Why I hate the CR-48 (but might like Chrome OS)

Google's cloud-based operating system seems promising. Too bad the lousy demo hardware gets in the way.

Google's Chrome OS isn't as farfetched as it sounds. The underlying concept, the computer and operating system as portals to content in the cloud, seems like an inevitability, really. While a lot of content still resides on hard or solid state drives, all signs point to a day when we'll rouse a sliver of a laptop from slumber and interact with all our content on remote servers.

Given Google's (GOOG) track record with cloud-based services, who better to make the next step, right?

I thought as much until my own Chrome OS CR-48 netbook arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. At 4 pounds, the CR-48 resembles a black polycarbonate (aka hard plastic) MacBook without the DVD drive. Even cooler is the total lack of a company logo on the thing – way to be anti-establishment, Google – and the inclusion of decals and laptop skins you could decorate it with. All in all, major points on the design. More

Posted in: cloud computing, Google, Google Chrome, Google Chrome OS, Intel Atom, MacBook, Netbook, YouTube

• Can your phone also be your laptop? Motorola Atrix tries

  Is the speedy dual-core CPU enough to act as a good netbook as well as a phone?

  A few years ago Palm introduced the idea of using a smartphone as the brains of a netbook with their Foleo product.  The Foleo was a ARM-based netbook (though it actually pre-dated netbooks) that would sync itself with Palm Treos which would then send information to the Internet. At the time, Palm was in MORE

  Seth Weintraub - Jan 5, 2011 11:36 PM ET
  Posted in: Android, AT&T, Intel Atom, Motorola, Netbook, Nvidia, Palm Foleo

• What's in the Mysterious Black Chrome OS Box?

  Chrome OS Cr-48 laptop dissected.

  That anonymous black netbook that Google (GOOG) announced yesterday doesn't have any labels or specs attached to it.  That doesn't mean the web isn't already taking it apart.

  Digitimes says it is produced by Inventec and 60,000 of them are making their way to beta testers.  It will likely be based on an Intel Atom N550 platform which runs at 1.5GHz with 1GB L2 cache.  RAM and storage MORE

  Seth Weintraub - Dec 8, 2010 1:48 PM ET
  Posted in: ChromeOS, CR-48, Google, Inventec, Mobile, Netbook

• Google's ChromeOS delayed until 2011?

  At the Web 2.0 Summit today, Google's Eric Schmidt had some bad news for people wanting ChromeOS Netbooks for Christmas.  It ain't happening.

  Earlier this month, a report of of Taiwan pegged ChromeOS Netbook shipping times to "late in November" yet not a peep has been heard from Google.

  The last we heard officially about ChromeOS, specifically from Google's Sundar Pichai in May, was that consumer devices were due in "late MORE

  Seth Weintraub - Nov 15, 2010 11:24 PM ET
  Posted in: ChromeOS, Google, LAte, Netbook

• iPad: No cannibals on this island

  But a pair of surveys finds patterns could spell trouble down the line

  Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at the NPD Group, doesn't buy the theory that Apple's (AAPL) iPad is to blame for this year's slow-down in netbook sales.

  "It had nothing to do with the iPad," he says. "Sales growth had already started to trail off [before the iPad was released], and it wasn't such a great platform MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 1, 2010 12:04 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Cannibalization, iPad, Netbook, NPD, Stephen Baker

• 30% of netbook shoppers got an iPad

  But most went ahead and bought the netbook, according to a Retrevo "pulse report"

  Below: The leanings of shoppers who have to choose between a netbook and Apple's (AAPL) tablet computer this year.

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 25, 2010 7:40 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, iPad, Netbook, Retrovo

• Apple's iPad vs. the netbooks

  By 2011, Apple will have captured 7% of the low-end computer market, says an analyst

  "We expect the iPad to compete very well against existing low-end notebooks and netbooks, particularly in the segment of the market where surfing, reading, game playing and emailing dominate the usage model."

  So says Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore in a note released Sunday.

  In fact, he writes, with the release of the iPad this spring, Apple (AAPL) will MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 1, 2010 11:26 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Asus, Dell, Deutsche Bank, HP, iPad, Netbook, Nokia, Tablets

• Beyond the netbook

  Mason Cohn, Producer - Nov 20, 2009 1:20 PM ET
  Posted in: Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, laptops, Netbook, netbooks

• Nokia's netbook gamble [video]

  Mason Cohn, Producer - Oct 26, 2009 11:34 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Asus, Dell, Netbook, netbooks, Nokia

• Top netbook accessories

  Penelope Patsuris - Jul 16, 2009 10:01 AM ET
  Posted in: computing, laptops, Netbook, peripherals, Review