Chromebit, The HDMI Dongle That Will Transform Your TV Into A Chrome PC

Many of us are no doubt frustrated with our televisions, convinced that they simply aren't contributing enough to earn their keep, acting only as passive entertainment and information delivery conduits and occasionally as defacto babysitters for our kids (or defacto — and never argumentative — friends for ourselves). We feel they should be doing more to warrant the prime real estate they occupy in our living rooms, dens, playrooms, bedrooms, and kitchens...right?

Thankfully, the new Asus Chromebit will be available in the summer of 2015 to help rectify the situation, ready to transform our TVs into big flat panel computers running Google Chrome OS and thus make them more productive members of our households. 

The Chromebit, which is smaller than most candy bars (or the odd piece of Raspberry Pi), plugs directly into a television's HDMI port to work its magic. Equipped with a Rockchip 3288 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC flash storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi (2.4 and 5GHz), and Bluetooth 4.0 BR/EDR/LE (for connection to peripherals such as mice and keyboards), the Asus device is set to provide everything your TV needs to become your comfortable-on-the-couch gateway to the Web and basic email.

Of course, as with all typical Google Chrome systems, the Chromebit computing experience is very much cyber-light, appealing mostly to users on a tight budget — it will sell for $100 — or those looking to augment an already existing digital environment (though we should never discount the gadget-curious). 

Along with the Chromebit, Google also announced three new Chromebook laptop computers yesterday. At $249 the new Asus Chromebook Flip is a mere 15mm thin, weighs less than two pounds, and offers a 10-inch touchscreen that will flip your lid...er, with a lid that flips 360 degrees. And for those for whom the new Asus box is just too flippin' fancy there are the Haier and Hisense Chromebooks, both of which offer 11-inch screens and 10-hour battery life for just $149, the lowest price point to date for a laptop running Google's Chrome operating system.