Desktop – NoteBook – NetBook or ChromeBook?
First a little explanation. When it comes to computers I used to have a Desktop. It came with a hard drive, RAM, floppy drive, CD/DVD drive. I say “used to” because some time ago I moved away from Desktops and now ONLY have portables. That generally means Laptop. But that’s not the whole story.
My present Laptop/Notebook can do most anything my old desktop could. When it was time to move to my next destination I could just close the lid and off we go. But there was also a few small problems. I quickly filled the hard drive with images, videos and files. To manage, I bought a small portable external USB hard drive that was no bigger than a cell phone but still had to lug around my bulky Laptop. As you might guess, I soon filled up my external hard drive.
That’s when I discovered the CLOUD!
Ok, it wasn’t as dramatic as that sounds. Really the cloud existed, I knew about it, but made the conscious decision to move my storage to it. The cloud now stores most of my video, most of my pictures, and most of my files. The cloud consists of Google Docs, DropBox and a few others like Evernote. Wherever I go, if I have internet access, I have access to my files. But I still had to lug around my bulky Laptop!
Enter the NetBook!
I started seeing these small, portable laptops at conferences. They had the peculiar title of “NetBook”. That sounded a lot like NoteBook, looked like a smaller notebook but were compact and had small hard drives. They easily transported and had a long battery life. I found out that they were built just for the cloud! I bought a 10” model and have loved every minute of it. Almost. With the compact size, comes a compact screen. Often times what I see “above the fold” is half what others see. That means a lot of scrolling both vertically and horizontally.
ChromeBook?
Google Chrome is a browser. It’s a fast browser and one I use daily. Chrome is also the name for the new operating system Google is creating. So what if the OS was replaced with a new OS that pretty much consisted of making a browser run? No need for much of a hard drive. Most all the computer resources would be devoted to making the browser run? That’s a ChromeBook in simplest terms. Here’s funny 5 min video illustrating the point.
Did it really take 5 minutes to tell that tale?
Still not convinced?
- How does going from completely OFF to BROWSE in 10 seconds sound?
- Wifi and 3G included? Yup! you get 2 years of free 3G from Verizon to get you started.
- Security? It’s automatically included and updated for you!
- Think you’ll miss your standard Programs? Just like your smartphone there’s an App for that. They download and update instantly. Check out the store https://chrome.google.com/webstore
So, I do see a ChromeBook in my future. Will it be the ultimate? If there’s anything we can learn from technology and the past – not at all. But it might fit a nice little space in my toolbox of tech.
How about you? Could you make do with a ChromeBook?
Related articles
- Has Google Missed Its Window For “ChromeBooks”? (searchengineland.com)
- The First Google ChromeBooks May Appear This Week (searchengineland.com)
- How to Get Free Chrome NoteBook Cr-48 [USA users only] (geniusgeeks.com)
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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