As many of you reading this know by now, Google announced a pilot program last week for their new Chrome OS notebook – the Cr-48. All you have to do is register for it and with any luck – you may get one. One of our writers was lucky enough to be one of those people, along with two other people that I personally know. I’m still waiting for mine to arrive. (Fingers crossed!)
This has received a fair amount of attention, and there are even a few places out there where people can hang out and stalk shipments through conversation and handy tools. During this wild ride speculation, hope, dispair, and straight-up trolling we’ve discovered a couple hints that Google may be recalling shipments to a chunk of the 60,000 people rumored to be getting the CR-48. Nothing can be confirmed, but at the same time, nothing can stop the crazy internet from furiously digging for dirt and churning the rumor mill in hopes of finding the truth.
I’ve been monitoring a thread on Slickdeals for a few days now, where users just hang out and chat while following a handy little tool one user created to watch UPS shipments. You can search by city/state, or by zip code and find out what has been scanned through UPS’s system.
Now, this tool only searches UPS and how it scans and is updated is a little fuzzy to me (and he has explained it, I just can’t seem to find the post) so its accuracy is a little questionable but the bottom line remains – It does work to some degree and there are some users who have taken using this to an extreme level. For example, some have reported calling up UPS and giving the newly found tracking numbers to get an address.
One other thing this tool is good for is showing how many have shipped. It looks like none have shipped this week. This is a little odd, but since no one REALLY knows what’s going on – nothing to be alarmed about. However, couple that with some of the status updates stalkers are starting to see on trackings is starting to make me wonder.
For example, for all the laptops headed to my city, Nashville TN, that have not yet been delivered – it LOOKS as if they are being returned. Now, I’m no UPS tracking interpreter guy, but look at these two trackings. They say they are returning back to KY, where they originated from, with a status update of:
“THE DELIVERY INTERCEPT REQUEST FOR THIS PACKAGE WAS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED / SHIPPER REQUESTED RETURN OF PACKAGE”
…. Cause for concern?
Is this a recall due to hardware problems? Has Google realized this tool is being used quite a bit (the hit counter was in the hundreds of thousands when I last saw it), possibly being used to find out where UPS trucks were dropping these surprise packages? As we have learned, signatures are not being required and people are not being notified that a system is in bound to them. What’s to stop someone from tracking down packages sitting on doorsteps?
(Besides jail time)
At any rate – what we do know, you now know. Thoughts on the situation? Have you received a laptop today? If so, was it by UPS?
Sound off in the comments below, and be sure to stop by the forums to help get that place a-bumpin’!