MacBooks 15% share, Chromebooks 12% share then?

The thread title came from a widely reported study and in case you've missed, it, the specific area it related to and the accuracy of its findings has since been discussed at length.

Any comment on the rise of Chromebooks in education in the US?

*Edit: actually, I will alter the title for accuracy. I trust the new title pleases you.

 

[editor]

Samsung are looking for a piece of the UK Chromebook action.

Samsung bets Chromebook use to grow 4x in 2014

Read more: http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/21449/samsung-bets-chromebook-use-to-grow-4x-in-2014#ixzz2rPjPHV2I

Samsung is expecting the use of Chromebooks in UK schools to explode during 2014, as the firm aims to replicate its consumer market success in the education sector.

Chromebooks are expected to be the biggest growth area for the Korean electronics giant’s education devices this year, Ben Brown, education business manager at Samsung told IT Pro.

“We’ve seen massive uptake of Chromebooks in general - in the US usage is at 20 per cent after two years and in the UK it’s 3 per cent in 12 months,” he explained.

“In 2014, the demand for Chromebooks is expected to quadruple in the UK.”

It is estimated there are 25,000 Chromebooks being used in UK schools, with Brown claiming Samsung has cornered 90 per cent of the market - which includes other heavyweights such as Acer, HP, Lenovo and now Dell.

Brown explained Chromebooks have proven popular with schools for three reasons: the low cost of ownership, security and collaboration.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/21449/samsung-bets-chromebook-use-to-grow-4x-in-2014

 

[xenon]

I want to get hold of a Chromebook to try the Chrome Vox screenreader. I tried *Chromium OS (Not Chrome) in a VM briefly the other day but the speach didn't really work. Probably something to do with drivers or buffering.

*. There's a blog detailing how you can turn the Chromium VMWare image into Chrome but I couldn't do it at the time.

 

[pesh]

interesting article that might be relevent to some here, regarding configuring Chrome for better webcam / mic security

http://boingboing.net/2014/01/24/how-to-configure-chrome-to-sto.html#more-282653

Under Chrome's security model, a website that gets your permission to access your mic and camera once keeps it forever, regardless of which page is loaded -- so you might authorize an app running on one page of Github to use your mic, and thereafter, every Github page you visit can listen in on you automatically, without you getting any indication that this is going on. Google maintains that this is the right way for Chrome to behave -- that it complies with the relevant W3C standard.

Google has created a fix for this, but have not pushed it to Chrome users. If you want to protect your camera and mic from sneaky or unintended remote operation and you use Chrome, you'll need to take some extraordinary measures, which are laid out in this Lifehacker post.

 

[slainte]

Well interesting considering that IF you don't run developers mode Chrome OS is to date quite unhackable and there is even a price offered by Google if you can...http://www.esecurityplanet.com/network-security/chrome-os-unhackable-at-pwnium-3.html

For those whom don't click on links and fancy themselves as capable of cracking Chrome OS ....here is a nice price

"Google offering a total of $3.14159 million in bounties, entrants couldn't demonstrate a working exploit on the Series 5 550 target machine," writes Engadget's Jon Fingas."

 

[slainte]

Further to this ...compared to Internet Imploder..sorry I do mean Internet Explorer even Firefox and the Chrome Browser itself (as ported to other non Chrome OS platforms ) were hacked..here the extract

Chrome OS found unhackable at Pwnium 3

Chrome OS found unhackable at Pwnium 3
Hackers were unable to exploit Chrome OS at Google's Pwnium contest
by Omar Qudsi, 2013/03/09

<Ads removed>

HP's Pwn2Own competition is an annual contest held at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, where hackers attempt to exploit various browsers while competing for cash prizes. Furthermore, Google has begun holding their own event over the past 3 years, and the Pwnium challenge focuses exclusively on their Chrome OS notebooks.

This year, the Pwnium event took place on the 7th of March, and developers competed for up to $3.14159 million in prizes.Unfortunately for the hackers (and fortunately for Google), no exploitable hacks were found, as the Chrome OS-powered Series 5 550proved a formidable challenge. The hacks were supposed to center around browser vulnerabilities when logged on as a guest or user, but nothing significant was found, although Google is evaluating one entry for partial credit.

On the other hand, the simultaneously ongoing Pwn2Own contest didn't prove to be as difficult, with most of the entries turning up exploits. All three of Internet Explorer, Firefox and the Chrome browser were taken down by MWR Labs and VUPEN, who netted over $250,000 in prizes. Surprisingly, Safari was the only browser to come out of the challenge unscathed, but that may be due to nobody pre-registering, despite a $75,000 bounty.


Source(s)
Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/08/chrome-os-fends-off-all-hacks-at-pwnium-3-others-fall-at-pwn2own/

Geek.com: http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/all-chrome-os-hack-attempts-fail-at-pwnium-3-2013038/

 

[editor]

Interesting real life study here.

Kentucky Country Day, an independent private school, recently began requiring Chromebooks for their middle schoolers. What started as an R&D experiment has yielded some striking results

So, the school began throwing things out there to see what would stick. They got some iPads, Android tablets, Lenovo tablets, and Chromebooks. The wow factor was high with the iPads, and the school was convinced they were going to be an iPad school, until the kids started trying to produce content on them. At this point the focus shifted to entirely to the Chromebook and Google Apps, where content was easy to produce and collaboration came naturally...

Once they settled on Chromebooks, the students adopted the technology organically. The school never mandated the use of Chromebooks in the classroom, or even explicitly encouraged their students to use them. Nowadays, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction and they have to reign in the use of the Chromebooks at times. The high school students, who also use Google Apps, follow a BYOD policy as long as their computers meet certain specs and the primary school students have access to school-owned iPads and laptops. Rice said KCD is slowly moving other aspects of the school to Google Apps and they hope to be operating solely on Google products soon.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article...aptured-nearly-20-of-the-educational-market/#.

 

[skyscraper101]

It's a real shame there's no skype app yet. Has anyone any experience of google hangouts as it seems to be the only way to do video chat on the chromebook?

 

[editor]

It's a real shame there's no skype app yet. Has anyone any experience of google hangouts as it seems to be the only way to do video chat on the chromebook?

I really like hangouts. Use it a lot.

 

[slainte]

I was pretty much reluctant to use a Google hangout but found that its really good for a free service as you can have 9 people on the hangout for free.. Thats great actually....compared to Skype now which charge for conferencing...
Only issue is that you need a decent bandwidth to really take full advantage but that can be levelled at most of google services the bigger the bandwidth and pipe you have the better the experience for real time streaming.

 

[editor]

Bit of news:

Samsung Chromebook 2 coming to the UK in May, with prices starting from £249

Connectivity-wise, there’s a modest, but useful, selection of options onboard, with the Chromebooks offering one HDMI, one USB 3.0 and one USB port, 2.0 and a microSD multi-media card reader.

UK pricing has been set at £249 for the 11.6-incher and £329 for the 13.3-inch. The black 11.6-inch model will be available from May 1st, with the the white model and the larger 13.3-inch version available twelve days later.

I didn't think I'd like that faux leather effect, but I think it adds a nice touch to what is essentially a super cheap laptop.

 

[BoxRoom]

Bit of news:

I didn't think I'd like that faux leather effect, but I think it adds a nice touch to what is essentially a super cheap laptop.

Am starting to get a little tempted by this. Been keeping a vague interest on it's progress. I've only recently got a C720 though so I don't have either the cash or the need for it. But still...

 

[BoxRoom]

Bit o' info:

http://www.androidcentral.com/report-21-million-chromebooks-shipped-2013

And today ABI Research has released data showing that 2.1 million Chromebooks were shipped in 2013, the majority of them in the U.S.

North America actually made up around 89 percent of the shipment figures, according to ABI. What’s more is the firm also expects that by 2019 more than 11 million units will ship.

 

[editor]

I'd love to have a go on one of these to see what they;re like in daily use.

 

[BoxRoom]

I'd love to have a go on one of these to see what they;re like in daily use.

I haven't had to do anything the Chromebook can't do yet. I've got an old netbook so I can use Audacity when I need it (once my replacement power adaptor arrives for my mixing thing). I could install ubuntu on the Chromebook if I wanted and use Audacity on that but I'm a tad too tech unsavvy for such things.

Otherwise it does everything I need it to.

Often hear people saying they bought one to use as a secondary computer but end up using it so much more that their other computers rarely get switched on.
I'm well happy with the start up speed, updating speed, security and performance. I have found that I can write faster on this than anything else I have used too!

Seeing over on G+ that a lot of schools are rolling them out to students and are going down very well indeed. I believe more companies are going over to such things too, latest one I found was Barking and Dagenham:

London borough to roll out Google Chromebooks to escape Microsoft's licensing costs

If I get burgled again or mugged or am a bloody fool and leave it somewhere all I need to do is stump up another £200 come a pay day or two and I haven't lost any data, can just carry on where I left off.

This got a bit longer than I expected, I should have just said: Go for it, it's like well skill.

 

[editor]

This looks interesting. Good for schools and businesses, I imagine.

A mere slip of a thing, HP’s new Chromebox is a tiny desktop computer running Google’s Chrome operating system and comes in two CPU flavours.

HP will be unleashing two versions of the little fella, one with an Intel Celeron 2955U processor and a beefier version packing a powerful Intel Core i7-4600U chip.

Both 5″ x 4.9″ x 1.5″ boxes will also come with 16GB of solid state storage and 2GB to 8GB of RAM, with a SDXC card reader offering further memory expansion options. The Core i7 model has two SODIMM slots, while the Celeron model is restricted to one.

http://www.wirefresh.com/hp-chromeb...eleron-cpu-options-and-oodles-of-connectivty/

 

[BoxRoom]

This looks interesting. Good for schools and businesses, I imagine.

http://www.wirefresh.com/hp-chromeb...eleron-cpu-options-and-oodles-of-connectivty/

Have been peering at Chromeboxes like this now and then, following our American cousins discussions about them and so forth. I wouldn't go for one myself, I don't need a home computer really but I think you're right about it being good for schools and businesses. I'm still hearing reports of yet another school somewhere in the world that is issuing Chromebooks to their students.

If I did go down the home computer route at some point, I would be slightly interested in one of these:


LG Chromebase, all in one computer/monitor doodad.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...N=B00JR8MMH0&linkCode=as4&tag=blogextrdang-21

And here's a slightly interesting article on why Microsoft should be worried: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2458145,00.asp
Even more so now Google have partnered with Intel.

 

[redcogs]

i'm about to buy either a Lenovo laptop (G505), or a Chromebook, its for my daughter to use for essay writing and surfing etc in her final year at school. could someone tell me which way to go please. i'm an untechy with a headache coming on.

 

[BoxRoom]

If it's just for essay writing and internet then go for a Chromebook.
She can work on Google Docs offline too should she need to.

 

[redcogs]

OK Boxroom, which chromebook? She likes a bigger screen.

 

[BoxRoom]

Good question!

I've got an Acer C720, which has excellent performance but probably not a big enough screen for her at 11.6 inches.

The HP 14 might be worth looking at perhaps?

https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/chrome/devices/hp-14-chromebook.html#hp-cb-14
http://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/s...ogleCBMS_ot_inv_ds_pd/Chromebook_str/20140326

 

[editor]

Looks like more people are digging the concept:

YOU have to hand it to Google: Its little hobbies sometimes have a way of taking off.

Five years ago, Google created a lightweight computer operating system, Chrome OS, that behaved like a web browser. The search king also persuaded a short list of computer makers to use the new operating system in inexpensive and easy-to-use laptops — Chromebooks.

At the time, critics scoffed that the lightweight machines were more toys than computers.

But no one is laughing now. Chromebooks have improved significantly, and it might be time to seriously consider one as a second computer, a child’s laptop or a portable device that is more than a smartphone or tablet and — with a price usually between $200 and $350 — something you can take on trips without worrying that your expensive device will be stolen.

Chromebooks are mounting a challenge against computers that run on Microsoft’s Windows and are outpacing Apple laptops in schools, where Apple products have always been popular.

According to the market research company NPD, up to 25 percent of all the low-cost laptops sold in the United States are Chromebooks. Chromebooks have overtaken Apple’s MacBooks for No. 2 in laptop sales. Google said they had been deployed in nearly 10,000 schools in the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/t...omebooks-win-users-and-some-respect.html?_r=0

 

[editor]

This new 'mystery' HP Chromebook looks lovely.

http://www.slashgear.com/hp-chromebook-11-mystery-model-surfaces-13328973/

 

[UnderOpenSky]

i'm about to buy either a Lenovo laptop (G505), or a Chromebook, its for my daughter to use for essay writing and surfing etc in her final year at school. could someone tell me which way to go please. i'm an untechy with a headache coming on.

Ask her? If she doesn't know the difference, then I'd go with Windows and Office. It's still what your far more likely to find out there.

That said most young people are quite computer literature so she probably had a fair idea of the pros and cons and if she likes chrome go for it!

 

[redcogs]

Can anyone comment on this - my daughter's school use windows (unfortunately) based technology. So when essays etc are submitted they need to be windows compatible. will work done on a chromebook be compatible, or at least easily made compatible?

Sorry for such a numpty type question.

 

[editor]

Can anyone comment on this - my daughter's school use windows (unfortunately) based technology. So when essays etc are submitted they need to be windows compatible. will work done on a chromebook be compatible, or at least easily made compatible?

Sorry for such a numpty type question.

If by Windows compatible they mean Word docs and the such like, then yes, it will be compatible.

 

[redcogs]

Ask her? If she doesn't know the difference, then I'd go with Windows and Office. It's still what your far more likely to find out there.

That said most young people are quite computer literature so she probably had a fair idea of the pros and cons and if she likes chrome go for it!

She's in the loop GS. And, as you suggest, being a young person, she's pretty good on the techy stuff.

 

[redcogs]

If by Windows compatible they mean Word docs and the such like, then yes, it will be compatible.

She is suggesting that Open Office documents are compatible (with her school system) - so can i assume that Open Office is included on chromebooks?

 

[redcogs]

Curry's seem to have a good selection of Chromebooks. Curry's tomorrow!