The Chromebook Pixel has caught a lot of flak for being an expensive, powerful computer that arguably throws that power away on the stripped down and simple Chrome OS. Well, it doesn’t have to be that way if you’re game to tinker a little bit. Turns out throwing Linux on that sucker is already a breeze. More »
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The Chromebook Pixel from Google is a thing of beauty, although whether it is relevant to the market or not is another question altogether. One thing we do know is this – someone on the Chromebook Pixel team must have been a real videogame fan, having thrown in an Easter egg that will actually activate a cool light show for those who are in the know. Basically, the Konami code, when tapped out using the Chromebook Pixel’s directional keys, will see the LED strip blink in a wild pattern of red, green, blue, yellow, purple and white lights.
Just in case you have been living under a rock for the better part of the past two decades and still have no idea on what the Konami code is, basically just tap up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right, followed by B, then A, and you’re good to go. The LED strip blinking show is depicted in the still as shown above. I wonder how many people, when they see their friend’s Chromebook Pixel, would proceed with the Konami code Easter egg first before checking out other aspects of the Chromebook afterwards.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Anonymous Hacked, Chrome Delivers Voice Recognition Capability To The Internet,
Say what you will about the Chromebook Pixel’s viability, but practical or not, it’s got a hidden pocket of awesome hidden somewhere deep in its brain. And you can unlock it with the Konami Code. More »
It seems that the MacBook Air and Ultrabook market segments might not want to get too comfortable or snuggly in their current position, as the folks over at Google have finally brought to life what has been rumored before – a touchscreen version of the Chromebook, which Google has aptly christened as the Chromebook Pixel. Originally, Chromebooks were specially designed to make computing fast, simple as well as secure, and doing all of this without having to break the bank. Thing is, the adoption rate is not exactly phenomenal to say the least, but Google intends to bring the ideal of the Chromebook to the next level with the Chromebook Pixel, where it will still remain the ideal device for catching up on emails, sharing documents and chatting via Hangouts, albeit in a stunning form factor.
While partners such as Samsung, Acer, Lenovo and HP have committed to the Chromebook project in various capacities before, the Chromebook Pixel offers something totally different, bringing together what Google claims is “the best in hardware, software and design” as part of their effort to inspire the next generation of Chromebooks. The Chromebook Pixel rethinks all elements of a computer, and it will target power users who have fully embraced the cloud. While the philosophy of Chrome is to minimize the “chrome” of the browser, so too, does Pixel hope to make pixels disappear in your Web experience, where we will explain in a bit.
The Chromebook Pixel boasts of what it claims to be the highest pixel density (239 pixels per inch) of any laptop screen available in the market as at press time, packing in a whopping 4.3 million pixels that offers sharp text, vivid colors and extra-wide viewing angles. A screen that is this rich and engaging would certainly be tantalizing for your fingers to touch it, so Google decided to introduce touch sensitivity for a more immersive experience, too. Touching the screen keeps up with Windows 8-powered touch-sensitive Ultrabooks, and it is a whole lot easier and intuitive to perform tasks such as organize tabs, swipe through apps and edit photos with the tip of your finger.
The Chromebook Pixel comes with an anodized aluminum alloy body, hidden vents, seamless stereo speakers, a touchpad made from etched glass, analyzed and honed using a laser microscope for precise navigation, powerful, full-range speakers for crisp audio, a 720p webcam for clear video, and a trio of microphones which were specially designed to cancel out surrounding noise. You can choose from Wi-Fi and LTE versions that will retail for $1,299 and $1,449, respectively.
Press Release
[ Google introduces Chromebook Pixel copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Google’s flagship Chromebook might be a solid piece of hardware, but its prohibitive $1,299-1,449 sticker price left us aching for the ability to dual-boot a more robust operating system. Lucky for us that Google’s Benson Leung has a knack for Linux — he’s already patching the Linux kernel to support Pixel’s hardware. Just hours after the notebook’s reveal, Leung updated the Linux kernel mailing list with patches supporting the Pixel’s touchpad, touchscreen and ambient light sensor. A small step, to be sure, but one that could eventually help the community build a Linux distro that can make the most out of Google’s premium hardware.
Filed under: Laptops, Software
Via: Phoronix
Source: Benson Leung (Google+)
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Yes, the new Google Chromebook Pixel is relatively pricey—especially for something that’s not a “real” computer—but it does what it was designed to do really, really well. More »
Google just showed off a dumb new thing: an expensive laptop that pairs the gorgeous screen, capable components, and design of a MacBook Pro with the diluted, web-based Chrome OS. It makes no sense. Don’t buy one. More »
Google hasn’t always been known for making breathtaking hardware, but today’s announcement of the Chromebook Pixel — arguably one of the best-looking laptops ever made, if nothing else — means that may no longer be the case.
Still, you can’t be blamed for being wary of shelling out a decent chunk of money on Google’s first foray into laptops, let alone a Chromebook of all things, so here’s a preliminary look at how the Chromebook Pixel stacks up against two prominent rivals in the computing space: the stock version of Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air and Microsoft’s Surface Pro.
*Note that we compared the base MBA and the surface Pro with upgraded storage, to establish a better baseline in terms of comparing more similar price points and spec load-outs.
Compared to the base 13-inch MacBook Air, Google’s Pixel has a lot of similarities. It’s priced around the same, but actually comes in as more expensive that the OS X ultraportable, at $1299 and $1449 for options with Wi-Fi only, and Wi-Fi + LTE networking. What does the Pixel offer to justify the extra cost? It does have a denser display, with 239 ppi on a nearly 13-inch display. And that screen is touch sensitive, which isn’t something Apple can claim. But until now, it hasn’t shown off much about how touch might work with ChromeOS, though it has reportedly been “optimized” for finger-based input.
Another place where the Chromebook Pixel falls short of its competition is in local storage. 32GB on the Wi-Fi model and 64GB on the LTE version is tiny compared to the MacBook Air, which is already pushing it with 128GB. LTE is nice to have, but, with the prevalence of hotspots and modems, arguably less important than more offline-accessible storage space.
The Chromebook Pixel is very much aimed at the same market as the MacBook Air, with Google stressing that it’s an upscale device. But despite what looks to be a beautiful screen, this arrives with an even more experimental, touch-enabled version of an OS that has yet to prove itself with general consumers, meaning that the reasons to opt for Google’s brave new laptop over the Air perhaps aren’t as apparent as Google would’ve hoped.
I can’t help but think about the Chromebook Pixel in relation to something like the Surface Pro, another premium computing device from a company that has historically shied away from making its own computers. Granted, the differences in execution between the two are pretty staggering, but it’s hard not to look at both devices as fresh steps into a market increasingly driven by novel hardware.
The Pixel certainly has the Surface Pro beat when it comes to sheer screen size and resolution (it has a 12.85″ display running at 2560 x 1700, compared to the Pro’s 10.6″ panel running at 1920 x 1080), but the Surface Pro seems to sport better touch support with its included stylus and Wacom digitizer. It’s too early to say whether or not one device has a definitive advantage of the other because of their seemingly similar processors (though the Pixel could squeak by because of its slightly quicker chipset), but we’ll return to that once we get our hands on a review unit.
Again, the Pixel may fall flat with its paltry 32GB of internal storage (though folks who spring for the LTE model will have around 64GB to play with). Sure, having a terabyte of cloud storage is neat, but those in need of real speed will prefer the Pro’s SSDs and memory card slot.
The other big question mark here is Chrome OS itself. The Chromebook is a very handsome little machine that seems to have some horsepower under the hood to boot, but I’m curious whether or not people will choose to plunk down upwards of $1299 for a computer that exists outside of the two entrenched environments that have dominated consumer computing. Windows 8 isn’t a shining star yet either, but it’s far from a company’s side project.
While the Air and Surface Pro have their share of advantages, it’s still a little too early to write the Chromebook Pixel off completely. It may just be the right computer at the right time to give Chrome OS the boost it really needs, but for now Google needs to make a better case for why people should spend $1299 on a computer that hinges on the cloud instead of, you know, anything else.
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