Not the GP, but I was able to pick up a new 4gb model from the Acer online store a few weeks ago (the Canadian store - I don't think Acer is selling it new in the US anymore).
If you're unable to find one I believe the new Dell Chromebook 11 is fairly similar.
For developers, installing Crouton turns the Chromebook into a fantastic portable machine. My Acer c720 has been able to handle everything I've thrown at it, and generally lasts a full day (10-12 hours) between charges.
I don't see the problem. Google is letting people pay to beta test their product. They aren't forcing anyone to buy anything nor are they marketing it as a finished product.
I'd be very interested to hear how you think brute forcing my 22 character password is easier than stealing my laptop and fooling the fingerprint sensor.
I generally have two different Linux installs on each of my computers: A Gentoo + XMonad environment for development, and a Debian + KDE environment for anything else (other school work, movies, word processing, etc).
I believe you can simply remove Facebook Home from the HTC First to return to stock Android, though I'm not sure that guarantees updates like the Nexus devices do.
To be fair, Apple (and I'm sure Google) does this too. There is no doubt in my mind that Apple is going to announce a milestone of it's own tomorrow[0], a day that just happens to be the day of the Google I/O keynote.
I'd argue that Google does updates right as well. Both my Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 were updated a few weeks ago within a few days of the update being released.
It's Samsung, HTC, etc. who are doing updates wrong (though carriers may have some part in that).
Edit: I should say Google is getting better with updates. I'm still a bit disappointed with how they handled the Nexus S update to 4.0.
Weird, I must be imagining the 16+ hours of battery life I've been getting nearly daily for the past 3 and a half months.
I know different people have different usage patterns, but the Nexus 4 battery is far from "horrendous", especially when compared to other flagship devices.
Benchmarks never demonstrate typical use cases, which is especially true for battery life. Unless all you do is load web pages for hours on end at fixed intervals. Personally, I have better things to do with my time. Based on what I've witnessed with my Nexus 4 and iPhone 5s in my family, battery life is very comparible.
> screen quality
When compared to the iPhone 5, the Nexus 4 has better blacks, better contrast ratio, but poorer whites. Color reproduction could be calibrated better, but hey, this is just a mid range phone, right?
In fact, the quad core Krait is arguably the best CPU you can find in a smartphone, performance wise. The only existing (ARM-based) CPU that is better is the Exynos 5250 found in the Nexus 10 (dual core A15).
The GPU is the Adreno 320, which absolutely wrecks the Mali GPU in the Galaxy S3. It still isn't as good as the PowerVR SGX543MP3 found in the iPhone 5, but calling it a mid range GPU is laughable.
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I've been using ConnectBot[1] for the past year or so and it has worked great. I've never used it with a physical keyboard, though, so YMMV.
Yes. You should be able to run any software that runs on Windows 8 (not to be confused with RT). In addition, you can connect a monitor to it through the Mini DisplayPort and mouse/keyboard through the USB 3.0 port.
> Just don't go thinking you're going to make the next Linux out of this.
I don't think many people that decide to build an OS, regardless of C/asm experience, have the goal of making the next Linux. Most (myself included) get into OS development because it's interesting and a great learning experience.
No. THIS is rubbish. Did you even read the article you linked, or did you just scroll through the pretty pictures?
> typical usage
Are you serious? This pretty much affirms my point that you didn't read the article, unless you consider constantly refreshing web pages at a fixed interval with fixed brightness 'typical usage'.
> If you disable LTE it will be even better.
Apparently you didn't look too closely at the pictures, either. The article contains an entire paragraph (that I'm not going to repeat) that explains why LTE provides better battery life in this particular benchmark. In fact, if you look at the exact same chart you're referencing the iPhone 5 is at 4.55 with LTE disabled, a mere 0.40 more than the Nexus 4.
Your blatant Apple propaganda is getting pretty old.