Among Acer's computing wares this year is the Chromebook 315, a generously sized laptop running Chrome OS and packing a number of features. Though the model won't blow anyone away, the device's price tag beckons consumers to take a second look. With a starting price of $280 USD, the Acer Chromebook 315 has a lot to offer buyers compared to other laptops in this price range.
It seems that the age of AMD-powered Chromebooks is coming. Granted, two doesn’t really make for a new trend but that’s still two more than none. But while Acer boasted to be the first to announce one such Chromebook, HP will actually have the first bite of that market. The new HP Chromebook 14 will land on shelves first and it will truly put to the test whether AMD’s system-on-chip will have more to say, no to mention more battery life, than Intel’s equivalents.
Up until recently, Chromebooks were mostly regarded to be the successors of netbooks, smaller or weaker cousins of laptops built for very basic use and low prices. In the past two years or so, the platform has outgrown that image and has branched not only into new form factors as well as more powerful hardware, the latter mostly made up of a very small number of Intel-powered devices. Not one to be left behind, AMD has teamed up with Acer to build the Acer Chromebook 315, the first of its kind to run not only on an AMD processor but also a Radeon graphics chip.
Chrome OS has been most successful in schools, powering low-cost, reliable devices for students. Asus has produced several Chromebook models aimed at the classroom, and now the company has updated its lineup with an interesting new addition: its first Chrome OS tablet. With a 9.7-inch touchscreen display, the Asus' CT100 seems perfectly geared for younger kids who prefer to touch over type, and it's reinforced to survive classroom abuse.
Life in school can be tough, and not just for humans. From notebooks to calculators to laptops, the use and abuse our school supplies go through require them to be just as tough. That’s especially true for gadgets that are becoming even more commonplace in academic institutions these days. And these days, Google’s Chrome OS is rising to be the favored platform and ASUS’ new line of touch Chromebooks, which includes a tablet, will be rolling out to fulfill those need.
It almost sounds ironic, or even maybe suspicious, but tech companies like Google and Apple are finally taking their influential roles seriously. They’ve started to implement tools that make you aware of your addiction to devices and the Internet and ways to change that lifestyle. But while adults may have a harder time readjusting their habits, kids are still easy to train. That’s why following its release on Android, Google is now launching its Family Link app on Chromebooks to give parents the same control on some laptops.
Chrome OS should have been Google’s ticket back into the tablet and productivity world. Indeed, its Pixel Slate announcement was filled with rhetoric about how real computers have real desktop browsers. But while the Pixel Slate fared mostly fine in early reviews when it came to the hardware, there was were some lingering doubts about its overall utility. The uncertainty and doubt might not be over for the platform if its first Snapdragon-powered Chromebook, the one codenamed “cheza”, is as terrible as these first benchmark scores seem to imply.
If the Pixelbook demonstrated Google could make a compelling laptop, the Google Pixel Slate is its attempt to do the same for tablets. Like the latest iPad Pro, it's a confident claim that what was once considered a pared-back, mobile OS can now wear Big Boy Pants and be everything you need to do "real work" on the go. In the process, though, Google finds itself bumping up against some of the same challenges that Apple did with its tablet, and the Pixel Slate doesn't always have the best answers either.
Google seems to grooming Chrome OS to be the one OS that runs them all. Well, almost all since, at the moment, it can only run Chrome apps, Android apps via Google Play Store, and Linux apps via the Debian GNU/Linux distro. But while that arrangement might seem like the perfect setup, at least for users who prefer Linux over, say, Windows or macOS, reality isn’t all sunshine and roses. It might be, soon, if Linux programs will finally be able to access Android files and folders.
![Google Pixel Slate shipping early for expedited orders [UPDATE]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/google-pixel-slate-10.jpg){kind=tracking}
It seems that Google can’t yet make up its mind when its Pixel Slate will actually start shipping, keeping excited would-be owners on the edge of their seats. Announced in early October, the 2-in-1 Chrome OS device was noted to ship before the year ends. Pre-orders then started early with some retailers showing mid-November dates. And then the Google Store dashed some hope with a December schedule. Now it seems, however, that the Pixel Slate will indeed start arriving in a few days, at least for those who paid extra to be a bit early.
It seems that Google's Pixel Slate is very nearly here. Today, the Google Store was updated with expected shipping times for all varieties of the Pixel Slate. Though each model has a shipping time that's at least a few weeks out, they should all begin shipping to customers before the end of the year.
There's a new web app for Chrome called Squoosh this week, made by Google to prove the next generation of web apps are viable. That might seem pretty boring to everyone that's already got their traditional apps already downloaded - but the future is coming. With this app, Developer Advocate Jake Archibald and Drawsplainer Mariko Kosaka show how Javascript in a web browser can make the impossible task of up-scaling a photo quite possible indeed.