When I was stuck in Las Vegas, Nevada without my trusty Windows laptop (my display went out), the only feasible alternative after blowing all of my money at the casino tables was the CR-48 Chrome Notebook that Rob happened to bring along. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do any heavy-lifting with this thing like uploading video, but I thought I’d be able to get by if I didn’t need to edit anything.
A lack of photoshop and Sony Vegas didn’t bother me as long as I shot video or shot a photo at the perfect angle. The first time I went to upload these images and video, though, I was shattered – I couldn’t. I couldn’t navigate to my SD card when using YouTube’s uploader or WordPress’ image uploader. I had no way to access any files on my external storage devices. At that point, I denounced the thing quite useless even for light use.
I shared my thoughts that week during a CES keynote with a Googler. I told her the truth – Chrome OS stunk. I loved the idea and I know it’s not meant to be a full-blown computer, but leaving no way for users to access their personal content was probably the biggest oversight Google has ever made.
That’s why I was very pleased with the announcements Google made at their I/O keynote this morning – a very capable file manager for which to handle all of your multimedia and documents. You can view images, video, music and documents. Move them, edit them, upload them, play them and – most importantly – enjoy them.
Speaking with other Chrome OS users, this was definitely the most disappointing area of the experience for many of us when the CR-48 first shipped. And after speaking with a few Chrome OS users after today’s announcements, we’re just about ready to give it another spin. (Which we’ll do once we receive our free ChromeBook.) Exciting times ahead, folks.
