Chromebooks

Google started pushing Chrome OS tablets a few years ago, but with the Pixel Slate being a rather spectacular failure, the task of bringing that idea to life fell to the company’s partners. Lenovo was the first to strike excellence with its IdeaPad Duet in 2020, and now HP has brought the vision a step closer. I’ve spent a few weeks with the HP Chromebook X2, and I think it’s a bit closer to the “ideal” Chrome OS tablet.

2020 was a rough year for many, but it turned out to be one of the best years ever for Chromebook shipments. Following that high, though, Chromebook numbers have dropped dramatically in Q3 2021.

Chromebooks rely primarily on web apps to run just about everything, with Android apps plugging some of the holes, but even that left Chromebook owners without access to the Adobe Creative suite. The tide is finally changing, though, as Adobe today announced that Photoshop is coming to the web and in turn, Chromebooks starting with a public beta.

The explosion of Chrome OS over the past 18 to 20 months and at-home working similarly expanding unlike ever before, it’s refreshing to know that you don’t need to deal with cheap, underpowered Windows laptops or PCs to get actual work done. A case in point is the excellent Acer Chromebook Spin 713.

At today’s Next@Acer event, the company unveiled a suite of new Chromebooks including the revamped Acer Chromebook Spin 514.

Last March, Google announced a “Works With Chromebook” program to certify and badge accessories for Chrome OS. The latest peripheral to come out of this certification is docking stations. 

Nearly a year after its release in early access, Amazon Luna is announcing some major expansions today including a family-focused subscription, Chromebook support, and more.

After launching one of the first mainstream Chrome OS tablets in 2020, Lenovo is building on that success with its new Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5, a premium tablet with a bigger OLED display and other upgrades.

After several leaks and our own exclusive reporting, Google announced last month that it would debut its first self-designed smartphone chip in the Pixel 6 series later this year. Apparently, the company’s ambitions don’t stop there. Today, a new report claims that Google is also building chips for future Chromebooks.

Google’s Chromebooks play best with Google Drive and its associated apps, but others are available, including Microsoft Office. However, Microsoft is about to pull the plug on supporting its Android app on Chrome OS.

The rush to working and educating from home due to the outbreak of COVID-19 last year essentially exploded the Chromebook market, pushing sales higher than they’ve ever gone. While that growth continued into 2021, Chromebook sales are definitely slowing down, as Q2 saw a big drop.

If your Chromebook suddenly feels slower lately, it’s not your fault. It seems that the latest Chrome OS update, v91, is causing performance issues for some users.

Google’s Chromebook bet paid off in a big way last year as the popularity of Chromebooks hit record highs, making Chrome OS the second-most popular desktop operating system in the world. However, that growth may slow down this year, as Chromebook makers are finding the popular low-end models “unprofitable.”

As Chrome OS continues to explode in popularity, Google is updating the platform with more features and bug fixes. Now, the company appears to be looking at fixing an issue that causes dramatic battery drain on Android phones using the Phone Hub feature on Chrome OS.

As far as third-party browsers go, there are none that are fully optimized for Chromebooks and Chrome OS, that is until now with the popular Opera Browser.

Zoom became a household name in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns. It was clear pretty quickly, though, that the company wasn’t fully prepared for the massive influx of customers as security flaws and missing features quickly became evident. This week, over a year into the pandemic that’s made video calls more important than ever, Zoom is debuting its new PWA that enhances its functionality on the web and, specifically, on Chromebooks.

Gaming is one of the last thoughts that surround traditionally low-powered Chromebooks, but as the platform continues to explode in popularity, it’s something that more and more people are looking to do. While cloud gaming fills a lot of the gaps, Unity is now making it possible for game developers to natively target Chrome OS.

Video conferencing exploded in popularity during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the early days as many businesses and schools went remote for the safety of employees and students. Zoom was the biggest name in the game for quite a while and still is extremely popular, but if you’ve ever used it on a Chromebook, you’re probably aware that it’s not quite up to snuff. Next week, though, that’s apparently set to change.