Google Introduces the Chromebook Pixel to Compete With the MacBook Air

[wovel]

What are you talking about?

I think he is talking about the three years of online storage (Which would cost $49/mo after the 3 years).

What I can't tell you is why he is talking about. I think the price on this thing is crazy, but I am not sure why someone would get hung up on the free google drive expiring.

 

[Kissaragi]

Even with the daftest products you normally think there will be a few people stupid enough out there to buy it.

However with this, im not sure they will sell a single unit without a sales person actually lying to the customer. Ive never seen anything so stupid.

 

[KPOM]

My Macbook Air doesn't have usb 3.

But the model currently for sale does.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Google Calendar must be broken. Apparently the folks in Mountain View don't realize April Fools Day isn't for another 38 days.

 

[Lancer]

Also the screen is a weird size 2560x1700 = 3x2, which is somewhere between 4x3 and 16x9. Which is probably not helping the costs.

I say drop the high res screen, add USB3 and drop the price.

 

[KPOM]

I think google has something more important and sensible project in store for us in the coming months. This was just a dry run.

Quick question does Google have a Tablet computer?
Wouldn't that be a better direction for something like this?

They do have the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. One question is whether they will merge Chrome with Android.

It's entirely possible that the Chromebook Pixel is being positioned like the first MacBook Air, or even to some extent like the 13" rMBP was 4 months ago. It has some compelling features (a HiDPI screen, what appears to be good build quality), but is a bit overpriced for what it does (like the 13" rMBP was until 2 weeks ago) and is not quite ready for primetime (like the early 2008 MacBook Air). However, both those devices attracted small but loyal fan bases (and both were met with derision even among other fans of their respective ecosystems).

What this does seem to indicate is that HiDPI screens are the future.

 

[Sedrick]

For all the things to criticize here I think the aspect ratio shouldn't be one of them. I have thoroughly been missing the 4:3 ratio myself, and I still only buy 4:3 external displays.

I think one of the reasons nobody was able to steal market shares from the iPad in the beginning was that all competing tablets were 16:9, which is pretty horrible for anything other than movies, and looks very bad in a portrait mode. It's a minor point, but still.

Exactly why 16:9 on the iPhone is pig-headed.

 

[zv470]

"I see dead pixels…" what a joke

There is no market for this.

Message to Google… don't do hardware, do services.

p.s. This made me LOL… "When you hit play on a video and it just works it's a wonderful experience." …the people who approved that line should be fired.

 

[simonmet]

If Google were laughing at Apple's attempts at mapping then surely Apple are now laughing at Google's attempt at making a computer!

 

[samcraig]

Sure. But that, of course, ignores the whole point of the comments you responded to. I'm sure you can understand the distinction being made between building a business based on advertising revenue and developing an advertising business to enhance your primary revenue generating products.

Look - let's rewind a bit, shall we? We can probably discuss this topic forever. But let me go back to the original comment I was responding to...

"I think he's implying that Google's primary business is advertising - Apple's is selling Hardware and Software. So that alone makes iCloud more secure."

Can we agree that point A has NOTHING to do with point B? That one doesn't dictate any sense of security or lack of security?

 

[WilliamLondon]

Google tracks every search term you enter, every autocomplete suggestion you use, and then every result you click on in a search. This history is kept indefinitely. Any page on any OTHER site you visit that contains a banner ad served from their servers uses a stored session cookie to correlate that other site with your Google ID. In other words, you could be browse well outside Google's own site and services, and they'll still be able to learn exactly where you went, and they'll know it's you.

...

The data is all there, behind Google's doors. Just the fact that it's there, providing agencies and organizations with a potential tool to bend - or horribly break - the law, is a problem in itself. Hooray for the cloud indeed.

This^^^

Thanks for posting this - sadly I think a lot of people know this but still don't care and voluntarily allow Google to sell and profit off their privacy. Too bad more people don't know this and how to stop it. Google is *not* a hardware company, they are merely trying to get as many connected devices in the hands of consumers as possible (whether under the Google name or hardware partners) so they can gather more data (as you outline in your great post) about you and your life which they can then sell on to others who want nothing more than to convince you that their product is something that you need to survive.

 

[hestroy]

Ugly, ugly, ugly

100 years behind apes...

 

[samcraig]

This^^^

Thanks for posting this - sadly I think a lot of people know this but still don't care and voluntarily allow Google to sell and profit off their privacy. Too bad more people don't know this and how to stop it. Google is *not* a hardware company, they are merely trying to get as many connected devices in the hands of consumers as possible (whether under the Google name or hardware partners) so they can gather more data (as you outline in your great post) about you and your life which they can then sell on to others who want nothing more than to convince you that their product is something that you need to survive.

Anonymously. Further - you can opt out.

And again - Google is small potatoes when it comes to privacy - go look at the link I posted above. Yet somehow very few people seem concerned or mention Axciom when it comes to being concerned about what they do online and OFFLINE.

 

[iPusch]

Come on Macrumors, bring back the negative voting.

Man! Do you have a problem?

 

[Oletros]

This^^^

Thanks for posting this - sadly I think a lot of people know this but still don't care and voluntarily allow Google to sell and profit off their privacy. Too bad more people don't know this and how to stop it. Google is *not* a hardware company, they are merely trying to get as many connected devices in the hands of consumers as possible (whether under the Google name or hardware partners) so they can gather more data (as you outline in your great post) about you and your life which they can then sell on to others who want nothing more than to convince you that their product is something that you need to survive.

Gooogle does not sell your data or your privacy, stop spreading that FUD that has been explained to you many times before

 

[iRun26.2]

First comment in at least a year...

I can't believe this product. It wouldn't surprise me if this is all a hoax:
1) The usefulness of the product is highly questionable
2) The price is way to high
3) Then you watch the video and the Apple parody convinces you that it has to be a spoof

If is it real, it is one of the most absurd product launches in the history of technical products.

Maybe someone out of touch of reality at Google thought that this would be a fantastic idea and the bosses thought it wouldn't fly but let it go through anyway because Google has so much money that it doesn't really matter.

(It makes the Surface look reasonable. Now they just need to get a video made with some angry school.girls 'clicking it shut' to sell another couple hundred units).

 

[ScholarsInk]

The good news here is that it marks a landmark for HiDPI becoming mainstream. Certainly this is even more niche than OS X but the manufacturer might well release an own-branded one to the Windows market. With the recent rumors that Microsoft is moving to an Apple type OS upgrade cycle, this could get them thinking about better integration, which would be a boon for Retina users who need Boot Camp.

I have no interest in the machine but given that Google is behind the computer and Chrome OS, they can write in HiDPI support (which is terrible even in Windows 8, which supposedly was designed with it in mind).

 

[davcolley]

Every company including google that doesn't have a clue or a real business plan just copies Apple

 

[iBug2]

Gooogle does not sell your data or your privacy, stop spreading that FUD that has been explained to you many times before

Google does sell my data. They may not label it "my data" when they sell it but they sell everyone's data. That's how they make money.

 

[HishamAkhtar]

If Google were laughing at Apple's attempts at mapping then surely Apple are now laughing at Google's attempt at making a computer!

Google made the OS. Lenovo made the hardware.

Too bad the hardware is the most impressive aspect of the laptop.

 

[BornAgainMac]

It is over priced but one can argue that the cost the support and maintain a Windows machine in the office is higher. I would like to see this Chromebook at the $500 price point.

 

[Oletros]

Google does sell my data. They may not label it "my data" when they sell it but they sell everyone's data. That's how they make money.

Will you give any proof of that or you will try to know how Google makes money and stop spreading FUD?

 

[Digital Skunk]

$250 might be a little too low considering the screen, but...yeah...they could push that price down by quite a bit. First of all, the thing doesn't need an i5. It likely never will. They could've thrown an i3 in there, saved everyone a good 200-300 bucks, and no one would've been able to tell the difference.

Google missed the boat by not making this a high end of the budget line machine. Think about it. A computer with Apple's usual shine, that nice of a screen, all for under $800. That would've been a helluva thing. It'd be a Macbook Pro quality laptop for the less tech savvy crowd. Give it a good warranty, and it'd be a computer you just hand off to someone and not worry about for 4-5 years.

Right now though? The Pixel is a showcase device that can't really do anything with what they're showcasing. It's like having the fastest engine in the world strapped into a car that doesn't have any wheels.

That 250 is what drove me to considering the Samsung Chrome book. I still consider that price range almost disposable. Like gifting for a 10 year old sorta stuff.

I agree definitely that 800 plus that terabyte of Drive storage would have had me saving pennies.

 

[extricated]

... aiming directly at Apple's MacBook Air.

Aiming to show people see what a great price the Air really is?

 

[DaffyDuck]

This is such a confused product. Chrome OS is designed to be cheap. It technically has fewer capabilities than Android since everything basically runs via a web browser so you are limited to what a web browser can do. Android doesn't have that limitation. So, I always saw Chrome OS as a poor man's operating system that can run with minimum spec hardware. Then they go and put it on expensive hardware that is fully capable of running a real operating system. Whaaa?