Category: Chrome OS

Acer has announced today that a new Acer Chromebook 15 is coming in October.  The newest addition to their Chromebook lineup will come in two variants, a non-touchscreen and touchscreen, will have up to 12 hours of battery life, a Full HD display and now sports an all aluminum chassis.  It is a big step up from the current generation of Acer 15″ Chromebook.

The new Chromebook 15 will have 1920 x 1080 resolution 15.6″ IPS display and has MacBook Pro style upward facing speakers next to the keyboard.  It has USB-C connectivity for charging, a SD card slot that supports up to a 128GB card.

If you are looking for a great deal on a powerful Chromebook and are willing to take an open box, Amazon is your place.  Right now they have an Asus Chromebook Flip 302 for $398.65 in the Amazon Warehouse.  That is nearly a $100 savings off the full price on Amazon.  The Chromebook will come repackaged by Amazon and still has the return option as they do on all their purchases.  But for sub-$400, you are getting a stellar Chromebook that supports Android apps.

The Asus Chromebook Flip has a 12.5″ display that has a resolution of 1920 x 1080.  It has an Intel Core M processor clocked at 2.2 GHz so it has a lot of horsepower under the hood.  Couple this with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and 64GB of storage, you have a Chromebook that can handle being your every day computer needs.

Chrome OS users, you can file this one under finally!  In a code commit by the Chromium team who lead up the Chrome OS platform effort in Google, the ability to change the name of an attached external drive or USB stick looks to be a Ctrl+Enter keystroke away in an upcoming release of the platform.

The change comes via a new flag that is enabled in the platform, more specifically in the Files app.  That flag allows for the ability to change the name of a drive to be added to the Format Device menu or through the Ctrl+Enter shortcut.

As a result, when ‘–enable-external-drive-rename’ flag is enabled you should be able to see rename option under ‘Format device’ in context menu or through shortcut Ctrl+Enter. Second visible change is decoupled external drive name and its mount point. Now you should also see entries with the exact same name if you use two or more partitions/disks with the exact same name.

You can read the full outline of the code commit here if you are interested.

Chrome OS Build 60, the latest version of the platform, is now rolling out to most devices.  Build 60.0.3112.80 (Platform version: 9592.71.0) contains a number of bug fixes, improvements and other enhancements to device.  The release of the Chrome OS update to Build 60 comes after updates to the Chrome browser and Chrome for Android apps over the course of the past week.

There is a rather extensive list of device that will not be seeing this update, at least not yet.

• Google Chromebook Pixel
• ASUS Chromebook Flip C302
• HP Chromebook 13 G1
• Samsung Chromebook Plus
• Dell Chromebook 13 3380
• Chromebook 14 for work (CP5-471)
• Acer Chromebook R13 (CB5-312T)
• Lenovo N23 Yoga/Flex 11 Chromebook
• Samsung Chromebook 2 11″
• AOpen Chromebox Mini
• AOpen Chromebase Mini
• AOpen Chromebox Commercial
• Lenovo Thinkpad 11e Chromebook
• Acer Chromebook 15 (CB3-532)
• Samsung Chromebook 3
• Acer Chromebook R11
• Chromebook 11 Model 3180
• ASUS Chromebook C202SA

The devices on the list not getting the update are generally those which are able to run Android apps natively (i.e. in the Stable channel) and are on a slightly different train.  If your Chrome OS device is not on the above list, the easiest way to get the update is to open up the browser and type chrome://help and check for the update.  I’ve already updated my Acer Chromebook 14 to this new build and it took about 5 minutes to download and install.

An update for Chrome OS is currently rolling out to the stable channel.  The update is build 59.0.3071.134 (Platform versions: 9460.73.0, 9460.73.1) for those keeping score at home and should be hitting devices over the course of the next few days.  Unlike similar releases over the course of the past few months, Google did not indicate any specific devices this update would not be coming to this week.  Rather, they simply indicate “most devices” will see the update.

To check to see if the update is coming to your Chrome device, go to chrome://help in the browser on your Chromebook or Chromebox and check for the update.  If it is available to your device, it will start downloading and after a restart, will be installed.

Today’s Deal is on the new Samsung Chromebook Plus.  The 12.3″ convertible has been selling for $450 but is down to $408.65 right now on Amazon.  That will get you one of the latest Chromebooks available and it will run Android apps natively right out of the box.

The Chromebook Plus has a 12.3″ display rendering at 2400 x 1600.  It is also a touchscreen which makes using the included stylus or your finger for apps easier.  It has 4GB of RAM, 32GB of Storage and you can expand that storage thanks to the MicroSD slot.  It has dual-microphones, a 720p Webcam and, of course, Wi-Fi.  It only ways 2.4 lbs so it is designed for portability and with it being able to be be used as a laptop or a slate, you have a lot of flexibility in where and how you use this Chromebook.