Chromebook (Cr-48) First Review India

Samsung plans to start selling chromebooks in India in 2012. I got my hands on a Cr-48 Google test machine almost a year later than it became available in the US. I’ve used Acer and Samsung netbooks running windows 7 before and was expecting a similar experience. I couldn't be more wrong. At 1.63Kg the 12.1” the chromebook felt light. It comes with a rubberised black coating, which incidentally is a fingerprint magnet. This is a test machine and won’t be available in  the open market therefore you won’t find this finish on Samsung chromebooks.

The chromebook itself is pretty barebones with one USB 2.0 port, one SD card reader, earphone jack, an on screen camera and a vga output. Networking options include wi-fi & 3G. The sim card slot is below the battery. The screen offers a resolution of 1280X800. All pretty standard stuff.

The most visible change is the keyboard. Google has done away with the function keys and has instead replaced them with keys for volume, brightness etc. Also there is no caps lock & delete keys, which I miss a lot, instead the caps lock is replaced by a search button. The second big visible difference is the mouse or touch pad. The standard touchpad has been replaced by one large Apple like touchpad with no buttons to click and takes some getting used to. There is no button to right click. instead you need to touch with 2 fingers for right click. Also to click you need to press the touchpad to click, a simple tap won’t work. However you can change this behavior in settings.

The right hand corner has 2 icons for wi-fi & battery. Connecting to my local wi-fi (BSNL) network was a breeze. It is essentially a NETBOOK so don’t expect it to have any serious offline capability. The OS is a chrome browser. It does includes a file manager but do not expect windows file explorer functionality. The open default chrome tab offers access to gmail, docs, file manager, calender, talk & scratchpad which is a notes application. If you’re thinking of using iTunes, MS Office, Win rar zipped files etc go get a windows 7 netbook. I started tasks on my Cr-48 but frequently found myself switching to my laptop to complete the same.

Performance was top notch. A cold boot of less than 15 secs and a shutdown of less than 3 seconds was impressive. Resuming from standby is a snap and almost feels instantaneous. I tried watching Singham on youtube’s boxoffice channel and video content played fine, even in full screen mode. I have read some review that say flash performance was choppy but I didn’t see it. Battery life was indeed a fantastic 8 hours. The specs say 8 days of standby, I however was unable to test this.

Chrome is essentially work-in-progress. I had higher hopes of it. Maybe I was comparing it to android which does a fantastic job (I own a Google Nexus One) or maybe to the alternative Windows 7. It does the internet stuff well enough but anything else and it falters. Even for internet stuff I found it almost impossible working with images and videos (so not images or videos for this blog, since I do it from my Cr-48).

While Samsung would offer better harware that this Cr-48, one year old model it’s still the Chrome OS that falls short. If you’re planning to wait till 2012 to get your hands on a chromebook, wait some more till the platform matures or go but yourself a windows 7 netbook. For almost the same price these netbooks offer a lot more value than chromebooks.

Score: 2/5

Google Music: How it Stacks up against Apple iTunes & Audiogalaxy?

The only reason I would use Google Music is because I want my library to be available on multiple devices. There are a lot of services that provide this functionality today. So it’s time to take Google Music for a spin and pit it against the giant- iTunes and Audiogalaxy – for streaming content to multiple devices.

Availability: I am not comparing it to iTunes match as it is not available in India. Well, officially neither is Google Music, but you know how to bypass this restriction. ;-) In case you don't, read my earlier blog "Google Music First Impressions" for details or do a Google search. Audiogalaxy is available everywhere, no regional limits here.

Features: I'll compare what I consider a few important features here with a focus on streaming.

Cloud: Apple iTunes has no cloud support (iTunes match does; but not available in India), Google Music offers space for 20000 songs on its cloud and Audiogalaxy imposes a limit of 200000 songs does not offer any cloud storage. Audiogalaxy simply saves your song information on its servers so if you want to listen to a song in your library in Audiogalaxy you computer must be switched on and running the Audiogalaxy helper software. Apple iTunes, Google Music and Audiogalaxy are all free.

Streaming: Apple iTunes can stream content from your computer to apple TV or your iPhone/iPad connected to the same network. Google Music & Audiogalaxy can stream your library to any computer, phone or device with a browser. The devices need not be on the same network, the only difference being Google Music will stream content from the cloud and Audiogalaxy will stream music from your computer.

Interface: Apple iTumes plays your music, manages your library including finding song information, Album art etc from the internet, rips music off CD’s and provides access to the VERY, VERY limited India App Store. It provides a unified consistent interface for all these functions. Google Music offers a music manager which uploads songs to the Google cloud.Audiogalaxy offers an Audiogalaxy helper application that scans your library and uploads song information to Audiogalaxy servers. Both do not play music, manage the library, find song information or rip music. Both offer an app for Android devices. All three will help you create playlists.

Offline: Apple iTunes can stream songs on the same network and Audiogalaxy must be online to stream at all. Google Music android app can make your music available to you offline on your phone or tablet. Just open the app and pin the music you want available offline.

Verdict: Google Music is a great Cloud Music Storage service. It needs to work on being a complete music application or maybe it wants to be only the online store/storage for 3rd party music applications. In that case it should release its Music API. Having said that, this comparison was for primary their network streaming capability and Google Music really shines.
Apple iTunes needs to get its act together and start the full fledged app store in India instead of a piecemeal mash up cobbled from random content. If you only want streaning within your network and own an iPhone/IPad or other apple products then Apple iTunes is your best best.
Audiogalaxy is a a pure streaming service and if you’re ok for your computer always on, acting as a server, then its available, free & legal. Network usage is highest here as content will be streamed from your computer. Get an unlimited plan internet, the fastest you can find.

I am looking for a complete music app which helps me rip, store, stream & manage my music. Sadly all three fall woefully short. Maybe an opportunity for Microsoft here  :-)

Google Music First Impressions

I have been waiting to access Google Music since I’ve heard of its beta launch. That was available only in the US and Alas the final release is also still available only in the US. But I got around the country limitation by using TOR and selecting a US node to sign in. Google it seems to check only the IP where the request originates. You can get a step-by-step tutorial on engadget here.

Once you get your account what’s left is to upload your existing music collection to Google music. Unlike other music services Google doesn’t give you a fixed amount of space to upload your music instead you get space for 20,000 songs. All for FREE. Music purchased from Google will not count towards this 20K limit.
Next download the music manager and get started with uploading your existing library. Google music manager software is available for Windows, Mac &Linux. The setting process is hassle free and the music manager wizard will guide you. Upload is a pain and will depend on the speed of your internet connection. I use BSNL 512kbps home connection (used by the majority in India). And it takes several days to upload your entire library to Google music. It’s taken me almost a week to upload some 4000 songs.

Google Music supports most common file formats including MP3, AAC, WMA & OGG. More on supported music formats here. Google uploads songs and maintains their original bitrates. So it you have songs at low bitrates then that is what you will get on Google Music.

Once done you can listen to your collection from any PC or device that’s equipped with a browser. Google states that enabling JavaScript and flash are a prerequisite to using Google Music. I have not had an opportunity to test it in environments where JavaScript and flash are missing.

Now if you have an android phone you can download and install Google Music App. Again if you’re not in the US the marketplace will not let you download the App but a Google search will lead you to plenty of places where you can find and download the App from. What Google Marketplace disables Google search enables. :-)

I’m listening to my library on my Google Nexus One. It is recommended to use a 3G or Wi-Fi connection to listen to music as some large files can take time to download and play on a conventional 2G connection. You can also pin some music to make it available offline on your phone so that you can play it later when no data connection is available.

All in all a good service. If you like your music then Google will give you all this for FREE. Of course, there are lots of areas where it needs to improve and hopefully it will and sooner rather than later.

In my next article I’ll compare it to some other music services and see how it fares. Till then Happy Listening.