It was akin to actually seeing Bigfoot. I have heard about these Chromebooks but was never able to play with one and to be honest, I am still undecided. I have been a Google convert for a while now; using their apps, building websites, blogging, etc. but this is the first time I got to play with "their" hardware.
It was Acer - 11.6" Touch-Screen Chromebook. Price $299 pre-tax.
Model: C720P-2661
128MB dedicated graphics
Chrome OS 64-bit
Technical details: Intel® Celeron® processor; 11.6" display; 2GB memory; 32GB solid state drive
Special features: Bluetooth; touch screen; HDMI output, USB input, Camera
DVD/CD drive not included
What I like about it was that it only took 7 seconds for it to boot up, it was light, and that I could actually download files to it. WHO KNEW?!? Setup was a breeze, even setting up Chromecast at home took less than 5 minutes (at work it was a different story). It does everything it claims is does. When I started to read about Chromecast and it's limitations, I was not impressed. It only works with YouTube, Netflicks and a couple of other apps. It does not clone your desktop display. Google does have a Chrome Tab Cast beta, which allows you to Chromecast one tab in Chrome to your TV. The picture was excellent but only being able to cast one tab of Chrome at a time was a pain. I was casting the Premier League site looking up the stats of the big Liverpool/Man City game and I click the link to take me to the Liverpool site, a new tab opened but it did not appear on my the TV, the first tab did. You have to tell Chrome which tab to cast.
What I do not like about it; if you do not use Google Apps a lot, this is definitely not for you--EVERYTHING is tethered to your Google account, which can be a good or bad thing. As mentioned Chromecast does not clone your desktop-only certain apps and whatever appears in the designated Chrome tab. If I open the Google Apps app on the desktop, it did not appear on my TV, but if I open a Google Document using Chrome it did appear on the TV because I was using Chrome....got it? If you are looking for the total Google experience this works. If you just need to browse the net, use Google Docs/Apps this works. If you are looking for the do it all PC...not even close. The price also was tough to swallow, for a little more dough I could of gotten a full-blown PC. Besides these things, I did like it.
As far as Chromecast for my work (a small public school in Mass. grades 6-12); there were major issues. Chromecast did not work with our Cisco routers, there are a list of acceptable routers you can find on the Chromecast Q & A page and that you can not password protect your Chromecast like you can with Apple TV, so with a little work anybody and their grandmother can cast to MY TV.
I think, if a school wanted to use these as part of 1 to 1 initiative it would be a good solution, (you won't have all the bells and whistles of stuff like iMovie/iPhoto) and you have to be committed to the Google side of "the force" totally but I believe you can make it work. I also believe that in Google will continue to roll out apps to compete with Apple and other devices.
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