Category: Chromebook

Chip manufacture Qualcomm has confirmed that they are interested in providing their SoC solutions for Chromebooks, but only on premium devices.  The news came from PCMag which reported that the company’s new director of product management, Monte Giles, is only interested if the average sale price of Chromebooks goes up higher.

“if the Chromebook market stays at sub-$300 [average selling prices] it’s not that interesting to us,” Giles said. Qualcomm wants to make premium Chromebooks, apparently. “What we’re watching closely is when the [average selling prices] start to go above $500.”

This would sit well with previous commits that suggest a Qualcomm-based Chromebook found in the Chrome OS Gerrit.

One of the best features of the Google Pixelbook is the built-in and dedicated keyboard key for Google Assistant.  As I put in my review of the Pixelbook, the Google Assistant integration works great and it has proven to be a far more handy feature than I expected it to be when I first got the Chromebook.

By default, the Assistant keyboard button opens up with the default interaction as the keyboard.  In other words, typing your request to Assistant.  Google does this because it has also designed the Pixelbook to respond to “Hey, Google” (assuming you have enabled it).  But sometimes, having the keyboard key configured to accept voice commands can be handy.  Think of it as being similar to when you tap and hold the Home button down on your Android phone.

In this How To, I’ll show you how you can configure the Assistant keyboard key to open up and listen for your voice commands instead of typed inputs.

There is no debate that the Google Pixelbook is a premium device.  Not only does the $999 starting price tag give that away, but the overall design of the machine itself screams premium.  It could well be the most attractive – dare I say sexy? – laptop on the market today, regardless of platform.

Google launched the Pixelbook, and the accompanying Pixelbook Pen in October 2017 with the launch of the Pixel 2 phone lineup.  At the time, and still today, many scoffed at the idea of a $1000 Chromebook, citing previous web-only experiences with Chrome OS.  But the world, and Chrome OS, has changed.  No longer does the platform require a constant connection to be functional and add to that the native Android app support of the Pixelbook, you have a device that can serve many purposes in your day-to-day life at work and at home.

The question for the Pixelbook, and really any Chromebook, is can it meet your needs?  I suspect that for the vast majority of readers, it will hit the 90-95% of what you need.  The question is can you live without the other 5-10% or compromise to make it work on this device?  That’s something I can’t answer for you as everyone’s 5-10% is different.

Recently I received a Google Pixelbook to review.  After spending a couple of weeks with it as my primary laptop device (as well as my Android tablet), I’m nothing short of impressed.  No the Pixelbook is not perfect but it is close.  Really close.

Actually, I should clarify that statement.  The Pixelbook, from a hardware perspective, is second-to-none.  The only limitations are with Chrome OS itself.  And with the additional features that are coming in future Chrome OS builds, that will change.

If you have been looking for the stock wallpaper from the Google Pixelbook, look no further.  I’ve added the waves on white sand wallpaper to the Wallpaper page here on the site but also have added it to this post below the break.  That’ll save those of you who aren’t interested having to wait for it to download.

The wallpaper measures 2400×2400 so you can manipulate it to work on all of your tablets, Chromebooks and of course, you phone.

One of the challenges for retailers is showing off a product’s capabilities without leaving it unlocked for random interactions from store visitors.  This can lead to anything from malicious code being loaded up to a porn site loaded up in the browser.  That is where a demo mode comes in handy and, to this point, is something that has not been in Chrome OS.  But that looks to be changing.

A new commit found in the Chrome OS review Gerrit shows that a demo mode could be in the works for the platform.  This would make it immeasurably easier for retailers to setup Chromebooks in their stores that highlight what the platform can do but not leave it open to questionable activity.

Right now, over at Amazon, you can pick up the entry level Google Pixelbook for $899, a savings of $100 off the regular price.  In fact, you can pick up the Pixelbook and the Pixelbook Pen together for $997, which is less than the normal price of the Chromebook itself.

The price is for the Intel i5 powered unit with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.  It is certainly powerful enough to do anything you would need, be it in Chrome OS or Android apps running on the device.