Google’s premium laptop Chromebook Pixel is a nice expensive toy, but how nice? Well, if you ask me, I would say probably not much. Nonetheless, if you ask other people, I bet some of them would bet that I’m wrong. I’m not going to be mad though, because everyone has their own opinion. This is why I don’t mind to embed the YouTube video right after the break which shows you the unboxing of Chromebook Pixel. Oh, if you insist on asking why I do not think much of Chromebook Pixel, you can just check out my other article which is “Nice Try Google, But You Can Do Better Right? Chromebook Pixel Is Nice, But It Should Be Nicer!!!” By the way, check out the awesome unboxing of Chromebook Pixel right after the break.
Is Chromebook Pixel real or just a concept? It seems that arstechnica reported that Chromebook Pixel is indeed a real product. According to arstechnica’s “Google’s new touchscreen Chromebook Pixel: a $1,299 laptop for cloud dwellers” article, Google had just announced the existence of Chromebook Pixel. If Chromebook Pixel is real, so? The buzz about Chromebook Pixel is that it’s an exotic animal. By this I mean it’s basically a machine which mainly focuses on staying connect to the Internet only, but it’s a very gorgeous only online machine (if we discount that it does have some offline features). I’m sure it got some offline features, but it is designed to be working with the cloud. It’s no surprised really since Chromebook Pixel is a more expensive version of other Google’s Chromebook products. So, Chromebook Pixel is more of a beast among Chromebook products, but its core functionality is still all about cloud functionalities. Simply really, Chromebook Pixel is just a lot more gorgeous in terms of screen resolution and other whistles and bells.
arstechnica reported that Chromebook Pixel has screen resolution of 2560×1700 with 239 pixel per inch, 1.8GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 32GB flash storage for Wi-Fi model and 64GB flash storage for LTE model. By purchasing Chromebook Pixel, a customer will get 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage for free for 3 years. Cloud storage? If you never heard of cloud but know of Dropbox, then Google Drive is somewhat similar to Dropbox. 1TB of Dropbox would be nice eh? So, if you like Dropbox that much, then I guess 1TB of Google Drive is definitely one of those temptations that is hard to refuse.
It seems that the screen resolution for Chromebook Pixel is the main focus, because 2560×1700 is a lot. It’s a beast! I’m not a fan of i5 processor, therefore in term of processor Chromebook Pixel is a let down for me. 4 GB of RAM only? In my opinion, 4GB of RAM for any machine from today onward isn’t enough (but you might think otherwise and I don’t mind). Since Chromebook Pixel is an always online machine, 32 or 64 GB of flash storage does make sense until it doesn’t. How come? In my opinion, the 2560×1700 screen is a waste on Chromebook Pixel. I’m reasoning that whoever wants to work with such beautiful/exotic screen resolution might need to store humongous sizes of visual data (e.g., videos, photos, etc…), but what Chromebook Pixel doesn’t carry — Chromebook doesn’t support USB 3.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi speed — will hamper the productivity of whoever wants to use Chromebook Pixel in a more hardcore manner.
Now, if Chromebook Pixel supports USB 3.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, even though Chromebook Pixel doesn’t have huge local drive storage space, I will definitely want a Chromebook Pixel for myself, even with the current might be Chromebook Pixel’s price range $1200 – $1400. How come? Let pretend that I’m a real photographer (because I’m only an aspiring one), I definitely have tons of photos and videos to store, to make backups of, and the likes. With USB 3.0 support, I can use USB 3.0 capability to speedily transfer my videos and photos back and forth between the external hard drives and Chromebook Pixel, because making data backups is so important to people like the photographers. Let say I’m a paranoid data integrity and data redundancy freak, and so if Chromebook Pixel supports 802.11ac standard, I can definitely speed up my backup of data to the cloud.
You see, I think Chromebook Pixel lacks some really important features even though it is obviously designed to be an online only machine. I think Chromebook Pixel should not emphasize an online only machine to the point that alienates the good features that it supposes to carry for offline needs. Instead of carrying USB 3.0, Chromebook Pixel carries USB 2.0. We know USB 3.0 is the way forward, but people are also comparing USB 3.0 against Thunderbolt too. This is why it’s so weird for me to see Chromebook Pixel carries only USB 2.0. Perhaps, not carrying any USB support at all might make more sense than not carrying USB 3.0? Also, faster Wi-Fi is always a must have feature. We know that we have the faster Wi-Fi capability through 802.11ac standard/capability, but Chromebook Pixel decides to not support 802.11ac?
Besides the lack of various important features I mentioned, Chromebook Pixel does look like a very nice toy. From what I’ve seen of it, it looks nice! The screen, the body, and the shape of Chromebook Pixel speaks to me in a very positive manner. Simply put, I love the overall look of Chromebook Pixel. Unfortunately, it reminds me of Macbook products. Fortunately, I think it might look even better than Macbook Pro, but I’m not sure unless I can see and touch it (only see a video of it). Oh yeah, if you think I’m a Mac fanatic, then you don’t know me at all. Obviously, that should be the case since you don’t know me at all in real life. Nonetheless, let me reveal to you something about me, I’m also a Windows 8 and Linux fanatical sort of person. If I know another good sort of OS-brand-hardware type out there, I might as well be a fanatic for such too…
Before I end this post, let me say that you can also reach out and touch that beautiful Chromebook Pixel’s screen. How come? It’s a touchscreen yo! Check out the Chromebook Pixel in the video right after the break. Enjoy!!!
How many more players are going to join the TV revolution? As now, we know Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other players are trying to tear down the old and introduce the new TV experience to the mass. It’s all about how to unplug consumers from Cable and plug ‘em into the Internet pipe. Why would they and the consumers want everything, from phone to TV, to be plugged into the Internet pipe? I guess the consumers demand and so they give ‘em. After all, the Internet isn’t just more hip and compatible with the time, but consumers can make wiser choices and have more control with their programs.
It’s about on demand yo! On demand is definitely easier and more hip when consumers plug into the Internet, and so Cable will have to go the way of the dinosaurs. Netflix is superb example of how on demand would work. Instead of dictating when a content consumer should view a program, Netflix aired a complete first season of House of Cards show at once, so everyone could watch this all at one go. Of course, whoever has all the time in the world will be able to watch the whole show at one go with few breaks in between, but most people have jobs and other pleasures to tend to, and so they will have to make their own time to enjoy Netflix’s House of Cards. The big difference between Netflix’s House of Cards content viewing experience and Cable is that content consumers are in the driver seat for program choices and schedules.
A new player who has just joined the TV revolution is now Intel. According to The Verge’s “Intel confirms its Internet TV will launch this year, complete with set-top box and a camera” article, Intel will launch Internet TV which comes with hardware that even has camera. The camera can be turned off at will, but if you leave it on it will watch you watch whatever that you watch… it’s a little creepy in my opinion. The Verge suggests that Intel will be able to make a wiser choice of showing what commercials and to suggest what shows to the TV audiences if the camera is on. In my living room? Sigh… I don’t mind the camera watch me doing my things in the public space, but in my living room is just creepy. I prefer a little more privacy when I enjoy my time in my own living room…
I think the TV revolution is about to be cranked up even more. It’s the trend yo! I like where this trend is taking us, but I think there will be things that will be discarded into the forgotten pits. Through trial and error process, the TV revolution will reward the sensible features. For an example, I don’t think that many people will appreciate being watched by a camera as they watch their favorite shows in the living room. Features like this will definitely be thrown into the forgotten pits when the TV revolution (of this time) becomes the norm.
I think the TV revolution (of this time) is more about the experience and less of marketing gimmicks. How come? There aren’t that many choices for the publishers and marketers when it comes down to how to dictate what will be the ultimate TV experience in the Internet age. After all, the TV audiences have plenty of choices to tap into for their content viewing pleasure from the Internet itself. It’s like the TV revolution has to compete with the medium that hosts it. It competes against the Internet and yet the Internet will be the medium which hosts this Internet TV thingy. The trick is to make Internet TV the tube to go to for all TV and video content viewing pleasures… The trick is to beat YouTube?
Backup Backup Backup – And Test Restores (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today, broadband upload speed is nowhere near the speed that is desirable for people to backup their digital contents to third party backup service providers or I should say doing backups to the cloud. I’m using Crashplan backup service provider, and it seems that it took me ages to backup my Windows 8 PC — containing 500 GB worth of data — to Crashplan’s cloud with AT&T U-verse 3 Megabit per second upload speed. On the sort-of opposite spectrum of doing backups to the cloud is doing backups to a local network’s backup device or devices, and it turns out Crashplan software is doing so much better, like way better, when it backups the 500 GB worth of Windows 8 PC data to a NAS (network attached storage) and external hard drives. Basically, at the moment, I see that Crashplan shows that it’s 97.2% done with a backup for Windows 8 PC to a NAS, 54.1% done with a backup for Windows 8 PC to an external hard drive, and 10.2% done with a backup for Windows 8 PC to Crashplan’s cloud. So, I think you get the gist why doing backups to the cloud is super tedious and slow. It really does take ages.
If one day Google Fiber ever comes to my town, I will definitely see doing backups to the cloud as a positive thing. For now though, 3 Megabit per second upload speed is definitely too slow for me to do a backup from a local network to the cloud for 500 Gigabyte worths of data. Imagine people who have like Terabytes worth of data, I wonder how would they feel if they have to do backups to the cloud. With faster broadband such as Google Fiber, I believe the cloud with become even more popular. If the cloud is not too expensive for people to store Terabytes worth of data and Google Fiber type of service is readily available, I don’t see how people would not find this combination a super delicious one. Yummy bandwidth and data redundancy if we care not about the possibility of data leak from a possibility of weak computer security in the cloud. Of course, don’t forget to encrypt whatever data when such data are to be stored in the cloud, yo?
I’m just talking about doing backups of data only, but obviously any faster broadband which is in the league with Google Fiber offers more than just the upload essential, because Google Fiber type of download speed (i.e., Gigabit per second bandwidth) can also bring more opportunities to people and businesses alike. Just imagine the possibility of having Google Fiber type of broadband connection… more households may be able to enjoy playing games, streaming movies, listening to music, surfing the web, watching Internet TV, video chatting over the Internet, shopping online with enhance experience (e.g., interactive media shopping experience which allows people to use video chat and 3D interactive contents), and a lot more at the same time.
With such amazing possibilities — that I had mentioned — float to the surface of the pool when faster broadband gets deploy, we can definitely see modern businesses that rely on the Internet for revenues will see faster broadband a positive thing and a must thing to have. For the people who are the consumers of all Internet and digital things, they might be even more addicted to the Internet since they can do more all at once. Imagine the fantastic feeling of a big size family when Google Fiber sort of broadband service provider is coming to town, the family will definitely not have to take turns to consume all Internet and digital things.
Nuance stand at GSMA Barcelona 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Phys.org’s “Wintermute voice assistant makes intro at CES” article reported Nuance, a tech company from Massachusetts, is working on a software which allows people to use voice to control devices that aren’t necessary using the same operating system. This means that when this software of theirs, codename Wintermute, gets to the market, the users will be able to use voice to control all devices with ease. Furthermore, Phys.org reported that this voice assistant software will also work in such a wonderful way that the users will be able to rely on their voices to for an example, abstractedly reveal the intention from one device and yet to be able to have another device does a follow up on the same intention.
Confuse? Let say, you use this voice assistant software to check out some information about a movie you want to watch in theater on a tablet. All of the sudden, you switch to PC and ask for the same voice assistant to buy a movie ticket for you without telling it about the movie you want to buy a ticket for and which theater you would like to go to. If this voice assistant software is going to be really good, it definitely knows what movie you have had intensively searched for from the search engine on a tablet and automatically looking for ticket information of this particular movie in the closest theater near you on a PC. When it got all the necessary preparations down, it would then ask you to approve the purchase of the movie ticket through voice, and you can simply reply back with a simple yes or no or a not so simple answer which this voice assistant software would then offer you more choices to decide. Obviously, if you decide that you want to cancel the whole shebang, you can simply tell it like it is such as “Let cancel the whole thing,” and the voice assistant would just record your decision for further analyzing to further its own smartness while it goes ahead and cancel the whole movie ticket buying thing.
In truth, I’m not sure will Nuance’s voice assistant will be capable of the things I mentioned, but it does sound like Nuance’s voice assistant might be able to do some of the things I mentioned, because Phys.org reported that Nuance’s voice assistant prototype was able to pull up a football game on TV when a user had merely browsed for the football game score on the smartphone. So, I think Nuance’s voice assistant might be able to understand the users abstractedly somewhat. Nonetheless, abstract thinking isn’t something computers can easily tackle, therefore I’m not too sure about Nuance’s voice assistant performance. Just take a look at Siri and other voice assistants from other smartphone platforms, all in all these software/apps perform rather poorly. These voice assistant software/apps often misunderstand the users’ voice commands and intentions. If Nuance’s voice assistant can be smarter than the rest, I definitely love to see it in action!
Phys.org reported Nuance is going to rely on the power of the cloud networking to service its voice assistant software. Through the cloud servers, Nuance’s voice assistant software will be able to synch the information from one device to another, because Nuance’s voice assistant software needs to be able to analyze what the users have done from one device to another. Furthermore, I think that in order for the users to be able to use Nuance’s voice assistant across devices and platforms, the users might have to install Nuance’s voice assistant software on all devices and platforms that they’re going to use. This might not be a convenient thing to do, because the users might have to update, upgrade, or remove Nuance’s voice assistants from all devices too.
I think Nuance’s voice assistant software is a cool idea, but I wonder how Nuance will deal with privacy. It’s a very powerful thing for a software to know the intents of the users. Furthermore, if a hacker can hack into Nuance’s voice assistant software, will this hacker has the control of all devices that Nuance’s voice assistant software serves? Imagine the things a hacker can do with all devices at once. Turning them into zombies and so on… Anyhow, the privacy and security issues are two sticky issues that cloud services often have to contend with. So, in this sense these two hot issues are not only Nuance’s voice assistant software’s problems, but these problems are all cloud services’ problems.
I’m not sure if Nuance can deliver this sort of all device interaction for its upcoming voice assistant software, but it sure does sound promising from what I’d read on Nuance’s Wintermute project on Phys.org. Until then, I guess I be wishing for Nuance to release their work really soon. Until then, let us all use the current single platform voice assistant software such as Siri or whatever we have on our devices.
English: Google driverless car operating on a testing path (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Humans will one day render as useless walking bones, because machines will take over all the chores and whatever else that humans don’t feel like doing. We can already take a peek at the future by seeing car manufacturers going the route of driverless car. The video right after the break talks about how Toyota, Audi, and other well known car brands are working and researching on driverless cars. So far, their prototypes seem to drive themselves alright. So, I guess they got the driverless down, but how safe will their driverless vehicles be? This is why I think we might not see this type of cars at least for few years on. Nonetheless, I hope they can work out the safety issues for these driverless cars soon, because I’m itching to read, blog, eat, snore, and scratch my itchy back whenever I’m on the road outing.
A year back or two, I don’t remember the time exactly, South Korea had employed few robots to be school teacher and a prison somewhere (I forgot where) had employed robots to be prison guards. Perhaps, more of these machines will even do more stuffs for us humans soon. Imagine, army of robots/machines go to a piece of land, build bunch of more specialized machines on spot, and from the ground up these machines together build a building or house that can, in time, expand, contract, remodel, and whatever else that the owner of this futuristic house wants to do. Let just hope, more machines/robots don’t mean more bad things. Exciting about the future?
