I've been keeping an eye on these and this is the lowest they've been on Amazon. US $129 + $11.87 postage.
Intel Celeron 2955U Processor 1.4 GHz(2 MB cache)
2GB DDR3 RAM, 16GB Solid State Drive
Intel HD Graphics
Google Chrome OS
Not sure why the image is of the white one, same url for all 3.
CamelCamelCamel.
Web browser for your TV or Plex client, If someone works how to get OSX onto one of these I might bite
Apple already has: Apple Server,
Best you can do is OSX in Virtualbox on Chrubuntu or similar.
It can also work great as a basic desktop for non-tech-savvy people who just want to watch youtube, send emails, and surf the net. Virtually zero-maintenance.
This, basic desktop for the GF.
I use desktop chromeos fulltime with my IPS screen and its a great computer. I could never go back to windows, what an unnecessary OS that was.
My white HP is running as a standalone XBMC box. I've got three more Asus Chromeboxes, one is a standalone XBMC box, one is dual boot Chrome OS (for the odd occasions) and XBMC, and one is a Linux Mint box, which also functions as a server to run my shared MySQL library for my XBMC boxes. It's hard to beat Chromeboxes for my particular use in terms of value for money.
I installed steamos on mine and use it to stream steam games from my gaming machine to my TV.
Ah that's actually a damn good idea! If only I didn't already have a gaming HTPC that has a better graphics card than my actual gaming PC :-P
How's the latency?
I also would love to know how the experience is? been thinking about trying the streaming feature, have a gaming laptop to normally just go and plug it directly into TV with HDMI but to setup a lazy option would be wonderful.
I probably wouldn't want to play twitchy multiplayer FPSes, but then again I'd by using a controller against people using mice, so I already wouldn't want to. Everything else is generally fine, though that's over a wired network.
Bear in mind this is the Celeron-based HP Chromebox with only 2GB RAM.
The CPU is haswell based with clearvideo support, so it's fine for streaming. I upped the RAM to 4GB, but that probably wasn't needed under steamos.
I run Lubuntu on my crappy Acer netbook, it can run Steam + Streaming (on lowest quality, HW decoding turned off) with as little as 1.5GB of RAM and a crappy N270 processor.
There is a little bit of lag spiking (only occasionally though) but surprising it's very playable. This Chromebox would handle Steam Streaming with no issues.
What I find though is if you live in an apartment where there is a lot of Wifi interference, especially if you're utilizing the already crowded 2.4ghz band, it's generally a better idea to hook up the host computer via ethernet. It'll be a lagfest otherwise.
Perfect for the kids, no viruses, never slows down, they can't install crap, always gets updates.
For 2x or 3x this one's price, you'd get an AIO desktop Android box with 21.5" touchscreen, lots a ports, etc.
eg, HP Slate 21 or one by AOC if you need an HDMI input.
Android apps that are designed for touch on a handheld don't always translate well to a large 21" screen. A lot of screen space is taken up by touch elements which eat into your usable work area.
You can also get a Chromebase if you want an AIO. It's designed with desktop usage in mind.
The price shows as
Items: USD 136.60
Shipping & handling: USD 11.72
Order total: USD 148.32
Total will be AU$ 178.62. Still a good deal.
That is for the white one, the deal is for the "Ocean Turquoise" but for some reason the link is defaulting to the white one which as you posted is US $136.60.
The White is the cheapest one now. Ocean Turquoise is back up to US $163 odd.
What are you going to use it for? I have a chromebook and couldnt imagine using a desktop version