Hasta La Gadget!

The Acer C7 Chromebook is the most recent addition to the Chromebook universe and one of Google’s chosen few to be featured on their very own Chomebook portal. This device sits aside the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook as one of three (the other being a slightly higher-powered Samsung Chromebook 550.) This device reduces the baseline price of a Chromebook in general down to $199 and brings with it a slightly thicker and less MacBook Air-looking solution than Samsung’s Series 3 – but where does that extra $50 USD go?

Hardware

Like each of the three hero Chromebooks being shown by Google right this minute, you get 100GB of Google Drive storage for free for 2 years – once it runs out, you simply cannot add any more files to that extra space, but if you want, you can certainly keep your files up there forever (so they say.) Other than this, it’s a whole different ballgame. This machine has an 11.6-inch display that has generally OK viewing angles, but don’t expect to sit anywhere other than directly in front of or to the left or right of it, or you’ll start to see the light.

You’ve got a boot time that’s “under 20 seconds”, so Google says and quotes correctly, leading us to note that yes, indeed, it is a fast machine. It’s quickness should be assumed, of course, due to the very lightweight nature of Chrome OS. It’s essentially a small storage space on your device tied with the Google Chrome web browser – that’s what Chrome OS is, and that’s what it remains here with the Acer solution.

The 4 hours of battery life you’re quoted exists when you’re actively using the device for 4 hours straight, on the web. If you leave the device open and asleep, you’ll easily get several days of uptime. The processor inside this beast is extremely good at battery conservation, that’s for certain. We’ve literally had the device on for three days at a time with no more than 20 percent battery drain – fully asleep, mind you, with no power cord, either.

You can connect this device to a larger monitor via VGA or HDMI if you like, with the second monitor offering you a mirror of what your Chromebook is showing off. This is good for showing webpages to your colleagues as well as YouTube videos – or your Google Play movie collection. You can also connect to other devices with the three USB ports on this device quite easily, and the whole machine works with a dual wi-fi chip that’s able to connect anywhere in your house – with plastic being the main material used here, this machine has no trouble sending or receiving signals of any kind.

You can connect with the Ethernet port on the left side of this device as well if you’re going for ultra-quick web connectivity. This works great to upload or download media to and from your 320 GB of build-in hard drive disk space as well as your full-sized SD/MMC card port that sits just under your keyboard down and to the left. The camera that sits above the monitor on this device is called “HD” but delivers just a generally acceptable web chat experience for Google+ Hangouts – and/or wherever else you plan on chatting via video.

User Experience

This device, much like the Samsung Series 3 solution, is made for web browsing and web browsing alone. If you want the most full-featured computing experience you’ve ever laid your hands on, look elsewhere. What we’ve got here is $199 worth of hardware from top to bottom. It’s not aiming to be the most fantastically simple notebook on the planet, and as its made of primarily plastic, you wont be winning any “wow this notebook feels amazing” awards.

What you will get is a perfectly legitimate web browsing device – and if your primary reasoning behind purchasing a notebook is to browse the web, you’ve got yourself a winner right here. Google has successfully created a user experience here with Chrome OS in its current state that cuts down on everything not necessary to browse the web and have a good time doing it.

The only deterrent you should have here as far as usability goes is the touchpad. It’s not a MacBook, that’s for certain, but it’s just as high quality as the Samsung model. If you’re used to a standard netbook or a low-end notebook running Windows or Linux (with some exceptions), you’ll be perfectly satisfied with this experience tapping and scrolling.

Wrap-up

Acer has succeeded in boiling out all the high-end features that make a notebook cost more than $400 and took Google’s Chrome OS to just about as standard and basically acceptable place as they possibly could, tagging it with a very suitable $199 pricetag. If you only want to browse the web with your notebook, and that’s it, this machine will serve you well.

Be sure to head to your local large-arena showroom store to check how this machine feels in your hands before you pick it up, then be glad you kept the other $300 you’d have otherwise spent on a notebook full of features you might never have used. Use it to buy a Google Nexus 7 and take your best pal out for a nice supper on top.

Acer C7 Chromebook Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Those of you waiting for the web browser known as Opera to join us here in the future – the future that includes “Retina” and otherwise high-definition displays galore – now is your day in the sun. Here we’ve got Opera 12.10, a version that takes on “support for high-DPI screens” in its extensions framework, complete with tightened extension security as well as several new APIs as well. This update also includes Fullscreen API for video, games, and web browsing – great for your brand new Microsoft Surface tablet, of course.

Opera 12.10′s release comes right after the Microsoft Surface hits the market – the RT version, that is – expect more integration soon. For now we’ve got the high definition integration for the HD beasts of the now with updates that also show photographs as much more vibrant and colorful – and true to their original form. With support for more high-definition web browsing as well as better integration of such profiles as the example they give – Adobe RGB (1998) – shown in the caterpillar image below, your Surface RT will be rocking until the morning light. That’s International Color Consortium (ICC) profile v4 integration, mind you.

Of course this version of the browser also updates for Mac OS X Mountain Lion and makes with the Notification Center integration. You get a notification now when a download has finished and you’ve got built-in sharing of pages to Facebook, Twitter, and more. This update also brings Windows 8 integration for full-on PCs as well as inertia scrolling and pinch-to-zoom on Windows 7 as well as 8.

This version of Opera has SPDY support, making web pages load faster on SPDY-enabled sites like Twitter, Gmail, and WordPress. Facebook will also soon be working with this protocol, and Opera even has a SPDY indicator extension for you to use if you wish to see which sites have it and which dont. You can download the new version of Opera then at Opera’s download site. Make it yours now!

Opera 12.10 released for high definition displays is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re an avid podcast listener, you might happen to be using Stitcher’s podcast aggregation app on your mobile device. However, the company has expanded to the desktop by introducing their very own web app, complete with HTML5. It also works, and is optimized, for all major web browsers, so there’s no restrictions as far as what browser you have to use.

Once you log in, Stitcher will automatically sync your existing favorites for on-demand listening, and the app also includes playback controls at the bottom of the screen, along with Stitcher’s great discovery and sharing tools. Plus, all of your activity will be synced between the mobile app and the web app, so you’ll be able to pause a podcast on one device and resume later in your web browser.

Stitcher’s Discovery tool provides you with podcasts that you may like based on your listening activity. Stitcher’s Smart Station feature takes over 10,000 podcasts, and searches through them to find fine-tuned recommendations for its users. Stitcher also allows you to listen to anything without downloading or syncing beforehand.

You can also discover what your friends are listening to using Facebook sharing, and you can also share your own favorite podcasts by connecting your Facebook account to Stitcher. The web app is still in beta mode, so you may experience some bugs here and there, but it looks to be like a solid solution for Stitcher users who are yearning for a desktop player on their computers.

Stitcher releases web app for desktop users is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft got in hot water with the European Commission back in 2009 for failing to offer users of the Windows operating system of choice when it came to the web browser used. The solution by Microsoft was to offer European users the browser ballot screen. The screen serves to both inform Windows users that other browsers were available and to allow them to easily install those browsers. Update: Microsoft statement after the cut.

The European Commission agreed that the browser ballot screen would remedy complaints and made the screen legally binding in 2009. The European Commission has sent Microsoft a statement of objections noting non-compliance with its browser choice commitments. Specifically, Microsoft failed to offer the browser choice screen with the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 released in February 2011.

The EC states that from February of 2011 until July of 2012, millions of Windows users in the European Union may not have seen the browser choice screen. Microsoft has acknowledged that as many as 28 million computers were offered the browser choice screen during that period. Microsoft has blamed an engineering error rather than malice.

Issuing the statement of objections is a formal step in the Commission investigation. The statement of objections allows Microsoft to reply in writing and request an oral hearing to present comments. The commission will make a final decision after Microsoft has exercised its right of defense. Microsoft faces a gigantic fine for failing to provide the browser choice screen and could be fined up to 10% of its total annual turnover amounting to as much as $7.4 billion.

Update: Microsoft has issued the following statement:

“We take this matter very seriously and moved quickly to address this problem as soon as we became aware of it. Although this was the result of a technical error, we take responsibility for what happened, and we are strengthening our internal procedures to help ensure something like this cannot happen again. We sincerely apologize for this mistake and will continue to cooperate fully with the Commission”

Microsoft officially informed by EC of failure to comply with browser commitment is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The newest entry in Google’s family of low-priced devices running their own home-grown software has appeared in their Google Play online store – enter the Samsung Chromebook (series 3) for just $249. We have our own Samsung Series 3 Chromebook review for you to take a peek at with full details on how this little beast is about to take the student world by storm. By the looks of it though, it’s not just students that Google hopes to be swallowing up here with the price-floor-busting Chromebook: it’s “FOR EVERYONE.”

This device works with an extremely lightweight body and a display that’s by no means perfect, but certainly gets the job done for the average user. You’ve got this version which is wi-fi only for $249, another coming soon with 3G connectivity availability via its SIM-card slot in the back, and a whole massive barrel of Chromebooks out there on the market from the past two years. This is the newest though, and perhaps the most important.

It’s the price point first, then the high-quality build that makes this notebook – excuse me, this Chromebook – so important to the tech world. Though you wont be able to play any high-powered games, nor will you be working with processor-busting video rendering (for now), you will be getting a web-centric machine for $249 USD. That’s a price so low that it makes the masses consider it, even if they don’t need it.

This unit in its wi-fi-only iteration is available now from Google Play. If you want any other version, you’ll have to head elsewhere for now. Chromebooks are not yet heavily available in stores around the world (or around your neighborhood, for that matter), but they are a big enough deal at this point to be ready for delivery at larger electronics stores in all cities – have a peek!

Samsung Chromebook available now in Google Play online store at $249 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.