Everyone around you might be getting ready for Memorial Day, but Acer is still hard at work upping their computing game with new Chromebooks, gaming notebooks, desktops and more! So be prepared to spend whatever money you haven’t committed to a beach vacation on some sweet new tech!
If you’ve ever looked at Lenovo’s Chromebooks and wished they weren’t only available for education, then you’ll be glad to know that the Lenovo 300e and 500e Chromebooks are now available for everyone to buy, and the 100e will be available in March.
Amazon is listing all variants of the new Google Pixelbook as 10% off for users of Amazon Prime Student. Models available include the Google Pixelbook i5 with 8 GB RAM / 128 GB storage, Google Pixelbook i5 with 8 GB RAM / 256 GB storage, and the Google Pixelbook i7 with 16 GB RAM / 512 GB storage.
From the start of the Chromebook phenomena, HP has been a major player. With the arrival of CES 2018, the company has announced two new Chromebooks. One is hitting the consumer market but is also targeted for enterprise, while the second is specifically targeted for board education; both will be available this February.
Chromebooks have been able to run Android apps for about a year now, but it’s been hit and miss. Not all Chromebooks have touchscreens, and even the ones with touchscreens aren’t necessarily optimized for use as an Android device as well. Samsung and Google seem determined to change that with the newly announced Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro. These look an awful lot like most touchscreen Chromebooks these days. There’s an Intel processor for the Pro and an ARM for the Plus, and the screen can be flipped 360 degrees so you can use it as a laptop, tablet, or…
If you or someone you love is headed back to school, then you’re likely looking for affordable laptop options. Acer has a selection of Chromebooks and Convertible Notebooks that might fit the bill!
Acer is busy at CES this year! They’ve always been a big player in laptops, smartphones, tablets, and computer equipment in general, and they have updates for just about everything this year! There’s a lot to be excited about, whether you’re looking for a high-end Windows machine or a simple Android tablet, so let’s check it all out!
This post about the Toshiba Chromebook 2 has been a long time coming. It isn’t because I don’t like the machine. I do. Rather, it has taken time because I tried to see how it might fit into my workflow. I’ve come away from the experience impressed by what Google and Toshiba have done. Still, I need to come clean…
If someone suggested to me a year ago we would be looking back at data showing that more than 21% of laptops sold last year were Chromebooks … I would have laughed heartily in their face. I mean, to me these were pretty much netbooks that only run a browser. Yet that is the reality at the end of 2013.
While I was unable to successfully ‘go all in’, my family absolutely loves the Samsung 11.6″ Chromebook. It is perfect for writing reports, doing email, Facebooking, and web research; it has been in constant daily use since I got it. Now Google has announced the next version of their budget laptop – the $279 HP Chromebook 11.
Last week I said that I was going ‘all in’ with the Samsung Chromebook, even though I was already aware of a few limitations. There were limitations when I tried the same thing for the iPad and Android tablets and I persevered, so I plowed forward! Unfortunately some of the issues were fairly significant and fragmented my computing time badly! Setting up a Chromebook is as simple as logging into a web browser. And since I used Chrome almost as much as Safari, I have a full set of bookmarks all ready to go. Spending just a little time with…
Just like I did with several tablets last year, I am going to try to use the Chromebook as my ‘90% computer’. This means using it for all of my normal daily tasks except those I know it cannot do, such as PC or iPad gaming. With great portability, battery life, and ease of use, I anticipate great success! I already have a couple of challenges – the USB port is incompatible with my Garmin GPS watch, and I am still figuring out the WiFi configuration for my work network … but I am persevering, as I have most other…
Chromebooks have been a bit of a mixed bag for many people. Some users love the idea of a lightweight, browser-focused operating system, and others feel like a computer that just runs browser apps is a waste of money. When Chromebooks occupied the $199-$300 space, they fit a niche as a lightweight “secondary machine”. Yesterday Google branched out in a shocking new direction, announcing the touchscreen, high-resolution, Chromebook Pixel. A touchscreen Chromebook is big news all by itself, but the price is really generating buzz. At $1,299 for the WiFi model, is Google overestimating the appeal of ChromeOS? The Gear…
It’s been widely reported over the web that Acer and Asus are pulling out of the netbook market as of today effectively ending the netbook as a viable platform. It says a great deal when Asus, who practically invented the netbook, has said they are done. I write not to bury the netbook but to praise it for what it was: a great and cheap way to get things done on the web. I remember the very first netbook, the Asus EeePC 701. It wasn’t the most powerful thing out there. It had a 900 MHz Celeron, 7 inch screen…
Sarah and I have had a busy summer, but the big finale was definitely this past week. We started out Labor Day weekend, where we headed to Virginia, before returning to New Jersey for a day and then heading to Maine for a friend’s wedding. Lots of travel, lots of packing, lots of gear. What did we learn? Read on to see our hard-earned lessons and tips! Technology: Let’s start with travel gear. I opted to travel light to VA since we were driving to Richmond, then Virginia Beach for a race, then back to Richmond and then finally home….
It is easy to forget in the flood of Android tablets that Google has another operating system in their quiver-Chrome OS. It has been maligned as “too late” and dismissed as just another netbook option, but it is so much more. If your primary work is in the cloud, especially Google services, and you’re looking for a fast computing option with great battery life, hold off on that tablet purchase. First, watch my quick Chrome OS overview video, then consider this: for $499 you can have a Chromebook with WiFi and 3G. Plus Verizon and Google will throw in MB…
A lot has been said about the iPad and how suitable it could be for people who have never used a computer. Way back during the late 90’s there were many companies attempting to make an appliance computer. That is, a computer that doesn’t require the overhead of a Windows PC, Linux PC or a Mac. Netpliance tried and utterly failed with the iOpener, which was a darling of the hacker community back when a 180 MHz computer was considered acceptable. Other than the iPad and Google’s Chromebooks, others have also tried at bringing the appliance computer to reality; Telikin…
I’m not sure I understand the Chromebook pricing model. Acer is introducing an 11.6″ Chromebook [Ars Technica] in June, with wifi-only for $350. Samsung’s 12″ model will come with 3G wireless in addition to wifi, and cost $500. I could buy a Gateway dual-core Windows 7 11.6″ netbook today for $330 [Amazon]. The Gateway has 160 GB of hard drive space; the Chromebooks are limited to a much smaller amount of SSD space (16 GB). So, where’s the market for a notebook computer which costs as much as (or more than) a notebook with a known OS? Don’t get me…
It’s been just about a week since I received my CR-48 Chrome OS netbook. In that time I’ve turned on my Toshiba netbook (running Windows 7) twice, and only used my Macbook to check my email a few times. Otherwise all my home computer use has been on Chrome, including writing posts for Gear Diary. While it is still quite early in my Chrome experience, and the OS is very, very young, I thought I’d share my likes and dislikes thus far…think of it as a mini-review…a miniview! Likes: Getting started is dead easy. Once I did the initial setup…
