Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet - Hitting The Sweet Spot

This is a review of the Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet.  I hereby announce I am just going to call this thing "Duet" for the remainder of this review.  I will briefly describe the product for those that might have missed the large number of announcements and reviews - and I urge you to check those out, as this has been a highly anticipated and sought-after device.

The Duet is an early example of what might become a popular device category - the Chrome tablet.   The Chrome OS is a slimmed down Linux operating system tuned to run the full desktop version of the Chrome browser (with plugin extensions and apps), which generally will require a keyboard and either a trackpad or mouse to operate comfortably.  It therefore may seem like an odd thing to want to run this on a tablet, but a couple years ago Google began altering Chrome OS to enable it to also run Android apps, to add capabilities beyond what could be done in the browser.  Android apps are tuned to run on a mobile device with a touchscreen.  

This melding of Android apps with Chrome OS led to nearly all modern Chromebooks having touchscreens and some form of convertability, usually with a keyboard that rotates into a position behind the screen.  This does not necessarily make a standard Chromebook into a good tablet.  For example, I have a Samsung Chromebook Pro with a 12 inch screen - the keyboard rotates all the way around flat behind the screen, but the device is too big and too heavy for comfortable use as a tablet.  

Enter the Duet, not the first device in this category but certainly newest and most interesting.  This device is designed to be used as a tablet, with the capability of "going into laptop mode", rather than being a laptop that goes into tablet mode.  This means it works really well as a tablet - but it leads to design decisions that some may not care for.  The body of the device itself is thin, light, with a bright 10 inch screen.  It is easily held in one hand leaving the other hand free for touchscreen operation.  The Duet will make an excellent couch surfer, airplane companion, etc.  As with any modern tablet you have front and rear cameras and built-in microphones, power and volume buttons, and a single USB-C port.  That last is going to be a struggle for some folks when we talk about using this as a laptop, but remember - this is a tablet first, laptop second.

The Duet comes with 4 gigs of RAM.  Some in the Chromebook crowd are complaining about this, but for average people in real-world Chromebook use it's generally enough and can run multiple Android apps handily.  On the other hand the device has 128 gigs of storage, which is important if you plan to install a bunch of Android apps.  Notably, in one of those "tablet first" compromises there is no card reader for an SD card.  I'll address that a little later on, but combined with the single USB port, the design choices here seem to push one towards needing a USB-C hub.  Honestly it's not an absolute necessity and it will depend on how you intend to use the device.  

One great thing about the Duet is the promise of eight years of software updates.  Unlike your average Android device or even most Chromebooks, there is a serious commitment to making this device useful for the long haul.

So how do we turn this tablet into a laptop?  It's done with the connection of two addon devices which I should point out are supplied with the tablet, rather than being extra purchases.  First there is a magnetic back "cover" that snaps to the back of the tablet and which has a fold-out stand.  The fold-out stand has a very wide range of positions so you can get the angle just right, and it can be useful to hold the tablet up even as a tablet.  On the down side it adds considerable weight.  This won't matter when the Duet is sitting on a desk but when toting it around with you, it will be noticeable.  Second there is a keyboard which is also magnetically attached.  There are a number of connection points on the edge of the tablet and the keyboard that have to line up, but they pop together so easily it almost feels like magic.

The keyboard itself is...nice?  Not nice?  This is such a subjective measure.  First it's not real big and it can't be, given that it "fits" the 10-inch screen.  You can certainly pair up a full size keyboard over Bluetooth or with a USB connection but we're talking portability here, something that is designed specifically for this tablet.  In order to keep most of the keys decent size and maintain some spacing, some of the keys (mainly for punctuation) have been reduced to about half-width.  So you will read some reviews where people complain that the combination of the small keyboard size and the tiny punctuation keys makes it hard to type.  For the record I'm typing this blog post on the Duet keyboard.  My hands aren't huge but they're by no means small either and my fingers are long.  It's a tad cramped, and I do make some mistakes here.  I am adjusting.  I think it's fair to say that I would not want to use this keyboard as my primary / only keyboard for the rest of my life - but I would also say it is WAY better than typing with an onscreen keyboard.  I am going on a trip in a couple months out of the country for 3 weeks, I'll be using this device to remotely connect to work on occasion, and for basic use it's going to be just fine.  Note:  my 3 week trip was cancelled due to COVID considerations but I did a 9 day road trip and used the Duet with its tiny keyboard daily.  It worked and I didn't die.  I didn't mention the trackpad yet - it works.  It's not spectacular.  Personally I usually carry a small Logitech mouse and plug in a USB wireless thingy.  I'll probably keep doing that.  But just to be clear, I have used the trackpad and it does work.  It's fine.

So where are we?   We got ourselves a nice tablet - 10-inch, bright screen, light weight.  I didn't mention the performance before but it's smooth - I've run big Android games and apps, not a single hiccup or stutter.  I don't open 100 tabs or anything but every site I use displays flawlessly and I don't notice any issues.  We got a nice back-cover / stand that holds the screen up at any angle, and a detachable keyboard which, if not spectacular, is perfectly usable.  What's left to talk about?

Well first there is that single USB-C port.  This may be a tablet-first-laptop-second, but it is a Chromebook, and being able to connect peripherals is part of the game.  You're going to likely want a USB-C hub.   There are a ton out there and I'm not going to describe them all but I just got a new one I like a lot - I bought this VAVA 9-1 USB-C Hub at Amazon.  It passes the USB-C power through to the latop / tablet while giving me 2 USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, a Ethernet network port, an audio jack, a full-size SD card reader and a TF (microSD) card reader.   This was a bit pricey, and honestly I will not use it often, but I will not want to be without it.  In particular when I go on a longer trip like the one I have planned, I'm going to want the USB 2.0 port for my mouse dongle.  

Second, the Duet does not come with a stylus but supposedly it is designed to work with any stylus that meets the new USI standards - Universal Stylus Initiative, that is.  USI styli are powered devices with electronics inside that let them communicate to the device on which they're being used - stuff like angle and pressure, etc.  Lenovo will have one coming out eventually but right now options are few.  It will be a little while before we know how this will shake out.  

The final thing to note is the price, and this is the part that has so many in the Chromebook community so excited - the full package as described above, with the back stand and keyboard, and with 128 gigs of storage, costs $300 (ok, it's $299). In the U.S. this is only available through Best Buy but there will be other resellers eventually, as well as a 64-gig version for $279 (honestly, $20 to double the storage on a device that will be running Android apps is not much).  $300 for a nice tablet with the stand and keyboard seems like a steal.  Now ... I already said I spent more money on a USB-C hub, and I am thinking I'll buy the Lenovo USI pen when it comes out so my total spend will probably push me over $400, but those are choices I'm making.

I think the Duet works really well, feels great as a tablet, works well enough as a Chrombook to use for extended periods (but probably not full time forever), and with the included accessories makes for a fantastic value.  It's a keeper.

One Year On - My Experience With A Chromebook

Note: If you don't know what a Chromebook is, this article may not make much sense.  Check out this link  to learn the basics - there are numerous other reviews and articles on the Internet that you can find with a quick search.  Then come back here to find out how using a Chromebook has worked for me!

Solving A Common Problem With Chromebook Smart Lock

I have a Toshiba Chromebook 2, and when I saw the new Smart Lock feature I really wanted to try it out.  Basically Smart Lock allows the Chromebook to be automatically unlocked when it is within Bluetooth range of an Android phone.  Android phones themselves have a similar feature that can be activated by proximity to a Bluetooth device, within a particular geographic location, etc.  I was therefore a little bummed to find that I couldn't use Smart Lock because my phone, a Samsung Galxy Note 3 on Verizon, was still on Android version 4.x - Chromebook's Smart Lock only works with phones running Android 5.x (code named Lollipop).

A couple of weeks ago Verizon finally pushed out the Lollipop update for the Note 3, so naturally I immediately tried setting up Smart Lock...and it didn't work.  The procedure goes like this:

You need an Android phone running Lollipop (duh).  The phone and the Chromebook both have to be registered to the same Google account.  They have to be within Bluetooth range of one another.  And they both have to be connected to the Internet.

When you activate the feature (by going into the Chromebook's settings - advanced section and clicking the setup button for Smart Lock) the first thing that happens is the Chromebook locks itself, requiring you to supply your password.  Then a dialog box comes up with some notes about what you're doing and a button to "Find your phone."  And this is where the problem showed up - each time I clicked it, the setup tool reported that it could not find my phone.

Browsing around online I found people suggesting that you need to pair your Chromebook and phone prior to setting up Smart Lock (the Google instructions do not say this).  It didn't work.  Some folks suggested you have to turn on Smart Lock on the phone itself (also not according to Google).  That didn't help either.

I opened a support ticket with Google, and the first thing they suggested was that because I was running on the Chromebook beta channel, they couldn't help, and that I would have to switch to stable (necessitating a powerwash).  When that didn't help, they suggested a "hard reset" on the Chromebook (pressing the refresh and power keys at the same time) and a reboot of the phone - still no joy.  After that the support person didn't have anything new to offer.

As I continued searching for a solution I found a number of people who claimed to have had the problem and to have solved it by wiping their phones - doing a factory reset.  This seemed a little extreme but it began to suggest a solution.  Finally I found some information that it might have something to do with how the phone is registered with Google, specifically with "Google Play."

Basically, when you first set up an Android phone with Google, it reports itself to Google, and the information is used with Google Play services to show you only those apps which will work with your device.  But somehow the process of getting a phone upgraded to Android 5.x doesn't update the information they have stored about it.

The reason this matters is that when you click "Find your phone" during the Chromebook Smart Lock procedure, it isn't looking for your phone via Bluetooth - it is checking with Google Play to see if you have a phone registered running Lollipop.  Those folks wiping and reloading their phones were basically forcing the phones to re-register themselves with Google Play services.

It turns out there is an easier way to do this.  What you need to do is to force Google Play Services on your phone to update itself.  The way to do this is to essentially uninstall Google Play Services on the phone, and reinstall it.  On most phones, the way to do this is to go into the settings for the phone, then the Applications area where you can see all applications running on the phone.  Tapping on Google Play Services will bring you to a screen where you can uninstall it.  Note that on most phones you are not completely uninstalling Google Play Services, but rather uninstalling all the updates it has received.  You can also do a "force stop" on it.  After doing this, Google Play Services should update itself on the phone.  And when it does, it will register with Google Play the fact that you are running Lollipop.

Once this is done the Chromebook should be able to find the phone.  It worked for me, it has worked for others, and I hope it will work for you.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that when I went to "uninstall" Google Play Services, at first I couldn't because the buttons were greyed out.  This was because I had tried to set up Smart Lock on the phone itself, and the phone was now using the services.  To turn it off, I had to go into Settings - Security - Trust Agents and disable Smart Lock on the phone there.  Once I did that I was able to proceed with uninstalling.

Attack Of The Clones (Microsoft Takes On Chromebooks)

Tech news and business websites are posting lots of stories these days suggesting that Microsoft is "targeting" Chromebooks with a new line of cheap laptops.  The HP Stream, priced at about $200, was the first major entry in the category, and now we're seeing reports that Microsoft is partnering with hardware vendors to create laptops well below that price.  The term "Chromebook killer" is cropping up all over.  Microsoft seems to be particularly worried about the adoption of Chromebooks in school systems, where the combination of utility and ease of administration makes them an obvious choice.  A new generation of computer users is getting regular exposure to Chromebooks, learning that they are capable devices through daily use, and those young people will grow up to be consumers one day.  It's easy to see why this is a real concern.

Here's why I think it's a losing game for Microsoft:

1. Chromebooks aren't about "cheap": It's true that many Chromebooks are inexpensive.  But their low price isn't necessarily the primary goal - rather, it's the logical result of the architecture.  The point of a Chromebook is to leverage cloud server-based computing and storage, more or less turning the laptop into a terminal device.  Chromebooks have cheap, low-power processors simply because they can.  And not all Chromebooks are "cheap" - my Toshiba Chromebook 2 with 1080p IPS display costs over $300, due largely to the spectacular display and better-than-average sound hardware.  In building cheap Windows laptops, Microsoft is missing the point - lots, maybe even most of the people buying Chromebooks aren't buying them because they're too poor to afford anything else.  They're buying Chromebooks because they like what they offer.
2. Chromebook buyers see the lack of Windows as an advantage: Windows is bloated.  It requires a lot of resources to run well.  It's popularity, and aspects of it's design, make it a favorite target for hackers.  It has to be patched constantly, and the patching process is cumbersome and fraught with problems.  It can't be run safely without add-on applications to guard against viruses and other malware.  It gets fouled up with use over time.  And in environments where IT staff have to administer large-scale deployments, it takes a lot of work to manage. Chromebooks aren't like that.  They are relatively stable.  The OS is replaced on a regular basis rather than patched, and the process is very smooth and quick (simply requiring a reboot that takes, on average, about 10 seconds).  Chromebooks are relatively safe from malware, and offer a simple way to remove all customizations and return to factory configurations (called the powerwash).
3. Windows needs resources: Microsoft likes to point out all the things you can do with Windows, but not with Chromebooks (warning - the link above contains several factual errors).  And it's true - you can't install full versions of Microsoft Office on a Chromebook.  You can't install Photoshop on a Chromebook.  You can't install commercial, power-hungry games on a Chromebook.   What these comparisons fail to point out is that while you can install these things on a cheap, sub-$200 Windows laptop, running them with acceptable performance is another matter entirely.  The last time Microsoft decided to try this, the market was flooded with cheap "netbooks" which many users found frustrating to use.  In some ways, these new, cheap Windows laptops will be even less capable than those netbooks - Microsoft is pushing the use of super-low-power CPUs like the Bay Trail Celerons (which do fine on tablets and Chromebooks, but which are not predicted to run intensive applications like Photoshop all that well).  The new laptops are coming with internal storage reminiscent of a Chromebook - like the 32gig SSDs in the HP Stream - and offering free cloud storage for 1 year, similar to Chromebooks - but that storage is paltry for the installation of applications like Photoshop and Microsoft Office.  They come with 2GB of RAM, barely enough to get Windows up and running, and in no way adequate to run Photoshop or advanced games.  The best way to summarize the problem is that in order to hit the desired price-point, Microsoft has had to lower the hardware resources to such a low level that the Windows experience is likely to be sub-par.  They may garner some sales in the short-term, but people expecting to run Office, Photoshop, or triple-A game titles will be disappointed.  My guess is this will hurt Microsoft in the long run.

It isn't my conclusion that Chromebooks are going to kill off Windows, and few Chromebook users think so.  However I do believe that Chromebooks fill an important niche, and I just don't see any way that Microsoft can play in that space without sacrificing Windows' strengths.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Two Weeks In Belize With Chromebook

Early in March I traveled to Belize to visit my girlfriend and enjoy a break from work.  This was my first opportunity to travel with my Toshiba Chromebook 2, and to rely on it as my primary computing device for an extended period.  I carried the CB2 in my CaseLogic 14-inch Checkpoint-Friendly Laptop Bag. I'd already been using the CB2 and the bag for a while each day going to work, but relying on these things for a couple of weeks away from home would be interesting.

I'll address the performance of the bag first - simply put, it was perfect.  Although the bag - designed for a 14-inch laptop - was a lot smaller than the huge laptop backpack I used to carry, it was just right for my needs.  In it I had my Chromebook and charger, a mouse, my Kindle (Paperwhite verison 2, I like e-ink e-readers better than tablets for reading), my wallet, passport, and a bunch of little stuff - pens, paper, keys, loose change, etc.  Fully loaded, the bag was still lighter and easier to move around than the old backpack.  Access to my stuff was always super convenient.  The bag easily fits under airline seats.

The main feature of this bag is its "security friendly" design, which means you don't have to take your laptop out of the bag (if you use it correctly).  The laptop fits in a compartment in the rear of the bag all by itself, and when you are putting it through a security scanner, you unzip the bag such that the laptop compartment lies flat to one side by itself.  As long as you have put nothing else in the compartment, the security scanners can "see" the laptop without obstruction.  And when the bag exits the scanner you can grab the shoulder strap, pick it up, and it (more or less) "closes" so you can just walk away.  I went through airport security checkpoints 3 times with this bag and at no time did anyone take issue with it, in America or Belize.

Finishing up with my thoughts on the bag - with the one caveat that this particular bag is designed for a 14-inch laptop and thus is intentionally smaller than other bags - I highly recommend it.

The Chromebook was similarly a joy to use.  I won't go into what Chromebooks are all about here - if you like the idea of a laptop designed around cloud-based services you will understand.  The fun started when I got on the American Airlines flight from Miami to Belize and found that they had GoGo in-flight Internet.  My Chromebook came with 12 free passes for GoGo and so I got to try out the service.  It worked well - and was very weird, sitting there posting to G+, and doing Hangouts chats with friends at 30,000 feet.  Shortly after we cleared Cuba (about an hour into the flight) the service dropped out - the GoGo page seemed to indicate that they don't have rights to offer the service everywhere.  Those free passes are only good for one year from the purchase of the Chromebook so I don't know if I'll get another chance to use them, but it was really neat.  

Since the Chromebook is mainly for use online, Internet availability obviously is a concern - "offline" apps notwithstanding, nearly everything you would want to do with a Chromebook really does require an Internet connection.  My girlfriend has DSL and a wireless router at her home on Ambergris Caye, so most of the time connectivity was not an issue - we did spend some time getting the phone company to work on her connection as she was getting only getting about 1mbps despite being signed up for 2mbps service.  

Pretty much every morning, I would grab my coffee and head out to the porch to enjoy the beautiful weather, listen to the birds singing, and catch up with the world.  I would check my email (with Google Inbox), read the news on CNN, catch up with friends and family on Facebook, follow my Google+ groups, the usual stuff.  All of this is very normal, mundane activity - and it may be accurately pointed out that it could all be done on a smartphone or tablet - but the experience on all of these is better with a full-fledged browser like Chrome.  Having a "real" keyboard is a major plus, especially when posting.  And although I've never really liked trackpads, I got so comfortable using the Toshiba CB2 trackpad that I never bothered hooking up my mouse.

During the visit I tried streaming from Hulu and Netflix.  Hulu's geographic restrictions prevented me from using my account - I have yet to sign up for a good VPN service - but Netflix worked fine even with the 2mbps DSL connection.  I also had a number of movies stored on my SD card and the Chromebook playback was great - this model has a 1080p IPS screen and everything looked wonderful.

In short, the Toshiba Chromebook 2 performed perfectly as a portable computing platform.  For me the Chromebook has always been about having a useful secondary device, never meant to replace my desktop.  I have it on my desk at work every day, and occasionally use it in the living room at home.  However, for the two weeks I was in Belize, I found it to be great for everyday use and never once found myself wishing for anything more.

Sloppy Programming Leads To Confusion

Recently I posted on Google+ about a deal on a Brother laser printer (the HL-L2380DW), and then wrote a blog post about it.  A Google+ user who bought the same printer ran into a problem accessing the web interface of the printer after he got it on the network.  Here's why:

When you set up the brother on your network for the first time, you'll probably let it get assigned an IP address automatically from your home router using dynamic host configuration protocol, or DHCP.  That means you won't necessarily be able to predict what IP address has been assigned.  You might be able to find it by looking at your router if it has a way of displaying what IP addresses it's given out, but most people will simply use the LCD touchscreen on the printer to browse to the information, and therein lies the problem.

Brother displays IP addresses with leading zeros padding the octets of the IP address.  For example, my printer at home has IP address 192.168.0.22.  But on the display, the printer shows it as 192.168.000.022.  If you weren't familiar with the normal notation of an IP address and tried to enter this into a web browser, you might get some odd results.

I have three browsers on my desktop system - Safari, Firefox, and Chrome.  Interestingly, Safari was able to bring up the printer's web interface with no apparent difficulty, while leaving the display on the URL bar showing 192.168.000.022.  Firefox also left the display alone, but was not able to bring up the page.  Chrome interpreted the last octet as being written in octal (base 8) due to the leading zero, and converted it to decimal 18 (presumably it also detected the third octet as octal as well, but since 000 in octal and 0 in decimal are the same thing, it doesn't really matter).  Chrome changed the URL display to read 192.168.0.18, and failed to contact the printer.

A user commenting on the Google+ post commented that this behavior (interpreting an octet in an IP address as octal due to a leading zero) is expected, if perhaps unhelpful.

It would be nice if Brother could correct the display on the LCD to prevent confusion like this from occurring.

First Impressions - CaseLogic 14-inch Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Bag

Back in 2007 I bought a MacBook Pro 17-inch laptop.  It was as sleek as it could be, but still a bit of a beast to haul around.  At the same time, I purchased a laptop backpack big enough to carry it comfortably (one of those SwissGear suckers everyone carries these days).  I pretty much stopped using the MacBook years ago, but I've used the backpack for seven and a half years, day in and day out, to work and back, and on numerous trips.  It's been a gem.

Lately though I've wanted something a bit smaller and more convenient to use on a day-to-day basis.  I recently bought a Toshiba Chromebook 2, a light and thin laptop with a 13-inch screen.  The old backpack just swallows it up.  Even throwing in my kindle, wallet, phone, and a bunch of other junk I don't really need to tote everywhere I go, there was lots of wasted space.  After 7 years the plastic wrap on the top handle-strap is breaking apart, and well, I've been itching to make a change.

My choice was the Case Logic 14-inch Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Bag (see it at Case Logic's website or over at Amazon where you can read some other reviews).  The bag just arrived, and I have some first impressions.  

Let me start by saying that this appears to be a well-made bag.  The material is the pretty standard black canvas, seems water-resistant, with solid zippers and strap attachments.  The handles are made of the canvas cloth but are well padded and I think will be comfortable for everyday carrying.

What makes this a "Checkpoint Friendly" bag?  You can read the official TSA writeup, but basically it's a laptop bag that can be run through the security scanner without removing the laptop.  The laptop compartment has to be specially designed so that there are no zippers or buckles that would interfere with the scanner's view of the laptop.  Virtually all such bags are designed to "zip open" so that the laptop compartment lies flat with everything else out of the way.

With that in mind, the first thing to note is that this bag does indeed have a dedicated laptop compartment that appears to meet the TSA requirements.  The compartment itself has a set of zippers that only unzip partway down the sides, so that you don't accidentally unzip it far enough for the laptop to fall out.  This review is for the 14-inch version, and my Toshiba Chromebook 2 fits comfortably in the compartment with maybe a half-inch clearance on either side.  Note that you are not supposed to put ANYTHING else in this compartment, including charger, cables, mice, or anything else that might obstruct the scanner's view, and frankly the space is too tight for anything but the laptop.

The next most important feature is a set of zippers, just forward (towards the front of the bag) from the laptop compartment.  These do unzip clear down the sides of the bag, and allow it to lay flat.  When open, the laptop compartment lies by itself on one side, and anything else in the bag on the other.  The laptop side has a red cloth tag with the words "Security Friendly" on it, I suppose just in case you get a TSA agent who hasn't seen one of these before.  The opposite side of this compartment has a mesh pocket where you could conceivably put some papers or something.  I am thinking I will never put anything in there, just so that when this baby is lying flat on the scanner there will be nothing exposed.

Now I've described two sets of zippers already, and there are more to go.  At first I was envisioning myself fumbling around in the security line at the airport trying to figure out what to unzip, but CaseLogic has me covered - the zippers that open the bag flat have red stitching on them, where all the other zippers are just plain black.  Once you notice this there is no way you're going to make a mistake.  What is a little tricky is that there are cloth handles sewn on either side of this opening, as well as two strap buckles, one on each side of the compartment, at opposite sides of the bag (diagonal from one another).  With the handles and strap buckles and the strap itself, it can feel a little clumsy getting ahold of the zippers and getting them open.  I suspect this will become second nature after a few tries.

I mentioned buckles on either side of that last section, and a strap.  The reason they're placed on either side of this compartment is so that after the bag comes through security, you can just grab the strap and snatch it up, and the bag will automatically close (albeit still unzipped).  If you are trying to rush through security this could save you a little time.  If you are having trouble envisioning this, check out the CaseLogic site link above, where there are pictures of this function in action.

Just forward from the "lay flat" section is another full-sized, zippered compartment.  On one side is a silk-like cloth pocket that could be used for pretty much anything.  However the other side has a padded, felt-lined pocket designed for a tablet.  This is a nice touch - a bag designed for both a laptop and tablet!  I don't carry a tablet these days, but I'm sure my Kindle will be right at home here.

Again towards the front of the bag is a smaller compartment with various pockets for things like passport, credit or business cards, etc.  There is an attachment point for a keychain, and a couple of pen-holders in there.  Finally, right on the front of the bag is yet another small compartment for, well, anything you didn't stick somewhere else, I suppose.

I have transferred pretty much my whole kit from the old laptop bag to the new CaseLogic bag.  It's definitely a bit more snug - moving from a laptop backpack designed for a 17" laptop down to a briefcase-style bag designed for a 14-inch laptop, there's obviously going to be less room.  Of course that also translates to "carry less junk", which is not a bad thing at all.  It appears that even stuffed full it will have no problem fitting under an airplane seat in front of me when I travel.

I think I'm going to love this bag.  I'll be taking it to work Monday, and in a couple of weeks it's going with me to Belize.  I'll update this post with final impressions after the trip.

Chromebook - How I Work, Apps I Use

I purchased my first Chromebook a few months ago, knowing full well the "limitations" of a device that "only" runs Chrome, and which requires an Internet connection for most functions.  Of course Chrome is actually a platform that can support a variety of apps and extensions, all of which make it feel like much more than a browser.  The purpose of this post is to share the apps I find most useful for day to day tasks, what I like (or don't) about them, and to mention a couple of peripheral devices I find handy.  I intend to update this post on occasion as I find new things that are useful.

One of the great things about the Chrome Web Store is that like other "app" stores, there are frequently multiple choices for apps that fill a given need.  Since nearly all of the apps are free, it doesn't hurt to try different things until you find a good fit.  In most cases I've found things that work at least "well-enough", in a few cases I've found things that are fantastic, and in rare cases I've simply found the current choices just aren't very good (yet).

Mouse

I have a Toshiba Chromebook 2, which happens to have a nice trackpad - large, smooth, accurate.  However there are just times when I prefer to use a mouse.  The Chromebook supports just about any standard mouse, whether connected by USB, Bluetooth, or receiver.  My choice is the Logitech M325.  It's small enough to carry around, big enough to actually use, and battery life is very good.  The M325 uses the Logitech Unifying Receiver, a tiny USB wart that doesn't stick out very far (I leave mine plugged in all the time, whether or not I'm using the mouse).  No extra software is required to use the mouse, but if you want to link more than one Logitech device to the receiver, there is now a "Logitech Unifying For Chrome" app you can install from the Web Store which will allow up to six devices to use a single receiver.  

Printing

By default, you can "print to PDF" and have the file saved locally or on your Google Drive.  If you want an actual hard copy printout straight from the Chromebook (i.e. without having to transfer the file to another computer to then print), you will want a Google Cloud Printer.  Quite a few printers these days are Cloud Print-ready, meaning they do not need to be shared from a regular PC or Mac.  My choice was the Brother HL-L2380DW, a black and white laser printer with copy and scan features.  

Storage

Local

The Chromebook will (usually) have either 16 or 32 GB of local, SSD storage (actual available storage will be less due to spaced used for the OS).  Although the design goal of Chromebooks is for you to use cloud storage for most of your files, there are times when it's useful to have some things stored locally - for example if I'm going on a trip and I'm not sure I'll have solid Internet connectivity, I might want to load up some movies to take along, etc.  Pretty much every Chromebook has an SD card reader.  They also have one or more USB ports, so various types of USB drives can be connected (from thumb drives to hard drives, etc.).  My choice was to buy a 64GB microSD card and to leave it in the machine at all times.  It was pretty cheap, it's fast, and at least on the Toshiba it mounts flush.

Online

Google offers new Chromebook users 100GB of Google Drive storage free for two years.  Then if you wish to continue using it you can pay a monthly or yearly fee for whatever amount you need.  By that time you should have a fair idea how much you actually need, which may be far less than the 100GB.  As fond as I am of Google, I hadn't used by Google Drive much prior to owning the Chromebook.  Now that I have one, I have added Google Drive access to my desktop Mac at home, and my desktop PC at work, and it's so easy to move things around that I am wondering why I didn't do it sooner.  It's SO much easier than copying files to thumb drives, emailing them around, etc.

Email

I have been a Gmail user for about as long as the service has been available.  Lately I have switched to Google's Inbox interface for my Gmail accounts.  I'm not entirely sure I like Inbox all that much, because I prefer to delete old emails as opposed to archiving them, and they buried the delete function in a menu.  Also it performs kind of poorly on the Chromebook.  I'm giving it some time to see if they can do some optimization.  However, I like they way it organizes and groups thing, I like the "helpers" or accelerators or whatever they call them which scrape your emails and present helpful information directly in the interface (like information about upcoming flights, and tracking information for purchases).  I have several Gmail accounts, and I nearly always have at least two Inbox tabs open when I'm on the Chromebook.

Chatting (Instant Messaging)

Right now all I'm using is Google Hangouts on the Chromebook.  I don't do much Facebook messaging but I can do that within the standard Facebook web interface just fine (if I ever install a Facebook messaging app that I like, I'll add it to the list).  I have not yet tried any of the options for linking to my phone for SMS messaging.  

Office Suite

I use Google's Docs & Sheets.  If I needed to do a presentation I'd use Slides.  I do not work on "work" documents on my Chromebook, it's only my personal stuff, and for that the Google choices are more than adequate.

Calendar

I have been using Sunrise Calendar for a while now and I really like it.  It interfaces with LOTs of different calendar systems and merges everything into a single, useful view.  I like that it pulls in Facebook birthdays and events.  I also like that it runs in a separate "app window" on the Chromebook.  I almost always have Sunrise open on my Chromebook.

Twitter

I have installed Tweetdeck.  It has a great, multicolumn interface, looks awesome (it's one of those apps that make you forget you're "just" running Chrome), runs in it's own window...I almost always have it up and running.

Reddit

Note - I'm not a heavy Reddit user, certainly not an expert on it.  I have installed Reditr, a neat Reddit reader that runs in it's own app window and has nice multicolumn display, similar to Tweetdeck.

Facebook

Obviously I just browse to Facebook like normal, but I have installed Social Fixer For Facebook which cleans up a lot of the clutter, makes it easy to preview images, etc.

Instagram

I mainly use my phone to browse Instagram activity, but when I want to do it on the Chromebook I use Pixta.  It has a clean interface, allows you to comment, "like" images, and download them for offline use.

Notes

I used to use Evernote, but I was never a power user.  When Google introduced Google Keep, I ditched Evernote.  Since Keep synchronizes with the Google Cloud, and since there is a nice interface for it on my Android phone, I'm a happy guy. 

Music

This is a crowded category, and I'm not entirely sure I'm done trying to figure out what I ultimately want.  For years I loaded my personal music on my phone's SD card, and for those times that I wanted streaming music I used Slacker.  But for about a year I have been using Google Play Music, and yes, I am subscribing to the paid version.  I have uploaded almost 3000 of my own files, so I can listen to my stuff any time I have an Internet connection.  Google Play also has lots of curated "radio stations" which are tied to various moods and genres, and I like that I sometimes find new stuff (or get reminded of old stuff) that I like.  It's not perfect, but it's filling the need.  I also sometimes listen to TuneIn Radio, when I want to listen to actual radio stations.  There is no good app on the Web Store for TuneIn at this time.  Also, some types of streams are not currently supported on the Chromebook, so your mileage may vary.

Summary

That's it for now.  I'll be updating and adding to this list as I go.  Feel free to comment, and make some suggestions.  I certainly don't mind trying new things!

Cloud Printing with the Brother HL-L2380DW

A couple of months ago I began using a Chromebook as my primary mobile computer.  I mostly use it for email, calendar, and for watching a few interesting web services like Twitter and Reddit.  Occasionally I found myself using Google Docs or Sheets to work on documents, and though I could save them to Google Drive and then access them from somewhere else, I thought it would be nice to be able to print them directly.  I had heard of Google Cloud Print but hadn't tried it out.

I read that I would need either a Cloud Print-ready printer (network connected and with built-in software for registering to my Google account), or a printer attached to a regular computer that could be shared through Cloud Print.  As luck would have it my basic black and white laser printer was in pretty bad shape and it was just about time to replace it, so I decided to shop for a new printer.

My needs:  I wanted laser due to low cost per page, and because laser toner doesn't dry up or otherwise "go bad" like inkjet ink.  I dont' print that often, sometimes going weeks without, but when I want to print, I don't want to mess with cleaning inkjet heads.  I wanted black and white - I have no use for printing color.  And of course, I wanted a Cloud Print-ready printer.

I did some searching for "cheap black and white laser printers" and found several reviews.  From those I was gravitating towards a basic model of Brother printer.  Although I do a lot of shopping online, for some things I prefer to shop in a traditional brick-and-mortar store, so I visited my local Staples.  They had the printer I wanted, but due to a sale, they had the HL-L2380DW at the same price.  This model has the same laser printing engine as the one I had selected, but adds copy and scan capabilities.  It also offered a $30 rebate for in-store credit which I figured I could eventually use for toner.

As you would expect, the Brother is fairly easy to set up.  It connects to the network either wired or wireless.  Wired with DHCP is easier of course, but wireless wasn't much harder - a built-in color LCD touchscreen made it easy to select my wireless SSID and supply the password.  I was able to access the web interface of the printer with no problem moments after setting it up.

My desktop computer at home is an iMac, a few years old running the latest Mac OS (OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite), and I actually ran into a couple of issues related to that, and the fact that the Mac uses Bonjour (mDNS) to automatically locate printers.  It turns out that my home router (an Actiontec supplied by my ISP) doesn't pass Bonjour traffic.  There's a long story I won't get into here, but I had a replacement router ready to go that I was already planning to use (a really nice Asus model) - substituting that for the Actiontec resolved this issue so that my Mac, and the Brother ControlCenter app, could "find" the printer and work properly. NOTE: I have since learned that it is possible to get mDNS working through Actiontec routers, although there's no specific option for it - it has to do with allowing multicast traffic over the wireless, and I'd suggest Googling around for some instructions if you care to try it.  I prefer the Asus router anyway.

Setting up Google Cloud Print was what I really wanted to try, and as it turns out was quite easy (contrary to some of the reviews I've read).  The printer's web interface has a "protocols" page where you can set up a variety of printing capabilities, and Google Cloud Print is clearly listed.  You provide the name by which you want to see the printer listed, click a "Google" button and you are redirected to Google's web site where you authenticate to your Google account, and then you can see the printer listed on a site where you manage your cloud printers.

Using the printer is just about as easy as you could possibly want.  From Chrome (which you are automatically using on a Chromebook), you just choose to print from any tab you're viewing.  You select your printer just like you would in any other app, make whatever adjustments to the settings you like (portrait vs. landscape, single or double-sided print, resolution) and print.  The job is transmitted to the cloud, and within a minute or two the printer picks up the print job and executes it.  To be honest I am not sure of the technical process involved in the printer's connection - my printer is "sleeping" most of the time, yet it always picks up the jobs and prints them quickly, so I am guessing it runs some kind of background process to periodically check in with Google.

What I've described so far is the most basic functionality you would ask from a Google Cloud Printer, and these days there are lots of other makes and models that will do as well.  However, this specific model (the Brother HL-L2380DW) does a number of other neat things:

1. Copying - the printer has a glass-top scanner that allows you to do basic copying.  This model does not come with a sheet feeder so it will not be convenient for copying a large document, but if you have something just a few pages long it's not too tedious and does the job.  The function includes a couple of neat modes - if you want to copy a document and have the printout use both sides of the paper, you can tell the printer to do that using options on the LCD touchscreen and it will prompt you through the process.  It even has a special routine for copying both sides of an ID card and printing both sides on a single page.
2. Scanning - the device functions as a full-color scanner.  Using the supplied Brother utilities you can scan and have the document stored or automatically opened in a variety of applications.
3. Mobile device connectivity - you can certainly install Google Cloud Print services on your phone or tablet, but Brother has an app you can use to more directly access the device for printing and scanning from mobile device. The app allows your device to connect over the network and print just about anything from the phone, or to scan a document and have it wind up on the phone.  Note that while the app has NFC, this model printer does not.
4. Web services - Brother has a service called Brother Web Connect which allows the printer to (sort of) directly interface with a number of web-based services including Google Drive, Flickr, Facebook and several other things.  Using it is a little clunky - you have to browse to the Web Connect web site, select the desired service and obtain a temporary code that allows the printer to access the service for 24 hours.  Then, you can use the printer's LCD interface to download and print from the selected service, or scan and upload.  The cool thing about this for me is that I can scan and have the document directly stored to Google Drive, which then makes it available on my Chromebook.

All in all, I have found the Brother HL-L2380DW to be a relatively full-featured device for the price.  The Google Cloud Print functionality is easy to configure and works as advertised.  The addition of various copy and scan capabilities, including the ability to scan to Google Drive, is a nice plus.  I would recommend this printer to anyone who needs a solid black and white laser with Cloud Print capability.

Two Months In - My Chromebook Experience

Like most folks these days, I want to be able to connect to and use the Internet pretty much anywhere, and that means having some form of mobile computing device.  And like many others, I find that I really can't do everything I want on a smartphone.  Small screen size, the lack of a fully-capable browser, lack of a real keyboard, all of these make certain activities on the smartphone a real chore.  A few years ago I bought an Android tablet with a detachable keyboard, hoping that it would fill the bill, but tablet browsers are still not able to do some of the things a full browser can do.

So it was that late last year I began to look seriously at trying a Chromebook.  In the interest of full disclosure I should tell you that I didn't care to buy a Windows computer, at any price - I stopped using Microsoft products on my home computers 10 years ago, only using Windows now at work where I don't have a choice in the matter.  Plus, to be honest you need a decent amount of computer to make Windows worth having.  You can buy a really cheap Windows computer these days but I imagine the experience is not going to be what I'd want.  Microsoft proudly points out that you can run "real" Microsoft Office and Photoshop on these things, but I sure wouldn't want to.

When I began looking at Chromebooks, the first thing I had to do was get my head wrapped around  the hardware specs - these machines nearly all had slower, low power processors, very little RAM, and tiny amounts of onboard SSD storage.  I learned that Chromebooks have a slimmed-down operating system designed to support online connectivity and to run the Chrome web browser and not much else, which is why they get away with such low powered CPUs and so little RAM, and that the expectation is for user data to be mostly stored in the cloud, which is why there is so little local storage. 

However there are other hardware and design considerations that made most Chromebooks pretty unattractive.  Keyboard quality varies a good deal but is about what you would expect of a really cheap laptop.  Sound is so-so.  Screens are functional but not great - usually small (most models are about 11 inches), and screen quality is not much to speak of.  

For these reasons I eventually chose the Toshiba Chromebook 2 which hit the market late last year.  The CB2 came with 4GB of RAM (on the high side of what's normally available), 16GB of SSD storage (the usual amount), and uses an Intel Bay Trail Celeron CPU (a version of the Celeron designed to conserve battery power at the expense of a bit of speed).  The main reason for picking the Toshiba was that it has a 13-inch screen with a FULL HD (1080p) screen that uses IPS display technology - in other words, this is a Chromebook with a screen that is as good as a Macbook Air.  The Toshiba also has decent audio (although the built-in speakers aren't terribly impressive, but they are not bad either).

I've been using the Chromebook daily since around Thanksgiving last year, though not as my primary computer - I keep it up at work with tabs open to a couple of Inbox sessions, usually a tab open to CNN, a tab for a flight tracking site I spend way too much time on, the Sunrise calendar, and Tweetdeck.  For this type of use, I rarely notice any slowness or issues, except that the Inbox app for connecting to Google Gmail accounts is sometimes a little laggy.

I've used the Chromebook to work on a few word processing documents using Google Docs - the experience isn't earthshattering but it works.

For streaming music and movies, the Toshiba Chromebook 2 has been great.  Honestly I don't use the built-in speakers much, but when I do they provide plenty of volume.  Audio with a decent set of earbuds sounds great.  Video is just fantastic - full screen, 1080p HD streaming video looks phenomenal, especially considering the low power of the CPU.  The screen is gorgeous and compares favorable to much more expensive laptops.

One of the few complaints I still have is that there is no way to scale the UI elements on the desktop separately from the rest of the screen.  Everything is pretty small running at 1080p, and I'm getting to the age where reading glasses are required.  It's easy enough to scale up the text in web pages though.

If anyone has questions regarding my experience using Chromebooks in general or the Toshiba in particular I'd be happy to try and answer.