Chromebooks

To kick off CES 2015, Acer has announced its first ever 15-inch Chromebook. The 15.6-inch screen makes it the biggest Chromebook released to date, but keeping trend with other Chromebooks on the market, the device is still affordable, starting at $250. Acer’s 15.6-inch Chromebook comes in at a hefty 4.85 pounds, which means you probably won’t want to move this one around too much once you get it.

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Google’s Francois Beaufort has revealed in a post on Google+ that Chrome OS users can now run Linux on their machines in a desktop window. This means that developers don’t have to switch back and forth between operating systems, but rather can run them side by side. This capability is made possible by the Crouton Chrome extension, which is available on the Chrome Web Store for free.

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HP has quietly launched a new version of the Chromebook 14 (via OMGChrome), a laptop the company launched earlier this year that was met with much criticism over its less-than-perfect screen. Now, with a more expensive revised version of that device (but the others aren’t going anywhere, obviously) being available, customers have the option of going with a touchscreen Chrome experience and slightly improved specs over its little brothers. HP said that it would be coming soon at the launch of the Chromebook 14, and it looks like company has now followed through with that promise.

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Chromebooks have taken the bottom of the market sub-$300 category of laptops by storm over the last couple of years, and they’re expected to continue with that trend going into 2015. One of the devices that will be heading the charge is the Acer C740, which got leaked last week (via OMGChrome), and it’s said that at least one variation of it will be sporting one of Intel’s fifth-generation codename Broadwell chips—expected to be launched at CES in January.

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A new feature called Smart Lock has now made its way to Chromebooks, allowing users to keep their Chrome OS-running laptops unlocked by simply keeping their Lollipop Android phone in relative vicinity. The feature was first introduced earlier this year at Google I/O 2014, and has been part of Lollipop since the OS started rolling out last month. But only just now, about 6 months after it was shown off, is the feature rolling out to Chromebooks (via ComputerWorld) running the Dev Channel of Chrome OS.

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Our friends at 9to5Toys are busy excavating the Internet to find the latest Cyber Monday deals for any and everything and to help make things easier for you guys we’ve singled out some of the best Google deals that you’ll find on the web. Here’s a look at some of our favorite items currently on sale during this web-based holiday.

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According to the latest data from IDC, Google, for the first time ever, has overtaken Apple in United States schools. The research firm claims that Google shipped 715,000 Chromebooks to schools in the third quarter, while Apple shipped 702,000 iPads to schools. Chromebooks as a whole now account for a quarter of the educational market (via FT).

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9to5Toys is rustling up the best deals around the web for Black Friday and there are a lot of nice bargains for Google fans. Google Play’s Store deals are now live but they are matched and often surpassed by retailers such as Amazon and eBay…

First up, you need to make sure every HDTV in your love ones house has a Chromecast. Currently $24 at Amazon and $23 at NewEgg, you can venture into a Staples and get one for $25 then use  with a 25% off printable coupon to get it to $18. Costco will also give you a $10 Google Play card and charge you $25. You’ll get 2 months of Hulu and 3 months of Google Play with every Chromecast purchased.

Next, you’ll want to make sure you have yourself a Chromebook and Google is hooking up all new Chromebook users with 1TB of Storage for 2 years ($240 value)

Adorama’s ebay store has the below Asus 13-inch Chromebook with Gigabit wifi for $150. Specs:

• 10 Hours Incredible Battery Life.
• Gigabit Dual-Band 802.11AC ultra-fast Wi-Fi.
• Intel Dual-Core 2.16 GHz Processor with 2 GB RAM.
• 13.3″ HD LED Display. HD Webcam.
• USB 3.0, USB 2.0, HDMI, SD Card Reader, & Bluetooth 4.0.
• 16 GB local flash storage, 100 GB Google Drive storage for 2 years.

Amazon has the Haswell Acer Chromebook C720 for $149.99 shipped at Amazon or at Best Buy.  That is the best price we’ve seen on a new Chromebook.

Amazon also has an HP Chromebook for $149.99 shipped. This one comes with a USB charging and a nice slim design and a screen that gets great reviews. Specs:

• Samsung Exynos 5 Processor 1.7 GHz
• 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM 16 GB Solid-State Drive
• 11.6-Inch Screen, Chrome OS, 6.25-hour battery life

Need something bigger?

Acer’s new 13-inch Chromebooks are just $169.99 (an impressive $80 or 32% off). Available in 3 colors.

Need a Wear Watch? It will be hard to beat LG’s G Watch dropping down to $99 but all Google Play watches will get a $50 Google Play Credit when purchased from the Play Store today.

Android and Nest deals are below:

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Chromebook’s are becoming a viable option for people with simple computing needs, and while the laptop alternative typically ships with limited local storage, Google often tosses in 100GB of cloud space from Google Drive for two years. But to sweeten the pot this holiday season, the search giant is turning the dial up quite a few notches and tossing in 1TB of Drive storage with the purchase of an eligible Chromebook.

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Google has started rolling out an update to the stable channel of Chrome OS with a handful of notable enhancements.  The biggest feature for Chrome OS users is the addition of Chromecast support for media files stored in Google Drive. This means that when viewing a media file in Google Drive, a Chromecast icon will appear, allowing users to easily and quickly beam that content to their TV.

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It’s not the first LTE Chromebook, but it’s the first from Asus to offer cellular connectivity with sales of the device quietly kicking off at Best Buy and other retailers late last week. Asus doesn’t appear to have made an official announcement, but an LTE version of the C300 Chromebook variant is now selling through Best Buy according to an announcement sent over from Altair Semiconductor, the company providing the LTE chip for the Chromebook:
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The New York City Department of Education Division of Instructional and Informational Technology has approved Google Apps for Education as a supported platform for its schools. After evaluating the search giant’s offerings, NYC Department of Education CIO, Hal Friedlander and his team decided to add Google’s productivity suite and affordable notebooks to their list of approved tools for New York’s schools.

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A lot of people are buying Chromebooks, according to a recent report from ABI Research. Shipments for Google’s low-cost laptop alternative increased by 67 percent during the third quarter of 2014 when compared to the previous quarter. But the last three months weren’t the only boost for Chrome OS, as the research firm expects this year’s Chromebook shipments to double last year’s numbers.

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Google, in a post on the official Google Work blog today, announced several enhancements coming to enterprise Chromebook users.  In addition to a slew of new features for places using Chromebooks for Work, Google also announced a new pricing scheme for enterprise users. For $50 per device per year, users can get access to all of Google’s Chromebook for Work features, although that only applies to customers in the United States and Canada.

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Google updated the Stable channel of Chrome OS today and while the new build ships with its set of token bug fixes, this revised software also introduces support for a highly requested feature. Chromebook owners can now transfer files from Android smartphones and tablets via a USB cable. After several requests, this overdue feature is now available for all Chrome OS devices, excluding Chromeboxes.

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The latest Chrome Dev Channel update adds the ability to check how much of your Chromebook’s battery power is being used by an individual app or website. To access this slick new feature, visit the Settings window and select the “Battery” option under the device section.

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Samsung is halting its laptop efforts in Europe, which also includes the release of Chromebooks in this specific market as well. Earlier in the year, Sony announced that it was selling off its VAIO business to investment firm Japan Industrial Partners. Unlike Sony’s decision, Samsung’s change in direction appears to only apply to its European business.

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Toshiba upped its already solid Chromebook game today with the aptly-named Chromebook 2 laptop. With an optional 1920×1080 pixel display, Haswell processor, 4GB of RAM, HDMI AV out and AC/Bluetooth 4 wireless, it ticks most of the boxes on what you’d want on a high end laptop. It even claims 11.5 hour battery life and new forward facing speakers designed with help from Skullcandy.

It comes in starting at $249 for the 720P 16 Model and is set for release on Oct. 5

Spec sheet follows:
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Google and Citrix today announced a new partnership that will bring a variety of new enterprise features to Chrome OS powered devices. Citrix’s Receiver app is now available for Chromebooks everywhere and allows direct access to the device’s system resources, including settings for things such as printing, audio, and video.

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