Tuesday 29 May 2012

Amazon Instant Video streaming is now live on the Xbox 360

Amazon Instant Video streaming is now live on the Xbox 360


If Amazon's video store is going to compete with the other online sources like Hulu and Netflix, getting on as many platforms as possible is key and it made a major expansion today by launching on the Xbox 360. The app launched on the PS3 back in April, and just like that version, this one includes access to Amazon's video on-demand and Prime all-you-can-eat subscription based streaming. Unique to the Xbox 360 app is support for the console's Kinect peripheral and its ability to recognize control by gesture or voice, plus a brand new feature for Amazon -- a queue. The Watchlist (for now only available on the Xbox 360, Kindle Fire and via the web) lets customers preselect programming they're interested in for easy access on the devices later, just like Netflix's implementation, however Amazon's VOD store means access to newer and higher profile content is just a click away. There's more details in the press release and video after the break, or you can just check out the app on your console right now (if you're in the US and have Xbox Live Gold, of course -- even if you don't have Prime, there's a one month free trial offer).

[Thanks, AtillaG!]


Chrome OS review (version 19)

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It seems like yesterday that we reviewed the inaugural Samsung Series 5 Chromebook running Google's Chrome OS, an operating system for laptops based on Chrome. It was, from the start, a world in which everything from music playback to document creation happened in browser tabs. Since we last checked in a year ago, Google has addressed some early complaints -- the browser can actually stream Netflix now! -- but it's only just getting around to ticking off someother long-standing grievances, like multitasking.
The company just announced two new Chrome OS devices -- the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 and Chromebox Series 3 -- and both run a spanking-new build of the OS that ushers in a simplified desktop with customizable wallpaper and the ability to minimize, maximize and close windows -- oh my! More importantly, you can now view multiple windows onscreen, edit docs offline and pin shortcuts to the bottom of the screen -- a combination that promises some seriously improved multitasking. Other goodies: built-in Google Music, Google+ and Hangouts, along with a basic photo editor, redesigned music player and enhanced remote desktop app. So does all this add up to an upgrade meaty enough to make the skeptics give Chrome OS a second look? Could it be time for you to get the low-tech person in your life a Chromebook? Let's see

A desktop... sort of
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Until today, it's been tough for even Chromebook sympathizers to defend Chrome OS' status as a bona fide operating system. After all, in its earliest incarnation it was little more than the Chrome browser itself, gussied up with a media player and a fledgling app store. Now in its nineteenth version, though, it's finally getting a desktop, making it look and function a little more like a traditional OS. When you sign in for the first time, you'll see an expanse of wallpaper, with a row of apps pinned to the bottom of the screen -- not unlike the Taskbar in Windows 7. By default, you can see that tray of shortcuts even when you have a window open, but when you maximize it (more on that in a moment) the window takes up the whole screen, obscuring the row of apps at the bottom. If you like, though, you can go into the settings and set any given app to always be on top (or, if you prefer, always hidden).
The Chrome team has also borrowed a bit from Android: in addition to pinned apps, that tray is home to an app launcher, which looks exactly like the one used on Google's mobile products. Click it and whatever windows you have open will minimize, with a grid of large icons taking up the whole screen. You can click on these, naturally, or use the arrow keys if you want to give the trackpad a rest.
To each his own, of course, but we'd much rather open apps this way than by scanning around for a bookmark in the browser. Time savings aside, the new design simply feels more intuitive: though everything from email to photo editing still takes place in the browser, just knowing there's something behind that window makes the experience feel a little more familiar.
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For every feature that Google has added, there are two more that remain unavailable.

So that's the first piece, this space that resembles a traditional desktop. What really makes this feel like a conventional OS, though, are the windows: you can now minimize, maximize or close them! Exciting, right? And, if you're feeling really frisky, you can pull a window and snap it into place so that it takes up half the screen -- again, similar to what you can do in Windows 7. You can also resize the windows and pepper the screen with as many as you can fit. Okay, okay, we're making good use of sarcastic italics, but we do have a point: we take such things for granted to the point where it might not have occurred to naysayers that just being able to minimize a window could make an operating system more user-friendly. And it really does. Minimizing windows or even having two on screen at once allows for far more efficient multitasking than earlier versions of the software.
And yet, this doesn't feel quite like a desktop: for every feature that Google has added, there are two more that remain unavailable. Although you can change the wallpaper, for instance, there are no Android-style widgets, and you also can't populate that space with shortcuts to things like webpages or documents in progress. Ditto for that row of apps at the bottom of the screen: though you can use it to launch apps, you can't jump straight to frequently visited web pages or a playlist in Google Music. When you click the Chrome icon, it opens up a new tab, instead of bringing you to the one you were looking at last, which makes multitasking feel a little more tedious than it should. There doesn't appear to be a way to change this, though youcan change how Chrome behaves when the machine starts up: it can pick up where you left off, open specific sites or just start fresh.
Offline apps
When Chromebooks debuted last year, one of the most common complaints was that they'd be useless without an internet connection. "How am I supposed to check my email on a plane without WiFi?" people would ask. "What about accessing Google Docs in a dead zone?" Even a year ago, Google was promising offline access, and eventually it arrived-- albeit, in a crude sort of form. Since last summer, users have been able to read (but not edit) their Google Calendars and Docs even when they've lost their internet connection. We're still holding out for anytime calendar editing, but as of today, people can at least edit their docs offline.
First, though, let's take a step back and talk about what kinds of offline apps are available, and how to discover them. To make them easier to find, Google's added an offline category under the "Collections" tab in the Web App Store, though searching with the keyword "offline" should do the trick too. That's how we found Offline Google Mail. To set up Offline Google Docs, though, we had to open Docs in the browser and enable offline access in the settings. Other apps available in the Web Store: a Wikipedia reader, dictionary and solitaire, among lots and lots of other third-party offerings.
The problem, though, is that offline Mail and Docs are only as useful as the content you remembered to sync while you still had an internet connection. You know how if you're out of range, your smartphone will download a limited number of emails and tweets, making it impossible to search your entire inbox or scroll infinitely backward in your Twitter feed? It's the same limitation here: that list of emails hardly goes on forever, and you can only search what's there. Even if you took the time to let it sync before you went off the grid, you can only download emails from within the past month (the settings menu also lets you narrow that list down to messages from the last week or two). In essence, then, you're still out of luck if you want to find that TPS report you submitted last January.
If it's any comfort, though, company reps say Google Drive integration is coming in the next release, due about six weeks from now. Of course, we haven't yet gotten an early hands-on peek at this feature, but we're told Drive will be baked into the File Manager, specifically. From there, you'll be able to save or copy files into Drive, as well as open Drive files on your Chrome device. Another tidbit: Google has given us a heads-up that users will need to "pin" files they want to make available offline. In other words, don't expect everything you backed up to automagically appear in your Chromebook's File Manager.
Music and video playback
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One of the early complaints about Chrome OS was that it couldn't even support Netflix streaming. Though Google fixed that last summer, it's only now adding support for 1080p YouTube videos. We say better late than never: we found the streaming to be quite smooth, whether we watched a professionally done animated short or some amateur home video. We also had an easy time gobbling up clips on Vimeo and Hulu, and you can also view movies from Google Play, if you're so inclined.
It was at the annual I/O conference last year that Google unveiled both Chromebooks and Google Music, so we can see why the company chose not to integrate those two brand-new pieces of software from the get-go: after all, it would be another six months until Music even made it out of beta. Now that another six months have passed, though, Google was clearly ready for the service to be a built-in part of Chrome OS. And by "built-in," we mean Music is one of several shortcuts that come pre-loaded in the app launcher. If you've ever played with Google Music, the interface should look familiar. And, as ever, you'll need an internet connection to use it. Though Chrome OS' built-in media player lets you play music stored on an SD card, there's no such thing as offline Google Music. Luckily, a Google rep confirmed the company's working on letting users pin specific songs so they can listen anytime.
Tying it all together is a redesigned media player, which, as always, you can park in the lower-right corner and set to stay visible as you chat, read emails, et cetera. While it's cleaner-looking, it's still lacking any advanced features: no looping, for instance, and no shuffling of tracks. Additionally, the list of supported file formats has expanded to include support for all Office files (doc, xls, ppt, docx, xlsx, pptx), rar, tar, tar.gz (.tgz), and .tar.bz2 (.tbz2). As it is, the built-in media player could already open .zip, .txt, .html, .mp4, .m4v, .m4a, .mp3, .ogv, .ogm, .ogg, .oga, .webm and .wav files, along with PDFs and "common image formats" (read: .jpg, .gif and .png).
Photo editing
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Another common complaint about Chrome OS is that it isn't so great for creating visual content -- and frankly, it still isn't. It would seem, though, that Google is at least taking baby steps in the right direction. New with this version of the operating system is a photo editor, with options to auto-enhance, crop and rotate shots, as well as adjust the brightness and contrast. It would've been nice if Google could have just folded some of those neat Picnik filters into the photo editor, but we can see where that wouldn't be at the top of the engineering team's priority list. Hopefully, more advanced tools like that will indeed arrive in some future build.
As you're editing, be sure to click the link that says "keep original"; the OS doesn't automatically save the untouched version (Google says it expects most users will want to overwrite the original if they're only making small touch-ups). When you're done, you can upload to Picasa and get a link to pass around to your friends. The ability to send edited photos to the likes of Facebook and Twitter would be nice too, but again, baby steps.
Books
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Not new, but worth repeating: you can go to the Web Store and install Google Play Books so that you can read e-books offline. Continuing that offline theme permeating this review, it's possible to download a book so that you can read it even when you lose your internet connection. To do this, hover over a book's thumbnail in the Play Store and check the box that says "Make available offline." Obviously, we can't vouch for your internet connection, however poky it may be, but over a reliably strong WiFi network we were able to download "Pride and Prejudice," a 448-page book, in under a minute. Once you've gotten that over with, it's the same Google Books interface you already know, with a search feature, table of contents and the ability to adjust the typeface and font size. Naturally, if you close out of the app to do something else, Google Books will remember where you left off.
Google+ integration
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The first time we tested a Chromebook, Google+ wasn't even an official product yet. Less than a year later, it's taking its predictable place in Chrome OS, with separate apps for the social network, as well as Hangouts, the video chat service. Interestingly, Hangouts is one of the rare instances in which opening an application will cause Chrome to launch a new window -- not a new tab, but a new window. Google+ looks exactly as it would in any other browser, so we'll spare you the recap. Starting a video chat, meanwhile, is idiot-proof: there's one field for naming your Hangout, and another for searching for names of people to invite. Whether you normally use the service or not, it's a nice improvement over the state of affairs a year ago, when the only option was a video call inside GChat. Want Skype? Sorry, folks, but surely you know a few people with Google accounts, yeah?
Chrome Remote desktop
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You can now reach into whatever PC you left at home, and see files you don't have stored online.

Chrome Remote desktop, introduced as a beta last October, is what it sounds like: an app that lets you access other devices, and also share your screen with others. Like other Google apps, you'll find it in the Chrome Web Store. Regardless of whether you're using a Chromebook, Mac, PC or Linux machine, you'll have to download it from the Chrome Web Store.
Until now, the setup process was a clumsy affair, requiring Remote Desktop to be installed on both devices and for the person sharing his or her desktop to generate a 12-digit code and pass that on to whoever wants to access the machine. Because this password changed every time you did a screen-share, you needed someone else on the other end, giving permission to share their computer and then passing along the code. Once you carried out that little authentication dance, you could expect a fast connection with little latency between the two machines. In particular, you could access Skype, FaceTime and Colloquy -- apps that wouldn't normally be available on Chrome OS -- though taking control of a friend's PC or Mac to borrow his applications isn't exactly a realistic scenario. If anything, the technology was useful for troubleshooting, which you might well need to do if you gift your Chromebook to the low-tech person in your life with simple needs.
Now, you can use your Chrome OS device (or any PC running Chrome, really) to access one of your own computers remotely, without help from someone else. For now, at least, the host computer has to be running Windows Vista or higher or Mac OS X 10.6 or above (sorry, Linux users). To get started, you'll need to follow a few one-time steps: go to the Chrome Web Store on both your Chrome OS device and host machine, and make sure you've installed the latest version of Remote Desktop as a Chrome browser app. Then, you'll be prompted to download a host installer to enable remote controllers. Finally, choose an access PIN for that particular machine.
Once you've done all this, you'll be able to see your other computers on your Chrome OS device; it doesn't matter if they're not in the same room or on the same WiFi network, so long as that host machine is turned on. And all you'll have to do to log in is enter that PIN you configured during the setup process; no more randomized 12-digit codes here. The beauty in all this, of course, is that you can now reach into whatever PC you left at home, and see files you don't have stored online, or on your Chrome OS device.
Chrome Web Store
If you've used the Web Store recently, there's nothing to see here: Google hasn't changed the user interface at all this go-round. A company rep did give us an update on the selection, though, and told us there are now "tens of thousands" of Chrome-optimized applications available, including "hundreds" of offline options. For those who've managed to avoid the Web Store up until this point, here's a quick primer: on the home page, you'll be greeted by a bottomless list of apps, each represented by tiles of various sizes. Since you could stumble across every application in the store if you scrolled down persistently enough, you're better off selecting from one of the categories listed along the left-hand side (think: business, productivity, etc.). In that same pane, you'll find a link to see just the apps you've installed, along with categories for popular and trending. Here, too, is where you'll find those so-called collections, which are listed separately from the various categories of apps.
Performance
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When it comes to day-to-day web browsing, not once did we encounter Google's equivalent of a Fail Whale, those cheerful "Aw, snap!" and "He's Dead, Jim" screens. No sites caused Chrome to crash, and we had a smooth time juggling tasks in different tabs. We also found the dual-core Celeron processor inside both the new Chromebook and Chromebox were enough to assist with speedy boot-ups and app launches.
Not all was well, though: two Engadget staffers testing the Chromebook and Box noticed that the two machines can be sluggish in reconnecting to known WiFi and 3G networks after resuming from sleep. On the multimedia front, we noticed a good deal of tiling when watching an .mp4 movie. Finally, our own Myriam Joire, who reviewed the Chromebox, found that after putting the computer to sleep, she was logged out of Google Apps accounts, as well as Facebook and Tweetdeck -- and this is despite checking "keep me logged in" on these various sites and giving Chrome permission to remember these passwords. A Google rep told us the engineering team is aware of that particular kink and is working on a fix.
Etc.
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One new feature that's worth noting but that's neither here nor there is the ability to sync tabs between your Chrome OS system and your Android device -- assuming it, too, is running the Chrome browser. Moving on to security, there haven't been any major changes this time around. You can still set your device so that a password is required when the system wakes from sleep. There's also sandboxing, TPM, data encryption and verified boot, among other protocols aimed at businesses and schools planning on issuing these in bulk. Wrapping up, you can still print things through WiFI-enabled printers that make use of the Google Cloud Print standard. It's worth mentioning, though, that a year later this standard has become far more ubiquitous, and it's a lot easier to find a compatible printer than it was even a year ago.
Wrap-up
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More Info

  • Samsung Series 5 Chromebook review
  • Chrome OS and Google Drive to get intimate in version 20
  • Google Books for Chrome gets offline support, one less excuse for not reading the 'classics'
When we reviewed the first Chromebook a year ago, we concluded that Chrome OS isn't for everybody. If you need certain desktops apps like Photoshop even when you're on the go, you're never going to appreciate what Google's trying to do here; there will always be some hole in your workflow that keeps you crawling back toward your PC. By design, Chrome OS is at its best when the user has always-on connectivity, which means for the foreseeable future, at least, it's destined to remain something of a niche concept.
The good news is that Google's taken a half-baked, experimental product and done an admirable job of fleshing it out. After spending a few days testing the software, we can confidently say that multitasking is a lot easier when you can view multiple windows onscreen at once, and when you have shortcuts pinned to the bottom of the screen, below the browser. It's also hugely helpful to be able to edit documents offline instead of just view them. Ditto for being able to read books offline, or use Hangouts for video chat instead of the calling feature built into GChat. And it could be even better: it would be nice to add shortcuts to docs, books and other things to the desktop, which currently amounts to a lot of blank, unusable space. More sophisticated photo editing tools would be welcome, and we'd love to be able to share photos to sites other than Picasa.
Even without these things, version 19 marks a welcome update for existing Chrome OS users, and should suffice for the classrooms that are already issuing Chrome devices to students. Heck, it might even be time for curious early adopters to give Chrome OS a second look. But as Google starts selling more Chrome devices in retail, we have a harder time believing many consumers will be ready to put up with these limitations, especially as tablet apps grow more sophisticated, and as we start to see Transformer-like Win8 devices with touch-friendly apps and physical keyboards. Even Ultrabooks are starting to come down in price, and offer some of the features that have made Chrome OS devices appealing, such as fast resume times. Given how many affordable portable devices there are to choose from, Chrome OS might have the best shot at catching on if companies like Samsung would relax the price of their wares.

Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 review

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When the first Chromebooks hit the market last year, they were greeted with skepticism, curiosity and some noisy debate. Which makes sense: after all, who had ever heard of an operating system based entirely on a browser? Laptops that were only usable when you had an internet connection? It was a wild, ambitious idea, to be sure, but since then, we haven't heard much on that front save for the occasional price cut.

Now, though, Samsung is selling the new Chromebook Series 5 550 (and Series 3 Chromebox) it teased at CES, while Google is rolling out a new version of its operating system with offline doc editing, a basic photo editor and a desktop-like space that makes it easier to launch and switch between apps. Like last year's model, the Series 5 still has a matte, 300-nit, 12.1-inch display, 16GB of built-in flash storage and an optional Verizon Wireless 3G radio, but it's dressed in more conservative digs with a retooled touchpad and an Celeron -- not Atom -- processor. Accordingly, the starting price for the WiFi-only model is slightly higher ($449, up from $429), and the battery life is now rated for six hours, down from 10. Finally, the new model adds an Ethernet jack and DisplayPort -- both of which Google hopes will appeal to the schools and businesses considering using Chrome devices.

Most interestingly of all, Google is planning on selling its new Chromebook in retail, signaling an intent to expand beyond geeky early adopters and one-to-one laptop programs in classrooms. If the idea is to win over more consumers, will a faster CPU and improved user experience be enough to make up for the drastically shortened battery life? Should folks in need of a portable machine with a keyboard spend their $450 on a Chromebook instead of a netbook or Transformer tablet? That's a tough one -- meet us past the break where we'll hash it all out.


Look and feel
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Chrome OS is now a year old, so it's fitting, perhaps, that Samsung's Chromebook has grown more serious with age. In fact, Google reps have suggested that the new design is meant to appeal to the buttoned-up schools and businesses already using Chrome devices. For starters, this includes the addition of some more office and classroom-friendly features like a built-in Ethernet jack and DisplayPort (no dongle needed).

That, and the design is more staid. Like the prototype we saw at CES, the 550 we have before us trades the semi-gloss for a decidedly less playful matte gray finish. Even the Chrome logo is less conspicuous than before. For the most part, the chassis is constructed from plastic, as you'd expect from a $449 machine, though the palm rest is now made of inlaid metal, which makes the palm rest, at least, feel sturdier. At 3.3 pounds (1.48 kg), it's slightly heavier than the last-gen model, which weighed 3.26. Either way, it's on par with some 13-inch Ultrabooks we've handled, which means nobody should be complaining about its bulk -- especially when this thing costs half the price.

All told, it looks more somber than the last-gen model, though Samsung at least erred on the side of tasteful. With the exception of some thin chrome trim around the touchpad, there are no superfluous flourishes, and the finish is fingerprint- and scratch-resistant, to boot. Even the power button is built into the top row of the keyboard, adding to the general cleanliness of the design.

Given that Chrome OS isn't your typical kind of operating system, the list of associated sockets is short, and our tour around the device will be brief. On one side, you'll find the AC port, a USB 2.0 socket, a DisplayPort, a headphone jack and that newly added Ethernet connection. On the other, there's an SD reader, Kensington lock slot and a second USB 2.0 port. Simple stuff, for people with simple needs. If you're looking to connect your trusty wireless mouse, the Chromebook supports Bluetooth 3.0, though you'll need to plug a dongle into one of those two USB ports. (The Chromebox has native Bluetooth 3.0 support, in case you were wondering.)

Keyboard and trackpad

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One of the best we've tested lately. Seriously, folks, you're looking at a $449 netbook-like machine whose island-style keys put thousand-dollar Ultrabooks to shame. Compared to Samsung's own Series 9 laptops and other ultraportables, the chiclet keyboard on offer here actually has some bounce to it. The slightly deeper keys and even the quiet sound make it easy to settle in for hours of web surfing, email and story writing (well, if you're an Engadget editor, anyway).

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None of this should come as too much of a surprise, given how much we loved the keyboard on last year's Series 5. If you recall, though, we were less fond of the flaky touchpad. Well, it appears like we weren't the only one with complaints: Google says its improved the trackpad experience to make it more precise. Whatever fine-tuning it did seems to have worked: cursor navigation feels controlled, and we also had no problem pulling off gestures like pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scrolls. What's more, the clickpad itself is easy to press -- something far too many laptop makers get wrong. If you happen to disagree, you can always use the keyboard's built-in backward, forward, full-screen and refresh buttons to minimize clicking.

Display and sound

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One of the best things about Samsung's first Chromebook was that, for less than $500, you got a higher-quality display than you were likely to find on laptops costing twice the price. Thankfully, then, Samsung left good enough alone and once again went with a 12.1-inch, matte screen. That 300-nit screen -- the same brightness level you'll find on a $1,000 Series 5 Ultrabook -- means you can use this outdoors in the sunshine. (The non-glossy finish helps here, too.) That's all particularly useful on a mobile machine like this, whose 3G radio allows you to get online almost anywhere. As for the resolution, we might, under normal circumstances, pooh-pooh the 1280 x 800 pixel count, but the truth is it's sufficient for an OS that only allows you to open two windows at once anyway.

The audio here is pretty poor, and we're not even complaining about typical laptop tinniness. The volume is dim, even at the highest setting, and we often found that the speakers went silent for a second or two as we started to crank the decibels up or down. As you adjust the sound, you might see the onscreen volume bar move before you actually hear louder sound. If you're impatient, then, you could easily pump the volume close to the max before you actually hear anything coming out of the speakers.

Performance

 

One downside in   

upgrading from Atom 

to Celeron is that the

Chromebook isn't 

rated for nearly as 

much runtime as 

its predecessor.

                                                      With this generation, Samsung moved from a netbook-grade Intel Atom processor to one of last year's dual-core Sandy Bridge Celeron CPUs. On board you'll also find 16GB of built-in flash storage (just like last time), along with 4GB of RAM. For what it's worth, those are the same key specs for the Chromebox mini-desktop, which we also just reviewed.

Though we can't remember the last time we listed a Celeron processor as a spec, it's perfectly adequate for doing the sorts of things you'd do on a Chrome OS device -- namely, spend lots of time inside the browser. We timed a six-second startup, and once we were inside we didn't encounter a single "Aw, snap!" or "He's dead, Jim" error page. In general, too, we had an easy time switching tabs, and didn't have to wait long when we minimized pages or opened new apps. An important thing, given that the newest version of Chrome allows you to pin shortcuts in a row beneath the browser, as well as view multiple windows onscreen at once (more on that in a moment).

We did find, in both our Chromebox and Series 5 550 reviews, that these Chrome OS devices don't re-connect to known networks after waking from sleep as quickly as some Ultrabooks we've tested recently. We also sat through a good deal of tiling while watching an .mp4 video file at full screen. Thankfully, at least, 1080p YouTube videos (new for Chrome OS) run smoothly, as do clips from other sites such as Hulu and Vimeo. If you're so inclined, you can also stream Netflix on your Chromebook -- all the kinks should be ironed out by now.

Battery life

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If there's one downside to upgrading from Atom to Celeron, it's that the Chromebook isn't rated for nearly as much runtime as its predecessor. Whereas the first Series 5 had a 10-hour battery, this one's expected to last no more than six hours. With light usage (read: web surfing and Gmail) you should be able to achieve that, though if you plan on watching a movie you'll want to have the charger nearby. In our standard battery test, with a video looping, WiFi on and the screen brightness set to 65 percent (in this case, 10 out of 16 bars), it lasted three hours and 23 minutes.

Chrome OS

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The new Chromebook and Chromebox both run version 19 of Chrome OS, which was released to the public just today. Even if you already own a Chromebook you might want to read this anyway, simply because the software will automatically become available to devices new and old. Actually, if you're really curious, we'll point you toward our full review, which goes into more detail than you'll find here. Still, it's worth repeating the basics: this version of the OS ushers in a desktop of sorts, which allows you to attach shortcuts at the bottom of the screen, not unlike the way you pin apps to the Taskbar in Windows 7. You can also minimize, maximize, close and resize windows (joy!) or snap one into place so that it takes up just half the screen (again, nothing you can't do in Win7). Or, if you like, you can shrink a bunch of windows and litter the screen with them. Your call.
As rudimentary as such things sound, they do a lot to make multitasking feel easier. Still, we'd warn you not to confuse this with a traditional desktop: though you can change the wallpaper, you can't populate that space with shortcuts to books, documents or anything like that. While this might look and feel more like a traditional PC, and is indeed more intuitive to use, there's still a frustrating amount of blank, unusable space when you boot up the machine.
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Moving on, version 19 of Chrome OS brings a photo editor with basic tools such as cropping, brightness / contrast control and auto-enhancing. Though it's possible to save the original, this step could be more intuitive. Also, while it's nice that you can share touched-up photos to Picasa, we think a lot of folks would appreciate being able to upload to Facebook or Twitter as well. Staying on the subject of media for a moment, Google Music is now baked into Chrome OS, and the media player has a cleaner look, to boot. We have to say we dig the redesign, though we're still missing more advanced features like the ability to loop or shuffle tracks.
Last summer Google introduced a much-clamored feature: offline access. Until now, this has included Gmail, along with read-only versions of Calendar and Docs. You'll have to keep holding your breath for a full, no-internet-required version of GCal, but with version 19 of the OS you can at least now edit documents when you're off the grid. Google has fittingly added support for Microsoft Office file formats. Additionally, the list of supported file formats has expanded to include support for all Office files (doc, xls, ppt, docx, xlsx, pptx), rar, tar, tar.gz (.tgz), and .tar.bz2 (.tbz2). As it is, the built-in media player could already open .zip, .txt, .html, .mp4, .m4v, .m4a, .mp3, .ogv, .ogm, .ogg, .oga, .webm and .wav files, along with PDFs, .jpg, .gif and .pngs.
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Other goodies: Chrome OS now syncs your tabs with whatever you have open in your mobile Chrome browser. Google+ is now baked into Chrome OS, and a dedicated Hangouts app makes video chatting easier than on previous versions of the software, which left you with the video calling feature built into GChat. A new version of Chrome Remote Desktop lets you reach into any Mac or PC you may have left at home, so long as it's on. Equally lovely: you can access remote PCs not just from Chrome OS devices, but from anything running the desktop-grade Chrome browser. (Note: you'll have to install some software on the host computer to make this work and then set a PIN, which you'll enter on your Chrome OS device whenever you want to log in.)
3G speeds

Like the last Samsung Chromebook, this one is offered with a built-in 3G radio, which goes for $549 / £429. Testing around New York City, we observed top speeds of 2.48 Mbps down and 1.07 Mbps up, though these rates varied quite a bit from block to block. All told, our average speeds came out to 1.69 Mbps on the downlink and 0.88 Mbps on the up. That's pretty unimpressive, and also very similar to the throughput we experienced on last year's Series 5 Chromebook.
Like before, the 3G version of the device comes with 100MB of free data. If you exhaust that, there won't be any overage charges; the connection will simply drop off. If you want to buy more megabytes, you can choose from the following plans:
  • A month-long 2GB pass for $30.
  • A month-long 5GB pass for $50
  • A month-long 10GB pass for $80
In all of the above three cases, the overage fee is $10 per gigabyte. Also keep in mind that if you upgrade from the free 100MB, you'll pay a one-time activation fee of $35.
Wrap-up

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The Series 5 550 and devices like it aren't likely to take a big bite out of the consumer market until someone decides to trim the price.

After testing not one but two new Chrome devices, it's clear that Google's fledgling OS is more pleasant to use than it was a year ago. What's less obvious though, is to what extent the new Series 5 Chromebook is actually an improvement, and whether it's priced realistically compared to all those other affordable portable devices on the market. On one hand, the Series 5 500 brings an Ethernet jack, DisplayPort and a much-improved touchpad -- useful additions, all. Still, the old version offered longer battery life, a similarly comfortable keyboard and the same bright, glare-free display. If we sound unexcited, it's partly because this new hardware isn't a clear upgrade, even though the OS is more intuitive this time around. (Remember, too, that even old Chrome devices will be updated to the same software, so you don't even need the new Series 5 to enjoy it.)
But it's not just the hardware that's left us a bit underwhelmed. Though Chrome OS has improved over the past year, it still seems ambitious of Samsung to price its newest Chromebook at $449 and up. This seems like a lofty figure, given how relatively little devices like this can actually do. What's more, that price seems to exist in a vacuum -- a place where tablet apps aren't growing more sophisticated, where Transformer-like Win8 tablets aren't on the way and where Ultrabooks aren't coming down in price. If all you wanted was an inexpensive device with a physical keyboard to write emails and surf the web, you could get the new ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 and accompanying keyboard dock for $530 -- eighty bucks more than this Chromebook. And remember, the last-gen Series 5 with better battery life is just $350. Those are just a couple of examples, but hopefully you can see where we're going: while Chrome OS is getting better, and while Samsung knows how to make a solid PC, the Series 5 550 and devices like it aren't likely to take a big bite out of the consumer market until someone decides to trim the price.








VIA engadget.com

Samsung Chromebox Series 3 review

Samsung Chromebox Series 3 review

What happens when you put a Chromebook in a box? You get a Chromebox, natch. Not content with launching its new Chromebook Series 5 550, Samsung's adding the Chromebox Series 3 -- a diminutive $329 desktop system -- to its lineup. Like its mobile cousin, the box runs version 19 of Chrome OS and features an Intel Core processor. Though it's clearly targeted at the education and enterprise markets, could Samsung's Chromebox be a compelling option for the Engadget reader? Can it transcend its cloud-based workstation origins? Is it a better choice than an entry-level Mac mini? Find out in our review after the break.


Hardware
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Apple should be flattered -- either that, or it should be readying its army of lawyers. Samsung's Chromebox looks very much like a Mac mini, with the exact same 7.6-inch-square footprint, rounded corners (using a smaller radius) and silver rim (made of painted plastic instead of aluminum). It's thinner (1.3 inches vs. 1.4 inches), lighter and eschews that unibody aluminum shell for a matte black plastic top cover featuring prominent Samsung and Chrome logos. The bottom cover is similarly black -- it pops open without tools and incorporates a circular ridge that doubles as a rubber foot and air vent.

Unlike the faceless Mac mini, the Chromebox provides a few ports and controls on the front panel -- a power switch / indicator light, 3.5mm combination headphone / mic jack and two USB ports. A veritable legion of connectors adorns the back panel with a grounded AC socket (the power supply is built-in), DVI output (single link), gigabit Ethernet, four USB ports and two DisplayPort connectors. There's also a large air vent in the rear, along with a tiny hole hiding the reset button and a cutout for a Kensington lock behind which cleverly hides the developer switch. As a cloud-based workstation, it's no surprise that the Chromebox forgoes an optical drive (much to some folk's chagrin, we're sure) -- in fact it's even devoid of a hard drive, using flash storage instead (those crazy kids today, getting all the fancy tech).

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Spec-wise the Chromebox is built around a 1.9GHz dual-core Intel Celeron B840 (Sandy Bridge) CPU with 4GB RAM and a 16GB SSD. Wireless connectivity is provided in the form of WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 radios, the latter enabling the use of wireless keyboards and mice out of the box. This differs slightly from Samsung's new Chromebook, which uses a 1.3GHz dual-core Intel Celeron 867 CPU and features a Qualcomm Gobi 3G (EVDO/EDGE/HSPA) radio instead of Bluetooth 3.0. It's also worth noting that the Chromebox incorporates a half-decent mono speaker and that the aforementioned DVI output supports VGA displays via a standard adapter.

Snap the bottom cover off, and the only user-serviceable parts are the two 2GB PC3 10600 SoDIMMs. Accessing the rest of the hardware requires a Phillips #0 screwdriver, some care and a bit of patience. We took the Chromebox apart down to its mainboard and found the power supply, an Atheros half-height mini-PCIe WiFi a/b/g/n card (connected to a pair of WiFi antennae), a Bluetooth 3.0 module, a DisplayPort subboard, a developer switch subboard and a 16GB Sandisk SATA SSD (in a mini-PCIe form factor). Interestingly, there are two unused connectors, one being a mini-PCIe socket -- for the missing 3G radio, perhaps?

Performance

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Remember the Cr-48? It was powered by a 1.66 GHz single core Intel Atom CPU with 2GB of RAM. Back in those early days, Chrome OS would often stumble with only a handful of tabs open. Things improved noticeably last year when the original Chromebook launched with an additional core. Still, the netbook-spec system would struggle with video playback, especially HD content.

We're happy to report that with version 19 of Chrome OS running on an Intel Core processor, these problems are a thing of the past. The Chromebox handles 1080p video playback without hiccups or drama -- watching YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu or Netflix is no longer a gamble. Better yet, with 4GB of RAM it's now possible to open a few dozen tabs before noticing any performance hits. Oh, and it only takes about five seconds for the box to boot.

While WiFi reception is generally trouble free, but the radio often takes a long time to reconnect to known WiFi networks after waking up from sleep. This is likely a bug in Chrome OS since we experienced the same issue with Samsung's new Chromebook. We tested a bunch of common USB and Bluetooth peripherals with the Chromebox, including keyboards, mice, thumb drives and even hard drives -- all worked as expected.
Software

Like Samsung's new Chromebook, the Chromebox runs version 19 of Chrome OS, which is available today for the original Chromebooks and the Cr-48. The new OS breaks free from the confines of the browser with a desktop, an app launcher, customizable backgrounds and multiple-window support. Chrome now supports viewing both online and offline files in a wide variety of formats and features a new media player plus a built-in photo editor. Additionally, this new version provides the basis for upcoming services such as Google Docs offline editing, Google Drive integration and Chrome Remote Desktop BETA. Want to know more? Take a look at our detailed Chrome OS review.

A few specifics deserve a closer look. Starting with this new version, Chrome OS includes Bluetooth support -- initially for the Chromebox (using its built-in radio) and the new Chromebook (with an external dongle), but eventually for the original Chromebooks and the Cr-48 as well. The OS also handles display mirroring and swapping, with spanning to be introduced in the future. Since PC and Mac keyboards lack the Chrome keys found on the Chromebook, the OS features a handy on-screen overlay accessible by pressing the "CTRL / ALT / ?" keys together. One minor feature we'd like to see implemented in the settings is a way to disable num-lock at boot for keyboards without a dedicated num-pad.

Wrap-up
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