Now I feel like a jerk :D

So, I was ask to create a presentation about Obesity. I have to say, that as a rule, my thoughts went to my PC back at home (The one with the Windows 7 and office 2010 on it). And I actually (and now I foolishly admit to it) went to my PC to start working on my presentation... Only to find out that my office 2010 licence key ran out and that I need to renew it (WTF?!).

Being really ticked off, both because I totally forgot about my office running out of date and because I have to present tomorrow, I started looking for an alternative solutions to my problem.. And so, I decided to go to the computer lab at my college campus in order to use one of the computers there with a legally working office.... Only to find out that the lab was completely full! Only four seats were empty and they were meant for those with laptops (fours places with only power & internet connections) aka chair & table - no computer. At that moment I though I was going to kill someone (nothing makes me mad more than having a plan set in my mind and the entire universe trying to mess things up). Sitting down at one of the empty available seats and thinking what to do, it came to my mind that there's a Chromebook in my backpack...But being aware to the fact that I need presentation and that Google Drive doesn't really have a good presentation maker I was pretty reluctant to use it (The Chromebook) but having no choice one way or another I gave it a shot. As luck would have it, the person whom I doing the presentation with, started working on few slides, but since he didn't have office and - the way I see it now - because he is smarter than me (lol) he decided to use Prezi (an app that I did not know about until today) and he shared the presentation with me... Now that's where the Chromebook started to shine! In 3 seconds I opened the Chromebook, connected to the web, opened a Prezi account and started working on my presentation. Figuring out I will need to write some things down as well, I opened a new Google document and that worked perfectly (not to mention the pleasure I always have while typing on my Samsung ARM Chromebook). I have to say that's it is the first time ever since I have the Chromebook that I have pushed it to it's limits... And actually, it didn't feel like I did... I had around 11 Chrome tabs open, 1 Prezi, 1 docs, and the rest are Google Images, Google searches, plenty of website about obesity (Wikipedia being at least 3 of the tabs at least) And everything worked so smoothly and so fluently that for a second I forgot I am on a 250$ (now even less) worth of a netbook and though I am on my PC back home. The funny thing is that I used to own an Asus Eee PC netbook and when I had to do multiple tasks simultaneously it used to lag and you felt the computer getting warmer and warmer and working hard! but not with this little Chromebook, I don't know what Samsung did with this little thing, but no matter what I did, it kept working very smooth for the entire working process and didn't stagger even a little bit (And the presentation has plenty of images & animations etc..Something that usually would have caused even my PC back at home to stagger from time to time)

On a silly side note, one of the best feelings I had (Call it ego... Or whatever) was when people around me saw me open this little (and very pretty) thing and tried to figure out what kind of OS was I running... Even to the point of somebody asking me if "This is the newer version of Windows 8". Because in Israel very few people know about the Chromebook, I had to do some explaining about the Chromebook but overall it felt really good to share this computer with the rest of students I have spoken with, even to the point that one of them said that this kind of computer is exactly what he needed and that he'll consider buying one really soon.

So, during all that stuff I just mentioned above, and after I finished the presentation and was satisfied with everything I had a serious *facepalm* moment Why didn't I just went and used the Chromebook in the first place? I guess that I am still pretty green in the Chromebook world but now I have finally learned my lesson... If you need something done, do it yourself...With your Chromebook first, and then go to other sources... The way I see it, the web and the Chromebook offer so much already (and it only gets better) that I see myself returning to my PC only to clean dust that accumulated on it.

On a slightly different note... I am a little disappointed that the Chromebook doesn't really offer ways to listen to music when you don't have Google Music application on your Chromebook, It's not that I don't like using it, it's just the Google Music Play (or whatever the name is) is not available yet in my country. And even though I like listening to music via Youtube, I have certain tracks that I like and can't find them online so I was forced to use my Nexus 7 as a music player. But that's more or less the only complain I have.

I also noticed a nice change after the last few updates (Don't know which one exactly), I am now able to play 1080p videos on Youtube without any lags, I don't know if I am the only that had that issue, but back when I got the Chromebook, whenever I tried playing 1080p movies on my Chromebook, the video lagged badly and wasn't playable, 720p was pretty okay with the occasional lag here and there but overall watchable.



So That's about it folks. I actually wanted to make a post about my gaming experience on the Chromebook (Which also improved greatly) but I will leave it to the next time =]

The Adventure Continues =]

So.. I have decided to continue my "Impressions from the Chromebook" Blog.. I have been using the Chromebook for 2 weeks now, and I start building an opinion about this device.

Well, during the latest week, I have mainly used the Chromebook to study for my exams.. Mostly, the Chromebook worked perfectly, though some word docs that I my lecture wrote were really messed up when I tried to open them directly through the Google Docs app, so I had to find an online "Docx to PDF converter"... This wasn't that difficult. And after the conversion, everything worked pretty well.. More difficult to open  were  PowerPoint presentations... Which I had really hard to read via the Google Drive application... But after awhile I found a way to open them in a better way...But I guess that's something the Drive will have to improve on.

When at home, I tried plugging my Chromebook to a monitor, external keyboard and mouse... The Keyboard and mouse worked pretty well, but sadly, each monitor I plugged the Chromebook to, proved to had different problem... On my old PC monitor (Connected via DVI plug on the monitor and HDMI port on the Chromebook) the resolution didn't work well for the Chromebook so the monitor was all squished..Nothing you can't work with, but still not as comfortable as you'd expect.. When I tried to plug it to my Sony HD TV via a standard HDMI port, the TV showed nothing... When I tried to plug it on a different TV (Also via an HDMI port) it worked quite well, but still had few resolution problems... One would expect from a Chromebook (which sells itself as a simple netbook) to Identify the resolution of the monitor it connects to and change the resolution accordingly.. But I do believe this will change in the future... After all, they only added the ability to edit resolution on the latest updated..So you can only expect a great future there :)

The battery is great! Funny thing that happen, is that while I was studying with couple of friends, I noticed that one of my friends had an Ipad with her, and she kept complaining that she is unable to open anything on her Ipad (any kind of docs, no access to files at all, and the need for constant internet connection in order to read the files I sent her via the mail), and that she can't really convert anything (Doc to PDF) Like I did.. So eventually she turned to use my Chromebook few times herself... I don't know why, but it gave me some sort of satisfaction

(sorry for the lack of consistency..I am going through the last couple of weeks in my had as I am writing this... I am not fond of editing after writing...This way it feels more authentic, hope you'll guys forgive me)

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Posting Continuation (August 11th, 2013):

So that's what happens when you stop a post in the middle and say to yourself "Meh, I'll continue later"

So it's been awhile since I got my Chromebook, and slowly (yet very steadily) the Chromebook took it's place in my life as my main working computer. I have to admit, that I do need to use my windows PC from time to time (Main usage are Torrent Downloading and actual printing..But even then I print from Google chrome.. For some reason - Guess due to my printer's age - The Chromebook doesn't like my printer very much in a way that it just doesn't recognize it). I did come upon several issues during my usage but I do believe that with time most of them will be fixed, I was so glad to see that after the latest update I could open MKV files without any problems.. We don't have Netflix in Israel so I don't have many options for watching videos Online so I have to watch stuff from my HDD (for some reason Amazon UK still don't have US Amazon ability for watching movies online)

I find that my Chrombook works well with my Nexus 7 (Though not via bluetooth/USB port connection), I am a student, and most of my courses are of math origin.. It's pretty hard to right formulas and similar things correctly and fast on the Chromebook (Google Math..Anybody? :P) So I had to find a good solution..So I am using my Nexus 7 as a Notebook (with a pen) and sync it automatically as a PDF to my Drive which works amazing!

I also found that watching movies and short videos on the Chromebook is much funner than on the Nexus 7, bigger screen, better speakers just works well.

I can't say that the Chromebook is not flawed, the bugs I do encounter, still needs fixing and I can't find any good information about them mainly due to the fact that the problem's origin is in the virgin OS and not in something that I am doing wrong (Problems like language input options, Resolution options when connected to external monitor and better offline support to more applications)

I was able to find some nice MMORPG (YES! and not RuneScape! Nor Unity/Java based ones)

and also started learning different coding languages besides C++ via the Chromebook (via code academy)

Is the Chromebook taking the place of my main PC? Absolutely yes! can I throw away my PC and kiss windows goodbye? Unfortunately, no. But I said it once, and I'll say it again, in my opinion, the future of the Chromebook is bright! And like with my life, I expect the Chromebooks to sneak into all our lives at some point.. As long as Google will keep it's attention on the users and won't neglect our ideas.

My New Toy

So, I didn't have the chance to write..At all, so much has change since the last time I wrote here that even though all I've seen is just one post, it's still really long ago.

Few things (unrelated)
1. I got married
2. I had to give my 1001PX to my brother because he needed a laptop for work on the road and didn't have the money to buy one for his own (ME TO THE RESCUE!!!)
3. I got myself a chromebook.. Yes! a Samsung Chromebook!!!

So that's what I am changing the main blog cause.. My Adventures with the Chromebook... I know many people haven't had the chance to work with a Chromebook, and even more are afraid of it.. Because it's new, it's different and - to tell the truth - it's NOT for everyone (unlike what is written on the Chromebook's pretty box :P), the OS is still at it's baby steps, but like a very smart baby, it shows promise..

So, before I got myself this Chromebook, I firstly asked myself "What do I need a netbook for, what am I going to do with a laptop or with any machine I'll buy? And how much am I going to spend on my needs?"Amazingly, the answer didn't come easily! I love playing games, but since I am a student, probably a gaming machine isn't the best option for me..Nor for my future (Financially and  professionally).. So buying an awesome gaming rig was not an option.. Next, I needed a netbook which I will be able to surf easily, will work fast, will be able to write and open docs,mails, excel...Office in short...So Mac (also due to financial reasons) wasn't an option for me...

To tell the truth.. I didn't know much about the chromebook nor the ChromeOS, but I came across it (Amazingly) At the Google+ official Chromebook community page..Then I began googlig it online...And the more I learned about it, the more interested I became..

Samsung Chromebook after first Sign in

I reconsidered my options...Buying a fully functional netbook would cost me quite a lot (relatively) and for my needs it would be a waste of money... I need online access, and I need long lasting battery and quick boot (The quick boot wasn't a "must" but now that I have it, it's soooo nice :P), and stability.. And of course the first thing that caught my attention was the Chromebook price...Hey, it's a full netbook for just 250$ (I think it's 80$ more for the Verizon 3G version).. So, after long consideration...And a lot of learning about it from people who own a Chromebook and the people who hate Chromebooks, I actually decided to buy myself one... And I have to say, I am very pleased, though it's not all 100% perfect.

I will keep you guys posted (for those of you who read) about my first week with the Chromebook.. It's definitely something I need getting used to, and it's a big change, specially since all my life I only been using Microsoft products (Windows, Office, etc) And only been using android devices for the last 4 years (But I am a full Google user...Gmail, contacts, Google Calendar..I use it all, another thing that attracted my to the Chromebook, but I'll get to that later)

So, that's all for now guys,
wish me luck on my new road :)