chromebook

Chromebooks land at more retail stores

CNET Update is charging up:

In this episode of Update:

- Before you buy that cheap Chromebook at Walmart, learn if you can live with it.

- Don't be surprised if your kid starts using a Surface RT tablet at school.

- Chip in for the new group Amazon Birthday Gift on Facebook.

- Avoid a Z10 security breach with the latest BlackBerry 10.1 update.

- Watch how AT&T's solar charging stations work in New York City.

CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under three minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for … Read more

Google's low-cost Chromebooks coming to 6,600 more stores

While Google hasn't done a lot of promotion around its Chromebooks, there's no doubt that the company is still working on bringing the low-cost laptops to more people around the world.

The tech giant announced Monday that it's bringing Chromebooks to more than 6,600 new stores worldwide -- that's three times as many stores as before.

The lion's share will go to Walmart and Staples. Walmart will sell the $199 Acer C7 Chromebook in about 2,800 of its stores across the U.S. And Staples will bring Chromebooks from Acer, HP, and Samsung … Read more

Android alters all: Now the PC?

The Android laptop is coming. Does that mean more market-share pain for Windows PCs?

Hewlett-Packard's upcoming notebook offerings speak for themselves. For $480, there's the SlateBook x2 Android "notebook". At $800, we have the Windows 8-based Split x2.

For me, the choice gets easier every time I pick up the Nexus 10 tablet that I've been using for the last month. In other words, if I'm spending about 50 percent of my time -- and doing limited-productivity stuff -- on the Nexus 10, it's not a giant leap to an Android laptop.

Nor … Read more

Episode 38: Google's ChromeBook Pixel gets the ultimate road test

This week's episode kicks off with our first ever unboxing performed in a motorcycle club. Yep, we went down to Piston and Chain in San Francisco to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. The 8-inch tablet sure is pretty, but with a hefty price tag it will have a tough battle against its strongest competitor, the iPad Mini. However, the Note 8 should expect a road test from the Always On crew in the very near future.

Next up, the Google ChromeBook Pixel endures a grueling, three person road test. Molly couldn't contain herself when … Read more

HP CEO talks Android, not Windows 8

Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman had a lot more to say about the company's new Android products than she did about Windows 8 during HP's second-quarter earnings conference call.

Whitman's remarks hinted at HP's newfound affinity for new operating systems, which includes Android of course.

"Using multiple operating systems, multiple architectures, and multiple form factors, we are moving quickly to product the devices that customers want," she said.

Then she proceeded to talk about new Android devices, with no mention of Windows 8.

"Following the launch of our first Chromebook in February, we launched … Read more

Pixel's camera failure only one of many

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google's expensive Chromebook giveaway here at its I/O 2013 conference can't handle connecting to digital cameras, but that's just one of many problems the laptop causes for its owners.

Chromebooks, which run Chrome OS (read review), are a perpetual work in progress. Updated every six weeks or thereabouts, just like the browser they're based on, Chromebooks rely on the promise of the modern Web.

But getting browsers to talk to commonplace hardware like USB ports, Webcams, and microphones is no easy task. Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), a plugin-free way to stream video, … Read more

Google's 2013 I/O swag giveaway: Less is more

For Google, less is more.

That's the case with the tech giant's latest giveaway at its annual developers conference, which at face value might seem less generous than years past, though that turns out not to be the case when you do the math.

This year's haul: a Chromebook Pixel with LTE, the company's top of the line Chromebook, which sports a very high pixel density screen. Google sells it for $1,449 on its online store, though gave it away to all 6,000 I/O attendees.

All told, that adds up to $8,694,… Read more

The killer Google device I want: Chrome and Android, together

SAN FRANCISCO -- At this year's Google I/O developer's conference, a promise was made: Chrome on Android will start feeling more like Chrome on the desktop.

This is as it should be.

I've never understood why Chrome and Android function as separate environments. They're two sides of the same coin; Chrome handles superior cloud-computing and Web use, and Android handles the app-based, offline world: documents, physical media, and files. Chrome has excellent touch-pad and keyboard support, and Android has touch. The two can use each other.

Actually, the lines are already blurring: the Pixel has … Read more

How Chromebook Pixel could ride a Google I/O surge

It's time to find out the raison d'etre of the Chromebook Pixel. I refuse to believe that all that high-end hardware is meant to run a really fast Web browser, and I have a conspiracy theory about the secret mission of the Chromebook Pixel. I'm going to be looking for clues coming out of Google I/O this week to see if they support my theory.

I'll confess that I'm infatuated with the Pixel. I shouldn't really like the world's most overpriced and overengineered Web browser -- that's truly what the Pixel … Read more