A woman I work with has been asking me several questions about my preference for the Chromebook after I told her she should look into getting a Chromebook, as opposed to a regular notebook or a Macbook Air. After reflecting on this, I decided to take time to note down points that I feel supports the quick, accessible and brilliant function of the Chromebook cloud.

One of the things that you would really have to think about is whether or not you can do the majority of your computing in the cloud. For a lot of people that is a scary notion, as essentially, you are placing your entire life in the cloud. For the majority of the population, placing cherished family photos, favourite songs and important documents in a virtual database is risky but I think it’s about looking at the logistics of this setup. As I often ask people questioning Chromebook, when looking for a lost document, who would you rather trust in retrieving your files if your files crash, yourself or Google?

Pros:

Cost
Chromebook is a rather inexpensive option, you also have the choice to make it 3G. Comparing costs, the Samsung wifi costs $429, and the 3G model costs $499 while the Acer wifi costs $349, and the “coming soon” 3G model will cost you $429. As you can see, there’s a big price difference between the two companies
Accessibility
Another pro is that this system is always online and it loads incredibly quickly! From the time you hit the power button to the time you’re checking your latest Facebook status, you will see that the entire process has taken less than a minute. The Chromebook is definitely well built as the Samsung and Acer are both pristine in this area.

Syncing
Syncing is the best! There are somethings that Google doesn’t do very well, however synergy isn’t one of them. Google syncs ALL of your important Google accounts making life on the cloud easy. When I bought my Nexus S I didn’t have to import any of my contacts at all because Android synced everything for me!

Apps!
Chromebook as well as the Chrome browser have their own Web Store where you can get thousands and thousands of apps. Many of them will help you waste time when you are supposed to be working and many more will ACTUALLY HELP YOU WORK!

Cons

Compatibility
Many people won’t like the fact that you pretty much have to move all of your services over to Google. I know that a lot of people already use services like Picasa, Youtube, Blogger and Google Docs, but what about Google music instead of Itunes. I haven’t seen any real evidence that would suggest that Itunes will sync with Google music without using another computer(If anyone has seen how this works please write a comment). This will be a deal breaker for the millions of people with an Iphone or Ipod. Are you going to be willing to give up all other word processing programs?

Cloud computing
I’ve tried to explain to people many times the benefits of putting everything on the cloud. for many people it comes down to trust and honestly, I see their point. It’s scary to put all your families digital memories or your entire music colllection online when not just ten years ago they were all tangible things that you could keep eyes on to know that they were safe. Watch this next video and I think it may help you with some of your fears.

So when all is said and done, I think that for the cost and functionality that you get with either Chromebook, it is a great option instead of a net book or an MacBook air