ClintonFitch.com

When the Huawei Matebook X was introduced earlier this year, it caught a lot of eyes.  The ultra-slim design and nearly bezel-less display were the immediate wow factors but so too was the overall construction of the Windows 10 laptop.  The question, of course, was if the form factor was overshadowed by a lack of performance.  In this case, the answer is no.

The Matebook X is a powerful laptop with few compromises.  Aimed at taking full advantage of Windows 10, it is designed to be a great laptop for those on the road as well as those in their home or work offices.  Speed and battery life are exceptional, making it easily through most of the day before you have to start finding a power outlet to recharge.

Recently Huawei Devices USA sent me a Matebook X to review and having used it for the last couple of weeks, it is an impressive ultra-compact laptop.  The display is stunning and the overall performance is great.  It should be one on your short list to consider.

As expected, the Chrome OS Dev Channel has now been updated to its first Chrome 69 based build today.  The update was expected given that Chrome 67 is now in the Stable Channel and the Beta Channel was updated yesterday to Chrome 68.  The new build in the Dev Channel is 69.0.3464.0 (Platform version: 10798.0.0).

As a reminder to those who are new to Chrome OS, the Chrome OS Dev Channel is considered the alpha build channel for the platform.  Builds here often contain many bugs and odd performance issues and it is recommended only for developers to use to get a preview of what is coming in the platform.

The available movies on YouTube TV just got bigger – a lot bigger.  The cord cutting streaming service has announced that Starz is now available on the service for $9 per month.  As usual, it comes with a 7-day trial so you can check it out prior to your first billing.

What’s cool about this is that it isn’t just one Starz channel.  In all, you get the entire 16 channel lineup from Starz with all of the benefits that you have with YouTube TV such as a cloud-based DVR.

After several leaks and some speculation, Google pulled back the covers on their latest app, Google Podcasts.  The app has an index of some 2 million podcasts for you to listen to on your Android device – and it works great on a Chromebook too.

The app is fully supported by Google Assistant, allowing you to begin listening to a podcast on your phone then finish it up at home on your Google Home.  Further, thanks to Google’s AI, recommendations are given to you based on your listening habits.