Chromebook at 38,000 feet

New and emerging technology has always fascinated me, whether its “newness” is only because I hadn’t discovered it yet for myself, or when it is, in fact, new. So I jumped at the chance when offered the opportunity to use a Google Chromebook for free, complete with free on-board WiFi, on my Virgin America six-hour flight from Boston to San Francisco today.

Google and Virgin partnered for this experiment, from July 1 through the end of September, to give passengers on a first-come, first-served basis the chance to use this new tool on selected Virgin America routes (between San Francisco and Boston, and Chicago’s O’Hare and Dallas-Ft. Worth). Google is also extending the offer to guests at New York’s Ace Hotel.

You check out the computer at your departure lounge with a credit card and driver’s license, and return it at your arrival airport. There’s no charge -- unless you forget and walk away with the thing. Then, you’ve bought it.

In that both companies are fearless adventurers in the world of innovation and marketing, the match is perfect. My guess is that the Google folks approached Virgin America with the idea. No doubt it took a New York minute for Virgin to agree.

(I just can’t imagine in a million years any of the legacy airlines -- American, Delta, United, et al. -- going for this idea without undertaking a multi-month cost/benefit analysis, after which the novelty of the Chromebook would be gone and the genius of the marketing opportunity lost.)

As a non-technoid, let me try to explain the system as it was ably explained to me by the rep from MKTG Marketing at Logan Airport this morning. 

The Chromebook is the latest product of Google’s tsunami of innovation and creativity. Two companies, Acer and Samsung built these micro-laptops for Google. There are two Samsung versions: 3G for $499, and WiFi for $429.

In this experiment, we were loaned the Samsung WiFi model, which weighs 3.26 pounds, offers a 12.1-inch display and 8.5 hours of continuous usage power. It looks and feels a lot like the MacBook Air, though mine is black with a white top. (It also comes in all-white.)

The control keys are positioned slightly differently than my Apple keyboards and took a little getting used to. Otherwise, it’s a fine little machine.

The genius of the Chromebook is to serve as a “dumb” conduit for access to the Internet and, especially, the “cloud.” It has nominal on-board memory, only enough to run it. But that’s okay because you don’t need it. All the necessary applications are in the cloud. And when you create documents, as I am doing prior to pasting this into my blog, you go to Google’s home page and use their Documents software, which resides in the cloud. The saved document stays there too, accessible through your Gmail account.

So you log onto the Internet, once the plane reaches 10,000 feet, and you’re on your way, accessing web sites as you would on your own computer. 

The value of Google-Virgin promotion is that it provides an extended hands-on experience with Google’s version of cloud computing within the confines and comfort of Virgin’s cabin. For people like me, anchored to our computers’ hard drives and backup systems, it's a novel experience. 

Meanwhile, you’re also getting comfortable with a small computing platform that lacks a real hard drive -- flash memory only, with one USB port. It’s a smart promotional win for both companies.

Cloud computing, for those of us new to the concept, is where computing technology is going, envisioned long ago by Danny Hillis, MIT scientist and founder of Thinking Machines Corp. Google isn’t alone there. Amazon, too, is a major player, but so are newer companies like Box.net, a remarkable, fast-growing Silicon Valley start-up founded six years ago on the idea that people should be able to access and share their content anywhere.

It boggles the mind to think of the possibilities, of the collaboration and work that is getting done in the cloud now that previously was either impossible, or only through the use of email attachments and lengthy phone calls. Now, we have Skype and tools like the Chromebook and Box.net. Amazing to think of how far we’ve come in such a short time.

No matter where we are in the world, we can collaborate with colleagues on time-sensitive documents. Through either Google’s Gmail service or Box.net, we can allow specific individuals password-protected access to our sensitive documents. We can use any computer to access those files from anywhere we are at the moment. 

So when I get to SFO at the end of this flight and the MKTG rep greets me, he/she will undoubtedly ask what I thought. All I need to do is give him/her the link to this blog, posted somewhere 37,925 feet over Lake Michigan. 

Thanks for the loan, Google. Nice idea.