Hasta La Gadget!

You won’t be seeing Google’s recently announced web-only Chromebook laptops until Samsung and Acer release versions this June. But lucky for us, we got to spend some time with some time with an early model of Samsung’s offering, the Series 5.

Frankly, we’re stoked on this thing.

As soon as we got our hands on it, we immediately felt the quality that went into making the device. With solid construction and a sturdy build, the Series 5 isn’t janky like most netbooks in the $400 price range.

At 3.3 pounds, it’s not terribly heavy — lighter than the MacBook Pro I’m currently using by under more than a pound — and it seems like I wouldn’t mind schlepping it around San Francisco during my workday. The Series 5 is also fairly thin when closed — 0.79 inches thin, to be exact. Obviously not MacBook Air-levels of thinness, but it also doesn’t cost a grand.

The Series 5 comes in two color schemes: Titan Silver or Arctic White. The color was fine, nicely offset by the Chromebook’s black innards and bottom.

Samsung claims an eight second on time, from a period of being completely powered off to the main login screen. When we tested this, it actually took only seven seconds to go from completely off to being ready for use.

Another attractive feature — unlike other netbook models that skimp on space, the Series 5 has a full-sized keyboard. That means no cramped fingers over clustered sets of letters. Typing on the Chromebook was just like using my regular laptop keyboard. And the design nerd in me noticed that the letters on the keyboard are of a different font than I’m used to. Not saying that’s positive or negative necessarily, but rather a flourish I noticed and liked.

The Series 5 eschews a multitude of buttons on top of the keyboard — no more F1 through F18 to deal with. Twelve buttons — There’s also no caps lock key, but you can map one to a set of keystrokes if you miss it enough.

The spyglass-imprinted “search” key replaces caps lock, which opens up a new tab in your Chrome browser upon pressing it. Hit it again, and the tab disappears. Cool enough feature, though I’ll admit I tried using “command-T” to pull up a tab a few times before I started to get the hang of it.

A few other perks: the SD card reader accepts multiple types of cards, including HCSD. And there’s a port which supports external monitor output, which is always nice.

As we only had a limited amount of time with the Series 5, we can’t speak to its battery life. But Samsung and Google tell us that under real-world testing, you’ll see an 8.5 hour charge.

There’s also a “guest mode” option, for if you don’t want to log in to your Gmail account. You’ll be able to surf and do everything that you would on the Chromebook if you were logged in, but all of the changes you’ve made while using it (sites you’ve visited, etc.) will be wiped clean from the device. It’s essentially using Chrome’s “Incognito” mode to keep your browsing details private. Just think: if you let your buddy borrow your Chromebook for the weekend, you’ll get it back without a browser cache full of porn sites.

Our casual browsing experience was zippy enough — pages were rendered super fast, and running YouTube videos went off without a hitch. Our own site loaded in less than six seconds.

Though we hit a few snags when we visited Tinkercad.com, a site which lets you do your own 3D rendering using a cad cam-like interface inside the browser. The site uses WebGL to accomplish this. But it didn’t do so seamlessly — trying to drag and drop different plot points inside the Tinkercad interface was sluggish and stuttering, taking seconds for changes to show up at times.

Of course, Google and Samsung had to cut a few corners somewhere. Although quite nice in its display qualities, the screen isn’t made with the tough Gorilla Glass that can withstand a beating. And the exterior of the Series 5 seems to be entirely plastic, which we weren’t thrilled with. Yet even without any metal, the Series 5 felt sturdy enough in our hands.

Bottom line: we’ve seen and touched a lot of web-only notebooks in the $400 to $800 dollar range, and none have felt as promising as the Series 5 Chromebook. If the finished products are as half as nice as this one, we’ll be excited to see them hit the shelves in June.

We never had much doubt about what Samsung would be showcasing at tonight’s finale event at Google I/O 2011, but now it’s official — the outfit’s first-ever Chrome OS ultraportable is making its debut in San Francisco, and we’ve been fortunate enough to grab a bit of hands-on time. Slated to ship to consumers, businesses and educational institutions on June 15th, the 12.1-inch Series 5 is a strikingly svelte machine, and there’s no doubt that holding a 0.79-inch rig gives us all kinds of chills. The company took a bit of time to play up its “Power Plus” battery technology, lasting up to 8.5 hours with “active use,” or 5 hours of straight video. There’s also a new hitch in the Verizon Wireless data deal — 100MB will be tossed in each month on the 3G model, but contrary to what we’d heard earlier, that ends after two years (rather than lasting for the life of the product).

The hardware feels tremendous — stiff, solid and well appointed, much like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition. It outclasses the other sub-$450 netbooks we’ve seen in both style and rigidity, and while we’ll always have a special place in our heart for the CR-48, it’s pretty clear that this particular unit was in the oven for some while. We’ve hoping to spend some serious time with this guy in the middle of next month, but for now, here’s what we can tell you — the 1280 x 800 display is both crisp and sharp, with shockingly great viewing angles for a machine of this price. The keyboard’s far from cramped, and if you’ve had your doubts on the 12.1-inch form factor, we’re guessing one touch of this would have those running for cover. Oh, and the trackpad? One of the best we’ve felt in the PC universe, and one that we hope crops up elsewhere in the near future. It’s right about on par with the one found on the CR-48 (post update), which is also stellar compared to most netbooks.

Obviously, we aren’t here long enough to test the ultra-longevous battery (said to be good for over 1,000 cycles — perfect for education and business users who are apt to adopt it), but we’ll be sure to do our best once we settle down with a production unit. We’re told that it’ll be available in Titan Silver or Arctic White, provide a chiclet style keyboard, a multi-gesture trackpad (which supports two-finger scrolling) and “instant” wake from sleep.

Update: More impressions and video are after the break, and a head-to-head with a current-gen 11-inch MacBook Air is below!

Continue reading Samsung Series 5 Chrome OS laptop hands-on at Google I/O (update: video!)

Samsung Series 5 Chrome OS laptop hands-on at Google I/O (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 21:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s second (and final) day of I/O 2011 was all about Chrome, and unfortunately for those yearning for a Chrome OS tablet, it looks as if your dreams will remain unfulfilled. Sundar Pichai, Senior VP of Chrome, spoke candidly about the company’s intentions during an executive Q&A session follow this morning’s keynote, and he didn’t bother to mince words:

“[Chrome OS] is a new experience we’re working on. It’s hardware agnostic in a sense. We are fully, 100 percent focused on laptops. Most of the web usage — greater than 90 percent — is on laptops. That’s what we’re working on today, and we have no other plans on any other form factors.”

Any other form factors outside of the Chromebox, we’re surmising. Goog’s been pretty steadfast in its approach to Chrome OS; it’s being marketed as a software + hardware package, with both working in lockstep to provide a (more or less) guaranteed user experience. To that end, the outfit’s obviously not interested in cannibalizing any Android slate sales with the addition of Chrome OS, and while we’re bummed in a way, the promise of Ice Cream Sandwich helps to numb the pain (a little). In related news, Sundar also addressed questions regarding the company’s decision to rely on both Chrome OS and Android. When asked to “reconcile [Google’s] two big strategic visions,” he hit us with the following:

“There are a variety of experiences out there, and the web model is very different. We’re comfortable seeing them coexist. Google Movies and YouTube have web versions — when you use a Chromebook, you see how it’s different, and they’ll naturally coexist. These are very different models — if we didn’t do something like Chromebooks, I’m pretty sure someone else would.”

That last line is most telling, and it begs the question: if not Google, then who? There’s no question that companies are crowding the cloud bandwagon, but would Microsoft or Apple really have the desire to bust out a totally connected operating system? Makes you wonder if Chrome OS won a race that never actually began…

Google: ‘no plans’ for Chrome OS on tablets, any other form factors originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s senior VP Vic Gundotra at Google’s I/O developer conference in San Francisco, backed by a not-so-subtle allusion to Android’s competition. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Android’s explosive growth over the past three years has been a double-edged sword for its apps. On the plus side, there are more of them than ever. On the negative side, there are more of them than ever.

Google on Wednesday announced a slew of updates aimed at improving customers’ ability to find and buy apps in the Android Market, as well as developers’ ability to sell them.

“The biggest problem we have in the Market is discovery,” said Michael Novak, Android engineer for Groupme.com, in an interview. “Google has definitely heard the complaints from people like me, and these new features being rolled out are proof.”

Navigability issues have plagued Google’s app-shopping system on the customer end, making it hard for people to find the apps they want, or even to realize that there are apps they might be interested in. For their part, developers have complained that it’s easier to make money in Apple’s App Store than it is in the Android Market.

For customers, finding the most popular apps may get easier with one of the many new lists Google has added, each detailing the top performing apps in specific categories. The Twitter-esque top “Trending” list, for example, highlights the most-downloaded apps over the past seven days. If an app continues to be among the highest-downloaded over that seven-day period, it will move into either the “Top Paid” or “Top Free” lists, which cover popularity over a 30-day period.

Google’s addition of the “also viewed” and “also installed” lists add an interesting social component to the market. It’s almost taste-making through app downloads — if you like a particular application you’ve installed, you can browse a number of applications also installed by others who installed your particularly enjoyable app.

And while these new list additions make it easier for customers to search for new apps to download, it’s also better for app developers who want their apps to be showcased more prominently on the Market. More lists across more categories means more opportunities for a developer’s app to be seen by customers. And that means more opportunities to get paid.

Some think progressions like these are long overdue.

“These are features that Apple has had for years,” said industry analyst Michael Gartenberg. “These sorts of features are table stakes at this point in the game.”

Indeed, Google’s Android Market web store, a version of the store that’s accessible through your computer’s browser, first debuted in February. In contrast, iPhone users have been able to access the App Store by web browser since February 2010.

As Google tackles these problems, the market’s patronage continues to expand. Although historically the Android Market’s customer base has been focused on the United States and a handful of other countries, Google’s “Android developer ecosystem manager” Eric Chu says it’s important to pay attention to the burgeoning international market. Over 60 percent of the 400,000-plus daily Android device activations are now coming from outside the United States, according to Chu.

Google wants take advantage of this growing international market. Next week, says Chu, Android developers will be able to accept payment from 131 different countries across multiple currencies.

In direct contrast to Apple, however, Google’s app store has typically been lauded by open source enthusiasts for its lack of vetting process in accepting apps from developers. Submitting an app to Apple’s App Store requires direct approval from the company before the app can be sold to the public. Google’s process is more open.

This week has brought a host of different additions and expansions for the Android Market. On Tuesday, Google announced a movie-rental service addition to the market, which allows you to wirelessly stream films to your Android smartphone or tablet devices for a period of up to 24 hours after first renting the film. The current selection ranges in the thousands, with prices starting at $2 for older films and $4 for more-recent releases.

Google TV will receive access to the Android Market for the first time this summer, which may help the ailing television platform garner a larger following. Developers will also receive a Honeycomb 3.1–based software developer kit to begin building Google TV–specific apps at some point in the coming months.

Android Market may have a lot going for it, but most would surely agree that it could use some improvement when it comes to discovering apps that you aren’t specifically looking for. Thankfully, it seems Google has indeed been aware of those concerns, and it’s now announced five new features that should go so some way towards improving things. Those include some newly revamped top app charts that promise to be “fresher” and country specific, a brand new Editors’ Choice section that highlights apps chosen by Google, a new Top Developers feature that places a special icon next to the name of developers that make the grade (currently more than 150), improved related apps on individual app pages and, last but not least, a new trending apps section that shows the apps growing fastest in terms of daily installs. What’s more, while all of those features are currently exclusive to the web-based version, Google says they’re also “coming soon” to the Android Market on both phones and tablets.

In other Android Market news, Google has also announced that it will be adding support for larger apps — up to 4GB — in June, and it will be giving developers the ability to exclude specific devices to avoid compatibility problems, or make multiple versions of an app available under a single Market listing, complete with aggregated ratings and stats. All that, plus personalized recommendations based on your apps (details on it are still a bit light), and paid app support for an additional 99 countries (coming within the next week or so).

[Thanks, Ian and ZZ]

Google announces new ways to discover apps on Android Market, more tools for developers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 15:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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