Googlebook

So eventually this will have ads everywhere right? Because selling all your info won’t be enough for google.

I can’t wait for local llms to get more powerful

WTF is a Googlebook? "Hey buddy, you got a little googlebook hanging out of your nose, a little nasty looking googlebook. Don't eat it, that's so gross!"

I bet you all share the same feeling looking at it: it will be pretty OK for 2 years and then become abandon-ware soon after, like it is with Google products typically. Or not, but you still have that scepticist gut feeling about it.

It’s amazing to scroll through this whole product page and leave feeling like I don’t know what it really does / who it’s for.

Why are these features compelling? I went through the whole page and still don’t know what OS runs on this laptop… the value prop for this is incredibly unclear.

This is really cool (although they could've recycled the Pixelbook brand). I hope there'll be a way to dual boot Windows 11 on this.

I have a hard time seeing how any Chromebook above $ 349,- could still survive in an post-MacBook Neo age.

Say what you want, a cheap Windows laptop at least has an edge on obscure software compatibility over MacOS and a notebook running any modern Linux distro gets the luxury of user control. ChromeOS meanwhile has neither. Paying more for worst in class software compatibility inferior build quality, design and restrictive lock-in sounds about as appealing as a chicken tartare from the value bin.

Prior to (again) getting a MacBook Pro, I wanted to make a high end Laptop (ASUS ProArt P16, about € 3500,- back then) work with Fedora, but purely on a basis of build quality and input feel, it was unusably poor. That trackpad deserves a place in hell and if that (or likely a worse one given cost cutting) is what the Asus and Acer models get, competing with the Neo is a cruel joke.

HP and especially Lenovo fare better, I can at least live with those though a Neos input is nicer if we compare their current devices at the same price, so unless Google is willing to heavily subsidise a brand that, let's be honest, is unlikely to garner any loyalty, I can't see them being overly competitive either, given the software limits of ChromeOS.

For a split second I thought this was a joke/commentary on Google and Facebook.

One of the really nice things of the Macs (from Neo to Studio) is that they have a single UI (that might or might not be ideal for you, but it is unified,) yet underneath it has a Unix OS that lets you run standard compilers, docker containers, vms whatnot. The pixel and chromebooks were nice as a device to run a browser on, but not for development. Getting EMacs to run on them felt like a big achievement at the time.

Related: How is it possible for Google in 2026 to get away without a cookie banner that allows you to manage your tracking preferences? The cookie notification only links to a "Learn more" [0] page but provides no specifics on how cookies are used on this site? Is this some legal wizardry or plain ignorance of the GDRP?

[0] https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=en

I’m not sure I understand the customer use case for this.

1- Chromebooks have made huge inroads in schools because they’re easy to maintain, share, upgrade, and they’re very cheap.

2- Obviously, running desktop software is a huge new piece of the ecosystem, but isn’t this customer already opting for Windows/Mac, who have extremely robust 30-year ecosystems and suites like Office, iLife, Adobe, etc that will obviously never build for this platform

There’s no way Google OS ever hits any kind of parity of exclusive software that is unavailable on Windows/Mac. Best they can do is run Android apps. This also introduces a high new threat vector to their existing customers who might not want it.

Lastly, what will this do to Chromebook buyers who are now wondering which OS will be actively developed in 5 years?

> Designed for Gemini Intelligence

They should design one for users.

I cannot think of a product I'd like to own less than a machine fully-integrated with Google. And I'm not some "never Google" guy—my company's entire email infrastructure lives on Google. It's a necessary evil for us.

But... Google owning my hardware? This feels so out of left field. I must not be the target audience.

Can't wait to see the rooting hacks resulting from mousing over a strawberry and text saying "count the r's".

Seems like they want a MacBook for people with Pixel phones. Okay. I assume it will be an ARM based system running some Android variant, if you can seamlessly launch Android apps on it. "Designed for Gemini Intelligence" is somewhat repellant - look at how poorly MS has done pushing Copilot on people. Overall I'd need way more info to know if this is a device I'd be interested in at all, but since I have a MacBook and iPhone, I don't think I'm the target market. Perhaps their ideal target market, but it seems like this would be best for people who are already knee deep in the Google ecosystem.

Judging by the poor hardware quality of some Google Pixel generations, I'm not putting my money anywhere near this thing.

Edit: spelling

This page crashes in my Google-based browser. I can't scroll down more than ~50 pixels.

I really wanted to stay in the google chromebook / googlebook echo system. But the hardware was expensive for what you get. Apple announced the macbook neo and I picked one up. Great hardware. can run light weight mac software. I don't run much beyond chrome and wahoo SYSTM (bike trainer app). It's really solid hardware and cost $600 or so.

I use gemini extensively (and claude). But - do I need this integrated in my laptop? Don't quite see it. And it's hard to beat Apple on hardware now.

This link crashes my phone browser :-)

> powered by premium hardware

It's hard to treat this part seriously while seeing HP logo on the page.

Who thought wiggling the cursor to invoke AI is a good idea?

People do this when the system is stuck or something is not working for some reason, and this will just add extra burden when that happens.

It's such a bad idea that I can see Microsoft immediately adopting this! (Opens up three variants of copilot, one deprecated and spins without getting the API handle right.)

I'm going to need to see how that top bar works. If they've ruined the ChromeOS UI by not allowing maximized windows to use the top of the screen for tab bars then I will be very disappointed.

On the other hand, if maximized windows work properly and Linux apps are still supported and they have a Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme version, I might be interested. The Snapdragon is very competitive with Apple's M5 even including single core performance and battery life.

This is Google reacting to:

- laptop manufacturers and customers preferring Linux over Googles os shenanigans

- Apple Unified Business Platform, that is going to take an enormous piece of the enterprise pie

In practice I find the Gemini models to be the worst for coding and design.

What in the Microsoft Surface is this? Are they trying to frame a life-long dependency on Google's LLMs as a feature?

Also, I find it funny that they have burned through the "chromebook" and "pixelbook" branding already, leaving them with the less snappy "googlebook." Not sure if the third time's the charm here.

I like the idea of a phone that fully inserts into a laptop bay to get its functionality in a different form factor. Not sure the laptop needs a powerful CPU, if any. Or it could have a really powerful one while adding storage and memory.

I personally would want to also be able to switch off the telco signal.

Perhaps the bay would be in the laptop screen itself and the two screens could operate side-by-side - or in the main body and the phone would go dormant.

I just want a good working Desktop Mode (Dex etc) for my Android phone, my phone is already powerful enough, I don't need another computer.

I am not anti-AI, but if I am going to use AI I far prefer to have control over how I engage with it. Having a piece of hardware to focused on Google's own AI flavor being built in is a big negative to me. Not that I would totally write off this new Googlebook (despite disliking the name), but I can't really see a situation where I'd ever prefer this over an Apple Neo for example.

GBook or GoBook. They may have biffed this launch no matter how good. Googlebook is too long. Looks cool though.

First thing they show is shopping with Gemini AI. Everything is around advertising and shopping with Google. Not the platform for me.

Waiting for this to be discontinued in around 3-9 months

This is an attempt to flood the desktop interface market of laptops, and likely eventually desktops, with their hardware running their OS so they can enforce attestation at the hardware level across all classes of devices and lock you out of their attested Web if you’re not using one of the big three companies hardware and operating systems.

To me, everything about this seems AI-generated. What else but a LLM could have come up with these features and the name?

The very first thing I thought when I read this is "Hmm, wonder how long this one will last before Google kills it."

Well, I am still waiting for the price. If it is $450 or higher, I'd just get a MacBook Neo at that point.

Meh stuff this, no left most fn key, don't even know if there's half height inverted-t arrangement, bleh.

DOA

Competition is always good. I got a Mac Neo recently to supplement my larger 16” MBP and they really nailed it. It’s the perfect laptop for kids and travel. Most importantly it feels like it’ll last for a decade like my MBP. I hope it’s the same for googlebooks but even pixels have issues with surviving beyond 5 years.

No thanks. Google is heading for a similar closed ecosystem setup as Apple.

Except given their recent behaviour I have very little trust that they won't execute that in the most user hostile fashion they can come up with.

Just a little too late for school. The product probably doesn't even exist. They're screaming bc of the Nep.

Impressive feat of confused branding that Google has marketed Chromebooks, Pixelbooks, and Googlebooks.

Can this project run for 30 years at loss? Google investors don't like that.

One day an exec will say lets reduce wasteful projects and cut this.

Is this the end of Linux powered Chromebooks?

The interesting thing to me is that this is Android based if I understand correctly. The Google TV Android based experience is very good, I've been wanting a good Android based desktop OS since forever.

I’m waiting on these to be 70% off. Assuming an open boot loader or anyway to run Linux on it, looks like a clean computer.

I don’t know what normal person wants this though. The Neo is enough for most, and if I need more I’m probably going to want a real os. Not ChromeOS++

What does Google gain from this? They already struggle in hardware, or am I missing something - has something changed?

How long will this be supported until it is in the google graveyard though?

DOA right? Since they don't have any good will that they won't just drop support next year?

Does it use ChromeOS or Android? I read an unreliable comment in Reddit that Google may be forced to sell ChromeOS to satisfy antitrust lawsuit. The comment provided zero evidence for the conjecture.