Hello there! This happens to be a special post (or something  like that) — the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook unboxing! Special thanks goes to Karen, a technology enthusiast and reader of LaptopMemo for sending us the photos of her unboxing, which displays the retail packaging, first boot up, and of course the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook itself. Thanks, Karen!

The unboxing is in the gallery below.

Samsung Series 5 Chromebook Unboxing

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Coming from just 5 employees (one of them an investor) is BoardVine, an online web app built from HTML, HTML 5, Javascript, and PHP. Founded by Dustin Snider, the app is aimed to be used as a bulletin board with a social feel of sorts,which in the following quotes Dustin explained to LaptopMemo: “Boardvine is an online platform for people to create their own bulletin boards, meaning instead of hosting your own bulletin board we host it for you and allow you to manage every aspect of it down to each and every line of code.”

So there’s a +1 for usability and the non tech-savvy, but Dustin goes on in order to distinguish BoardVine from existing apps: “The difference between boardvine and the open-source software is with BoardVine you don’t need to know code to add a really cool features to your board or know CSS to add a really cool theme as we have done all that for you and will always be working to add more features.”

Dustin and his team are looking forward to releasing on time, which would be pegged as sometimes in June. Other details are rather scarce as the startup is in its (obvious) early stages. You can sign-up by entering your email address at BoardVine’s site for future updates.

Hear that geeks? In a recent Twitter conversation with C418 (but he didn’t actually respond to mine, he just did so publicly), the genius creator for the Minecraft soundtrack, revealed the release date and pricing for the Minecraft Alpha music album, which is before the Beta one that all of us know and love. The date? Not set in stone, but it’s mid-February. The price? $4. Where? Probably on his site. I don’t know about you, but I’m buying it. Via: Twitter (@C418)

Unfortunately, this means I won’t be able to grab drinks with everyone at CES as I won’t be going this year.

You can follow him on Twitter as @jgallo02. Good luck Joe!

Turns out I have a CR-48 to play around with. Big deal (I’m pretty surprised, actually). So moving on in a more professional manner is the short chat I had with a Chrome OS Ninja. These guys probably aren’t as awesome as the ninjas unboxing the Nexus S and Nexus One, but this’ll have to do. First off, Chrome OS Ninjas are for the benefit of CR-48 testers, and provide support, answers, and help via email and phone.

My reason for contacting them was that first of all, the CR-48 has a SIM card slot — that I can’t seem to work out with either T-Mobile or AT&T SIM cards. And secondly if you noticed, the stickers used in the Chrome OS promo of destruction were very interesting, so I inquired where to find them, too.

The conversation via email is below.

Here’s the chat:

Hi Stefan,

Thank you for being a tester for Chrome OS.

1. I’ve pushed in a T-Mobile SIM card. I don’t see an option to use it network settings (I’m testing the CR-48 heavily). Should I try an AT&T one?

*Currently, the option for SIM cards are not supported at this time. We do not know if when this will be available or is in process. (In my head: So why’d you guys put a SIM card, huh?)

2. In the Google Chrome OS video where 20 CR-48s are destroyed, where can I find one of the stickers used in the video?

*The stickers were used for the promo for Chrome OS and used for that purpose only. (In my head: Bollocks.)

Regards,

*supersecretninjanamehere*

I said thanks, and left it at that. But then my ninja contacted me again:

Hi, Stefan

Please keep testing the Chrome OS and give us a lot of feedback.

I will move the case to closed.

Regards,

*sneakyninjanamehere*

So that’s pretty much it. A short, pleasant chat with a Chrome OS ninja. And yes, I typed all of this on the CR-48. Now as for my full impressions of the hardware and Chrome OS will be posted next week.

Update: Here’s another question I asked. It’s about the Beta and Dev options available in Chrome OS:

Hi, Stefan

On the beta channel, you receive updates thats available (tested with all pilot users and Google) but in the dev channel, you receive update as soon as the developers release them (no pilot users only Google developers).

Your regular tech news will resume soon enough.