I have discovered another minor limitation to using my Chromebook: I can't attach my Garmin GPS to the USB port and expect to address the GPS to upload or download data. Now I know that some people have figured out how to address the internal file system and therein could manage to move smaller files between devices and the Chromebook. However, I don't think that most people are going to be interested in learning this "hack" to manage their netbook. I believe the fact that it would take another laptop to communicate with the GPS is another strike against a netbook.
I still love my Chromebook and enjoy using it for it's intended purpose. The battery life continues to serve exceptionally well for light to medium web surfing. If I think that I'm going to be doing a lot of research or media activities I will get the charging cable as required but generally I find it a extremely productive unit.
Showing posts with label battery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label battery. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Power Supply
My Chromebook ran great all weekend. Of course I didn't use it much on Saturday because we hosted a baby shower for my daughter. But Sunday was Super Bowl XLV and I Facebooked more than normal during the game as well as quite a bit of web surfing prior. Power levels we great all weekend I didn't plug up to charge until Sunday night.
Today, I will continue with using my Nexus One phone as a tethered wifi hotspot but I have decided to throw a curve into the power usage. I have connected my phone to the Chromebook because my Nexus One will run out of power before the eight hours of my normal workday so by connecting my phone to the netbook I can maintain my wifi connection for an extended period. This will test the ability of the Chromebook to supply power to my phone while simultaniously powering the netbook. This would be a normal configuration for this device, especially while traveling so this is the next level of review/testing for this nice little machine.
Today, I will continue with using my Nexus One phone as a tethered wifi hotspot but I have decided to throw a curve into the power usage. I have connected my phone to the Chromebook because my Nexus One will run out of power before the eight hours of my normal workday so by connecting my phone to the netbook I can maintain my wifi connection for an extended period. This will test the ability of the Chromebook to supply power to my phone while simultaniously powering the netbook. This would be a normal configuration for this device, especially while traveling so this is the next level of review/testing for this nice little machine.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Time for some bad stuff
Ok, I've been very supportive and constructive so far about this new Chromebook. Time for some criticism.
I really like the keyboard. It's almost exactly like my MacBook keyboard. It's a bit rubbery feeling but the tactile feedback is very good to me and the layout is very efficient if a bit smaller that a full keyboard. I don't have any trouble typing on this keyboard at all. One thing though, is that if you leave the mouse in the middle of a paragraph and accidentally forget about the track pad and bump it while typing, your cursor will jump to the middle of paragraph and begin inserting what ever you type. This took a little getting use to because what I have figured out is to be careful where you leave your cursor while typing. I have learned to plant the cursor in the lower right hand corner of a window when I am typing, like now, and then I don't have any trouble.
Another thing about the keyboard is the lack/loss of all the function keys along the top row. I almost never used them so I won't miss them because they always seemed out of place for a normal computer user and since you can't add a program like Photoshop that uses those keys you just don't need them hanging around cluttering up the landscape. I have found that I like navigating with the forward/back buttons that replace the function keys so I expect that I will come to rely on the other keys that live on the top of the keyboard in the same way.
The cover, base, keys, and the entire unit has this rubbery feel to it. While this texture can provide a sense of security when you are carrying your Chromebook, it may have some draw backs also: my wife had a similar finish on a motorcycle helmet that she purchased. After about six months of heavy use, the rubber stuff started peeling off her helmet and it was ugly. It was like her helmet had some kind of skin rash infection stuff and look dirty all the time. If this happens to the Chromebook it will be very ugly as well. I let you know. The initial report of this surface treatment is good, but time will tell.
I feel...weird...about not being able to install another application or look at a jump drive. This unit has a port for an external monitor as well as a USB port for a USB device like an external mouse/pointer but if you plug a jump/thumb drive into the USB port the system will not recognize that anything has changed and you can't see the drive. I know that you really don't need an external drive for transporting files from this machine, since everything lives in the cloud, and if I sign onto my Google Chrome account on another machine that all of my documents will be there waiting for me, but it makes me feel weird. Almost a weird as weird as that run on sentence. But that's how I feel. It doesn't affect the function of the machine and I expect that this is something that I'll be able to get use to as time passes and I become more confident in my use of the cloud, but, it's just,...weird.
An update on the power comsumption: I ran this thing pretty hard yesterday and plugged it up to recharge last night at about 9:30 pm. At that time I still had 43% of the battery remaining. Pretty good overall.
I really like the keyboard. It's almost exactly like my MacBook keyboard. It's a bit rubbery feeling but the tactile feedback is very good to me and the layout is very efficient if a bit smaller that a full keyboard. I don't have any trouble typing on this keyboard at all. One thing though, is that if you leave the mouse in the middle of a paragraph and accidentally forget about the track pad and bump it while typing, your cursor will jump to the middle of paragraph and begin inserting what ever you type. This took a little getting use to because what I have figured out is to be careful where you leave your cursor while typing. I have learned to plant the cursor in the lower right hand corner of a window when I am typing, like now, and then I don't have any trouble.
Another thing about the keyboard is the lack/loss of all the function keys along the top row. I almost never used them so I won't miss them because they always seemed out of place for a normal computer user and since you can't add a program like Photoshop that uses those keys you just don't need them hanging around cluttering up the landscape. I have found that I like navigating with the forward/back buttons that replace the function keys so I expect that I will come to rely on the other keys that live on the top of the keyboard in the same way.
The cover, base, keys, and the entire unit has this rubbery feel to it. While this texture can provide a sense of security when you are carrying your Chromebook, it may have some draw backs also: my wife had a similar finish on a motorcycle helmet that she purchased. After about six months of heavy use, the rubber stuff started peeling off her helmet and it was ugly. It was like her helmet had some kind of skin rash infection stuff and look dirty all the time. If this happens to the Chromebook it will be very ugly as well. I let you know. The initial report of this surface treatment is good, but time will tell.
I feel...weird...about not being able to install another application or look at a jump drive. This unit has a port for an external monitor as well as a USB port for a USB device like an external mouse/pointer but if you plug a jump/thumb drive into the USB port the system will not recognize that anything has changed and you can't see the drive. I know that you really don't need an external drive for transporting files from this machine, since everything lives in the cloud, and if I sign onto my Google Chrome account on another machine that all of my documents will be there waiting for me, but it makes me feel weird. Almost a weird as weird as that run on sentence. But that's how I feel. It doesn't affect the function of the machine and I expect that this is something that I'll be able to get use to as time passes and I become more confident in my use of the cloud, but, it's just,...weird.
An update on the power comsumption: I ran this thing pretty hard yesterday and plugged it up to recharge last night at about 9:30 pm. At that time I still had 43% of the battery remaining. Pretty good overall.
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