Google announces chromebook

(In recovering some earlier posts that had not been published, this one inexplicably moved to the top. It is an older post of about a week ago.)
 
Google has just announced the chromebook - not so much a computer as a cloud portal in a laptop box running Chrome.

Its big selling points:

• Almost instant startup
• No real internal programs
• Everything on the cloud
• Automatic background updates

From Google's promo site: Thanks to the power of HTML5, many apps keep working even in those rare moments when you're not connected.

Color me cautious right now - if only because in a few weeks I am headed to a place - for more than a "rare moment" - where I will NOT have high speed access (yes, such places do still exist, even here in the good old U-S-of-A). It's another decade, I think, before we get affordable, ubiquitous high speed access.

Yet, I can definitely see a place for this on, say, a college campus, where usage and access are concentrated. Can we see a day where these become standard issue to students?

Put this in a tablet, and I might like it even better.