Google has set its sights on the high end market of notebook with its latest notebook, the Chromebook Pixel, but their plans don’t end there. According to a new rumor, Google plans to release cheaper Android OS and Intel Atom notebooks that are expected to be as low as $200. Both Acer and Asus also have plans to release the new Chromebook later this year.

While details are sparce right now on what we know about the Asus Chromebook, it is expected to be unveiled in the third or fourth quarters of 2013.  We know slightly more about the Acer Chromebook.  It supposedly had a 11.6 inch screen and is expected to be for sale in July of 2013.  We do not know any more about these devices at this time, but they are supposedly going to be mid-range devices and should be quite a bit cheaper than the projected price of the Chromebook Pixel.

With all the interest in the Chromebook, Google is quickly establishing itself as a heavy hitter in the notebook game.  What do you think of Chrome OS, are you okay with using a cloud-driven OS for your laptop needs or would you rather stick to a more traditional Windows, Mac or Linux device?

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The Pwnium 3 competition was hosted as part of the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver. Google offered up $3.14159 million (“Pi money”), but no one was able to emerge as the winning entry. The competition was with the newest version of Chrome OS running on a base Samsung Series 5 500 Chromebook. If they were able to achieve a browser or system level compromise delivered via a web page, they’d get $110,000. If they were able to get a compromise with device persistence, guest to guest with interim reboot, also delivered through a web page, the prize would be $150,000.

With that much money on the line, no one could do that. That’s got to be a pat on the back for Google. To be fair, they are currently “evaluating some work that may qualify as partial credit.” This is one of the smarter ways to go about things, because it helps to reveal potential vulnerabilities that Google can then address as quickly as possible.

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Chromebooks are still a rare site in many schools worldwide, but Google are determined to change this and are already reporting record growth for the web based OS. According to Google there are now 2000 schools using Chromebooks worldwide, that’s an increase of 1000 schools from just 3 months ago. 900 Chromebooks are being deployed across rural North Carolina, while a top Catholic prep school in Florida currently boasts 2200 Chome OS devices in use.

Google still only have a small percentage of the pie, but as they have proved with search and Android, they can easily catch up with the competition and surpass them. In the past, one of the leaders in the education computing market has always been Apple. With more and more of the apps schools need going to the cloud, Google Chrome OS could certainly provide a much cheaper alternative going forward.

The future of Google Chrome OS as a Windows and Mac competitor is still a bit unknown, but as the concept of “always-connected cloud technology” continues to be picked up and excepted, things are starting to look up for the browser-based OS. Additionally, there is a growing number of web apps that can be used in “offline” mode.

What do you think of Chrome OS, will it ever catch on in a big way or is its “cloud-based” design just too limiting at this point in your opinion?

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Acer recently released the Acer C7 and now they are back at it again, this time with the Acer C710-2605 Chromebook.

This affordable laptop features an 11.6 inch display will 1366 x 768 pixels and a Intel Celeron 847 1.1 GHz processor.  An impressive 500GB hard drive and 4 GB of RAM, versus the 320 GB hard drive and 2 GB of RAM you get with the C7.

Also included an HDMI, Ethernet, VGA and 3 USB ports.  The battery is an upgraded 5000mAh which lasts up to 6 hours compared to a 2500mAh battery supplied with the C7.  The main benefit of this new version over the previous C7 version is the bigger battery. The Acer C710-2605 is also a bit more expensive at $300, versus the $200 tag for the Acer C7.

Does this beefier version sound appealing?  Is the price difference worth the upgrades?  Tell us what you think, is the C710-2605 on your holiday wishlist?

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Throughout most of my elementary, middle and high school existence I learned that computers from home were generally very different from what most of us had in home.

At home, the vast majority of us had DOS or Windows. At school, it was Mac everything, though I will admit that Windows PCs finally started to show up during my high school days.

The reason for this was simple, Apple had very good discounts and special deals for school systems. Now it seems that Google is planning to take a chapter out of Apple’s book and is going after school systems with its Chromebook this holiday season.

Google is teaming up with DonorsChoose.org to offer the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook for just $99 to schools. For those that don’t know, that is a $330 discount from the original retail price of $429.

How does it work? Teachers need to visit DonorsChoose’s site and request a Series 5 Chromebook for their classroom by December 21st.

Once the request is posted, people can make donations to support their classroom and once the total funding is met, the Chromebooks are sent out to the classrooms. A classroom can request anywhere from one to thirty Chrome-based laptops.

While this seems to be a holiday promotion, it could certainly be a sign of things to come for Google. With more school systems relying heavily on the cloud for research, writing and more, Google’s Chromebooks might make quite a bit of sense in today’s connected school systems.

What do you think, could Google find a potential niche in the educational system, just like Mac has over the years?

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The Google Chromebox itself is built by Samsung and it has much of the same specs that you’ve already seen with the current generation of Chromebooks. It’s not the most powerful machine in the world with its 1.9GHz Intel Celeron processor and 4GB of RAM, but considering that all you’re really running is a glorified Chrome browser, that should suffice. Other specs include the 16GB SSD, Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, six USB ports, Bluetooth 3.0, DVI-out, and 2 DisplayPorts. The Chromebox should be able to support up to two high-resolution 30-inch monitors at the same time.

And yes, the design looks pretty much like the Mac Mini. And like the Mac Mini, the onus is on you to provide your own keyboard and mouse, though there is an optional package that includes those too. Bootup time is less than 10 seconds, but this box is virtually useless without an Internet connection. That said, since it’s a desktop, you’re likely going to place it in your home or office where you’ll always have Wi-Fi, unlike the mobile nature of the Chromebook offerings.

The base price, without the keyboard and mouse, is $329. You can only find it online for now, but it should start selling through regular stores soon.

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Google has announced the first commercial Chromebook laptops at the Google I/O conference today. The Chromebook laptops come after Google’s 6-month long pilot program testing Chrome OS on the CR-48 netbook with businesses and developers throughout the USA.

Samsung and Acer are set to release the first Chromebook laptops on June 15. The Samsung Chromebook is priced at $429 for the Wi-Fi only version, and $499 for 3G. The Acer Chromebook Wi-Fi is priced at $349 and closely resembles the CR-48 prototype. Both will sell initially to the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

At the core of each Chromebook is the Chrome web browser. The web has millions of applications and billions of users. Trying a new application or sharing it with friends is as easy as clicking a link. A world of information can be searched instantly and developers can embed and mash-up applications to create new products and services. The web is on just about every computing device made, from phones to TVs, and has the broadest reach of any platform. With HTML5 and other open standards, web applications will soon be able to do anything traditional applications can do, and more.

Google has also announced Chromebooks for Business and Education. The monthly service from Google gives IT administrators a cloud management console “to remotely administer and manage users, devices, applications and policies.” They will also receive enterprise-level support, warranties and hardware refreshes. Monthly subscriptions will start at $28 and $20 per user for business and schools respectively. This price includes the Chromebook itself.

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