Google’s Supposed Chromebook Pixel (And Its Touch Display) Stars In Leaked Video | Hacker News Reader

Google’s Supposed Chromebook Pixel (And Its Touch Display) Stars In Leaked Video

techcrunch.com

122 pointsderpenxyne108 comments

This video seems fake (despite its high production value) for a variety of reasons.

1. Google's ads are usually made by Creative Lab and this is not at all their style. Or the style of any other Google ad. It bears more resemblance to an Apple ad than a Google one.

2. A laptop "completely designed by Google" might be something that its fans want, but I doubt Google would ever say something like this in an ad and risk antagonizing its hardware partners.

3. Speaking of hardware partners -- who made this? Even when Google makes Nexus devices the manufacturer's logo is quite prominently displayed. Again, I doubt Google wishes to finance a non-partnered piece of hardware.

4. Also, yes, touchscreens are on laptops are stupid. This is a stupid idea.

My bet is that this is the final project of some kind or a demo video from some upstart ad company that wants to show what it can do.

You had me nodding until

>4. Also, yes, touchscreens are on laptops are stupid. This is a stupid idea.

Sure, touchscreens aren't going to be your main form of input in a laptop, but I wouldn't say they are stupid. Once you start playing with a touchscreen laptop, you'll begin to use the touchscreen occasionally, and in these moments it's really nice.

For example, when I'm browsing the web in my bed, it's awkward to use the touchpad to scroll, so I'll just reach out and scroll like I would on a tablet.

Seems like that problem would be better solved by a superior touchpad.

If by better touchpad, you mean better placement for the touchpad, then yes I agree. And in this scenario, the best placement is on the screen.

> 4

Not everyone agrees with your pov

"But Surface proves that's not true; typing and touching are spectacularly compatible, at least for laptops." Jeff Atwood

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/11/do-you-wanna-touch....

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/11/touch-laptops.html

Yea this feels like a demo video.. not like a real ad at all.. like some upstart advertising company made this.. it screams amature.. seriously is that what you think?

> 4. Also, yes, touchscreens are on laptops are stupid. This is a stupid idea.

Not so sure about that. Often times, with other people's laptops, when I wish to illustrate, or do something, I'll reach for the screen and not for the keyboard (I've got way to many touch screens in my life).

Maybe not enough of a usecase - but I can see it working.

That is some pretty excellent marketing.

Also, I love the 'logo' of this Chromebook -- just a line with four colors, instead of .. well, an actual logo. I like the trend of there being no meta-information stickers on devices I buy.

I for one don't like the colors, for some reason it makes it feel "cheap" to me. But other than that small complaint it looks awesome, I'll definitely be getting one (assuming it's real).

Though there's an internal inconsistency having a four colour logo while showing pixels as having three colours.

That's where this one comes in?

Feels familiar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmnlTUE8yQI

When Apple invents and touts their "Retina" displays: that's bullshit, I can see up to 9000 dpi. Don't waste your money

When google does exactly the same a year later, on a machine using experimental software and full of limitations, it's excellent :)

My apologies for getting meta here, but: you sure are extrapolating a lot from what I said. :) 3 comment responses in a quick while, all drawing comparisons with Apple on the point I raised.

I like that Apple made a high-res. device. I now like that Google is also releasing a high-res device. The excited defense of Apple, despite my having not really attacked Apple in the first place makes it seem like there's some sort of victim mentality going on with Apple fans.

> The excited defense of Apple, despite my having not really attacked Apple in the first place makes it seem like there's some sort of victim mentality going on with Apple fans.

With all due respect, now you seem to be extrapolating too ;).

Not extrapolating at all, just commenting on the way things are perceived. You specifically praised the marketing, not the product, which was a main point of criticism back when the Retina MBPs were released. Google was clever to avoid numbers :)

They used the same logo at the bottom of last year's zeitgeist:

http://www.google.co.uk/zeitgeist/2012/

It looks like Google is the first company to have listened to Linus - 2560x1700 resolution laptop! They might want to use that resolution for tablets, too, as it would make them a little better for using them vertically. Although 2560x1800 would probably be even better.

I also hope it's another ARM Chromebook, as I don't want it to be very expensive and with poor battery life. In fact their goal for Chromebooks should be 10h battery life, not 6h.

Google is the second company. 13 inch Macbook Pro with 2560 x 1600 resolution was released last October.

Same time Linus made the comment.

https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/ByVPmsSeSEG

Yup. Apple announced Retina 13 inch on Oct 23 so even before Linus made that comment. And Retina 15 inch Macbook Pro (2880x1800) last June.

It wouldn't matter to Linus anyway if he doesn't care about apple gear.

Edit : As comments below me point out Linus uses a Mac in his work flow.

This is a bit offtopic I think he uses Mac/s

He uses a MacBook Air [0] for the hardware.

[0]: http://www.businessinsider.com/linus-torvalds-loves-his-macb...

Linus actually uses a MacBook Air: http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/19/an-interview-with-millenium...

I believe the point was that this would not be 16/9 ratio, not even 16/10, but 128/85.

Which would seem to be better because, frankly, 16/9 looks good on TVs but is really quite terrible on a computer. I even find 16/10 barely acceptable.

Of course, in retina mode that's an effective resolution of 1280x850. If this is real, it's not clear how Chrome OS would use it.

Isn't being ARM-based something that actually helps keep the hardware price down? I thought it was generally cheaper to go with chips like Snapdragon / Tegra / Exynos than, say, any Intel. And I also thought it actually helped with battery life. Do I have a completely wrong idea of ARM?

FWIW, I'm pretty sure the original Samsung Chromebook was ARM-based and the battery lasted forever. It wasn't the quickest device, though.

Edit: Nope, first Samsung Chromebook was Intel.

Isn't that what I said? If it's a quad core Cortex A15, it should have decent performance, while keeping the cost very low, and high battery life.

However, knowing Google's track record with "new" products, they usually start out making them very expensive, because of stupid decisions they make (like using Intel chips). They did it with the first Chromebook, they did it with the first Google TV, with the first "real" android tablet, the Motorola Xoom, and the Nexus Q last year.

For some reason they don't seem to "get" the right price for a very new type of product, from the first time they launch it. They need like another iteration or two, before they get it, like with the ARM Samsung Chromebook, which hit the sweet spot for a low-end Chromebook at $250.

What "makes sense" to me is to do the same Chromebook now, but with a quad core A15 CPU, a bigger battery, a bigger screen and much bigger resolution, and a touchscreen. And with all of that the sweet spot should be $500. Definitely no more than that.

But again Google's track record is not great here, and I really fear they will build this with some dual core or quad core IVB chip, and make it like $800, which would be way too much for a Chromebook.

I do hope I'm wrong and they get it right though.

Oh snap, sorry about that. For some reason I read that line in your original comment as "I also hope it's not another ARM Chromebook".

I really have zero desire to touch my laptop screen. Maybe it's years of conditioning to not smudge my screen or it could be that lifting my hands off the keyboard to pinch and swipe at my screen would be more irritating then using a mouse.

With that being said. I'm all for high density screens in laptops!

I'm kind of opposite. All these years now of using touch tablets makes me frustrated that I can't touch the screen to do simple things that would be much easier with touch than with a mouse (dragging stuff around, for example, which requires holding a mouse button down and moving the mouse at the same time).

Gorilla arm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen#.22Gorilla_arm.22

I think the more common use case for a touchscreen laptop would be when it is sitting on your lap, which feels a lot more natural than sitting a desk and trying to swipe your 20+ inch monitor that is 2 feet away from you.

Gorilla arm really only applies if you have your arm extended the entire time (or simply "a lot"). With a touch screen laptop you'd a) still have mouse/kb input so you wouldn't always be using touch and more importantly b) when you're not interacting with touch, your arm will be resting - i.e. you only extend your arm for a few seconds at a time and don't hold it there for long.

I haven't experienced gorilla arm at all on my Surface (which I use in "laptop mode" often - for what it's worth I no longer use a laptop.)

I can see uses for a touchscreen, for example I think some of Apple's trackpad gestures would be better. Think three finger swipe to switch virtual desktops on a 15" screen instead of a 4" trackpad.

I do hope they work out a good solution to smudges.

You know, I thought the same thing but it's surprising how often I touch my Surface when I'm using it as a laptop. I don't think about it, it sort of just happens sometimes...like to tap a button or go back in IE by swiping backwards, or even just scrolling in a webpage I sometimes use the arrow keys and sometimes use my thumb. It's odd.

Equally surprising was how I would have to restrain myself from touching my non-touchscreen desktop monitor sometimes that I've had for much longer (i.e. years). Happens a lot as I'm sitting down and want to launch a few initial apps.

I think if you ever get a touch screen laptop you'll be as surprised as I was to see how much you do end up using the touch screen, even if it is "unintentional".

I've had exactly the same experience. I've always hated people touching my displays and rolled my eyes every time I watched someone demo Windows 8 touch screen computers on stage. I was very sure that I'd never want to use them like that.

After I got my Surface, I can't imagine buying a laptop without touch. I had to use my MacBook Air (which the Surface has largely replaced) for a few hours last week and found myself unconsciously reaching for the screen very often.

Isn't that just because their touchpads are so tiny? If you sit at a larger laptop with good touchpad, do you still feel that need?

Unsure since I don't have a larger laptop. Though I'll say that I don't find the Surface's trackpad lacking for what I would use it for - and yet I don't always use it. It's mostly unconscious like one of the other people said.

This was more or less exactly my experience when using the Transformer Prime in laptop mode. Touchscreens give you much more space and comfortable gestures compared to a typical laptop trackpad.

indeed.

Perhaps stuff like this will make it more practical:

http://blog.liangzan.net/blog/2013/02/06/first-impressions-o...

When I "leak" a video it is always a professionally produced marketing advert.

Seems like every "leak" these days is anything but. Call me cynical or paranoid if you want...

"Leak" just means the video was released before it was supposed to be. It doesn't necessarily mean it's internal-only information.

You're not paranoid, but all companies release "leaks" like this these days, without an "official" announcement, months earlier.

It makes sense why they would do it. It let's them get response from the community and use that feedback to address concerns and hype the positives for the official announcement. It is just like the open betas that video games have been doing recently.

I am very, very skeptical of the authenticity of this video. Anybody skilled in 3D rendering could have created this video, it's happened before: http://anatomyofahoax.tumblr.com/

Maybe, seems a lot of trouble to go to for basically no payoff (apart from trolling HN) though.

Not really. A student wanting to build out their portfolio looking for work in advertising/media production would get quite a bit of value out of this.

Especially with the perception of most people seeing this as being a real ad, that shows a lot of potential for a prospective employer.

It could also be the work of a freelance or independent studio using free time between projects, and may plan on later capitalising on it through a blog post or follow up video.

Apart from being skilled in 3D rendering -- the creator of this video seems to have enlisted a superb voice actor; audio + video fit together well. This is the work of a highly paid advertising agency, working for and paid by Google. The 'anatomyofahoax' centers around an old phone picture... this video had a lot more stuff. To conclude: it's the real deal.

If your standards are low. It's perfectly reasonable that this video could be done by a couple guys over the weekend. To conclude: it's impossible to tell.

All commercials can potentially be faked, and sometimes leaked commercials are real. This is an intractable argument.

And a hand model.

More reasons to be skeptical: http://blogs.computerworld.com/laptops/21747/chromebook-pixe...

Will be interesting to see what price this comes in at. If they can get this significantly below $1000 it could be an absolute killer.

It's anything even remotely close to $1000 I wouldn't go near it if it's running Chrome OS. I'm not paying a grand for a fancy browser case.

Edit: to expand on my comment a little. I thought the premise of Chrome OS was that except for specialized cases almost a "typical" user things could be moved to the cloud, eliminating the need for high powered machines and complex OSes that can fulfill various use cases, consequently the price drops dramatically. If Chrome OS is still limited to essentially web/cloud driven functionality what is the justification for the high price point?

All of the chromebooks so far have been able to run non-chromeos linux distros just fine. (The ARM-based ones require a little effort, but it's possible. I've got fedora/arm on a Samsung chromebook that I play around with) Hopefully that will be the case with this device as well.

The 13" Retina MacBook Pro starts at $1700. We'll have to see what the final specs and pricing are for the Pixel but it could be very compelling. A high-DPI display is really a killer feature.

Sure, the default OS on this laptop may be limited, but that doesn't change the fact that the hardware is still that of a $1000+ laptop. Especially with that hi-res screen. And I'm sure if you really wanted to, you could install Ubuntu on it.

These devices are only sensible if the UI of the OS knows how to scale; otherwise everything is tiny. From a brief Google search, Ubuntu does not know how to scale (http://askubuntu.com/questions/231646/is-ubuntu-12-10-optimi...) so I don't think you would want to run Ubuntu on this.

The Nexus 10 was $400 with very similar resolution (2560x1600). But this would be using a bigger screen, which probably means it's more expensive (although less PPI than Nexus 10). So I hope it's somewhere between $500-$600. $500 would be the sweet spot, though. And I think they can only achieve that with ARM chips, and with reasonable performance.

I think they can hit 400-500$ price point by using a ARM 15 chip. Chrome already runs in HiDPi on nexus 10 and retina MacBook pros. I am interested about the scaling they will use here.

I still use a 1280x800 18" laptop, I really need a new one. Now the thing is: This Chromebook will probably run... Chrome, and I can't work just with Chrome.

I wish Google had developed a Linux Distro instead of ChromeOS, would be much more useful.

Hopefully it'll be like the other Google-branded devices, and it'll allow you to install what you want on it easily.

Couple thoughts:

* there was an earlier thread on touch screens in laptops, the surface thread, and I stated I have the Lenovo tablet laptop with touchscreen and it is horrible and I don't like it.

I work with lots of visual docs, from visio, PDF acad plans, acad itself and revit. Not once have I wanted to interact with any of these documents via touch.

We have a few plan-grid users in the office and that works kinda ok - but not on a laptop.

* I bought a chromebook for my mom, and I lamented here on HN about how it lacked features and the UX was very clunky.

This thing is going to likely wind up in the iPad price range, and I am suspicious it's experience will be some weird limbo between a full OS laptop and a fully purpose built tablet.

I want this to succeed, but I feel that the chromebook, with almost zero functionality without access to the Internet is shortsighted in the depth and sophistication (savvy) users need from their devices.

While "we" (my wife and I) have an iPad, "I" do not have one; I find the iPad too one dimensional for the majority of what I need to do. Using robust and nimble applications for work, light gaming and heavy web content consumption.

I typically have multiple browser containers open with upto 20 tabs in each.

For light browsing, I use my phone - as I am now to type this.

This video showed a person clicking a CGI jellyfish to change its color. Ok, zero utility and the spark of coolness lasted about a nanosecond.

The only thing semi-inspirational said in the video was also very scary: 4 million of these pixels create a new world.

This statement leads me to believe this is a hardware wrapper to G+, is a google encased physical portal into their total information awareness about your individual, and the pixels overall communal, online use.

This makes it sound liberating - but this is actually a digital prison.

Finally, it's a me too ad in response to Apple trying to tout "completely designed by google".

Don't get me wrong, I love lots of things about google, most things actually - but what I will never trust about google or any other company is that they are working in my interest.

So, people will find this useful, and interesting - but this ad showed me very little to convince me that my computing experience is about to evolve into anything other than a benefit for googles information indexing leviathan, let alone become something completely better.

You're right in that Google isn't working in your best interest, they're working towards the interest of all of their users. While touch isn't ideal for your use cases, it may be for some. Touch is a pretty bad modality for content creation, but it's very good for casual use/content consumption. You seem to be heavily putting down this laptop because it's touch enabled. It's simply another feature, at the end of the day this is still a laptop. It's not a negative to have it be there - it barely increases the cost of materials/construction.

Was it a pretty boring/generic ad? Sure. Does it present anything that we haven't seen before? No, not really. But at the end of the day, it's cool to see Google pursuing new hardware ventures. The nexus line is absolutely fantastic, I would love to see that level of quality in a laptop, even if the laptop is only a netbook.

Sure, I recognize that they aren't necessarily looking at my specific use case with this; what I am also saying is that I believe the depth of the use case scenario pool for touch screen laptops to be fairly shallow.

Further, as a chromebook owner, I also am putting down the overall concept from a freedom of capability standpoint.

While I am not putting down the engineering, aesthetics, and great job they did in crewing the chrome book, I think it is a mistake in thinking that a node on a point cloud is going to provide you the experience you have with a laptop.

You may say "well that's obvious"

So, assume that you agree with that, then, where are we heading with this: we still need a phone, a laptop/desktop, potentially another true tablet.

So we are fragmenting the depth of information interaction and creation between all these devices.

There are solid use cases for each class of device - but if we look at this device-scape further we realize we are building walls around particular behaviors.

One might say: this is perfect for a teen user, kids, casual consumption at home.

We already have devices that fit that need, so this just may further deepen the divide.

One should start to think of google and Facebook and others along the lines of a television channel. (It's a weak analogy, but hear me out):

Basically, we only have so much time per day to spend our attention. We are dividing that attention up between not only multiple services, but also multiple devices.

We wind up with devices that we spend a bunch of time on that can be seen as more built for consumption than production.

Honestly, if this box were focused on education then it would be much better. Rather than show me clicking a cgi jellyfish - show me a device that will create an instant adhoc classroom with many students.

Click on a menu of topics, and show me classes hosted by teachers in that area, and connect me with the other students interested in that topic which are close to me, close to my age etc.

If you're going to create a point cloud of devices - then think of all the things that could potentially tie those points into groups and provide an experience around that.

I have a chromebook, a laptop and a desktop. I go to the Chromebook when I need something light and portable. The laptop is collecting dust.

Exactly, we divide our attention between so many devices.

I have a work laptop 1, 2, 3, chromebook, android phone, iPhone, desktop 1,2, Mac mini, Mac book pro, and iPad.

Most of these get some use during the week, but clearly I don't need this many devices. So which device combo is the right one?

(Oh, and I have several large HP DL servers, but they are all powered off)

>I have a work laptop 1, 2, 3, chromebook, android phone, iPhone, desktop 1,2, Mac mini, Mac book pro, and iPad.

Your dev devices don't count. Only stuff that counts is the one that you use regularly.

'You're right in that Google isn't working in your best interest, they're working towards the interest of all of their users.'

..where of course "their users" are actually their advertisers and not mom and pop.

This oversimplification isn't useful and is getting old. If mom and pop don't use the new products Google comes up with, the advertisers will spend less money and/or eventually leave. The incentives are not so nearly misaligned as you suggest.

Nope - everything comes back to advertisers (well, actually, money). If Google could make more money by not offering services do you think they would? Of course they would.

I have friends who have not taken jobs at google. I'm pretty sure their issue is allocating scarce engineers, not servers.

Apple has introduced a MacBook Pro with a similar resolution to this Chromebook Pixel. It has a Core i5 with 8GB of RAM. However, as AnandTech would point out, such a resolution is certainly a strain on the processor (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6409/13inch-retina-macbook-pro...). Google's Chromebooks have been picking up the low-end. If this laptop is real, it will almost certainly need to match a Retina MacBook Pro in specs. It seems unreasonable to believe that this could be an ARM powered machine (as I'm sure some hope) since the resolution proves burdensome even to a Core i5.

I think that's a compelling reason to believe this to be a fake. The amount of hardware needed to run such a resolution is substantial and I don't think people would want to pay that kind of money for a Chromebook right now. Personally, I would have to be assured that I could run a fuller operating system on it if I were going to spend that kind of money.

However, even if it is real, it seems like it would be much closer to a Retina MacBook Pro than any current Chromebook. It seems unreasonable to think that Google would be able to put out such a device with such a display that is like the current Chromebooks in hardware or price. I know that a lot of us would love someone to unseat Intel, but we've seen how demanding Retina resolutions are and how even processors many times more powerful can struggle to meet the task.

Actually, the Nexus 10 has the same resolution as the MBP 13 inch (2560x1600) - although the Nexus 10 does run Android 4.2. So it seems to me that to the ability to drive a 2560x1600 screen is also largely dependent on the operating system.

Whether Chrome OS is capable of driving 2560x1600 with the same (or better) hardware than Nexus 10 remains to be seen.

The retina iPad manages to pull off a resolution close to that with only an ARM CPU. If applications deal with half the vertical and horizontal resolution in logical pixels and leave the X2 image and font rendering to a highly optimized engine using a good GPU it sounds do-able.

Then again I agree it would bump up costs considerably, which negates one of the main reasons for buying a chromebook at the moment.

I WANT ONE! (Or two if supplies last).

Seriously though it is about time we saw some more change in the laptop market. I love macbooks as much as the next guy but they aren't perfect.

Higher vertical resolutions rock.

Even if it only runs Chrome OS?

I'd be interested in it, developer mode gives access to vim and ssh, which is all I need to do my job (embedded kernel development). ChromeOS is quite decent on its own, and since it's ChromeOS it would have flash and their PDF reader on it. The only real complaint there is that their PDF reader doesn't support indexes and I usually have PDFs that are 2-5k pages so scrolling is a pain.

You want to buy it and don't even know what it is?

I mean, we know absolutely zero information about it (excluding that it is made by Google and has a touch interface). You don't know the OS, the graphics card(s), the processor, the size, or what it might be able to offer you besides what you can already get on a regular machine you already own.

Doesn't that seem silly and quite overtly technophilic?

Several comments refer to the limited functionality of Chrome OS. This issue has apparently already been "fixed" with ChrUbuntu[1]. Ars published an article[2] on this two months ago.

1. http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com/ 2. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/12/how-to-install-ubuntu...

I know people from Google read HN.

All I want is a Retina screen in an ARM Chromebook. Thats it. It doesn't have to look nice, it doesn't have to have good speakers (or any speakers, really), it doesn't need USB 3, or a touch screen, or more than 4 hours of battery life (although more is always better), and it doesn't need any real storage space because I won't be storing large files on it.

The Samsung Exynos5 Chromebook is lacking exactly one thing: a Retina screen. Otherwise, I would have bought it by now.

The body design cloning the mbp makes it look dated already.

Can someone make an educated guess on min price on something like this? I guess it could basically be a Nexus 10 but with a keyboard and a different OS, putting it in the $500 range.

I just bought the $249 Chromebook and I love it but now I am having some buyer's remorse. However if this thing is likely to cost $500 I wouldn't feel so bad about my purchase since I just want it for a second computer to take to class.

This is most likely fake and if it is not fake it will be at least as expensive as a Nexus 10 ($400.)

Look, an MBP Retina.

Google is now making Macbook Pro retina laptops?

"Completely designed by Google". hmm. more like "Case and keyboard almost entirely designed by Apple, to the extent of appearing to be a 2009 MBP unless you look very carefully". I hope it's a fake so that doesn't bug me.

The problem with the chromebooks is definitely not the hardware, it's that you can't skype or play a dvd. If they sold one of these with just android I would buy it in a heartbeat. Perfect linux box.

Hangouts and WebRTC should be good alternatives for that. But you also can use Skype in the browser last I checked (for video-calls):

https://imo.im

Using imo for skype is far from "ideal" -- you give your skype password to a third party, and I don't think you can call landlines with it. You might say "just use google voice", but you're out of luck if you're not in the US.

I've toyed with giving my parents a chromebook, but the lack of skype is always the sticking point.

DVDs? Do people complain about DVD drives when discussing tablets? Why should this be any different.

As ads go, fake or not, this one didn't captivate me. What's so special about this laptop? The only thing going for it is that it's "designed entirely by Google," which isn't an advantage to some.

Funny, it looks like the Nexus logo here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...

Is Google planning on adding Android to the Chromebook at some point? It seems like Android would allow for much richer apps.

It increasingly feels as though Chrome OS functionality is a subset of Android functionality.

I kind of expect the oposite to happen. Android has more features and apps for now but I wouldn't be surprised to see PNaCl become the preferred way to write android/chrome apps once it reaches feature parity and is enabled on android.

43 seconds in shows a Thunderbolt port (aka, Apple proprietary). Clearly a fake.

You mean Mini DisplayPort? Many vendors use it nowadays.

I really like the laptop's design.. clean and functional.

Hmm is this really leaked?

Wish it was Android OS.

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