Samsung Series 5 is the First Chromebook

From: http://www.geekwithlaptop.com/



The Samsung Series 5 is the first ever Chromebook, featuring a 12.1 inch screen and an Atom N570 dual core processor. In many ways, this is the first ever true netbook, because going on the Internet is pretty much all it can do.

Initial reviews of the Series 5 have been mixed, although I think it is fair to say that most people are pretty unimpressed. While there is nothing wrong with the “browser in a box” philosophy per se, I think most of us were expecting a much smaller and lighter box for a computer that can basically only run a browser.

The Samsung Series 5 netbook features 2GB of RAM, a 16GB solid state drive, a couple of USB ports, a VGA dongle, a SIM card slot, an SD card reader, and a standard mic/headset port. This is pretty much as basic as it gets, and there is no HDMI, no Ethernet, and no Bluetooth to spice things up.

However, Google are talking up the user experience of this netbook more than the spec sheet, and it is here where this computer has a chance to redeem itself. Google are promising a very fast boot time, with the netbook said to be ready in under 12 seconds. The battery is also being reported to go for at least 8 hours, and the entire file system is encrypted to avoid virus infections.

The Chrome browser lies at the heart of the Series 5 Chromebook, although Google have thrown in a basic file browser and media player. However, basic functionality like listening to music is all dependent on the browser, the cloud, and a WiFi connection, because you can’t store much on the small internal flash memory.

As many analysts have been predicting and many reviewers are now saying, these Chromebooks feel a little like an experiment. Users are simply not used to living entirely on the Internet, and depend on their desktop for a variety of things. While the first ever commercial “Internet OS” netbook may be a great item in computing museums in years to come, this first Chromebook appears to make much less sense as a practical option in 2011.

The First Google Chrome Extensions: Block Ads, Check PageRank, and Use IE8 Accelerators

Written by Sarah Perez

During the Google I/O conference this week, one of the presentations from Day 1 was on the subject of Google Chrome's extension system. The long-awaited feature will finally deliver what Firefox and IE users have had for ages: a way to add more tools, services, and additional features to the browser.

If you're playing around with one of the developer builds of Google Chrome, you can test drive this feature before it makes its public debut. Already, there are a handful of extensions available including an ad-blocker called AdSweep, a PageRank checker, and Cleeki, an extension that ports IE8 Accelerators to Chrome.

About Extensions in Chrome

According to articles from both Google Operating System and CIO, here's what we know about how extensions work in Chrome, as described during that I/O presentation:

1. Extensions use HTML, JavaScript, and CSS so they're easy for developers to write.
2. You don't need to restart the browser after installing an extension (hurray!)
3. Extensions will work in all future versions of the browser. Developers won't need to update their extensions with each new release. (No more abandoned extensions!)
4. Extensions will run as separate processes: one per extension.
5. Extensions can appear at the bottom of the browser. During the demo, an add-on that displayed new stories from Google Reader was shown in a bar at the bottom of the browser.
6. Google will control the look of extension buttons to keep Chrome's UI uncluttered and consistent.
7. Google will build an extension gallery where developers can submit extensions and users can find extensions to install.

Extensions Available Now

There are already some interesting extensions under development, which you can test out now in a developer build of Chrome.

AdSweep

AdSweep is an add-on that hides advertising on web page you visit similar to how AdBlock works. It uses JavaScript to adjust the CSS of a page and is also available as a user script.

Page Rank for Chrome

Page Rank for Chrome (shouldn't that be "PageRank?") is a simple extension that shows the Google PageRank for the current web site.

Cleeki

Perhaps the most fascinating of the three, however, is Cleeki, an extension that delivers the functionality of IE8's Accelerators to other browsers, a list that now includes Chrome. Accelerators are one of the newest (and best) features in the most recent version of Internet Explorer. Available from the right-click menu, they let you quickly perform actions that would have previously required opening a separate web page (e.g. "map this," "translate this," "find on Facebook," "define this," "email this," "Digg this," etc.)

With Cleeki installed (read how to here), you can do many of those same actions, although its appearance is somewhat different. IE8 accelerators are listed in a small right-click menu, but Cleeki actually opens up a secondary window like a pop-up where you can choose from the available actions and see the results.

The size of that window may turn off some users, so it's a shame that Google Chrome doesn't currently allow for a user preference system since Cleeki is actually very customizable (size, skin, behavior, etc.). According to the Cleeki blog, there's a hacking way to customize it, but they haven't shared that info yet...perhaps they will in the future.

Developers, Write Your Own Extensions

In the meantime, while we wait for this feature to hit the public build of Chrome, developers can get cracking writing their first Google Chrome extensions. For help getting started, they should check out these sample extensions and this tutorial which demonstrates how to write a simple extension.