So, the big thing I wanted to talk about today is how I am slowly falling in love with one Google product, and possible out of love with another. I guess it's easier to pitch the bad news first, so I'll just say it: Google, I don't like Blogger. Ok, I don't mean that I don't like blogging, my inability to post frequently has nothing to do with my capacity to LIKE it. This weekend, I started working on a project for a client, using Wordpress, and I've gotta say, WOW. That's some nice stuff! Yes, I was a tad confused by some things, but in my mind overall, I think Wordpress really has Blogger beat. But please don't delete my blog because I'm spreading such blasphemy! I was strictly working with Wordpress.com, not a Wordpress.org installation (which has even more features and power!). They have a really nice back end interface, there are some beautiful templates, I don't know, it's just a whole bunch of good. I must admit, I am a sucker for aesthetics, and while I may not be good at graphic design and clean user interfaces, I definitely appreciate it. This is really where I think Wordpress has Blogger beat. It's just plain gorgeous. Ok, I'm done here. I don't really mean to bash Blogger, I've used it for a while, and I will probably continue using it (at least every month or so, haha). I will, however, probably look into Wordpress a little more as I get more used to the interface and inner workings with my client project.
Ok, back to the good stuff. I L. O. V. E. my Google laptop. This CR-48 rocks! I have tried to take Google's request to heart, and I try to use this as much as possible as my primary machine. The battery life is ridiculous. I don't even monitor how long it is any more, I just count on it having enough life for me to do whatever I plan. I charge it when it needs it, but it's really funny when I look at the battery at 50ish percent and say, "eh, I've got 4 or so hours left". Using Verizon 3G internet is kind of surreal. I didn't set it up for the first week I had it because we don't have Verizon service in my area. While visiting family over Christmas, I went shopping for a skid steer (yes, I am a redneck geek) with my dad, and we were barreling down the road from one dealer to another, wondering what a third dealer had in stock down the road. Instead of using my dinky iPhone screen to search, I set up the Verizon 3G (which was painless and quick), and in no time, I was checking dealer websites and craigslist while my dad was cruising down the highway. Awesome. I've barely used it since, but last weekend I rode to Maryland with a friend to buy a truck, and brought it along for the same reasons. I can only hope the Verizon or ATT get a strong signal to my house some day (and still offer an unlimited package - I'm dreaming) so I can ditch our crappy Frontier DSL. Aside from that, this laptop just works. As I mentioned previously, I didn't have iTunes on my (now unused) primary laptop, so I lost nothing there, the CR-48 streams Pandora and Grooveshark just fine. Since I'm not in college anymore, I rarely actually have a need for Word, but I've familiarized myself with Google Docs just in case. Youtube seems to work fine, but I am not a Youtube addict, so I'm not on it all the time. Flash is still terrible, but I don't notice it too much because I rarely access anything really Flash heavy and normal Flash videos seem mostly ok.
I've learned some little tricks along the way to make my experience better, and I've subscribed to the dev channel to get updates sooner. The touchpad is my biggest complaint, but even that I'm getting used to. Actually, it has 2 finger scrolling, and I also just got a Macbook Pro at work (which features a totally amazing touchpad), and I am totally spoiled now by some of these 'multitouch' mouse features that none of my other laptops have. However, on the CR-48, the pad just kind of goes on the fritz. If I select things, it will sometimes not like to respond to my end click to finish my selection, then I end up sort of stuck with a cursor that is selecting everything. A few rapid mouse clicks fix that, but, its a bit of a pain. The dev channel pushes more unstable, beta-like builds to me instead of more tested builds to the other channels. I haven't really noticed a problem with this (I use it on my desktop Chrome browser too), as I've had very few crashes anyways. With each update Google seems to fix a thing or two, constantly improving the OS.
One thing I wish Google would eventually work on (though I know this is sort of counter-intuitive to the ideas of ChromeOS) would be accessing file storage devices. Currently, I don't even bother to try using Picnik to edit a photo, or downloading installer files for other computers because I must have an unsupported flash drive and it is unrecognized.
The LCD is nice, it seems like it's much better quality than almost any other netbook display that I've seen. Text is nice and crisp, and I don't feel limited by screen resolution like I have felt with smaller 10" screens. Oh yeah, it's also matte, which is sadly a rarity these days.
Close the screen, it goes to sleep. Open the screen, and it is on before you have it the whole way up. The only thing that makes me believe it actually goes to sleep is the fact that the battery would die much faster otherwise. The only delay is in the network adapter acquiring a signal, but I imagine that's a bit of a hardware limitation.
Well, if you've made it this far, I applaud you for putting up with my aimless ramblings. When I explained the idea of the Chrome OS to my coworkers (all at least twice my age) they basically thought it was a thin client, which in many ways they are right. But, as I explained more about the kind of theory behind it, security, ease of recovery, ect, they warmed up to the idea. I'd like to think that ChromeOS is going to take off, but I'm not really sure that it will. I wonder if Chrome is going to start competing with Android, and if it might make more sense to just make an Android 'Desktop' OS.
I'm done, no other mindless drivel. If you're nearly sleeping now, sorry, but tough.
