
Introducing Pixel C - pearjuice
http://pixel.google.com/
======
pdknsk
What a poor product page. And the official blog post is very light on
information too. Only the press conference had some details.

[https://youtu.be/Jc-LEG0T_4c?t=4382](https://youtu.be/Jc-LEG0T_4c?t=4382)

I was hoping for OLED, which wasn't mentioned. What I did notice is that the
screen is incredibly reflective.

~~~
fernly
Right. Could you POSSIBLY design a less-helpful, less-informative page?Maybe
one with even more annoying keyhole-cropped images? Maybe! But you could not
possibly under-improve on the random little rainbow bug bottom right that does
nothing and says nothing.

~~~
wingerlang
You guys are misunderstanding the purpose of the page. It clearly says this is
a SNEAK PEAK. It's like a teaser instead of a trailer. Obviously it will suck
if you look at it as a product page, because it simply isn't one.

~~~
nekkoru
Sneak peek.

[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sneak_peek](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sneak_peek)

~~~
WorldMaker
[https://twitter.com/stealthmountain](https://twitter.com/stealthmountain)

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jevgeni
And there I was excited for a minute of a new C language variant focused on
graphics...

~~~
kelvin0
Kids with high Karma post the darndest things ... Daddy, when I grow my Karma
will I be able to post such content and have it fly high on the first page?

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bsimpson
The rumors expected this to run ChromeOS because its codename is apparently
Ryu. If that's true, there are still changes being pushed to the ChromeOS
codebase regarding this device:

[https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/ec/+/1...](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/platform/ec/+/18295c9bb2649b6e0b4a177d8e6c409ed9e9ba60)

which tells me there's still more to know about this device. I'm curious what
it is. Even though I'm typing this on my first generation Pixel, is there
really enough of a difference between a Chromebook and Chrome for Android to
justify porting both OSes to the same piece of hardware?

~~~
Hydraulix989
I never understood why ChromeOS existed in the first place. To me, it would
make much more sense if these devices ran Android. After all, there's no apps
for ChromeOS -- other than glorified Chrome extensions, and it's not easy for
developers to create ChromeOS apps (whereas if I could recycle my Android app,
life would be good). Arc welder doesn't seem to work very well either.

Analogously, Apple only has iOS. There's no SafariOS.

~~~
izacus
Because it's the perfect Enterprise OS for companies, schools and other
organizations that have moved to the web. Currently there's just no OS that
would rival ease of deployment for large scale thin clients.

Android on the other hand has very limited provisioning tools and even iOS/OS
X is orders of magnitude more expensive and harder to provision, keep updated
and running.

~~~
phpnode
> Android on the other hand has very limited provisioning tools

It would be orders of magnitude more cost efficient to just create those
tools, compared to creating an entire new operating system.

~~~
eloisant
Considering that the "new operating system" is pretty much Chrome running over
Linux without any Window Manager, I'm not that sure.

~~~
phpnode
The cost is not just in the form of development expenses. It's about having to
support two systems, creating a confusing message for consumers, having to
foster and support two different app ecosystems, marketing two different
competing platforms, etc.

------
throwaway000002
Why is this running Android instead of Chrome OS? Internal politics are
clearly at work.

Moreover, why isn't there a stylus. I really, really, appreciate 1:sqrt(2),
but without an accurate, ultra low-latency stylus you can't treat it like a
pad to express ideas on.

The build looks fantastic, though.

Arrrrgh, so much promise...

~~~
georgemcbay
One could argue that internal politics (in the form of the rise of Sundar
Pichai) are what propped ChromeOS up to the point where it was even a question
whether a device like this should run Android or not given that ChromeOS's
functionality is theoretically a subset of Android (given a full-featured
Chrome browser for Android).

I realize that in practice many people buy ChromeOS devices primarily to run
Crouton or their own bootloaded Linux build which this is a complication for,
but I don't believe that is relevant to the internal politics issue.

~~~
fpgeek
I disagree. I see them as very different value propositions.

Chrome OS is about giving you a baseline (80-90%) computing environment with
as little administrative overhead as possible (easy to setup, easy to share
device, no driver issues and so on). That's why Chromebooks are doing well in
the education sector.

By contrast, an Android convertible like the Pixel C is about giving you a
general-purpose Android environment in a different form factor.

There's some blurring around the edges (Android has a Chrome browser missing
some desktop features, Chrome OS can run some popular Android apps), but
they're nevertheless aiming at very different targets.

~~~
cwyers
And a device like this points up those distinctions rather well. It's a
2-in-1, like the iPad Pro and the Surface/Surface Pro line. But, and I'd say
weirdly even more than the iPad Pro highlights the dichotomy between iOS and
OS X, the Pixel C really drives home the difference between Android and
ChromeOS. To get the full Google 2-in-1 experience (something that offers all
the promise of a tablet AND all the promise of Google's version of a notebook,
you'd want something that can run the offline versions of Google Docs that
ChromeOS has (not the Android versions that seems geared more towards
consumption) and the tablet apps that Android has. So it's a 2-in-1 that's an
Android tablet AND an Android notebook.

(And honestly, I think this also points out how weak Google's OSes are outside
the smartphone space. Android still doesn't have the sort of high-end creation
apps for tablets that iPad and Surface have, and ChromeOS doesn't have the
sort of productivity apps the Windows, OS X or even Linux offer.)

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tempodox
Meh, it's not a C library nor a compiler. The name fooled me.

------
halayli
> The Pixel C takes an entirely new approach to the tablet experience.

It looks like any other tablet.

~~~
davvid
If only it had an ESC key (vim), and backtick (markdown) above the Tab key. I
don't get it.. they had me for a second, but then that kind of ruins using it
for anything "serious". I know, I know.. I'm probably not the target market...

~~~
nfoz
It's missing: `~[]{}|\

I wouldn't be able to type some of my passwords or URLs on this thing. I
thought the Chromebook keyboards were bad enough.

~~~
ISL
It looks like there's a new meta key "..." immediately to the left of the
directional arrows. Perhaps there's a chording mechanism to bring back the
symbols?

I've been surprised how well I've been able to adapt to the Chromebook
keyboard; my daily-driver notebook is a Chromebook with crouton. I think I
miss having delete the most. The loss of the windows key as a user-defineable
meta key was offset by the fact that I never use caps-lock for anything...

~~~
nfoz
Fair enough, but the keyboard is why I regret my Chromebook which I also use
daily. I thought it would not be a big deal (and I did manage to remap Power
to Del -- just don't hold it too long!). But missing F11/F12,
home/end/pgup/pgdn, meta, insert, etc. annoys me constantly.

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tpio
The only thing I took away from that page was the fact that they removed the
pipe symbol. Basically rendering 20 years of linux programs garbage. (I guess
we can remap it, but wtf).

The pipe symbol is like the windows-button of linux – except way more
powerful.

~~~
mtw
Its most likely optimized for YouTube, Netflix, google docs and hangout... You
should look out for Chromebooks if you are looking for a small laptop to hack
on and install Linux

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dragonwriter
Once there is some information this might be interesting, but just the visual
sneak peak doesn't seem special: its clearly a not-too-small Android tablet
with a (standard? available?) keyboard case, but what makes this different
from, e.g., Samsung's top-end Android tablets?

I'm _sure_ there are technical features that distinguish it, but this sneak
peak isn't highlighting them

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PaulHoule
Google has Microsoft envy?

This might be the first convertible to lack a trackpad...

~~~
flogic
If Microsoft is going to get solid hold on Mobile, it will be through tablets.
The Surface line is relatively well liked. The number one detractor for
Windows in mobile is the lack of apps. If Microsoft can use their desktop
dominance to push their way into tablets. Life could get very uncomfortable
for Google and Apple.

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p4bl0
I was recently whining about the lack of a modern Sony VAIO P replacement.

If this has a built-in 4G/LTE modem, I may want one, especially if it is
possible to run Linux on it (maybe via Deploy Linux?).

That's something else I recently whined about: why there is no 4G/LTE modem in
any ultrabook (except for one or two unaffordable chromebooks not available in
my country anyway)? It seems to be only in tablets and high-end 15" laptop.
That makes no sense to me.

~~~
ac29
The Lenovo X series Thinkpads have an optional LTE modem.

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fsloth
There seems to be an Ars Technica coverage of it
[http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/09/google-pixel-c-
hands-...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/09/google-pixel-c-hands-on-a-
well-built-but-clunky-convertible-android-tablet/)

------
davesque
If this is a response to the Surface and iPad Pro, the apparent lack of a
stylus is going to make this a tough sell.

------
gaara87
As @bsimpson had mentioned, i see this as a smart(political?) move to be the
first hybrid chromeOS running android apps (or Android OS itself).

I've tested Android apps running in Chrome and it seems very promising.
Excited to see if there is going to be a convergence/overlap! :)

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macspoofing
Want it to be a productivity tool? Include proper mouse support. Include
proper multitasking.

------
userbinator
Perhaps not such a great choice of name as years of web browsing have me
instinctively associating the "pixel.*" domain with a tracking pixel - and
that's what I initially thought this would be about.

~~~
simoncion
Pixels have been shipping since February, 2013, so your comment is a few years
too late. :)

~~~
userbinator
_Chromebook_ Pixels, yes. Those have a page at
[https://www.google.com/chromebook/pixel/](https://www.google.com/chromebook/pixel/)
which is definitely far less unambiguous.

~~~
simoncion
_shrug_ People get kerfluffled about the strangest things.

------
guessmyname
From a Google related website I would except at least a CSRF protection [1].

[1] [http://cixtor.com/pastio/dp9zi0](http://cixtor.com/pastio/dp9zi0)

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leisurebot
Why do all the Pixels look like Gen 1 Apple products?

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skratlo
No function keys? C'mon, the keyboard 'looks' good, but lacks the keys you
need for work.

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dalien26
This is something made at the last minute, Google saw the Ipad Pro, so they
made a tablet quickly to show / to compete with Microsoft and Apple.

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lugus35
Well, Pixel Java actually...

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berntb
Does "Linux Deploy" work?

I am an iOS user, but I would go Android (a clean one, with O/S security
updates) if I can have a tablet GUI with a working Emacs, Bash etc under
Debian.

