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Google Hardware

Chromebooks Are Getting a New Button and a Host of Google AI Features (wired.com) 25

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Google is introducing a new "Quick Insert" button on Chromebooks, offering contextual AI tools across the operating system. The feature debuts on Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus, replacing the traditional Caps Lock key. Older Chromebooks can access Quick Insert via a keyboard shortcut. The button opens an overlay providing access to emojis, GIFs, Google's Help Me Write AI feature, and recent web links. Future updates will include AI-generated image creation.

Google is also rolling out new AI features to Chromebook Plus devices, including automatic transcription, real-time translation, and voice isolation for video calls. Standard Chromebooks will receive updates like Welcome Recap and Focus mode. Lenovo and Samsung are launching new Chromebook models to coincide with these software updates. The Lenovo Duet, a detachable 2-in-1, features an 11-inch 2K screen and starts at $349. Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus boasts a 15.6-inch OLED display in a lightweight 2.58-pound package.
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Chromebooks Are Getting a New Button and a Host of Google AI Features More

Chromebooks Are Getting a New Button and a Host of Google AI Features

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  • This move doesn't make much sense to me. Google ChromeOS's best customer base is schools. If they put this into ChromeOS computers teachers are gonna be hacked off. Schools are gonna drop them and migrate to Apple or Microsoft.

    Either this is going to be an optional feature that will be left off of student notebooks or ChromeOS is gonna drop of 0.01% marketshare in a few years as contracts get renewed.

    • "Schools are gonna drop them and migrate to Apple or Microsoft." I expect M$ will just follow Google on this, so that one might be off the table. Apple hopefully still remembers their education-domination market and knows what teachers want and don't want.

    • Chromebook vs Chromebook Plus. Chromebook Plus didn't have a name before, I don't think. And those have all sorts of hardware that is too expensive for schools.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by R3 ( 15929 )

      This move doesn't make much sense to me. Google ChromeOS's best customer base is schools. If they put this into ChromeOS computers teachers are gonna be hacked off. Schools are gonna drop them and migrate to Apple or Microsoft.

      Either this is going to be an optional feature that will be left off of student notebooks or ChromeOS is gonna drop of 0.01% marketshare in a few years as contracts get renewed.

      Schools providing Chromebooks usually enroll and manage them with Google Classroom. There is a policy available on both Google Workspace and Classroom that controls access to Gemini on all enrolled devices, including Chromebooks and mobile devices.

  • Go ahead, press the "Quick Data Rape" button as often as you like.

  • Google is playing a ballsy game here by integrating a plagiarism/cheating machine directly into one of the most popular devices in schools right now. If OEMs put this in their Chromebooks for schools I wonder what the reaction will be from teachers and educators.
    • It seems Google has really gone off the rails in decision making these last few years. It makes me wonder who exactly is in charge of the company.
    • "Hey Google", do my homework"
  • First Microsoft ruins the control key, now Google is ruining the caps lock key. Great.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tdsotf ( 316796 )

      Google seems to have a problem with the caps lock key. The chromebook I have is from around 10 yrs ago. Where the caps lock key is, there is a 'search' key. I had to go into Settings somewhere to switch it to act like a caps lock button. Dear Google, leave the caps lock key alone!!

    • Early Sun keyboards had the physical Control and Caps Lock keys swapped vs. most other keyboards -- annoying Emacs users, like me, to no end.

  • The feature debuts on Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus, replacing the traditional Caps Lock key.

    Guessing people, and former Presidents, with a fondness for posting in ALL CAPS, won't be getting this Chromebook for Christmas ... :-)

    Also, while I don't use Caps Lock much, screwing with the traditional keyboard layout generally annoys me. Too many bad memories of having to switch between PC and Sun keyboards (way) back in college -- where the Control and Caps Lock keys were swapped. Just add another frelling key -- that people can easily ignore.

  • Chromebooks are a dumb idea technically and a dangerous idea for a consumer. They are based on the premise that software will die and there will be the great falling away of the app.

    Because a web browser as an OS was a dumb idea on its face?

    Thirty years ago they told us that OLE would remove the difference between one application and another - that the line of where one ended and another began was a thing of the past, one big super-application that could do anything. That never materialized.

    Twenty-five yea

    • I'm pretty sure you can still install full blown Linux on a Chromebook, so it's nice as a really cheap notebook for anyone who doesn't need a lot of processing power.

      I don't care as much about the notion of a web app as much as I do about giving Google any more information about myself than I have to. Incognito mode turned out to be far less private than advertised and I'm not touching anything they make for anything remotely sensitive. I only have Chrome installed for testing purposes and have moved awa

  • Google is introducing a new "Quick Insert" button on Chromebooks...

    No imagination at all required to figure out what Google appendage is being "inserted" into which user orifice.

  • Look shovelling AI into these things was inevitable, but I hope it means they start pushing higher spec builds as more common.

    My organisation has about half our users on Chromebooks. They are otherwise great for our purpose (using our in-house web application) but the standard models available in Australia are all Intel i5 / 8GB RAM or lower.

    These are fine for many things but are starting to age out in a lot of modern websites that use super heavy front ends. So they feel long in the tooth now.

    You /can/ get

    • I'd run a blind test to confirm that the "super heavy" web frontends you're seeing struggle on an I5/8GB Chromebook is due to underpowered hardware. I do wonder if some of these web sites can saturate network loads. The Google ad injection script in particular can make hundreds of additional network calls after an initial page load, and even with running threads in parallel, that's a lot of calls.

      I periodically look at Windows, too, but generally I'm horrified by the attention-snatching things they've been

  • There is no "Caps Lock" key on Chromebooks, that key was repurposed to be the "Search" key from the very start. Counter to its name, the Search key does not do any searching, rather it brings up the App Launcher dialog.

    I'll be frank, a dedicated key for that purpose was silly, given that there's a Launcher icon right on the screen. I've never used the key, I just click the icon.

    It appears I'm not alone, because Google is changing the Search key after more than a decade. In future Chromebook keyboards, the L

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pz ( 113803 )

      One of the best keyboard layout mods I've made is to change the caps lock key to another backspace key. Doesn't always work on every system because of the different levels that the locking aspect to the key is processed (sometimes it can be made into a normal key, sometimes not), but when it works, it makes typing a dream because my hands can stay much closer to the home position.

      It is an inspiration from the old Symbolics keyboards that put backspace in the same location (again, a dream), and had Control,

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