Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re asking yourself if the brand new $249 Samsung Chromebook is going to get you through the school year, you’ll want to know a few details on how this device actually functions. First of all, it may look surprisingly like a MacBook Air, but it’s not a full-fledged system in the way you’re used to – this device isn’t made for massive video editing and it’s certainly not ready for any big-name gaming adventures. What it is made for is web-based action – and lots of it.

If you’re ready for a web-only experience, the Chromebook might be right up your alley, especially since it’ll only run you $249 USD. The notebook looks and feels rather similar to what you might already be used to with your MacBook or Acer Aspire notebook – if you’ve got one or the other – or any of the recent high-end Samsung notebooks that look rather similar to this model. With this device you will not have the same power as a full-fledged laptop, but physically you’ll feel like you always do.

“If you’re ready for a web-only experience, the Chromebook might be right up your alley.”

This device works with one giant heap of Google Cloud services, including Google Drive. With Google Drive you’ve got file storage on the web in Google’s servers, and with a purchase of a Chromebook here, you’ve got 2 free years of 100GB of space on those servers. You’ll be working with Google’s services primarily – or that’s what’ll be easiest – including Gmail, Google Docs, and the like, but you can also work with a variety of Chrome apps as well.

Chrome is not just an operating system, it’s a web browser as well – the same one you use on the computer you’re on right this minute. Chrome has a variety of apps that do all manner of tasks that you’d otherwise do on your desktop, here optimized for the web browser. Have a peek at the Chrome Web Store now to see if you’ve got enough greatness there to do every single task you’d normally do in a day.

“…not that far away from a high-end smartphone…”

The hardware you’re working with on this new Samsung Chromebook announced this week is a dual-core A15-based Samsung Exynos 5 Dual (5250) SoC paired with 2GB of RAM, for starters. That’s not that far away from a high-end smartphone, mind you. That’s the kind of processing power you’re working with. You also get 16GB of built-in flash storage as well as Bluetooth and wi-fi capabilities. The display has a 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, it’s got one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 socket, and a headphone/mic jack too. You can boost your storage with the full-sized SD card slot this device works with as well.

Sound find enough to you? You’ll be able to pick this beast up through several online sources and it’ll be out in stores extremely soon – you’ll be able to see it in person at Best Buy likely by the beginning of next week, for example. You’ll also be able to purchase this Chromebook from the Google Play store too. Think about it!

Should I buy a $249 Chromebook for school? is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In an apparent error, Google’s Q3 2012 earnings have gone live smack dab in the middle of the trading day, instead of after the closing bell as expected. Early indications are that the search giant has notched third quarter revenues of $14.10 billion, representing a 45 percent uptick compared to Q3 2011. GAAP operating income in the third quarter of 2012 was $2.74 billion, or 19 percent of revenues, and that would explain the near 10 percent slide in the company’s stock price. A year ago Google nailed down $3.06 billion, or 31 percent of revenues, when looking at operating profit; investors were expecting some $10.65 per share, while they got just $9.03 per share. When looking at net income, Q3 2012 saw that figure at $2.18 billion, whereas the company raked in $2.73 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Presently, trading has been halted on the company’s stock as the dust settles, but one thing is exceptionally clear: pulling in billions in a single quarter won’t go over well with Wall Street if its expectations see you pulling in even more.

Filed under: Internet, Google

Google’s Q3 2012 earnings: $14.10 billion in revenue, $2.74 billion in operating income originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I was always pretty good at the Tony Hawk: Pro Skater games, pulling off mad combo moves thanks to generous use of manuals between tricks. Unfortunately, the second I hop on a real skateboard, forget about it. A 200-pound guy falling face-first off a skateboard isn’t a pretty sight (thought it could be popular on YouTube.) For those of you who’d rather keep the skate trucks off the ground, maybe you should go for one of these instead.

This whimsical skateboard ceiling lamp is actually designed for a kid’s room, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for anyone into ‘boarding. Though with its thin 24″ acrylic deck and narrow aircraft cables suspending it from its chrome canopy, I wouldn’t recommend trying to hop on it, unless you’re a hamster – or maybe a kitten. A skateboarding cat – now that’s something I’d like to see. Oh, Internet.

Skatepunks can Ollie on over to ELights, where you can grab one of these boards for about $178(USD).

It’s not a real birthday party without a present, so Google has just pulled the wraps off the first stable version of the Dart structured programming language, one year after it was launched. Along with “thousands” of bug fixes, the rejuvenated version will have a faster virtual machine, new JavaScript translator, HTML, server-side I/O and interoperable JavaScript libraries, the Pub package manager and Dartium, a Chromium build with native Dart support. Mountain view promised to keep the improvements coming “while maintaining backward compatibility” for the language, so if you feel frisky enough to jump JavaScript’s ship, check the source below (or video after the break) to see how to grab it.

Continue reading Google toasts Dart’s one-year anniversary with first stable SDK (video)

Filed under: Internet, Software, Google

Google toasts Dart’s one-year anniversary with first stable SDK (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a move to further improve on their mobile offerings, Google has redesigned its mobile homepage that includes much easier navigation and a cleaner look that’s almost identical to the desktop version. Google took a lot of the buttons and selections that were once taking up space on the homepage and moved them to a new hidden sidebar.

If you click the icon with the three bold lines in the upper-left corner ( called the “Options” tab), this reveals the magical sidebar that includes a ton of more selections, like a list of your most used Google services. However, if a certain service you want isn’t listed, you can find it by hitting “All Products” at the bottom.

Navigation is fairly straightforward and simple from here. Clicking on “Search” will bring up the main Google Search homepage, and it’s also the default window whenever the Google homepage is first launched. Then, obviously, tapping on “Images” will bring up Google’s Image Search. You can then tap on it again to close Image Search.

While it’s reported that the redesign is showing up on all mobile devices, it seems it’s mostly just working on Android through Google Chrome at the moment. We tried it on the iPhone in the Chrome browser, but we were still seeing the old design, and we’re not really sure when Google will roll out the redesign to all platforms and browsers, so we’ll just have to wait and be patient for the time being.

[via Android Community]

Google’s mobile homepage gets a redesign is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.