Update Brings Android USB Mounting To Chromebooks

sfcrazy writes "Google has updated its stable channel for Chromebooks (Acer AC700, Samsung Series 5, and Cr-48). The latest version of Google chrome running on these devices is Chrome 13. The feature has added Google Cloud Print settings to Settings > Under the Hood. It now allows auto-connect using 3G, remove/forget added VPN connections and 802.1x support. The update brings the most needed feature — USB mounting of Android."

YES!

[kurt555gs]

Again, YES!

I really like my Samsung Chromebook. Now, it's better!

Re:

[bogaboga]

Where can one get a hold of one of these things in Canada? Sheesh!

Re:

[davester666]

Well, if you live in the MTA, you're already in hell, so you can pick one up pretty much anywhere.

Re:

[mlk]

More like 1997 (95 OSR2).

98. Did you use 95 OSR2? ;)

Re:

[grantek]

...but you need to be connected to the internet for the usb port to work ;)

Re:NO!

[earls]

No, it's not. ;)

USB Mounting?

[damn_registrars]

Do they mean mounting your android device on your desktop system as a USB device? The syntax is rather vague...

Re:

[gl4ss]

I gather that previously usb-mounting your android didn't work.
it's bad press anyways.. now if they included adb with it?

can you run android sdk on a chromebook? that's the real question and tells the failings of crap almost-OS's.

I have a Chromebook

[PCM2]

So can anyone explain to me WHY I would want to mount Android on my Chromebook via USB -- let alone why it's the "most needed feature"?

Re:

[MightyMartian]

How else do you propose to quickly move your upskirt shots to on to a better medium for superior viewing?

Re:

[Tim9431]

You can have your Google plus app auto upload all those upskirt pictures.

Re:

[PCM2]

When they talk about mounting USB .... it means mounting the USB as a drive (as in accessing the data in a USB flash drive).

Have you ever used the Chromebook file manager? This is no great benefit.

Re:

[belg4mit]

Indeed, the ability to mount a fileshare on the LAN would seem to be more useful.
Even if you are supposed to view/edit everything in Google Docs, etc. Are you
supposed to have someone/something else upload them?

USB mounting ON Android or OF Android?

[spyder-implee]

Does it mean mount a usb device on the Android or mounting Android to elsewhere? The later is how it reads.

Re:

[couchslug]

Good point. All phones should mount as a Mass Storage Device.

Re:

[CharlyFoxtrot]

Seems obvious to us geeks, but when a photographer at a christening I went to recently asked if anyone was a "computer expert" so he could give them the CompactFlash card to transfer the pictures no-one wanted to touch it. Syncing,as opposed to just exposing the device as a filesystem, is a better solution if you are going for mass appeal.

What is the point?

[phantomfive]

Why would anyone want a Google Chromebook? I've seriously been trying to figure out what market they're going after.

Re:

[That Guy From Mrktng]

Probably Google just planned and actually started to develop something without doing a market research, everybody knows that you just have to have a blowjob in the morning to get to the office and say "hey, lets do an operating system thats in the cloudz trololololol" and everyone is "yay let's do it! for the lulz" and then it's magically delivered inside a custom laptop thanks to pounds of unicorn dust stolen from Cupertino. /s

In all seriousness: Let's say We have a translation team which need to access

Re:

[NJRoadfan]

The model has been tried before with those "internet appliances" that came out ten years ago. Granted they weren't portable, but they were cheaper then the average desktop at the time and were designed to strictly surf the net. Nobody bought them back then (except for geeks that hacked them into usable machines). Larry Ellison's dreams were crushed when the Think NIC went nowhere.

Re:

[RockDoctor]

Granted they weren't portable,

Your munificence is appreciated.

but they were cheaper then the average desktop at the time

Certanly not in the UK ; I suspect not anywhere, unless you were buying them by the lorry-load. In which case, hardware costs fall well below the rest of your IT cost load.

and were designed to strictly surf the net.

More precisely the corporate INTRA-net, with the possibility of going out onto the INTER-net. During your lunch break. I never heard of anyone other than trade journalists co

Re:

[NJRoadfan]

These aren't SunRay terminal type devices, but they might not have been common or available outside of the US and were quite the rage in 2000-01. Look up the Netpliance iOpener, 3com Audrey, and the Sony eVilla. They were sold to home users at highly subsidized prices with the expectation that a 2 year dial-up internet subscription contract would pay off the cost of the hardware.

Re:

[RockDoctor]

Ahhh, that would be about the time that Compuserve was invaded by hordes of knuckle-dragging AOLers, often complaining about not getting their "rebate"? I remember the wave of spittle and bile that washed through CIS around then, but I wasn't aware that it was driven by this sort of equipment.

None of those device names ring any bells at all. I'd already forsworn Sony by that point, and even so don't remember an "eVilla". "Audrey"? iOpener? SunRay? All complete blanks.

Ummm, at that time I was on a Â

Re:

[That Guy From Mrktng]

In my example, because it's the first thing that came to my head, I'd say the company just want the users to stick to the Chrome OS for their work and everything else it's blocked. They can't download work to USBs or mail it anywhere than a fixed recipient list.

And sure you can buy lots of cheap laptops and shove ChromeOS in them but I think (irdk) that would void the warranty and no sane company would buy 100s of new computers to lose warranty in the next week. You point makes sense anyway, I would not buy

Re:

[dirt]

Because you don't want to patch Outlook on a distributed fleet of 700 salesmen's laptops?

Chromebooks aren't about the hardware. It's entirely about the software and the support. Look how many people are already using Google Docs. Now imagine if you're a major clothing designer. You're not a tech company, why should you invest so heavily in tech? Use IT like a service, like power or water, to get your job done.

Re:

[Artifex]

Use IT like a service, like power or water, to get your job done.

The restaurant chain Jason's Deli gave them to their sales team [youtube.com].

/have a Cr-48
//eat at Jason's Deli :)
///need to see if they have free wi-fi :)

Re:

[NJRoadfan]

Pass. Jason needs to learn how to make a decent sandwich first.

Re:

[jasomill]

Google provides support?

Seriously, though, what happens when Google patches 700 salesmen's laptops at an inopportune time? According to the documentation,

Customers on the Scheduled Release track gain access to new features on a regular, weekly release schedule following the initial release of those features. This delay allows time for administrators to familiarize themselves with new features using a test domain, educate support staff, and communicate any changes to their users. New features will be release

Re:

[Tacvek]

On the other hand if it is changing on a weekly basis, them many times there will be no new features to familiarize yourself with, or there will be only one or two small features. One person could spend an hour or two testing in those cases. (If nobody can afford that, then the company should have hired another person for IT prior to rolling out the chrome-book, especially since the rollout process could easily monopolize the time of a member of IT for several weeks.

Educating support staff on an invisible

Re:

[Rich0]

As others have pointed out, it is about the provisioning and maintenance. Chromebooks are essentially interchangeable. Suppose I log into one and do a ton of work, and then it gets stolen that afternoon. My data is secure since it is fully encrypted (with TPM support), and if I log into a new one in a few seconds all my bookmarks, extensions, applications, etc are up and running. And of course my files are all in the cloud. The only thing I'd lose is anything cached offline (a la html5), or the local f

Re:

[drinkypoo]

It's the market which has one or more laptops only used for websurfing. You know, like most people who have a laptop today. I guess it's weird to serve "most people" when you could serve a niche. No, wait, that's not weird at all. You are.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

It's the market which has one or more laptops only used for websurfing. You know, like most people who have a laptop today. I guess it's weird to serve "most people" when you could serve a niche. No, wait, that's not weird at all. You are.

So instead of buying a netbook for $300, I can have a locked-down netbook (ChromeOS is locked down walled garden, after all) for the same price.

Geez. When Apple does it, it's bad. When Google does it, it's good? (Especially since, well, an Android device shows up as mass s

selling points

[jDeepbeep]

Last I checked, the featureset includes:

• powers on and is online in < 10 secs
• documents, prefs (read: same experience anywhere, multiple user machines), and apps stored in cloud
• wifi and 3G
• an app store (they call it chrome web store or something like that)
• supposedly very secure

Maybe someone who actually has one can fill in the blanks here.

Re:

[herojig]

There is a donkey in the last frame of that video, yet the pseudo scientist intellectual points to horse shit. I want to know why.