Australia sells Chrome laptops ahead of Acer, Samsung

Australians may yet have bragging rights to being the first to get laptops running an operating system derived from on Google's Chrome browser. Kogan Technologies will start selling on June 7 its 12-inch "Agora" laptop, which it billed on its website as the world's first Chromium OS laptop. In an entry on its website, Kogan touted its laptop's "fast and light cloud computing," with a $349 (P15,062) price tag. Google's Chromium OS is an Internet-centric system that offers speed, but where many of its apps need an Internet connection to work properly. The Australian company said its laptop uses a Celeron processor, a 30-gigabyte solid state drive (SSD) and 1 GB random-access memory (RAM), upgradable to 4 GB. It said the device can boot in five seconds, and is "always connected." Its specifications include a 1.3-MP webcam, and built-in Bluetooth - and an HDMI port. "The Kogan Agora Chromium Laptop helps you truly enjoy using your computer. No longer is it a chore to turn on, switch between applications, and load up big files. From now, your computing is effortless, fast, and simple!" it said. A separate story on PC World said Kogan may have beaten Samsung and Acer to be the first company to release a laptop based on Google's Chrome OS. PC World added that Kogan's Chromebook has features similar to the Samsung Series 5 and Acer Chromebook, which are expected later this month in the United States. "U.S. consumers, don't worry: The Samsung Series 5 and Acer Chromebook--the two Chromebooks Google first announced--will be available for order in just a couple of weeks (June 15)," it said. — TJD, GMA News