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alexsop2

I think the bigger news here is the Chromebit. A $100 device that turns any monitor into a computer? Fascinating.

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More details on Cnet - http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/asus-chromebit/

Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11AC, USB 2.0 for accessories, 2GB of RAM and 16GB SSD

Wow. AC wireless in a $100 device. Now I'm interested.

What does it do for power? Through the USB port like most other similar devices I'm assuming?

You can get AC routers for under $80 now, and they are basically just Linux boxes.

It apparently has a full-size USB and microUSB port for power purposes.

> The Raspberry Pi is a nearly stick-like mini computer that can run Windows or Linux.

What? Is this about the future version of Windows that will run on ARM?

Windows has been running on ARM since version 8 (the ARM-specific version was called Windows RT). Since then, Microsoft announced a “special” version of Windows that's intended for the new Raspberry Pi 2.

If I remember correctly, it's more of a runtime for some .NET programs with access to the Pi's GPIO pins than a full-fledged OS.

Amusing that it has a more useful port than the new Macbook.

Similar offering to Intel's stick computer (albeit Intel's has better specs and costs 50% more):

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-c...

Actually, according to CNET, there's a Linux version of the Intel stick that costs only $89, plus, Intel's has a micro SD card slot, although it lacks the 802.11ac.

http://www.cnet.com/products/intel-compute-stick/

Unfortunately, the Linux edition only has 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, while the Windows version will have 2GB and 32GB respectively.

It seems like a good alternative to raspberry pis. We use these types of small computers to power dashboards, and frankly the Pis are a pain to set up for this purpose. I hope the Chromebit works well for just loading a website.

I'm pretty sure it'll be good at that :)

For dashboards and kiosks, there might be of use:

https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/3134673?hl=en

http://googleforwork.blogspot.com/2015/03/screens-go-Google-...

That's exactly why I was considering buying a raspberry pi for. Have you also considered the chromecast for this (maybe by creating a custom app/plugin for your dashboard)?

We dropped using the pi for chromecast. Much more responsive and less maintenance, though the Pis are great learning tools.

I thought this was interesting too... but are you also carrying around a keyboard and mouse?

Not necessarily.

I do virtually all my work split between my home office and an actual workplace office. Currently I drag a laptop back and forth between the two, but having a monitor/keyboard/mouse at both (which I already do and dock the laptop into) and just bringing a small stick literally in my pocket that I can plug in to either place and get my full, familiar, always-up-to-date development environment is very appealing.

Obviously YMMV depending upon use case, for me a full laptop (even a small one) is overkill for what I need for a work machine, since I never really use it anyplace other than work or home and in both places I plug it into "full-sized" keyboard/mouse/monitors anyway.

Since I do Android development, ChromeOS isn't the ideal platform for this, but I suspect these sticks will run crouton like other ChromeOS devices...

For this workflow (where you already have most of a computer at two locations), wouldn't having a diskless workstation at work and home also work out, and just carry around a USB thumbdrive? That way you still have the same environment in both locations.

I've actually considered USB before in years past and discounted it because the speed of USB sticks was very bad (in the context of keeping all your files on one, compiling from one, etc).

Thinking about it again in light of your comment made me realize there very well could be USB 3.0 thumbdrives with suitable speed (based on some Googling around it looks like there are some that are quite fast, but you have to be really careful with brand/model since it appears there is a very wide spread between the performance of different USB3.0 thumbdrives). But, yeah, I suppose using a fast USB3.0 thumbdrive would be another way to achieve this sort of setup.

The fastest USB 3.0 drive I have is an msata card I had left over after I upgraded, which is mounted in an msata SSD to usb converter case. I haven't tried running my normal OS environment off it yet, but overall performance is way better than a typical USB stick, or USB hard drives.

Why not switch to desktops? You'll be more productive (faster/bigger/more capable everything), and you won't have to haul around an entire laptop.

If you commit your work, you only need the network to sync between two desktops.

That doesn't surprise me, because I already have a Chromecast.

And there are many other instances of small cheap computers too, but my point is this: once you've seen a little device that plugs into a TV/monitor and does stuff, you've already seen a computer, because all these things are computers nowadays. Hardware has to be seriously small and special-purpose nowadays to even consider a microcontroller. It's the age of system-on-a-chip.

I see no point in carrying around a little stick to use as a computer but not as storage. Plenty of flash-based local storage would be easy to add (with locally encrypted backups to the cloud if needed) and turn the privacy-impaired ChromeOS products into decent personal computing devices.

I wonder how much thought they put into theft prevention if this is really intended to be used in schools - the ability to just pull this out the the USB port and walk off seems entirely too tempting in a school setting.

Organizationally-managed Chromeb.*s can be remotely disabled by the administrator.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/3523633

Glue.

One of those running XBMC would be awesome.

Any monitor? Not mine. HDMI required.

Where d you even get a monitor that doesn't do HDMI any more?

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l...

Beat me to it. I agree, the Chromebit is way more interesting.

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