Cr48 impressions so far

I've been using the Cr48 as my "main" computer for the two days (ish) and so far I'm rather impressed. The critics are right - it is basically a browser in a box, but a very well put together one. I'm a little surprised at just how much of my normal daily computing I'm accomplishing on this, but there are a few things that are missing and/or that I'm not thrilled with...

As I mentioned in my first post about the Cr48, I would really like bluetooth support so I could use my new bluetooth mouse, but at least USB mouse support is there. The trackpad is the issue for me - I don't particularly like trackpads in general, but in particular, the Cr48 doesn't disable the trackpad while typing and I tend to brush the trackpad while I'm typing. I tried using the trackpad without tap-to-click, but that made things like "right" clicking difficult, which is accomplished by tapping with two fingers simultaneously. I find that I have to tap quite a bit harder to right-click than to left-click. I also find it cumbersome to click and drag with this trackpad.

I tried watching a WMV file yesterday, but Chrome OS doesn't seem to have a way to handle it built-in. When I clicked the file it downloaded, but clicking the file in the "Downloads" window gives the error "Unknown file type." I tried installing the extension "Embed WMPlayer inline" but this gives a missing plug-in error. I was able to upload one of the WMV files to YouTube and watch it there, but this is hardly a good permanent solution. I also tried downloading a pure-java program as well, but unsurprisingly trying to open the zip file gives the same "Unknown file type" error.

One of the other things that I'm less than thrilled about is that I have to check each of my four email accounts separately. I have my GMail account, two Google Apps email addresses and a student email account for my grad program. On my other computers I use Thunderbird and it's "Unified Folders" view that shows me the contents of all four inboxes in a single listing. In Chrome OS I can't find a way to do that and instead have four separate windows open all the time that I have to flip between. I tried a couple of quick searches in the chrome web store, but I don't see anything helpful...

Even though the last three paragraphs are criticisms, I'm overall very happy with this machine. The speed of going to sleep and waking up is by itself rather amazing. I'm realizing now that with my Ubuntu laptop I actively avoid closing the lid because I've been having problems with it not sleeping properly. I've been thinking about a fresh re-install for this very reason. In fact, the slowest part about waking up my Cr48 is waiting for my wifi connection to be re-established.

Google's Ninjas

I had my first experience with Google's tech support and with 3G yesterday. I tried setting up my free* 3G service through Verizon two days ago and although I got a confirmation email, my Chrome notebook still wouldn't connect to 3G, instead prompting me to set it up again. I waiting until yesterday afternoon and tried again. No dice, so I followed the Chrome OS Help page instructions to call Verizon and get them to walk through manually activating, but it didn't work...

After I got my car jump-started and got back home from the store, I filled out the support request form to have a  Chrome Notebook Ninja (coolest. title. ever.) contact me via email. I also had the option to request a phone call, with the disclaimer that it would take up to 3 days for a call, so I went with the email option. Much to my surprise, I got a phone call from one of the Ninja's less than an hour later. He conferenced in Verizon support and in less than 20 minutes later I was up and running. This was easily the most pleasant tech support call I've ever been on - my wife even told me I was having too much fun talking to tech support! :-)

* Free. Yes, actually free, but naturally only to a point. 100MB/month for two years is free. After that you either pay for more or don't use it.

A very Google xmas

It's fairly obvious from this essentially empty blog that I don't post here much, but I feel compelled to write a bit about the unexpected present I got from Google yesterday...

We visited my in-laws out of state for the last week or so and flew back in to Atlanta (snow?!?!) late last night after a whirlwind adventure in gift giving with small children involved. The drive home from the airport was fairly easy, and when we got to our door there was a package right next to the door. I didn't even look to see what it was but just grabbed it and got the girls inside and proceeded to unload the car. Finally I went to open the almost entirely unmarked box, which had no information except my name and address (with "Individual" under my name) and the return address - no sender name. Thinking this was a present from some relative, I didn't think much of it until I got the outer box off and saw the box inside it:

Image from the Google Cr48 Pilot Program page. Used without permission, but I'll take it down if Google wants me to!

It took me 2 or 3 seconds to make the connection and remember where I'd seen this -- on the Google Chrome OS Cr48 info page! My wife later commented that she thought I was going to poop my pants in my excitement! ;-) Needless to say I was up way too late last night playing with it.

It's a very basic and rather thin notebook. It's matte black, with a very minimal set of ports (1 USB, power, 1/8" headphone jack, and a VGA port) and no identifying marks on the outside at all - no logo, no model info, nothing. There are, of course, serial numbers and such under the battery, but that's it. It has a built-in webcam, a large clickable trackpad (like late model Macbooks), and a keyboard that most resembles that of a Macbook. There are some notable things missing such as an optical drive and an ethernet port. I haven't missed either of these so far, but I would like to have bluetooth so I can use my bluetooth mouse with the Cr48. I tried plugging in my bluetooth dongle, but it didn't even light up. :-(

As promised on the Cr48 pilot program page (http://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program-cr48.html), the machine sprang to life on it's own as soon as I opened the lid. The initial boot process had me select a wi-fi network, enter in my google ID and password, take my picture with the webcam (optional) and then I was in. (Disclaimer: I'm writing this a couple days after the fact, so I may be forgetting something!).

There are a few notable differences with the keyboard. First, it has no Caps Lock key - the key itself is there, but is labeled with the image of a magnifying glass and its default function is to open a new tab with the search bar focused. Also, the function keys are not "F" keys, but are rather labeled with icons. Fortunately, there's an on-screen key command guide that you can pull up by typing control-alt-slash. The erstwhile functions keys are: esc, back, forward, reload, fullscreen, next window, bright down, bright up, mute, volume down, volume up, and power. It's otherwise pretty standard, except that the keys are labeled with lowercase letters.

As expected, the interface to Chrome OS is almost exactly like you get by run the Google Chrome browser maximized with all OS toolbars or panels hidden. There are some differences, of course, such as the Settings menu item instead of Preferences. There Settings window has tabs on the left and has most of the same options as the Preferences window in the Google Chrome browser (at least on my Ubuntu machine), with the addition of controls for basic system settings (time/date, trackpad, language, accessibility options), internet connections settings (wi-fi and 3G) and settings related to user access (allow guest access or not, whether or not to show usernames and pictures on the login screen, and the option on limit who can sign on). This last one was particularly interesting to me, because the default settings are to allow guest access and the checkbox "Restrict sign-in to the following users:" is unchecked. This is exactly the opposite of what I have come to expect from other operating systems, where guest access must be explicitly enabled (if it's even an option) and you must explicitly create a user account for each user. 

More to come...