Being online all the time is not something insurmountable. My mobile plan came with data included. I have 3G connectivity all the time, for really good prices too, both on my phone and on my iPad and I live in Romania, not the U.S. or some other country that's in the top countries when it comes to Internet connectivity.
And I'm seeing people living in the country-side, on farms, talking through Skype to their relatives that live abroad, using an USB stick that's connecting them through 3G, or using a broadband 50-100 Mbps connection exposed through Wifi. It's totally shocking, given that some of those places do not have access to cable TV (only through satellite) or to basic utilities such as marsh gas pipes, yet they have Internet access.
Of course, right now Internet access is a problem, even for us sometimes. The costs of my 3G connection is enormous when in roaming. Sometimes you lack the signal and 3G connectivity is not available everywhere, etc... but in 5 years from now I believe it will be a non-issue.
And Chromebook is designed for the long-run and I hope they won't cancel it in the wake of Android's success.
There are Chrome apps that are designed to also have functionality when offline, albeit limited. For instance there is a GMail app in the Chrome store that's designed to work in offline mode [1]. It's really basic and not something I would use, being more like a demo at this time.
I was also sad to hear that Google Reader is not working in offline mode anymore, so now for my iPad I'm searching for a replacement, and because what I've found in the store seems to suck, I may even code one myself - although I may just forward new items to my email address and do some filtering in my email client.
"3G connectivity is not available everywhere, etc... but in 5 years from now I believe it will be a non-issue."
I don't agree: 1) The bandwidth is a limited resource. 2) You can't install senders in every corner of everything to cover blind spots. If you haven't experienced both I believe you're using your 3G almost always without too much moving around and in the area without too much heavy users.
And I'm seeing people living in the country-side, on farms, talking through Skype to their relatives that live abroad, using an USB stick that's connecting them through 3G, or using a broadband 50-100 Mbps connection exposed through Wifi. It's totally shocking, given that some of those places do not have access to cable TV (only through satellite) or to basic utilities such as marsh gas pipes, yet they have Internet access.
Of course, right now Internet access is a problem, even for us sometimes. The costs of my 3G connection is enormous when in roaming. Sometimes you lack the signal and 3G connectivity is not available everywhere, etc... but in 5 years from now I believe it will be a non-issue.
And Chromebook is designed for the long-run and I hope they won't cancel it in the wake of Android's success.
There are Chrome apps that are designed to also have functionality when offline, albeit limited. For instance there is a GMail app in the Chrome store that's designed to work in offline mode [1]. It's really basic and not something I would use, being more like a demo at this time.
I was also sad to hear that Google Reader is not working in offline mode anymore, so now for my iPad I'm searching for a replacement, and because what I've found in the store seems to suck, I may even code one myself - although I may just forward new items to my email address and do some filtering in my email client.
[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ejidjjhkpiempkbhmp...