I just can't understand why such a profitable business has to so willingly screw it's customer base. Good thing Gates is a screaming librul or the lefties would call them out on their rapacious ways.

Thanks for focusing my thinking. I'm stuck in the  Old Days. Even though I know WE no longer have a desktop.. and I am sure that we are not alone in taking a mobile device and calling it good.

Newest trend from Lenovo and Asus

The exact same hardware is available now in several new models, same processor, same memory -- all of the same exact stuff, but one uses Chrome0S and one uses Windows 10.

As of this spring, you can have the same softwares on both platforms as all major software vendors have a net-based program that opens operates and closes both new and existing files and uses an internally consistent system to work on those files.

Same Same now extends to all the major Adobe graphics programs, AutoCad programs, and about half of the database group of separate-installed programs.   These all also have Android local loaded software available which are actually faster than the net based versions.

HOWEVER ...... the Chromebook machine still generally costs $100 less than a Window machine.   And comes stock with the touchscreen and the non-powered "eraser equipped" stylus for capturing hand notes, items that can cost extra on the Windows machines.

Hardware is not the issue any more, nor is "program availability".   Now the issues are coming down to which one you really want to have to live with?

ChromeOS is free and most main programs are free and Google requires Chromebook consistent standards so to get the machine listed by Google that mean the trackpad and mouse and keyboard all have to be up to snuff.    

Microsoft machines tend to cut corners on these input devices to make sure there is sufficient money left to pay MS's rather substantial cut for use of the Win10 OS system.

Chromebooks running on pre-approved hardware are consistently lightning fast even as they get some age on them -- Win 10 is simply constantly getting slower and more kludgy even when installed on significantly stronger hardware.

We are now in the year of the final showdown, as both camps have finished their final moves and are now putting out the candidates for the final OS vs OS slugfests.

Look to see new moves by Google inside 12 months to put the new ChromeOS on tablets, and perhaps on a phone or two (look for a rename of the Andromeda software mass that is being used in all these products when the first PC capable phone comes out).

Processor lithography is now firmly an ongoing advantage for Chromebook as this year 7nm and then 5nm rolls out for ARM processors and only a very limited number of 10nm Intel processors will actually be built, and these will tend to be for Apple production with only the sorted culls going anywhere else.  

      Also look for a wave off off lease Chromebooks to come out from the school systems that are upgrading (the ones that the students don't get to keep as part of some educational program or another).   These will lack a touch screen, but will wind up being jest dandy little Linux notebooks and will move over to Europe quick like bunny rabbits just like the original Chromeboxes did when they got a little older.



===================================================



http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/01/11/apple-loses-more-ground-go...

Apple loses more ground to Chromebooks!   context is Apple vs MS vs Google in Classroom Education

“It's a tidal wave: Chrome is the clear U.S. market leader now,” says Mike Fisher, associate director of education technology at Futuresource. He says districts are drawn to the Chromebook’s Web-based operating system, ease of use, IT manageability and $200 to $300 price range.

Microsoft reacts by building a $200-$300 slower, lesser spec'd Win10 machine at several favored builders and MS feebly makes attempts to re-inter the education market.   Not much traction on this effort as of yet .....    

MS calls it Intune for Education and one of the items not answered yet is "Who pays for all the AT COST additional third party software that have to be included in this program" (stuff that is completely free on existing Chromebook systems).

Maintenance costs for year 2 and 3 on Intune for Education systems is also not clear at this time, either.

Apple flounders around a bit more yet again, doing nothing significant (until Intel can do something useful for a Mac processor, anyway).  

The Apple designed A-11 four core processor is getting finalized for production in 2017, and that may be Apple's real answer to "What to do about Chromebooks" and for making up a lower cost Apple consumer laptop as well.



========================================



   

This is PC expert source Tomsguide.com saying this, not some fly by night android site.   The Internet is full of this news in various flavors, so I think it is real this time.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/galaxy-s8-desktop-dock,news-24340.html

Tom's Hardware says Samsung Galaxy S8 Could Morph Into Full PC

Samsung Galaxy S8, swinging the Qualcomm 835 superchip and 6-8 gigs of system memory and a docking station that may (or may not) add yet more systems memory and\or storage memory.

If you want a cell phone only, the minimum configuration of 6 gigs of systems memory and 32 gigs of storage is plenty strong enough.  If you are buying the DeX docking system to use your phone as your PC, well you may opt to double up more systems and storage memory along with getting your DeX docking station delivered in the same box as your new phone with all the features set up and working already.

Yes, look for Google to be giving some new names to some old stuff as in  3 short months (April/May) they are going to deliver a working Phone/PC system as implemented by their long-time partner, Samsung.    

This is something Wintel has failed to do three years in a row now (promises, promises, promises).

I look for these first shots from the Android Phone/PC to be relatively expensive, but by 2019-20 all the mid-line phones will have it as a natural part of the stock feature set.   Docks will be available third party as they are now for other Android phones.  

Docks are needed because most monitors are HDMI connections and you need some extra USB ports for mouse, keyboard, etc. etc.    When Google puts out the dock specs you will see much lower cost docks come out from Logitech and from the various Far Eastern suppliers.

   

Will Samsung's very first Phone PC be perfect in all details ???   Nope, not likely -- it is the first shot out of the very first gun.  

However, you can count on Google to fix all these discovered issues by the time Oreo Cookie (Android 8.0 or whatever they call the thing) makes it into full release status next year.

And like Dreamscape VR, you can count on the Google system to be much less expensive to buy and to operate compared to anything that comes from Microsoft.

http://heidicohen.com/2016-mobile-marketing-trends/

If you want, you can read this site all the way to the end and see exactly why everybody pays a LOT of attention to India and China phone markets and pay practically no attention to the USA phone market.

The vast bulk of new unit phone sales will primarily be in India, Indonesia, and China.

The USA market is just an oversaturated "upgrade/update" market and we will be seen as a derivative market to the main markets, picking up only on the 'deluxe items' from the main markets.

If you pay attention to this woman, you would drop all PC based structured marketing immediately and aim directly at "thumb/voice marketing" which structured for mobile devices.


        ..... and humorously if you ever read MS's market prognostications or sales info, please do note that phones and Chromebooks still don't exist AT ALL, anywhere .....

In MS's world view, only PCs exist, and only Wintel and Apple ones at that ....  and in MS's focused world Apple is their only competitor.


========================================


https://liliputing.com/2017/02/microsofts-rumored-windows-10-cloud-operating-sys
tem.html

MS makes a brand new "old move" -- brings back the netbook except this time running Win 10 Cloud and running ARM based chipsets.   Software is limited to some "Universal Apps" and these few can be bought only from the MS store.  It comes "ready to go" with basic softwares supposedly.    Second year requires a maintenance plan though, so it isn't really FREE like a Chromebook nor are there millions and millions of apps for it, either.   Quite sparse on the app front, actually, as it only runs certain classes of Universal apps from the MS store.

  So using ARM chipsets are MS's new path forward on the mid to lower end of things.



.... betcha it runs kinda slow when it cranks up all them bulky x386 softwares ....


========================================


https://liliputing.com/2017/02/amds-ryzen-chips-may-support-windows-7-unlike-int
el-kaby-lake.html

AMD also makes a new move with the new Rysen Chipsets --- you can install your old Win 7 and Win 8 and not get trapped inside the MS OS trap by doing so.   Intel (who drank the lock'em out koolaid) is greatly damaged by this move unless they take action to immediately do likewise.

I am sure Intel is jest thrilled to death by both of these moves by old friends and old competitors.  

But again, Intel had told everybody that they were quitting Consumer Electronics completely and had actually gone and done that for 3 months before trying to come back from the dead.    



Surprise, they took you at your word.  You are the walking dead ....


=========================================


More rumblings about Apple using more of their own chipsets instead of relying on Intel chipsets, starting right now this season and starting out in a "co-processor" mode at first, picking up functionality as the seasons roll by but immediately making Macs more competitive by using BOTH an Intel and an Apple chipset paired up to make up a "superior computing solution".

ARM chipsets have done this before on top of the line HP XP based laptops, ARM acted as a co-processor for video and for music.   Was needed on long trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific flights as the laptop battery wouldn't last long enough other-wise while watching a movie or two.    

This time Apple is doing it because Intel isn't making any year on year performance improvements on the chipsets they are selling to Apple and Apple flat out NEEDS a co-processor to get some performance boosts that Apple fans are flat out demanding (and are leaving Mac in droves to go get elsewhere).

There is a design team in Apple working on a 100% Apple chipset, this team has been in place for over a year now.   Intel's temporary quitting earlier this year may have been based on knowing their customers were leaving them anyway ....  now they are having to attempt to make a return from the dead and to overcome the ongoing partner plans to replace them.


========================================


More New News on the same theme .....

Intel is now planning on putting out their very best CPU mated with a separate AMD brand GPU unit (two big separate chip sets on the same daughter board).    



This is to have something to kinda sorta compete against AMD's Rysen line of SOC chipsets which are shipping RIGHT NOW (better, more complete faster throughput Rysen chipsets that sell for less $$$) and to perhaps to have SOMETHING to offer to Apple to get them (please, pretty please) to stop with the Apple ARM replacement team's plans to ship something more appealing using Apple ARM co-processors later on this year.

Intel is really feeling the pinch, believe me       they didn't even make a quiet wet splat sound when they hit the Internet of Things this past Fall and Christmas (and Intel has already taken some of the write offs and people layoffs necessary to end that expensive fiasco).  

Intel isn't going to take anybody's market away from them at this level of non-performance.

Intel is not doing anything much better in self-driving automotive areas, but Intel hasn't given up on that rapidly growing automotive market quite yet either.

Intel sets off the BS brown vapor cannon barrage yet again today

A week after loudly touting their "new move to 10nm starting up next year", Intel now is saying they are restarting up their abandoned Arizona Fab 42 plant (an empty shell building) as a new 100 billion dollar state of the art 7nm plant (to open up by 2021-22).

Why?   Both TSMC, Global Foundry and Samsung are shipping their 10nm products right now and have plans to start up with the first 7nm Apple shipments late this year.   So of course Intel has change over to use the current buzz phrases no matter if it writes BS on what they said just last week.

Then the next day Intel proudly goes and announce that the 8th generation of Intel processors is to start up "soon" at 14nm.   This is the fourth (or is it the 5th ???) full line up of 14nm processors to come out of the Intel chipset inkjet labelers.

It has gotten so bad that the computing press and Nvidia of all people are all now saying to gamers "Don't go buy the new i7 Intel processor  -- you are paying extra for NO REAL CHANGE in chipset performance levels".

AMD is now shipping their Ryzen chipsets built at 10nm by Global Foundry ---- so of course Intel has to release a new huge brown vapor blast AT ONCE in self-defense.    

AMD's product costs about half of what Intel wants for a competitive chipset, but the Intel unit is not really nearly as complete while the AMD system on a chip IS much more complete, but still not as complete as a Qualcomm 835 SOC.   Accordingly, motherboard costs on the AMD motherboards are about half of Intel boards will cost since AMD has put a lot more functionality into the chipset itself.   And the Qualcomm motherboard can be simple and very tiny indeed.

Cell phone sized, as a matter of fact .....      

Intel is now saying "their 14nm is really 10nm" if was measured and reported the same way that TSMC and Samsung reports it.   Oh, I guess this explains why Intel's not really an SOC at all is actually 5-6 times larger than the penny sized Qualcomm 835 fully functional SOC that is being shipped right now at 10nm.


      Hey, if this is so then why doesn't your Intel stuff run faster than it does ???        



.... yeah, we will just hold on at 14nm for a few more years, heck, we're good for a while yet ....


==================================================




First mid-line Ryzen chipset comes out of the gate beating the performance of all but 8 of the most expensive Intel i-7 chipsets, but at less than half the cost per unit.

Remember, the Ryzen is unlocked, and can be tuned by either the PC maker or the enthusiast for slightly greater performance.

Spotted by wccftech, the benchmark scores come courtesy of PassMark, a set of tests looking at performance under a range of resource intensive tasks.

According to those test results, the upcoming 3.4 GHz AMD Ryzen 7 1700X octa-core chip gets an overall score that’s only 9 percent lower than Intel’s Core i7-6900K processor, and 4 percent lower than the Core i7-5960X. In some individual tests, the Ryzen chip actually scores higher than either of those 8-core Intel chips.

As wccftech points out though, the Ryzen 7 1700X isn’t even expected to be the fastest chip in AMD’s lineup. The company also has a 3.6 GHz Ryzen 7 1800X processor on the way.

Probably the most impressive things about the benchmarks? AMD’s chip has a 95 watt TDP, compared with Intel’s 140 watt chips. And Intel charges $1000 or more for those processors, while rumor has it that AMD will charge less than $400 for the 1700X chip.

It is expected that Intel will have to drastically lower their prices in the near future as each AMD unit sold puts another nail in their "the dead should lie still" coffin.

http://wccftech.com/intel-amd-price-war-ryzen-processors/

Aside from firing off the big BROWN STINKY VAPOR cannons repeatedly of late, Intel has actually cut their pricing strongly because of AMD's entry into the world of competitive gaming machines.   This list can be read as the amount Intel considers their own products to be using "gouge pricing" at the current moment in time.

Intel Core i7-6950X ($1599 US) – $300 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-6900K ($999 US) – $200 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-6850K ($549 US) – $150 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-6800K ($359 US) – $140 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-5820K ($319 US) – $100 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-7700K ($299 US) – $80 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-6700K ($259 US) – $140 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-4790K ($279 US) – $90 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-7700 ($289 US) – $50 Price Cut
Intel Core i7-6700 (259 US) – $90 Price Cut
Intel Core i5-7600K ($199 US) – $70 Price Cut
Intel Core i5-6600K ($179 US) – $$90 Price Cut
Intel Core i5-4690K ($189 US) – $70 Price Cut
Intel Core i5-7500 ($189 US) – $30 Price Cut
Intel Core i5-6500 ($179 US) – $50 Price Cut
Intel Core i5-4590 ($159 US) – $60 Price Cut
Intel Core i3-7350K ($159 US) – $20 Price Cut
Intel Core i3-7100 ($114 US) – $15 Price Cut
Intel Core i3-6100 ($109 US) – $20 Price Cut
Intel G4400 ($49.99 US) – $20 Price Cut
Intel G3258 ($49.99 US) – $27 Price Cut

These cuts are not enough to regain any real price/value parity as AMD's motherboards, coolers, systems memory, etc. etc. are all much cheaper than what is required for Intel's latest processor variants.  

PLUS THE VERY NEWEST INTEL BASED BOARDS WILL REQUIRE THE VERY MOST CURRENT WIN 10 VERSION TO WORK AT ALL, SO ADD $150 TO THE PRICE OF THE INTEL BASED GAMING BUILD.   Plus, all software MUST be purchased from the Windows store to work at all ....

Intel has still not supplied any unlocked variants of their chipsets that will easily permit enthusiast overclocking as is CURRENTLY BUILT INTO all the new Ryzen chipsets from AMD.   Enthusiasts are finding a whole lot of head room in Ryzen chipsets, 4.0 gigahertz speeds are very possible right now with all the Ryzens shipped so far (when water cooled that is).

Intel is in a world of hurt at the moment and is encouraging the vendor based dumping of all existing stocks of finished Wintel units just as fast as can be feasibly done ....... saying to their loyal vendor base "if you don't move them quick right now you will have to discount the hell out of them to move them at all".  

This also hints at new generations of better performing Wintel stuff is "somewhere" in the pipeline as well.

Apple is building up some "development test" MAC units using Ryzen chipsets, testing this and that in their always curious Apple type fashion.

Google Personal Digital Assistant

It is now coming to most newer phones running Android 6.0 or better.

What is it?   Magnify "OK Google" with a real AI, one that knows you and is faithfully your servant.   You can summon it by voice or by tapping the dots, then just blither out what sort of thing you are looking for.   It will un-blither it and do it, or it will remind you and navigate you to do it.   Your personal AI will have a set of "you" files on Google's servers and your own personalized AI will answer you when you talk to it.

Example, my earbuds on my bike have a microphone in the cord.   While running down the road I say the summons words"Hey Dumbie, navigate to Cheoah Point Campground, Robbinsville, NC." and the map pops up on the handlebar phone mount and the turn by turn instructions begin in my ear which means I don't have to strain to read the tiny print on a little screen bouncing around in the handlebar holder as I pay close attention to them crazy cagers.   Dumbie has a set of vocal files and personalized terms and such that means he can understand me even if my wife couldn't figure it out.

Just that easy .....  

.... and in the future I could say, "cabin #2" or something as mind blank as "that cabin thing up near Robbinsville" and Dumbie would still go find it.

Because, you see, Dumbie really isn't a dumbie at all and no matter how brain faded I get to be in the future I will still be able to get there.

Women use this to keep up with their grocery lists by location.    Old men use it to find out what the heck they were just doing.

"Remind me to pick up sandwich and snack bags when I go to Aldi's".   You go to Aldi's and you get a pop up reminder.   "Remind me to pick up chicken on sale at Kinlaw's meat market next Tuesday"  Tuesday, you get a pop up reminder about the chicken on sale at Kinlaw's.   Inside Walmart, you can ask Dumbie where something is and he will walk map you right to it (yes, larger retailers have live location maps of what is where inside their stores).

Also please note, your Personal Assistant is keyed both to your voice and to the summons name, so that you can supposedly use it from ANY Google equipped device.

I supposedly can pick up my wife's phone and say "This is Kelly ---  Dumbie where is the nearest place we can buy a Ruben sandwich" and my Dumbie will answer me.