Hey truck drivers – we know that we present a lot of tech stuff on our site, like upcoming videos, hyped and hot video games and DVDs you can rent from Redbox. Sometimes we fail to check in with our readers about how they choose to connect to the Net.
Does your mobile phone do enough of the job with mobile apps and games? Maybe it’s just enough for you to rent DVDs and play them on portable players. We try not to assume, and we ask our Facebook readers often about their preferences on the road. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your mobile connection, one thing is for certain in 2012 – computing gear that’s well-powered is getting quite cheap.
How cheap? Most of the new Google Chromebooks are now selling for $250. They’re portable and powerful and they can nearly replace any laptop if you’re willing to make a couple of exceptions.
What’s the big exception you have to make? You have to trade your DVD drive for Google Drive (read more about what Google Drive is below). This can be unfortunate for lots of traveling truckers because, well, we know they love their DVDs and Redbox accounts. However – Chromebooks can still access your Netflix accounts, Amazon On Demand, CrackleTV and more AND they have high quality HDMI outputs so you can run your streaming media to any HDTV that has an HDMI In port (and most of them do).
Google Chromebook 2012
What are the specs for the baseline model?
- 11.6’’ (1366×768) display
- 0.7 inches thin – 2.42 lbs / 1.1 kg
- Over 6.5 hours of battery 1
- Samsung Exynos 5 Dual Processor
- 100 GB Google Drive Cloud Storage2 with 16GB Solid State Drive
- Built-in dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
- VGA Camera
- 1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0
- HDMI Port
- Bluetooth 3.0™ Compatible
Google Chromebooks Now Available
They come in three varieties – the basic Samsung model that sells for $250, a higher capacity model with larger battery and dual processors, and the Acer model C7.
What’s cool about Chromebooks?
Plenty – they come set up to work right out of the box. They boot up in 6 seconds. They have solid state drives that are very fast and will rarely fail due to road shocks and bumps. They have built in virus protection. They come with a complimentary Google Drive account. They have several ports to hook anything up that you wish, TVs, DVD players, mobile phones, USB devices and more. The standard battery will last 6 hours.
These laptops are designed to be simple, fast and hassle-free.
What is Google Drive?
Google Drive is basically an online storage service that Google provides people for free, or for a small monthly charge. You can get 5 GB of storage for free, or 25 GB of storage for $2.50 a month. You can basically put anything you want on that drive, and any computer or mobile phone that has access to the internet can view those items. You can store movies, games, mobile apps, maps, documents, bills, anything you might need access to while on the road can go there.
All the items and apps at Google Play can be synched to your Google Drive account. Want to know more, or maybe sign up for Google Drive? Go here.