The Google I/O Conference is going on at the moment and there's been a few interesting announcements (...if you live in the US, anywhere, where several of the cool services are only available, like their new digital music locker thing), and today they've announced their first real-world foray into their Chrome OS powered computers - Chromebook:

Today, we’re announcing the first Chromebooks from our partners, Samsung and Acer. These are not typical notebooks. With a Chromebook you won’t wait minutes for your computer to boot and browser to start. You’ll be reading your email in seconds. Thanks to automatic updates the software on your Chromebook will get faster over time.

Your apps, games, photos, music, movies and documents will be accessible wherever you are and you won't need to worry about losing your computer or forgetting to back up files. Chromebooks will last a day of use on a single charge, so you don’t need to carry a power cord everywhere. And with optional 3G, just like your phone, you’ll have the web when you need it. Chromebooks have many layers of security built in so there is no anti-virus software to buy and maintain. Even more importantly, you won't spend hours fighting your computer to set it up and keep it up to date.

More information is available on the Chromebook site.

Obviously it is a totally different experience to the traditional laptop - it is the first laptop that is really designed from the ground up to access almost all the resources - documents, media, applications - online.

For those interested in the tech specs, the Samsung version looks like this:

12.1" (1280x800) 300 nit Display
3.26 lbs / 1.48 kg
8.5 hours of continuous usage 1
Intel® AtomTM Dual-Core Processor
Built in dual-band Wi-Fi and World-mode 3G (optional)
HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
2 USB 2.0 ports
4-in-1 memory card slot
Mini-VGA port