Google launches new Chromebook site

Google’s new Chromebook site

Google’s Chromebooks have been perennial bestsellers on Amazon, and now the company has launched a new site designed to promote Chromebooks. The new site seems focused more on touting the virtues of Chromebooks in daily life, and less on promoting tech specs.

You can check out the new Chromebook site for yourself to see the changes Google has made:

Chromebooks are easy to use, have virus protection built-in, and keep going with a long-life battery, so you can, too. Chromebooks are automatically kept up to date, so you’ll always have the latest virus protection, along with the latest features like Voice Search. Best of all, your Chromebook won’t slow down over time.

No setup needed, just log in with your Google account. No long load times, just flip it open and get busy doing anything other than waiting. And with a long-life battery, you can leave your charger at home.

Unlike traditional computers, Chromebook updates automatically so it doesn’t slow down over time. With a long-life battery, you can leave your charger at home.

Keep getting stuff done when you’re disconnected from the web by using offline apps like Gmail and Google Docs.

More at Google Chromebooks

Google’s new Chromebook site spawned a thread on the Chrome OS subreddit, and redditors had their own thoughts about it:

Bravoavocado: “It’s awesome until you want technical information for any of the products listed there.”

Wiredfire: “Guessing people interested in the tech specs aren’t the target audience for the page. Odd for it to be so absent though. Then again, this line of computing is at least partially aiming at making the specs secondary and what you can actually do with the device the selling point.”

PlatinumX: “Yep, they even explicitly say this:

https://www.google.com/chromebook/switch/#specs”

Thomasly: “It just makes me so excited to see Chromeos and Chromebooks gain popularity and momentum.”

VictoryGoth: “In the past year alone I’ve noticed TONS of people using Chromebooks at my university on a regular basis. I don’t remember seeing any on campus prior to 2014. It’s amazing just how common they’ve become in such a short amount of time.”

Nighserenity: “If they have the hardware specs listed anywhere, they did a great job hiding them! Lovely site, but it would be nice to see full specs for each. It would be pretty easy for them to add.”

Ailish: “I’ve got my eye on that chromebook flip.”

Voltron00x: “I’ll probably buy one and review it. I’m terrified of that processor though. Absolutely terrified. If that thing ends up being another mismatch device like the HP11 – premium components, shit processor – I’ll be really disappointed.”

Bartturner: “The Rockchip 3288 with the Mali-T764 looks pretty incredible. The only issue I see is if you want to run Linux on the Chromebook it is preferable to buy a Intel based Chromebook right now. I do think this could change.

The benchmarks I have seen have the Rockchip 3288 compared favorably to something like the Intel Atom z3735f. The RK3288 had 18% higher performance overall.

Not sure the status of general availability of Linux hardware acceleration drivers for the Mali-T764 but once they are available the RK3288 SOC will be the goto solution for many use cases, IMO. It is very cheap and is close to being able to support 4k video.

Look at the new Chromebit compared to the new Intel stick. The Chromebit stick will be cheaper but have better performance.”

More at Reddit

Dooble: A browser for better privacy

Dooble is a new browser that is designed to help protect your privacy. It’s free and open source, and it runs on Linux, OS X, FreeBSD and Windows.

You can download Dooble via its SourceForge page:

Features:

Authenticated encryption. Content blocking. Debian, FreeBSD, Mac, OS/2, Windows support. Exceptions. FTP browser. File manager. Generate PDF files from a terminal. Gopher browser. Preferred SSL/TLS ciphers. Private browsing. Qt 4.7.x, 4.8.x, and 5.x support. Session restoration.

More at SourceForge

Wikipedia has a helpful background article on Dooble:

Dooble is a free and open source Web browser. Dooble was created to improve privacy.[2] Currently, Dooble is available for FreeBSD,[3] Linux,[3][4][5] OS X,[3] OS/2, and Windows.[3] Dooble uses Qt for its user interface and abstraction from the operating system and processor architecture. As a result, Dooble should be portable to any system that supports OpenSSL, POSIX threads, Qt, SQLite, and other libraries.

Most of the data that Dooble retains is stored using authenticated encryption. Dooble does not encode file associations and user settings. Dooble also provides a session-based model using temporary keys. The passphrase may be modified without the loss of data.

A security passphrase can be created for the browser. The password can be set from the Safe area of the browser settings.[10] “You need to create a master password, otherwise everything is wiped when you exit the program”, points out PCAdvisor.

Some Web sites employ iFrames in order to distribute content from one or more third-party Web sites. Since this technology may raise privacy issues with some users, Dooble provides a means of blocking external content.

More at Wikipedia

Five notable changes in Ubuntu 15.04

Ubuntu 15.04 will be released on April 23, and many people are wondering exactly what it will have to offer Ubuntu users. Here’s a list of five changes in Ubuntu 15.04 that might help you decide whether or not it’s worth upgrading to it.

SJVN reports for ZDNet:

You can’t judge a book by its cover, or a Linux by its interface. If you glance at Ubuntu 15.04, Vivid Vervet, you won’t see a lot different from Ubuntu 14.10. Don’t let first impressions fool you. Underneath that slick Unity 7.x interface, there’s a lot of changes.

…the second beta is more than mature enough to see what we’ll be getting in the Vivid Vervet. A vervet, for those of you who are wondering, is an East African monkey.

Based on my work with the beta over the last few days, here are the most important changes in Ubuntu 15.04. I’ve been using Ubuntu since the first version, 2004’s Ubuntu 4.10. These days, I use it on desktops, servers, and cloud. In other words, I know Ubuntu.

1. Ubuntu switch init manager from upstart to systemd

2. Linux kernel upgrade

3. Local menus are now the default

4. Still using Unity 7 for the desktop

5. Updated applications

More at ZDNet

ZDNet readers shared their thoughts about Ubuntu 15.04:

3arn0wl: “I was surprised to read that Canonical are moving over to systemd, especially since Touch is sticking with Upstart, which seems to do the job…In contrast to some of the contributors below, I’m a huge fan of – and very grateful for – Ubuntu, but I am looking forward to Unity 8! And I really like Canonical’s concept of convergence. Pity that the latest Linux kernel didn’t make it though – the patching idea sounds rather Canonical, doesn’t it?”

Muman613: “We just may abandon Ubuntu if they continue with the stupid Unity interface. It gets in the way of actual productivity in our work environment.”

Bregmata: “Unity has been Ubuntu’s default desktop shell for 5 years now, you better make good on your threats soon or this decade will be over and you will have missed your chance to teach us all a lesson.”

Hringrv: “Global menu going the way of the dodo? Maybe Canonical/Ubuntu are finally realizing that if people wanted Macs, they’d buy Macs.

Or maybe Linux Mint becoming much more popular than Ubuntu actually caused some Ubuntu developers to begin to doubt the Righteousness of their base distribution.

Whichever, it’s refreshing to see Ubuntu do something sensible for a change.”

Brainout: “They will do something sensible when they allow the user to choose among desktops. Until then, they are even worse than Windows 8. I hate Ubuntu with all my soul due to Unity (a bad word in any context, always a bid for dictatorial control). Mint 13 had choice of desktops, and I stuck with it. The later Mint versions are becoming ‘unified’ too, and that spells little future for Mint. So for now I just don’t update and on Mint 13 I’m fine.”

More at ZDNet

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