Chromebooks - latest news and discussion
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tangerinedream
Density of Sound
Isn't it! - I've taken my flip to work. They were very impressed. Several people were saying 'why do we use iPads?' and that was before I showed them android apps. Add in windows apps and it's very, very interesting. Just a shame Android apps isn't an option yet when you are running Google Apps for Work/Education, but I'm sure it'll arrive just as soon as the standard version comes out of beta. Sensible not to open a potentially flakey test to enterprise customers to risk data or have bad experiences with.
The challenge is to Apple is very good. Apple do make good kit, but it's so expensive and you pay more to get locked into a walled garden. Pay less to have lots more choice on a device with infinitely more connectivity and ways to interact and what's more, do it by opening up to different manufacturers who put the system into a variety of forms so there is serious innovation, instead of two models a year.
Virtually every Apple owner I know expresses frustration at the limitations of connectivity and access to certain services. The point becomes not 'is Android better' but is ChromeOS, Android and Windows more likely to meet your needs than iOS?
No doubt some will say 'but iOS will have the edge because it's beautiful/slick/genius' or something but chromebooks are really starting to roll back the tablet 'dumbing down' of computing.
I felt for years that the iPad was a bit of a con and the iPad pro especially was a strange device, an attempt to find a simpler/cheaper product to fit the price point that was once the bottom end of the MacBook range. The consumer gets a less powerful device for the same price but thinks it's a futuristic innovation.
The chromebook potential is to knock that pricepoint down to £200 AND still retain a significant part of what makes laptops good to work on.
tangerinedream
Density of Sound
Ah, intel only, still my point stands. A hypothetical intel powered flip vs an iPad pro. There's no competition in my mind.
editor
hiraethified
Everyone I've shown my Flip to has come away very impressed indeed. Unless you're doing some niche or power-hungry activities, I really can't think of any reason why anyone would want to spend 4-5 times more on an expensive laptop that is unlikely to be particularly faster for everyday tasks.
tangerinedream
Density of Sound
Exactly. All I want is to be able to run audacity. Still not found a really convincing editing tool. Apart from that, I'm absolutely delighted and I've got ten times more 'I wish I could' feelings about the ipad air2 work gave me which was more than twice the price.
tangerinedream
Density of Sound
I honestly take it to work to use instead of a macbook out of choice. I'll probably stop doing that as it's a bit pointless and I don't want to wear it out doing work on but it's light and nice to use in meetings and to walk about with, It's stood up perfectly well to the multi tabbed editing of stupid big documents and having emails open all the time and all that. Several times people have said 'is that little thing working already?' and the ability to swap users so quickly has melted people's minds. On MacOS you can thoeretically swap between user accounts but it takes ages and almost always crashes. That's with my mac upgraded to an SSD and extra RAM. Also, not being pestered for updates and to swap to safari or use Apple Music and stuff is fantastic.
editor
hiraethified
It's been my main machine since I bought it. I have a high end Thinkpad, but that takes ages to start up and/or hook up to the wifi - a real pain in the arse if I'm in a cafe looking to do some quick writing. The Chromebook is so fast it's almost connected and ready to go as soon as the lid is open. And all for £199!
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Are there any Chromebooks with a 13" touch screen that aren't as expensive as the Dell?
One of the issues I have is that the Chromebook will not play my .mkv video files because of the audio codec used in them. They play the picture but no audio. Can anyone with a Chromebook running Android apps report in on whether or not the android media players fare any better?
editor
hiraethified
I'm sure there's Android apps, but have a look here Is there a way to play .mkv files on my Acer Chromebook? - Quora
pretty much the same for me. I've got an old laptop which was my main computer but I hardly use it at all now and it seems really slow compared with the chromebook flip. Having the flexibility of it being a perfectly decent tablet is a really excellent feature as well.
editor
hiraethified
If this was an Apple product, the media would be frothing at the mouth and bursting into superlative overdrive about how this is a laptop that changes everything/revolutionary/game changer/Second Coming etc. For once, this is a machine that deserves the hype, but it looks like it's going to be mainly world of mouth publicity for the Flip!
tangerinedream
Density of Sound
The first rule of flip club is talk about flip club.
tangerinedream
Density of Sound
I struggled to find touchscreen at the right price till I found the flip. There's an Acer which is bigger than the flip but low on ram and a few devices which have optional touch screen notionally but getting them in the UK seemed tough.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Ah well I'm in no rush, so will wait, my think pad T60 has lasted years and will do a while longer.
A decent amount of RAM and Storage is important to me as well and prices will only come down.
A decent amount of RAM and Storage is important to me as well and prices will only come down.
tangerinedream
Density of Sound
Yeah, the Acer is only 2gb anyway so I didn't want that. 4gb is fine for a chromebook. Tbh, the toshiba we've got with 2gb is perfectly fine as well, but 4gb makes them zip along nicely. Storage? Stick an SD in but there are a few 32gb models about. Don't think we're likely to see a lot of storage in them any time soon.
Throbbing Angel
this is no longer a place of honour
same here - I've wiped my old laptop and given it to my son so he can trade it in against a new one for Uni.
I've tried to steer him towards a Chromebook & Desktop combo but he ain't having it
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
Yeah, don't need epic storage for media, but I would be working offline a lot, so it's important my entire Google Drive folder would fit. 32gb would be fine.
I also hang on to hardware a while so 4gb makes it likely it would be useful longer.
Janh
signs might be omens
One thing I wish the good folk at Chromebook would improve is the accessibility of Bluetooth information - is it on - from the shelf. At the moment I need to click on it to see what's happening, and then click again, to see what's connected. Using wireless keyboard and speakers makes this a hassle if switching between devices. First world problems, eh?
editor
hiraethified
Very positive review
Hewlett-Packard Chromebook 13 Review: Yes, It Can Replace A MacBook, Windows 10 PC
Hewlett-Packard Chromebook 13 Review: Yes, It Can Replace A MacBook, Windows 10 PC
BoxRoom
nicely inconspicuous
Convinced a popular radio presenter to get a Chromebook the other day 
Love it when people adopt these lovely machines.
Can't be long until Android Apps are on Stable channel. Have reverted back to Beta from Dev now which is giving me a far more stable environment.
All's good!
Love it when people adopt these lovely machines.
Can't be long until Android Apps are on Stable channel. Have reverted back to Beta from Dev now which is giving me a far more stable environment.
All's good!
sheothebudworths
Up the bum - no babies!!!
Hello! My daughter has just started secondary school and I need to get her some sort of laptop affair - cheaper the better, but would pay more if it'll last longer blah blah.
I normally put a bit of time and effort into looking at specs and reviews etc but don't have time/cba
First result on Amazon was for a Lenovo chromebook (I don't even know what they are, tbf
)
This...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-11-...1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1473349018&sr=1-4
for £99!!!
She'll need it to do homework on - plus the usual browsing/Netflix/Instagram stuff.
Will that do?
Anyone got any better recommendations (for eg - she doesn't *need* a rotating cam and she also doesn't really need anything that needs to be carted about - it'll be used at home mostly)?
Under £150 would be great but would stretch to more if it'd be stupid not to!
Laptop thread seems to be dead
and technology seems to have moved on since I last bought a laptop/netbook! 
I will freely admit to not having read ANY of the massive thread!
I normally put a bit of time and effort into looking at specs and reviews etc but don't have time/cba
First result on Amazon was for a Lenovo chromebook (I don't even know what they are, tbf
)This...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-11-...1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1473349018&sr=1-4
for £99!!!
She'll need it to do homework on - plus the usual browsing/Netflix/Instagram stuff.
Will that do?
Anyone got any better recommendations (for eg - she doesn't *need* a rotating cam
and she also doesn't really need anything that needs to be carted about - it'll be used at home mostly)?Under £150 would be great but would stretch to more if it'd be stupid not to!
Laptop thread seems to be dead
and technology seems to have moved on since I last bought a laptop/netbook! I will freely admit to not having read ANY of the massive thread!
I have one of those. If all she can do is online it's fine. Although, for me it was a bit "rugged" and clunky. I bought an Asus C201 yesterday and it's much better. It has half the storage at 16Gb but twice the RAM, a much nicer screen and a very very good trackpad.
For the extra £80 I'd recommend
For the extra £80 I'd recommend
sheothebudworths
Up the bum - no babies!!!
Cheers - I don't imagine she'll need much storage - I'd just like it to last as a means to do her homework (and yeah, all online) along with the usual, basic stuff.
Thanks for the heads up - will have a look!
Throbbing Angel
this is no longer a place of honour
More RAM is better with these things. I went for one with 4gb of RAM and an Intel processor after reading around a bit.
Is an 11inch screen and small keyboard going to be OK?
I love Chromebooks but am amazed by the lack of parental controls (compared to Windows Family Security) so if that is a concern for you, bear it in mind.
Is an 11inch screen and small keyboard going to be OK?
I love Chromebooks but am amazed by the lack of parental controls (compared to Windows Family Security) so if that is a concern for you, bear it in mind.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
An 11 inch screen seems on the small side if it's your main machine to do school work on or watch Netflix. I'd also read further up the thread about printers. May be relevant to printing out said homework, assuming kids still do that.
Throbbing Angel
this is no longer a place of honour
Aye- can be a pain - I have a £35 HP wireless printer - works well - limited functionality compared to Win/Mac in my experience but I hardly ever print so it ain't that much of an issue
sheothebudworths
Up the bum - no babies!!!
Oh blimey - I'm too tired to look up thread - and it will be too small, won't it! 
So - any recommendations for something *big enough* where printing isn't an issue (or where she can just put it on a USB stick and onto the PC and print from there - the printer's not wireless anyway, fwiw)?
ETA - Sorry, being thick - yeah, printer is not wireless, so assuming transferring the work onto USB isn't the issue, she'd have to do that anyway - so just something with a big enough screen/keyboard!
- and it will be too small, won't it! So - any recommendations for something *big enough* where printing isn't an issue (or where she can just put it on a USB stick and onto the PC and print from there - the printer's not wireless anyway, fwiw)?
ETA - Sorry, being thick - yeah, printer is not wireless, so assuming transferring the work onto USB isn't the issue, she'd have to do that anyway - so just something with a big enough screen/keyboard!
Throbbing Angel
this is no longer a place of honour
Oh blimey - I'm too tired to look up thread
So - any recommendations for something *big enough* where printing isn't an issue (or where she can just put it on a USB stick and onto the PC and print from there - the printer's not wireless anyway, fwiw)?
ETA - Sorry, being thick - yeah, printer is not wireless, so assuming transferring the work onto USB isn't the issue, she'd have to do that anyway - so just something with a big enough screen/keyboard!
I moved from a 15.6in Windows 7 laptop to a 13.3in Chromebook and that's fine for me. I wouldn't want to go smaller. I used to have a 12in Windows laptop and that was too small for me.
I mainly do email, a bit of writing, youtube, and browsing mainly and it is great for that. It does everything I sued to do pretty much. Printing set up was a breeze with the printer on the network. I understand cabled printing can be achieved but is a bit of a pain.
Chromebooks are loved by American schools as I understand it - so it should be good for what she needs to do on it.
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