If you're me, the Chromebook Pixel is a good thing

Chromebook Pixel - a truly stunning screen and laptop build

Learning in our field is often not just about the stuff we read and absorb.  It's about seeing things via our own eyes, with our own direct experience and forming a view.  In that circumstance, some people will agree  with something you write because they relate directly to your point of view and others will disagree because of a whole bunch of things, including the simple fact that their needs and motivations are different.

The Chromebook Pixel, released by Google completely somewhat left-field in February 2013,  is one of those products which I suspect divides opinion in regards to the when and how you use it, where it makes sense, how much it costs and what's its  value in the consumers eyes.  If I remember correctly, Chrome OS has been around as long as Android has, and to be honest, up to now I'd never had any real interest in it.  Until of course, I saw and heard about the Chromebook Pixel (hereafter, Pixel).

In my usual lusting after consumer tech, I wondered - what if there is a machine which I can use which relies completely on web apps (very limited local storage), has a constant web connection and would enable me to do all my key stuff? And basing the solution on Chrome OS and the Pixel as the PC end-point, could I make the cloud and social side work completely with Android in the form of my HTC One or Nexus 4?

Given I'm a predominant Mac and iOS user, with an increasing love of Android devices, the challenge was too tempting to ignore. So I can gladly say, that over the next few weeks and months, I'll be running Chrome OS and Android products side by side and seeing how this works against my Mac and iOS combination. I'm rather excited by this, 'cos right now, as I'm typing this blog post - the Pixel truly is tremendous hardware and a fabulous screen, which has touch capability when I'm feeling lazy or want to use it more like a tablet.  Obviously, I'm using the Blogger tool and with the eye-watering 2560 x 1700 display (which is higher than the Retina on my MacBook Pro), it feels a very compelling solution for blogging indeed (despite the eye-watering price).

Whether, this covers all my required situations (IT folks call these use-cases), then we'll just have to see how this all settles down after I get through this honeymoon period.

I'll post back soon.