[BITList] more chromebook

[x50type at cox.net]

        Shiny $500 paperweight anybody?
        ct


        Google's 'big daddy' gamble
        By Martin J Young

        Google's ever-expanding digital tendrils reached a little further this week as a new notebook featuring the company's Chrome operating system hit the shelves. The Chromebook is essentially a laptop without a hard disk, designed to be permanently online running software and data from Google's cloud-based servers. 

        The advantages of such a device are longer battery life, since there are fewer moving parts, no installed operating system to keep updated and clean of viruses and malware, no payments to Microsoft or Apple for upgrades, and no problem if it gets stolen since all of the data is stored online. 

        On the flipside, however, is the idea of giving all your personal and financial data to a company that derives 98% of its revenue from

          
        advertising and knowing what its customers are doing on the web. Another major consideration is security and connectivity. Google, among other high-profile tech companies, has already been hacked in the past year, resulting in an embarrassing security breach of its Gmail platform. 

        Additionally, if for whatever reason you cannot get online, the Chromebook becomes a shiny $500 paperweight. 
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