A Cloud-Based Laptop That's as Light as One

kabster728 The Digital Solution > LaptopsA Cloud-Based Laptop That’s as Light as OneNovember 6, 2012 at 3:54 pm PTTweetSharePrintSee More Reviews »

You’ve heard that Microsoft has a new operating system — Windows 8. You probably also heard about Apple’s latest operating system — OS X Mountain Lion. But have you heard about the new version of Google’s Chrome operating system?

If it doesn’t sound familiar, you aren’t alone. Though Google has made a lot of noise about its Android mobile operating system, it has been relatively quiet about this operating system for computers. Chrome OS, which Google introduced in 2009, relies on the cloud, or remote servers. This means it automatically syncs content with other devices and gets system updates just by turning on.

This week, I tested Google’s newest Samsung Chromebook, a laptop designed to run Chrome OS. This is Google’s fourth Chromebook to date and it’s the most portable design yet. It weighs just 2.4 pounds, measures only seven-tenths of an inch thick and is priced at $249. That’s $80 less than Apple’s iPad mini and the same price as Amazon’s 32 gigabyte Kindle Fire HD. The Chromebook now comes with 100 gigabytes of storage on Google Drive for two years and will be available this week in some 500 Best Buy stores, as well as via Amazon.com and the Google Play Store.

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On Google, a Political Mystery That's All Numbers

Julia Angwin, Reporter,

The Wall Street JournalOn Google, a Political Mystery That’s All NumbersNovember 4, 2012 at 3:16 pm PTTweetSharePrint

Google’s quest to guess what we want before we want it has produced an unusual side effect: a disparity in the results the company presents about the presidential candidates.

A Wall Street Journal examination found that the search engine often customizes the results of people who have recently searched for “Obama” — but not those who have recently searched for “Romney.”

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