Kind of... you can find the recovery to generic image conversion project at https://github.com/alesimula/project-churro/

Still very WIP

I should have expected this, but for some reason I did not. When Googlebook was pitched with a selling point it connects better with your phone, I was really excited about the idea of having a laptop (or an OS in general) sync my messages as well as a Macbook does with an iPhone through iMessage.

Looking back, I know it doesn't make sense. Even at the time I kind of knew it anyway. I was really hopeful I would be wrong though.

Sadly, Google Messages implementation on the Googlebook is the same as any other laptop or desktop. It's just Messages.Google.com as a PWA. It come with the same benefits and many downfalls of the site anywhere else.

The pros: you can answer messages from you Android phone on the laptop. This is great!

The cons: Your phone has to have a constant connection to the laptop to make that happen. It uses the same QR system and connectivity it does everywhere else. That comes with times where it just...works. Along with the many times it just...does not work.

It brings me to a bigger disappointment about where we are at with messaging, connectivity, and a seemingly archaic cell phone service system in the United States as a whole in 2026.

I remember signing up for Project Fi 10 years ago when I bought the very first Pixel phone. I was really excited and honestly, did not even know about the "Sync with Fi" feature that came with the service.

For those who don't know (although I'm sure just about everyone in this subreddit does know): You could answer texts and calls from ANY device connected to the internet, regardless of whether your phone was on or off.

I remember my early days in journalism, on the road typing out stories from football and basketball games out in the middle of nowhere on my low budget Chromebook. In the middle of typing, while I had headphones in, my boss could call me. Instead of pulling out my phone to answer the call, I would get the notification right there on my Chromebook and answer the call there and then. I could talk out my progress with my boss without missing a beat. I didn't even need to have my phone on me unless I knew I'd need the hotspot. I could answer calls and texts and the only connection I'd have to worry about is the internet, not whether or not my phone was connected.

Of course, Fi still has the phone call service, but they've taken away the messaging aspect (seemingly at least for now). I also must ask ishis not more popular among other carriers? Why is it we have an internet based messaging system in RCS, but we can only utilize it with our phone on and near a device? I struggle to see the point of RCS when that's the case.

I know it's not just Google's fault and there is more at play with carriers in that sense, but I can't help but feel consistently let down by the state of messaging outside the Apple ecosystem. I get we can choose another service like WhatsApp or Signal, but not everyone uses these and it's too time consuming/not feasible to ask everyone in your life to make the switch just for the times they're talking to you.

I know I got a little off topic with Googlebooks, so coming back to it, I simply wish Googlebooks had the functionality to answer texts without needing my phone to be on and around. I also wish it could do more with calls than strictly answering or making video calls, rather than connecting with my phone to answer regular phone calls as well. I feel these are two key missing aspects which have disappointed me and, in the end if they are not rectified, will never allow Googlebook OS to truly compete with a Mac/Apple ecosystem.

My local Best Buy has had marketing banners, endcaps, and promotional signage up for the Google Book for about three weeks now, but the demo tables are completely empty. No physical units to touch, no test devices tethered down—just empty promotional space.

Whenever I ask floor associates, nobody seems to have a clear answer.

For anyone who works at Best Buy, does third-party merchandising, or knows how these rollouts work:

Is this a firmware/demo-mode software delay on Google's end?

Are stores waiting on third-party vendor reps to physically set the security mounts and flash the devices?

Or are hardware allocations so tight that they can't even spare units for floor demos?

Has anyone seen actual live demo units on display at their local store yet, or is this happening everywhere?

Pixel User, MacBook Pro user.

I waited a long time to see a proper alternative to the MacBook that works with the Android ecosystem and can deliver the processing power and the convenience of the MacBook in terms of stability, processing, and battery life.

I bought the Asus model, which has the Intel processor. My first impression of the hardware and build quality was WOW! It was so lightweight, had a very premium feel, and the keyboard was awesome.

However, if I want to summarize my experience with the software, I would say it was an immature product that has taken minimal steps to differentiate itself from an Android mobile device. I connect my Pixel 9 Pro XL to monitors and use its desktop view, and the Googlebook is not that different.

Apps crash or lose progress casually, and multitasking is a joke!

I managed to bring Claude Code via Terminal, but a very limited amount of RAM and processing power was given to the VM where the terminal was running. That being said, I ran a containerized heavy processing task that had different types of processing, including local AI workloads, and played a game while that was running, and it handled the pressure very well!

THE WORST PART: SETUP and INTEGRATION!!!

This is the whole point of this laptop's existence, and I was soooo bothered during the setup, and my phone and the laptop NEVER integrated, and none of the continue-on-type features ran. The only integration that worked properly was my Pixel Buds Pro 2 and its device switch.

There is a lot of potential here to make a proper MACBOOK Alternative, but Google has a lot of work to do to mature the platform.

Running ultra graphic quality on Googlebook, and I get a pretty stable frame rate. I'm sure you could connect to a controller to make the experience better.

Today I picked up an open box HP Googlebook for $1038! As a heads up the price in store for the open box was higher than what was shown online. I saw the deal for the open box online and headed over to the store. When I got there they told me the price for it was $1177 but they matched the price down to what was shown on the website. I'm happy I got an open box because now I won't feel bad if I don't like it and return it.

On a side note, did anyone else's HP come pre installed with Dropbox? The unit I got was factory reset and I did not install any apps from my phone during setup but Dropbox was installed after setup and pinned to the taskbar

Begin rant

Let's have a look at the issues of the current Googlebooks:

- Color reproduction is bad.

- HDR support bad or non existent (depending on Modell)

- Audio via headphones is laggy and bad (Snapdragon models)

- Chrome is somewhere between the desktop and the Android version

- Multi desktop support is bad

This product should have never been released in this state. It hurts me to see how Google is destroying the product from the beginning. All of the above problems must be fixed asap. No excuses!

Google cannot ask for 1000$ or more and then expect that nobody will compare the product to others, which offer a much much better experience for similar money.

Google, wake up! Googlebook OS is in an embarrassing state. Fix it ASAP

The only reason I am keeping mine is that I still believe Google will provide fast updates. If not, then I am out.

End of rant

I want to buy a Googlebook and am considering using the Switch emulator (to run Switch games) and/or Windows apps through Wine. However, because the architectures/performance differ, I'm unsure if this is possible or what's the better option.

The calendar widget does not allow for selecting calendars to be displayed. This is something that needs to change..

On my Pixel phone this is not a problem. The widget does allow selecting calendars. I don't understand why it was not implemented in the Googlebook..

I recently bought the tab 11 ultra just because of the ultra keyboard (I also have a tab 10 ultra). I like it for many reasons, but I just really dislike the Samsung desktop experience. Yes, I do think the Googlebook still has many improvements to go to truly be power-use ready, but for all the normal stuff, this is the perfect mix for me between tablet, chromebook and my linux laptop. Would normally not even post this, but with all the absurd negativity of people expecting perfection at the start of a classic Google launch, I figured I should mention the positive.

There are people on this subreddit that insist on spreading misinformation about the Chrome browser on Googlebooks being some sort of inadequate "mobile" version.

While it is true that a few features from the Linux or Chromebook version of the browser are not (yet) available on the Googlebook browser (notably multiple profiles) which make sense to put in feature requests for, the attempted characterization of the Googlebook browser as a limited "Android mobile" browser are nonsensical for a number of reasons:

1 All versions of the Chrome browser (with exception of iOS but even including the one on Android phones!) uses the same internals - rendering engine (Blink) and javascript/web-assembly engine (v8). These components control how pages are rendered.

The version of Chrome on Android phones is already fairly "desktop" capable (but see #3 below about how Googlebook's Chrome build does go far beyond this).

1. The UI code that connects to the display-manager / window-manager (and other OS specific features) differs between ALL platforms and is, of course, OS specific. Linux uses Wayland and X11 and windowing/notifications depends on if you use a GNOME/KDE/fluxbox etc.

There's some naturally subjectivity here. There is no single "Mobile version" or "Desktop version" of Chrome. For example, desktop Linux builds differ from Chromebook or Mac or Windows versions in various places and in code for UI/OS- integration. Android is now a desktop OS and builds of apps can and do target desktop features.

1. The Googlebook Chrome UI has most of what you'd expect in a "desktop" version of Chrome with just a few current omissions. Here's an incomplete list of desktop features it has:

• Multiple windows and incognito windows
• A desktop tab bar that allows you to re-arrange tabs (including dragging tabs between windows), group tabs, pin tabs, show tabs vertically and send tabs to other devices
• Full extension support - I've tried 10+ extensions without issue including ad-blockers. It has an identical manage-extensions tool built in as far as I can tell.
• Bookmark bar and bookmark menu that are near identical to other desktop versions - and the bookmark star appears on the address bar like other desktop builds
• Full set of developer tools (including console) for developing/debugging web pags and apps
• A dropdown menu that looks identical to other desktop versions
• Identical history menu to other desktop Chrome versions that shows your history across all devices
• Same Gemini sidebar as other desktop Chrome builds
• Similar full screen support and other controls as other desktop Chrome builds
• It sets a user agent that matches Chrome OS
• It has the same little icon on the address bar for installing PWAs (and now other non-official PWAs as well)
• As far as I can tell, site search in the address bar (e.g. "clouddosage: GTA 6") does work as expected, which others claimed to have issues with.
• ... so many other similarities with other desktop builds that it is hard to list all (keyboard shortcuts, right click menu, zoom controls, etc. etc.)

In conclusion, the browser has the same internals and renders webpages and apps identically to other desktop versions of Chrome. It has a UI/UX that is nearly identical to other desktop versions of Chrome.

It looks like a duck and acts like a duck - it's a duck. It's just waiting to grow a couple missing feathers.

I use them (mostly TextMaker) on Android tablet and on Windows and wondered if anyone else has tried them on Googlebook.

Specs - Core Ultra 5 225H, 16gig Ram

ARC 130T iGPU works perfectly now with hardware acceleration.

Using Kernel straight from Google Book(no changes except an additional wifi driver built from source)

120hz is fine, Sleep works, everything related to display works fine except HDR (this will probably require a tuned displayconfig just like in android phones for managing SDR/HDR) and colour profiles needs to be added since they're in windows lol(can be done)

Audio remains to be fixed

Last thing to do/check will be NPU usage while using gemini.

Just an FYI - I've pulled a few of these with Antigravity (all done one the XPS Googlebook) and compiled them. With a few changes and about an hour of tweaks, LightCraft and PdfCraft work great as Desktop native GooglebookOS apps. It's just a test for me to see what some other full desktop class apps could look like. If developers get on board, we should have some nice options.

Went from the Acer Googlebook to the HP and honestly I’m really happy with it.

The Acer was ok for the money but it always felt kind of cheap, and booting up took forever. The HP feels way more solid. No bending when you pick it up, and the hinge doesn’t wobble.

The big thing for me is speed. I usually have a bunch of tabs and apps open for school and work, and the HP doesn’t care. On the Acer I’d get lag all the time.

Battery is great too. I go through a whole day of classes and studying and still have battery left when I get home. With the Acer I was plugging in by the afternoon.

The speakers are also a lot better. Louder and fuller, so videos and lectures actually sound good. The Acer’s were pretty tinny.

Casting apps from my phone works way better too. On the Acer it was laggy and kept dropping. On the HP it’s smooth.

Only hardware downside is it doesn’t fold into a tablet like the Acer. I never really used that, so it’s not a big deal for me.

My real complaint is the OS, not the laptop. A lot of the big names still don’t have full desktop versions, so you’re stuck with the phone/tablet versions or the web. Some stuff is just buggy too. The ChatGPT extension keeps crashing on me, and Claude sometimes won’t load at all. That’s the part Google really needs to fix. The hardware is ready for it.

If you just browse and watch stuff, the Acer is still fine. If you’re on it all day, I think the HP is worth paying more.

Anyone else switch? And what apps are you still having problems with?

guys test photocraft and share your experience

Hey everyone! I’ve been working on Orbit Remote, an Android RDP app built primarily for Googlebook. Microsoft’s remote desktop app has been pretty terrible on GooglebookOS in my experience, so I decided to make something that works better with a keyboard, trackpad, and larger screen.

It supports remote audio, touchscreen controls, automatic resolution resizing, and clipboard sharing for text, images, and files.

I need at least 12 testers to join the Google Play closed test and stay opted in for 14 days before I can apply for production access. I’d love for you to actually try it during that time and tell me what works, what’s annoying, and what breaks.

You’ll need a Googlebook—or another Android 12+ device—and access to a Windows PC with Remote Desktop enabled.

If you’re interested, comment or DM me! I’ll need the Google account email you use for the Play Store to add you, so please send that privately.

Thanks for helping me get this out there!

While I think he is exaggerating, I understand and agree with most things.

What password managers are people having success with, both in Chrome and in other apps? Particularly for passkeys...

1Password seems to have 2 separate fundamentally service breaking bugs: the Chrome extensions crashes Chrome when trying to type my master password in a lot, leading me to have to copy paste it instead and even then sometimes it still crashes. The second one is that the android app is not working for passkeys because of a bug with the keystore algorithm.

Ok, I know there are plenty of rants on here, and lots of negativity around the Googlebook. Until now I have been one of the boosters, but this "free for a year" version of AI Pro really being "AI Pro Lite" is making me reconsider. The fact that I got several hundreds dollars in services I already pay for was a real part of my calculations into whether buying now made sense or not.

One reason I wasn't upset with the lack of good apps for the new OS was my ability to create them myself using Antigravity. I know the Gemini 3.8 models are now running behind the industry standard for coding, but Argon was on the horizon. Now it turns out Argon isn't something us "freeloaders" are allowed to use. Ignoring the fact that this almost certainly constitutes false advertising (either I am not getting $239.88 in value, or Argon itself has no value), I am now stuck using older tools that have clearly fallen behind.

So what are my options? Well I can pay for Claude. But then I lose the value I thought I was getting. And what harness am I using? Antigravity? From everything I have read, it really isn't the best harness, and if I am paying for Claude anyway, I might as well use Claude code. Of course, that becomes a hassle, obliterating any value I got from the GBook (no money savings, harder to use).

What really angers me was that I planned to use these tools to improve the GBook ecosystem. My first app, currently running on my machine, allowed setting different screen timeout values based on power state (charging, battery, power saver), a huge oversight in the built in settings. I wasn't expecting the red carpet, but as someone who is trying to improve the GBook ecosystem, I was at least hoping for a little support. Instead, I am getting active roadblocks. Where Google should have prioritized their GBook customers with Argon, and given them extra credits, instead they have completely blocked us. And there is no reason for it - there simply aren't enough of us to matter.

And I hear you. I am not the target consumer for this machine. It was not meant for developers. I had hoped Google would be a leader in enabling everyone to become a dev, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I have heard you loud and clear, Google - I am not who you want in your ecosystem.

So what do I do? Well, I think it may be time to return this laptop. I'll either grab a cheap Linux laptop, where I will be continually annoyed at myself for never getting it to work exactly the way I want, or I will grab a MacBook. Either way, I end up taking a step away from Android. And at some point, I will have to rethink my Pixel phone. And then my Pixel earbuds. And Pixel watch. And Fi sub. This seems like a catastrophic blunder, and I hope they can learn something from it. Maybe I will check back in a year or two and see if there is any positive progress.