Chromebook 11 CATCHES FIRE at last, FLIES off shelves

But not in a good way: it sets fire to USB chargers, gets withdrawn

HP's Chromebook 11, which the world got excited about back in October because it appeared to be the first charge-over-USB laptop, has been pulled from sale because charge-over-USB is too hot to handle.

Literally.

Google has issued what it's euphemistically calling an ”important update” about the device saying it and HP “... are pausing sales of the HP Chromebook 11 after receiving a small number of user reports that some chargers included with the device have been damaged due to overheating during use.”

The Chocolate Factory says those with dud chargers should grab whatever other USB charger they have to hand and resume normal cloudified computing. There's no word of a freebie replacement.

Critics could feel this incident is a way to point out that the whole Chromebook caper is ridiculous. Realists may choose to note that Google has found only a few power supplies running hot and that the power supplies are almost certainly not the product of HP's factories or sweat. ®