Saturday, July 23, 2011

My Cr-48

My Cr-48 arrived in December
When it came in the mail and I saw this box, I thought someone had shipped a Christmas present for one of the grandkids.  My son was there when I opened it and said you suck  "How did you get that?"  Well, you have to be hanging out on the internet instead of playing WoW all the time and jump on this kind of thing.  It's like getting a G+ invite.

So this notebook is not a computer - you need an internet connection.  It is easy as pie to startup.  All you have to do is open it.  Shut down? Close it. The new tab has apps you can use and a link to the web store.  As far as I can tell apps=links and an extension runs on the operating system.  But don't take my word for it - I am not a geek, I'm a grandma.  Perusing the message boards for interesting conversations about the Cr-48 I quickly find that the geeks are installing Ubuntu and I don't even know what Ubuntu is.  Developers were talking their techie talk and I am at the side of the road.  

So I download some apps that show up as icons on the new tab and some extensions that hide under the wrench icon in the upper right corner under tools.  Google urges you to use their products in place of Microsoft products.  Docs instead of Word for example.  I use my Cr-48 more than my Windows laptop because it is simple and fast and usually I'm just surfing the web.  But for things I already know how to do in Windows and to use programs like Skype, Slingbox and Second Life I need to use my laptop.  

When the Chromebook was released for sale to the public, it was a flop because people don't need something to surf the web if they already have another device that does.  If I were going to pay for a device that only allows downloading apps, I would get something smaller and more portable.  

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