Living in the Cloud

I already wrote about my Christmas gift from Google.  I've been using it for a few weeks now, almost exclusively, and I am very happy. It isn't perfect. It's a closed beta right now. (Version 0.9.128.12 at the time of writing) What I can say is that it's fast. Lightning fast.  I do notice some lag with Adobe Flash, but that should improve with finalized hardware.

The last post I did was completely written (photos and all) on the CR-48.  It's instant resume, starts in 14 seconds, and I may have shut it down three times since I've had it.  Occasionally, Chrome starts leaking memory and I have to log out and back in. Also, SD and USB storage access is largely nonexistent.  I had to work through Picnik to upload images.  This should be improved as one of the experimental options is "Advanced File System".

Mostly, it's dead simple. Unless it can't connect to a network, in which case, you must enter Incognito Mode to set up the wireless.  I have yet to activate the Verizon 3G, so I won't comment on that.  It syncs all my settings, extensions, apps, bookmarks, etc.

What I like the most about this laptop.

1. It consistently gets 8 hours of battery life
2. Instant resume lets me close it up to save battery without worrying about waiting to resume when I open it back up
3. I have reset it, without losing anything

8 hours of battery life means that I can be at sub ten percent battery life and have over a half hour of life remaining.  That's invaluable if you're on the go and need to finish something quick.

Bugs: 

The keyboard shortcuts menu (ctrl+alt+/) only shows qwerty layout (I am in the minority that uses Dvorak)

Can't change profile picture without resetting the device

No real show stoppers. This seems very close to launch.

So, I got a CR-48

On Thursday, I had a package at my door.  I had no idea what it was, but I knew that it was addressed to me, so I opened it.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a diagram on a box, and a guinea pig so dear.  At this point, I knew what it was. I had seen this post a week or so before.  Like any good blogger, I raced for a camera to photograph the unboxing, while simultaneously yelling that I had a Chrome OS notebook.  I'll save the review for later, but some initial impressions now.