Google CR-48 Goodness - Google+ Invites

Image via WikipediaI've been away from this blog for so long now, I'm probably hopelessly behind in what I should have been sharing all along.  The CR-48 is still incredible.  I'm on the dev channel still, and in the dev channel we're working on Chrome 14 goodness.  The number of apps and extensions for this machine are becoming larger all the time, and the types of apps and extensions covers just about anything you can imagine.

I was lucky enough to score a Google Music invite, so I've been slowly uploading my 3000+ songs (my bandwidth isn't the greatest, so everyone in the family yells when I'm uploading) and it's great to listen to the music on my CR-48 (with the Google Music extension) or my android phone anywhere I go.

Another things that's been keeping me pretty busy, is finding a job.  Finally found one, but it took 4+ months, and 4 months is way too long to be out of work.  My creditors are not as patient as I'd like.  ;-)

Another great thing is Google+.  It's a great substitute for facebook, I really like it a lot more.  Since most of the people I'm following right now are other Chromebook pilots or tech-minded people, there is a lot of great information posted to read through.  And I also use it to bookmark a lot of information that I want to go through later.  If you'd like to try out Google+, here's an invite for you:  http://goo.gl/wrzFt.

Well, gotta go.  Hopefully I can spend a little more time here in the near future.  Leave me comments, or look me up on Google+.

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• Google Music Manager Now Available for Linux [Downloads] (lifehacker.com)
• Google Music beta (riddek.wordpress.com)
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Google building Skype-alike software into Chrome | Deep Tech - CNET News

Image via CrunchBase

Google is putting a voice/video solution into Chrome that is open source. Users of GMails video and voice chat up to this point had to rely on a proprietary plugin, but that will all change when Google is finished integrating it WebRTC acquisition into Chrome. Read about the details here:

Google building Skype-alike software into Chrome | Deep Tech - CNET News

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• Google Chrome To Have Real-Time Communications Capabilities (digitizor.com)

Chrome OS Help

In anticipation of everyone getting new Chromebooks over the next couple of weeks, Google has made their Chrome OS page public.  Previously, this page was reached by those of us with CzR-48's by pressing the Help item in the wrench menu.  The page has changed a little bit to reflect the new name Chromebook instead of CR-48 and a few additions.

Check it out here:
Chrome OS Help

Samsung Chromebook: Hands-On Visual Tour -- InformationWeek

The first look at the new Samsung Chromebook.  Pretty sweet looking piece of tech.  I still think they're a little overpriced though.  I though Chrome OS based netbooks would come in at about the $200 price mark.  While the Samsung entry is pretty sleek (can you say Mac-book like?), I don't think the higher price($500) is justified.

We'll see what the market will support.  In the mean time, head over here to take a look at the pretty pictures:

Samsung Chromebook: Hands-On Visual Tour -- InformationWeek

Top 10 reasons Chromebook will forever change corporate laptop use | Enterprise Features

With just over 1 week to go until the general availability of the Chromebook (Acer and Samsung versions) running Chrome OS, there is this article to peruse listing the Top 10 reasons that the Chromebook is a great idea for corporate use.

Top 10 reasons Chromebook will forever change corporate laptop use | Enterprise Features

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Another step in the browser-based desktop revolution

Citrix announced that their Citrix Receiver will be available in the Chrome Web Store soon.  The Citrix Receiver will work with Citrix servers to allow your Chromebook (CR-48) to run enterprise applications natively.  This fits in very nicely with the Corporate lease option of $28/mo. for chromebooks.  Now you can outfit an entire sales fleet with Chromebooks, and the users can run your company's software right on the Chromebook via the Citrix Receiver application.  And if your company avails itself of Google Apps, you will find that collaboration on work documents and applications will lead to greater productivity.

Read the story here on the Official Google Enterprise Blog:

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Another step in the browser-based desktop revolution

Company Backing the Chrome OS Model

A story from a company which has embraced the Chromebook to get work done.  Hear how they have determined that Google Apps give them everything they need to run their business:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt579RU7Ot0&feature=player_embedded

Five Reasons why Google's Linux Chromebook is a Windows killer | ZDNet

Another very good article on why the Chromebook is a great platform, and how it fits into the enterprise:

Five Reasons why Google's Linux Chromebook is a Windows killer | ZDNet

New Development Channel Update Fixes Some Problems

Image by lewong2000 via FlickrThere was a new Development Channel release at the end of last week (3/17) which for me has fixed a couple of glaring problems.  The previous release had the annoying habit of continually restarting every time I would bring it out of sleep mode.  It had something to do with reconnecting to the wireless network in my house, which is a problem that has persisted since I got my cr-48.  I would need to disconnect and reconnect my wireless in order to get any data.  And then the release came that would make my cr-48 crash completely while trying to reconnect to the wireless.  So, I'm happy to report that this release doesn't crash my cr-48 on wake-from-sleep, and even successfully reconnects to the wireless occasionally.  This is something that still needs some work, but it appears to be getting close to completion.

Another problem is that the location aware features of the cr-48 crash the cr-48.  If you try to use any extensions or apps that are location aware, the crash occurs.  Some examples are the full-page web app from the weather underground, and Twitter if you try to use location stamping on your tweets.  This problem has been around for the last two releases on the dev channel, so hopefully a fix is forth-coming.

Overall, the CR-48 experience is getting better and better.  I have noticed an increase in the speed and responsiveness of the system, with quick redraws on loading of web pages.  Flash-heavy pages still seem a little choppy, and scrolling with the track pad while loading one of these pages is jerky at best.  Scrolling with the down arrow key is much better.  Speaking of flash, the newer dev channel releases include to different flash engines: one called pepper and the "regular one."  In order for most flash pages to work, the pepper flash needs to be disabled.

Cloud printing still works well for me, but the about:flags print preview page is still broken.  Luckily for me, most of what I print is pdf, so I can already see what the printed output will look like.

The last couple of dev channel releases have also seen the addition of a widget in the status bar that looks like a little square.  Much has been asked and answered on many blogs as to the purpose of this widget.  It is, in fact, a window changer that becomes active when you have multiple windows open.  It somewhat mimics the task of the "next-window" button in the top row of the keyboard, but unlike that button, it will not display crosh shell windows when used.  So if you have a crosh window open, you still need to use the "next-window" button to see it.

Oh, one more thing:  the slideshow url still doesn't work, so you need to use the trusty file:/// url to see any screenshots or image files that you may have.  It will be nice when this is fixed; a lot of users are complaining that screenshots don't work, when in fact it is the slideshow functionality that is broken.

As alway, anxiously awaiting the next update to see what goodies it brings!

Related articles

• New Chrome OS update finally fixes the Cr-48's touchpad issues (engadget.com)
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Top 10 Chrome OS extensions

Image by lewong2000 via Flickr

The great thing about the Chrome OS is the ability to load web apps and extensions that aid you in the way you use your computer.  I found a slideshow this morning that highlights some of the most popular/useful extensions that you can use with Chrome OS on your CR-48.  Check them out, and let me know which ones you like!

Top 10 Chrome OS extensions

Google Accelerates Chrome OS Update Pace

A new development channel update to the CR-48 arrived yesterday. This is the second OS update in the last week, so I guess the pace has picked up a little. The blogger in this story seems to have not gotten any of the intermediate updates because he was still on a 0.9 version of the Chrome OS. I haven't been on that version for several weeks.

From the Google Groups forum for CR-48 users, it sounds like the only change to the OS is a fix for some sync problems that some users were experiencing.  I think the trackpad is better at scrolling up now than it was before, but I seem to see improvements to the trackpad with every update.  I think it's a placebo type of thing for me.
Check out the story here:

Google Accelerates Chrome OS Update Pace | ConceivablyTech

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FYI: 2 Factor Authentication Doesn't Work with Chrome OS

Google announced their 2-step authentication for logging in a couple of days ago. However, if you're a CR-48 user, you probably want to forgo using it until the bugs are worked out in sync.

FYI: 2 factor authentication doesn't work with Chrome OS - Chromium OS discuss | Google Groups

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Cloud Printing from the Google CR-48

Image via Wikipedia

Printing has come a long way!

One of the developments in the Chrome OS operating system is the use of something called "cloud printing."  What this is, basically, is registering your printers with Google's print servers.  It's a great concept; you can register your printer at home, the printers at work, anywhere you can run a chrome browser you can register those printers for cloud printing.
On the CR-48 anything you want to print can then be directed to any of the printers that you have registered with the cloud. So, you're on the road working on a spreadsheet and when you're done you want to print it at work so it's ready for that early meeting, no problem.  When you select a printer from your list of registered printers, you'll also be able to set any of the options on that printer that you would normally be able to set.  Multiple copies, 2-sided, collated, color/b&w, no problem.  You can manage the print jobs by using the option menu and looking "Under the Hood" for the button to "Manage printers...".
At present, only printers connected to Windows machines are configurable from the Chrome options menu, but if you have Linux or MacOS you will have to do a little command line work to make the magic happen.  Here is a link to a blog with information on setting up cloud printing in Linux and MacOSX.   But it's worth the extra effort in the flexibility it provides.  On Linux systems there is also a PDF printer driver, so you could conceivably select that as the print device and actually create a PDF file on your linux machine's local file system.  Very sweet.
Have any questions about printing in the cloud?  Let me know.  It's worth you time to get it configured and working for you.

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