It’s been a year and some change since the triumvirate of Google, Acer and Samsung unleashed the Chromebook, a streamlined laptop which takes its marching orders from the cloud, albeit provided its connected to the ‘net. It’s a wild idea with aspiring implications, more so now considering the large number of plugin/apps available from Google Chrome Web Store.

Samsung’s own new Series 5 550 Chromebook is not trying to the re-reinvent the wheel, so much as spit shining the old one with an enhanced engine and a few new tricks. That’s to say; original Chromebook users have nothing to envy here. The enhanced engine is the Chrome 19 OS and it hits all Chrome devices automatically. The design enhancments are minor and the aforementioned tricks are the work of Chrome 19.  But if you need a stop gap for syncing documents between smartphone and desktop and graphic crunching prowess is unimportant, then the Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook makes a teflon-strong case for itself.

If you use the Google Chrome web browser and wield one of those “new” Gmail account thingies, then you’re already a seasoned veteran Chrome OS user. The interface is part icon-based and part browser-based. Anything you do is synced across the entire Google family of applications. Google+ has been added for easier social networking and video chat accessibility as well.

The system literally boots in seconds. Log in to your Google or Gmail account and you’re in! Everything is immediately familiar. For instance, Click on Docs and it opens your Google Docs. Now, click on a document and edit it right there, as you normally would. Save it to an external drive if you want. But it’s Google Docs. It’s saves instantly and automatically to the Cloud Baby! If you need more sophistication grab whatever program you need from the many relevant Google apps. The level of compatibility has really grown. For expanded general use, you can tap all manner of Office files.  There is native support for .zip, .rar, .txt, .html, .mp4, .m4v, .m4a, .mp3, .ogv, .ogm, .ogg, .oga, .webm and .wav files. Virtually all play nice with the usual suspects such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Photoshop, Windows Media, Player, Acrobat and so forth. Working in concert they can make mobile computing fun.

Ultimately the “all-internet all-the-time” idea fueling the original Chrome OS and Chromeboks left many leary.  The newly minted Chrome 19 OS flexes with expanded capabilities. Google’s offline access function is the main one. Now documents can be edited offline, sans a net connection. The remote application features have also been touched up with a variety of ways to access your desktop remotely via several mobile options. Without a doubt, Chrome as an OS has made strategic and exciting changes in a tiny bit of time.

But that’s the Kool-Aid of which Chrome user are already happily sipping. Specifically speaking, the Samsung Series 5 550 delivers the same comfort-in-a-compact-and-familiar experience of the original. This isn’t a slight. You get a chicklet style keyboard with comfortably mushy keys. The experience is familiar. But there are several Chrome OS-specific hotkeys you will want to memorize.The display  does 1280 x 800 resolution for native HD 720p viewing; 300-nit brightness; matte screen. I’m not crazy about the resolution but I can’t deny the picture quality. This is a great looking window. Plus I wouldn’t mind watching movies on this lighweight (3lbs) strumpet while abroad a boat or plane.  It even sports a DisplayPort video connection for expanded viewing options.

The processor comes off like He-Man when pressing this featherweight Chrome OS. The 1.3 GHz Intel Celeron dual-core processor makes a noticeable speedy performance here as you bound through tabs and apps. The storage drive is solid state and it’s swift enough. But you only get 16gb of drive space. Sure nearly everything is stored in the cloud. But still I think it’s unrealistic and know users would like more. That said… This is obviously not a deal breaker. Again everything is stored in the cloud. It’s really a matter of “acquiring the taste”.

Rounding out the technical specs are 4gb of DDR3 RAM, Wireless-N Wi-Fi adapter for internet connections, microphone, webcam and sad sad pair of 4-watt speakers. Again, these are not going to turn anyone away. Just don’t expect volume, bass or clarity from this unfortunate duo.

One left side are the  USB 2.0 port, DisplayPort, headphone/mic jack and ethernet port. On the right you’ll find another USB 2.0 port and a 4-in-1 multi-card slot. Between the heaphone jack and the onboard bluetooth support, the speaker problem is forgotten.

If you watched and waited from the fence with hope and anticipation, now is a good time to dive in. In my professional opinion, the Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook is really cool! You can get 3G enabled models for an obvious extra monthly fee. But I had few connection issues with this wi-fi model.  It requires a reconnection after awkening for sleep or hibernate. It’s annoying but tolerable.

The thing just does the basics so well in a familiar and handy fashion… It’s an ultraportable fully synchronized stop gap. A tablet is not for conducting business. It’s a leisure item or study tool. And a Smartphone–for all its absolute cosmic power is still a phone on a tiny display. The Chromebook is a personalized and familiar medium which links you to your documents while offloading the task of management and storage by way of the polished Chrome 19 OS. Getting work done is easy and familiar like a laptop with comfort and impressive visual performance over a display that belies its specs.

Editor Rating:

Great

Bottom Line: The Series 5 550 is a winner for the new buyer and a harbinger of great things for existing owners plated in Chrome. It’s not a laptop. It’s the bridge between phone and home.

Pros

• A powerful conduit
• Comfortable and powerful
• Chrome 10 is a familiar and intuitive OS

Cons

• Minimal storage space
• Weak speakers

You can buy the Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook (Wi-Fi) at Amazon for $449.99.

Posted by silellak
on July 27, 2012 10:15 pm
112

iPad? Exercise? Huh?

I’ve always been overweight, and – ever since the iPhone 3G and the Wii – I’ve had a bit of an obsession with finding ways to combine technology with my personal fitness.

In April of 2010, the original iPad was a revelation for me – but likely not for the same reasons as most other early adopters. Where some people saw couch companions, or a gaming system, or a netbook replacement, or an eBooker reader, I instead saw another tool in my quest to get in better shape.

iPad? Exercise? Huh?

A month before the release of the first-generation iPad, I started a 2-year membership with LA Fitness. I had been debating purchasing home equipment, but decided I’d rather figure out what type of equipment I wanted, and a gym membership was ideal for that. What wasn’t ideal, however, was using the actual equipment. Unfortunately, like many others, I found using treadmills and stationary bikes to be monotonous – to put it nicely. What I needed was something to distract my mind and help me lose track of time. What I needed was a tablet.

Why a tablet?

I think anyone who has used the internet for any significant amount of time has experienced the time-loss that inevitably occurs when you get drawn into something like Wikipedia or TV Tropes…you decide to quickly look-up an article about Batman comics and suddenly it’s 2 hours later, the sun is down, and you’re reading about health care in Poland. I’m sure there’s some science-y scientific science behind the phenomena, but that wasn’t what I cared about – what I cared about was using that effect to my advantage. Tablets are often called media consumption devices, but I would argue they could more accurately called information consumption devices. When my brain is busy consuming information, an hour can – and often does – pass by incredibly quickly.

Over the last couple of years, I have harnessed this technique and – in the process – refined and streamlined my personal workouts in several key ways. Most notably, after my LA Fitness membership expired a few months ago, I acquired a treadmill and a stationary bike for my personal use – not something everyone has room for, but I found that I was much more likely to stick to a routine if the equipment was readily and immediately available. As a bonus, this meant I could take advantage of my home WiFi, rather than having to awkwardly tether the iPad to my phone’s crappy signal while I was at the gym.

My Current Setup

I workout 6 days a week in the morning before work – alternating 3 days on the treadmill, and 3 days on the stationary bike. I stream music and other audio from the iPad to my Motorola S305 Bluetooth headphones (my preferred workout music is the Trance/Progressive Station on Slacker Radio), and monitor my heart rate on my old iPhone 4 using a Wahoo Fitness ANT+ Dongle and Heart Rate Monitor. I really should, at some point, upgrade to a Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor, but I feel no need to as long as the old one is working and I have my old iPhone. Waste not, want not – and God knows I waste enough on gadgets already.

iPhone 4 + ANT+ Dongle + S305 Headphones

Treadmill

Stationary Bike

One thing you might notice is that the iPad covers up information like distance, speed, and time elapsed. I actually view this – particularly the third one – as a benefit, rather than a drawback. The less I know about how much time has gone by, the better. If there’s a timer for me to “accidentally” glance at, I almost certainly will – and as they say, the watched pot never boils. It’s bad enough that my heart rate monitor app is visible in the corner of my eye, feeding my valuable information, but also tempting me with knowledge of my elapsed time.

A question I hear often is whether or not I’m actually getting a good workout, considering I’m still able to use my iPad. I can confidently say: Yes. The apps I use for reading only require minimal input, and I use the HRM to guarantee I’m reaching my target heart rate – typically somewhere between 150 – 165 BPM.

Why the iPad? What about other tablets?

The simplest answer is that the iPad is the tablet I own, so it’s the tablet I use. Obviously, back in April of 2010, the iPad was really the only tablet that matched the qualifications I had: I needed it to be light, thin, and easy to use while working out. Over 2 years later, there are now obviously more options, but I opted to get the third-generation iPad for several reasons:

• The retina display is unparalleled when it comes to reading on tablets.

• The larger display and the 4:3 aspect ratio are also ideal for reading. I’ve never been a fan of widescreen aspect ratios on a tablet for this reason.

• I was already invested in the iOS ecosystem, and knew the apps I wanted to use and how I wanted to use them.

At this point I’ve streamlined my usage to the following basic pattern: I start with Reeder so that I can catch up on my morning news. After Reeder comes Zite, which helps me catch on news I wouldn’t otherwise get in my regular RSS feeds. Finally, I finish up with Pocket, where I attempt to tackle my never-ending backlog of saved articles – mostly from Cracked.com. Occasionally I’ll also poke around in Flipboard, or jump into the Kindle app if I feel like reading a book. For some reason, though, catching up on news and various Internet articles seems to make the time go by faster than reading fiction. I guess that’s just how my brain works.

Obviously, there’s no reason you couldn’t use another type of tablet, especially given the recent (and deserved) popularity of the Nexus 7. Having not had personal experience, I can’t vouch for it one way or the other, though I’d think it might prove a bit more difficult to read on a smaller screen and to use smaller interface controls. Still, I’m sure it could be made to work well enough, especially if you’re part of the growing population of people that already own one.

What about movies, TV, or games?

While the primary use for my tablet was text-based consuming information, that’s not to say it’s the only strategy I tried. At various times I also used it to watch TV shows or movies and even play games with very simple control schemes. When it comes to TV and movies, the problem for me is that when I watch anything longer than 5 or 10 minutes, it’s too easy for me to subconsciously track the amount of time that’s gone by – which defeats the purpose of using information consumption to lose track of time. The problem playing games is simpler – there just aren’t that many games that are playable when you’re really exercising, and even for the games that are playable, they can be distracting enough that the overall quality of the workout suffers.

Do you really need the iPad?

Well, yes and no – despite writing an entire post about how I use an iPad to quickly pass the time while working out, I do also enjoy exercise just for the sake of exercise. I love riding my bike outdoors and going hiking. I’m also (very gradually) learning to enjoy running outdoors as well…of course, when outdoors, I have RunKeeper with me, because gadgets are a great and fun way to enhance outdoor workouts, too.

Unfortunately, back in reality, a busy work schedule combined with Tucson heat means that the simplest and most time-efficient exercise is almost always going to be preferable. When it comes to facing that reality, the iPad has proven to be an invaluable tool in that regard – there’s really nothing else like a tablet, at least not that I’ve found.

Closing Thoughts

Anyway, I would love to hear how you guys have incorporated technology into your fitness habits, whether it’s just listening to music or if you solely depend on the Wii or Kinect to get a solid workout – which I’ve done in the past myself, but that’s an entirely separate post. In addition, if you have any questions or suggestions about my current setup, or what I’ve tried in the past, etc. – I’d be glad to answer them.

Thanks for reading!

Yesterday, the FCC announced the finalized details of the Universal Service Fund’s replacement, the Connect America Fund. The $115 million plan will bring high speed internet to nearly 400,000 underserved residents across 37 states within three years time, the first step in the agency’s $4.5 billion National Broadband Plan.

The FCC plans to bring broadband to 400,000 citizens in three years, seven million in six years, and as many of the 19 million residents that the FCC estimates lack access to broadband by 2020. The organization is calling this an “unprecedented broadband expansion,” and says that this news marks the beginning of one of the largest public and private efforts to improve national broadband in American history.

Finally, the 2012 London Olympics are upon us. Prepare yourself, for the next several weeks will bring more details than you ever cared to know about this year’s competition — and thanks to our hyper-connected culture, you’ll be hearing about it through every online outlet you can imagine. For those of us the US who just want to follow along with the games, however, NBC has us covered with unprecedented coverage in excess of 5,000 total hours across TV, web, smartphones, and tablets. If you want to keep up with the games online, here’s how you can go from 0 to synchronized swimming in no time (but remember, this is for US visitors only).

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: if you want to enjoy NBC’s coverage of virtually every event online, you’ll need to have a cable subscription that gives you access to both CNBC and MSNBC. Cord-cutters will have to make do with what’s being broadcast over NBC network TV. Sadly, this is in direct contrast to what the BBC is doing for UK citizens — the network will blanket the country with coverage on TV, live, and through its apps, and there doesn’t appear to be any restrictions on who can view.

Cord-cutters will need to look elsewhere to get their Olympics fix

For those who do meet the requirements, start by visiting NBColympics.com — on the upper-right side of the page, there’s a giant red button asking you to “click here and get ready” to stream the games live. Once you click, you’ll be prompted to pick your cable service provider and log in using your online account management details. Fortunately, there’s a huge swath of providers here for you to choose from, so chances are good that you’ll find your particular cable carrier buried amongst the long list of options.

Once you’ve picked your provider and logged in, the full treasure trove of Olympic videos is available — both in terms of live broadcasts as well as replays of earlier events that you might have missed. To help sort things out, NBC has a daily view of what events are taking place, as well as an option to see exactly what is happening live. That view also helpfully tells you what TV channels each event is playing on, for those of us who might want to get away from the computer for a bit. There’s also a by-sport view for anyone who is particularly focused on catching every single rhythmic gymnastics competition.

BlackBerry and Windows Phone users are left out of the fun

NBC also has you covered for when you’re on the go with a pair of apps for Android and iOS — BlackBerry and Windows Phone users are left out of the fun, unfortunately. The basic NBC Olympics app contains scores, highlights, schedules, and photo galleries, but the NBC Olympics Live Extra app lets you unlock live streaming using the same cable provider credentials you need to provide to view over the web. The app works largely the same as the site, with daily schedules and by-sport sorting options; you can also favorite certain sports or specific events and get an alert 15 minutes before it starts up.

Since NBC has an exclusive on Olympics coverage in the US, this represents the only officially sanctioned way to tune in through the internet. While those who still have a traditional cable package will be able to take live video with them wherever they can get an internet connection, those future-looking souls who’ve disconnected from cable will sadly be out of luck. At least the standard NBC broadcast network will be carrying the overly gaudy and epic opening ceremony — you can tune in tonight at 7:30PM ET, as it’s being shown on a tape delay.