They aren't. It's the schools that are deciding what they want. Not Apple
Reminds me of that quote by Steve Jobs at All Things Digital, D8:
"With the enterprise market, it's not so simple. The people that use the products don't decide for themselves, and the people that make those decisions sometimes are confused..."
What can you do on a chromebook besides surfing the web, email, and google docs?
I'm being serious here.
Web apps of course silly. I like the ChromeBook, though an inexpensive laptop could do the same thing. What makes ChromeBook appealing to schools besides price is that children can't manipulate anything on the system, do to it's secure boot everytime it boots up it reverts any system files that have changed back to it's original state, super fast boot times, 6 seconds or less, no virus's, little in the way of IT administration, their are a mass amounts of online educational web apps, teachers can easily create study materials using an absolute plefora of online educational creation tools, making things like tests very simple to make without any prior programming knowledge, multi user login, something that the iPad simply doesn't offer, etc. http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/http://www.elearningart.com/Default.asp
Online apps are vastly becoming as good as their desktop counterparts and are popping up by the hundreds each month, here is a list of online apps for you to try.
Onedrive with Office Online, including; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OutLook, Calendar and of course online storage.
Zoho, this is an incredible site, they have pretty much everything you need to run a business from the web. Word processor, spreadsheet, CRM, time sheets, billing, web site creator, invoice creation, you name it they have it and with over 10 million active users they are also extremely popular, I recommend spending a little exploring of their offerings.
ICloud, yep works great on a Chromebook, with Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Calendar, Mail, Notes, etc. Their cloud apps are extremely powerful which means like Office online, Chrome Docs and Zoho you can get real work done.
Pixlr, a fantastic photo editing app, not as in depth as Photoshop but pretty great none the less. Their shouldn't be anything you can't get accomplished with this online app and I can't recommend it enough.
Photoshop Express Editor, the online version of the very popular Photoshop Express app on iOS. This is just the start for Adobe and I have no doubt we will see a full fledge online version of Photoshop coming soon.
Are you a programmer, online IDE's are great, I use them now almost exclusively. Their useful collabortive features, faster compilers as your using off site servers that utilize more powerful systems then your current home machine, intuitive interfaces, make them one of the fastest growing segment in online apps. Here are a few that you must try.
Audiotool, do you like creating music then this is a must have app for your aresonal. It's so good that you can replace a lot of your current music creation apps as their isn't much you can't accomplish with it, a must try.
There are now 1,000's of online apps and would take me a better part of the day to list and give a short description of all of my favorites. Saying there is no apps for the ChromeBook is a gross misunderstanding for the majority of the people in this thread. In reality there isn't much you can't do with a ChromeBook. For more information on the available apps simply visit the Chromestore to get a better understanding.
The iPad is a great tool for learning but so is the Chromebook. Is one better over the other, that depends on the needs of the educator but simply saying a Chromebook is useless is just a biased statement mostly predigrated on this being an Apple site. Especially when little to no research has been done on the matter by it's posters. Check out some of the online educational services, it's mind boggiling to see just how much is available and yes a lot of it could easily be ran on an iPad but for the price a ChromeBook is also a good alternative. Their is absolutely no reason why a school couldn't successfully run a viable program using a ChromeBook.
Here's a good site on the different types of Chrome devices available.
One more thing, yet again I will be suggesting a none Apple product. I have to add this disclaimer as Marvin is currently gunning for me due to my questionable alegiance he thinks I have for Apple.
Above I described some of my favorite web apps and why I think ChromeBook isn't just another useless product, I mean why would any self respecting Apple user want to use something as riduclous as a computer that can only run a web browser. The nerve of Google, right.
The ChromeBox, super cool guys and for the price of only 180 dollars they make a very good TV surf station. I love to surf in bed, especially now that I spend so much time in one. The ChromeBox when connected to a 1080P TV is one of the few things that I would say it's an absolute must have. Device's like the Apple TV are great but surfing on them can be a little frustrating. Something like the new Asus or HP ChromeBox come with everything that will assure your couch potato ways are maximized to the fullest. You have access to a full browser with all of the extensions that make surfing a lot more enjoyable then any mobile browser can offer. So even watching watching TV with Zattoo, Hulu, movies and video with Netflix, YouTube, music with Spotify, Pandora, Beats, just to name a few is very enjoyable as you can put those sites into a small box on go on with your surfing. Have a large DVD or BlueRay collection, rip and upload them to Google Drive or OneDrive, both will stream your movies directly from the internet. Already have a bunch of movies ripped from your collection but you did not use a standardized codecs, no problem both will convert your videos into the appropriate format on the fly. The ChromeBox itself also handles most codecs, including the Appleinsider not so popular but most secretly use anyway, Divx and Flash. You can also a remote desktop app to control your OSX, Linux, Unix, Android and Windows machines.
As I mentioned before the starting price for the Asus is only 180 bucks, it comes with 1, 2GB SODIMM but you can easily upgrade it 16GB, or just add an additional 2GB SODIMM for 20 bucks for a total of 4GB and a wireless mouse and keyboard. The storage is a paltry 32GB because the whole idea of a Chrome device is that you store your data on the cloud, which both units come with 2 years of 100GB for free and 1 TB is only 120 a year, anyway if you want the but SSD drive is easily upgradable for both the the Asus and HP. A Sandisk 128GB drive from Amazon only costs 70 bucks but I think simply attaching a large external drive is the better option, I would recommend the Lacie Cloud series, you can put a exception in the firewall and access the drive anywhere in the world cheaply and their nice looking.
Also, don't forget too add a good camera, we bought a ChromeBox for every family household, reason being, to communicate and share family pictures and movies. We all have a 1080P camera connected to our biggest TV's which makes talking with each other an absolute joy. If you saw a ChromeBox with a good camera connected to it in action you would see why Google is pushing their solutions to business, it works extremely well. Since we have all uploaded our pictures, home movies and regular movies our combined film collection is over a 1,000 films. In which we can watch and talk to each other at the same time, a lot of fun, don't go into the basement, shut up grandma. Yes, you could do all of this with a Mac Mini, but not for the same price or ease.
I know I do this a lot, always bringing up none Apple product's but I sincerely try to only do so in threads directly related to these products or when someone brings up a competing product or OS. That being said I really think you guys would like the ChromeBox for your TV, honestly and sincerely. I'm not saying you should replace your Apple TV or Google TV top box's but for a secondary entertainment and family communication system. They make pretty darn good surf machines and great gifts for the family at Christmas.
You may now begin your onslaught of negativity upon me.
Web apps of course silly. I like the ChromeBook, though an inexpensive laptop could do the same thing. What makes ChromeBook appealing to schools besides price is that children can't manipulate anything on the system, do to it's secure boot everytime it boots up it reverts any system files that have changed back to it's original state, super fast boot times, 6 seconds or less, no virus's, little in the way of IT administration, their are a mass amounts of online educational web apps, teachers can easily create study materials using an absolute plefora of online educational creation tools, making things like tests very simple to make without any prior programming knowledge, multi user login, something that the iPad simply doesn't offer, etc. http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/http://www.elearningart.com/Default.asp
Online apps are vastly becoming as good as their desktop counterparts and are popping up by the hundreds each month, here is a list of online apps for you to try.
Onedrive with Office Online, including; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OutLook, Calendar and of course online storage.
Zoho, this is an incredible site, they have pretty much everything you need to run a business from the web. Word processor, spreadsheet, CRM, time sheets, billing, web site creator, invoice creation, you name it they have it and with over 10 million active users they are also extremely popular, I recommend spending a little exploring of their offerings.
ICloud, yep works great on a Chromebook, with Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Calendar, Mail, Notes, etc. Their cloud apps are extremely powerful which means like Office online, Chrome Docs and Zoho you can get real work done.
Pixlr, a fantastic photo editing app, not as in depth as Photoshop but pretty great none the less. Their shouldn't be anything you can't get accomplished with this online app and I can't recommend it enough.
Photoshop Express Editor, the online version of the very popular Photoshop Express app on iOS. This is just the start for Adobe and I have no doubt we will see a full fledge online version of Photoshop coming soon.
Are you a programmer, online IDE's are great, I use them now almost exclusively. Their useful collabortive features, faster compilers as your using off site servers that utilize more powerful systems then your current home machine, intuitive interfaces, make them one of the fastest growing segment in online apps. Here are a few that you must try.
Audiotool, do you like creating music then this is a must have app for your aresonal. It's so good that you can replace a lot of your current music creation apps as their isn't much you can't accomplish with it, a must try.
There are now 1,000's of online apps and would take me a better part of the day to list and give a short description of all of my favorites. Saying there is no apps for the ChromeBook is a gross misunderstanding for the majority of the people in this thread. In reality there isn't much you can't do with a ChromeBook. For more information on the available apps simply visit the Chromestore to get a better understanding.
The iPad is a great tool for learning but so is the Chromebook. Is one better over the other, that depends on the needs of the educator but simply saying a Chromebook is useless is just a biased statement mostly predigrated on this being an Apple site. Especially when little to no research has been done on the matter by it's posters. Check out some of the online educational services, it's mind boggiling to see just how much is available and yes a lot of it could easily be ran on an iPad but for the price a ChromeBook is also a good alternative. Their is absolutely no reason why a school couldn't successfully run a viable program using a ChromeBook.
Here's a good site on the different types of Chrome devices available.
<slow clap crescending into an enthusiastic standing ovation!>
Great post and worthy of a complete repost.
A buddy of mine just last week purchased a CB for €230, which he'll be bringing by tomorrow. I also sent him a list of web software which included a couple of your links (Pixlr and PS Express) and now have a few more we can explore together
Maybe Apple needs to make an iPad with a keyboard, i.e,. an ARM based 11.6" MacBook Air (iBook!), and sell it for a competitive price.
Make it use iOS still, so you don't confuse the market and reduce demand for the standard MacBook Airs.
Pricing is always going to be difficult for Apple to compete on, being premium products.
That would be interesting, I think if they forgo the use of metal, make it 12 inches they might have something. Maybe even use a slower version of the A7 to keep the price down, defiantly make sure it has 2GB of memory for future proofing and add multi user support they might have the perfect education machine. Rehash the idea of the eMate 300, call it the ePad this time but without the green, yuck, I still have an eMate, got one while at the university, I signed up for a Apple pilot program. I liked it, great note taker for classes. I replaced it later with Newton 2100 but after Apple canceled Newton, I was so lost and angry, I had so much invested in accessories, even had the keyboard that cost a fortune. Thank goodness for the Psion 5MX, Nokia Commumicator, Psion Netbook or I would have spiraled into a deep depression.
Look how cute it is, aaaahhh I want another one but with iOS 8. Time to break out my soldering kit, hacker chick away!
Oooohhhh looky you can still buy them on eBay for as low as 50 bucks, there's a lot of 10 for 600 bucks, who wants to go in with me. Oh my gosh, a guy is selling a Macintosh Color, I wanted one of those really bad but my dad said noooo, to expensive here's a crappy old PowerBook 100, enjoy. Just kidding, I loved my PowerBook 100 and it probably served me better then if I would have had to lug around the Claasic. I hate eBay, I'm always buying old computers that end up in my basement. Oh, oh, oh, I'm defiantly buying another Psion 5MX, now that every piece of software is free and readily dowloadable it might be a fun thing to play with. The battery in mine leaked out acid and destroyed it, ugh. Oh my gosh, someone is selling a SGI Tezro, I have one of those, do I need another, what if mine ever broke, I think I need a back up. Help me! I've fallen into an eBay hole and I can't get out.
Let's see here: no memory card slot, file management is lackluster, port...what ports? (mini usb at least please)...those are the continual crap points of an ipad...
No, sorry. You’re wrong.
i am sorry but having to connect it to a computer for iTunes file transfers sucks major ass…
You don’t have to do that and haven’t for years. Problem solved.
…and having to rely on iCloud or internet for file tranfer/archiving blows when you have to no other option but shit networks (think mainland china...as in my point of reference)
So you’re whining about having to hook up a cable and immediately afterward whining that you don’t have to hook up a cable?
Apple needs to LISTEN to the needs of the power ipad users...LISTEN.
They do. That’s why they AREN’T PUTTING THIS GARBAGE ON THE DEVICE.
I still love my eMate. The battery doesn’t hold a charge, but it’s just four 9 volts hooked together, so it probably won’t be too hard to replace.
Just grab a for parts one off of eBay. Here is one for 10 bucks, they state it powers on but didn't go any further. But I think your right, you could probably replace the battery using off the shelf parts. Let me know how it goes, I will probably follow suit as mine doesn't hold a charge either.
Your shop must be in decline. We have lots of requests for OS X native CS 6 files for translation to other languages. OS X is universally preferred among publishing companies.
We're not traditional printers dealing with publishers on a regular basis. Our services are along the lines of commercial signage, wayfinding, trade show and POS media, fleet graphics/identification . . .
No we're not in decline yet.
@Relic - I just have to say again that I love your posts, even if some of your choices are debatable
The reason I say debatable, is because YOU and a number of others here including myself, like to experiment, are curious, and strive to make things work... and in the end, find SOLUTIONS to problems that allow us to enjoy tech of all kinds. Only then is it wise to compare the differences, advantages and failures of a given device or system against the solutions found... or possibly not.
Which leads me to the topic at hand here and to state; how many of those school districts, admins, teachers, et al... every looked for solutions or for different and better ways to reach using the technology at their disposal? I bet the majority of them were looking for ways to do as little work and THINKING as possible, and quite possibly don't even use their Chromebooks, let alone a PC or iPad to it's fullest to TEACH PROBLEM SOLVING.
Pardon my all-caps shouting... but it is this part of education that most schools are not teaching and children are not learning. Problem solving, not rote learning and tests against your memory capacity at a given time, is what is needed from western education to stay ahead of the game that they are losing against Asian markets and economies. F*** tests! I want people that can THINK! If I need info on a subject or problem, current and future technology has placed all knowledge at our fingertips; ALL of it! But what makes us special over robots and algorithms, is our ability to a) find the relavent info as fast as possible; b) decipher and sift through it; and finally c) be able to offer a solution using critical THINKING and communication in the most concise and understandable way possible.
Are 15 page reports and rote memory testing what we need to do that? Is it possible that visual aids might be better, or at least a combination? Is not a cyber "face-to-face" presentation not far more powerful than a bloody friggin' [I]typed[/I] report? Are teachers equal everywhere?... or should the average teacher give way to professionals and video classes/seminars? Why do we teach from 7:00 - 2:30, when it has been proven that the mind is most susceptible to concentrated study/work between 9:30 - 4:30? And since no one is a like, why shouldn't a student have the ability to rewatch a class if they fell asleep through the first time? Why are we all still learning and working as if 3/4's of the population is on a farm and we have no access to electricity?
How and what we teach is far more important going forward, than the devices and OSes that we decide to use for this fleeting moment in tech history to get to WISDOM and to change society for the better in the future.
[B]RIP Steve Jobs[/B]... one of the best THINKERS and SOLUTION SOLVERS the world has ever known. Educators: Please. Take. Notes!... however you see fit and with whatever you have at hand to do it with, whether iPad, Chromebook, pen and paper... or simply a stick scribbling in the sand.
Note: another reason why I don't have children of my own: between idiot educators and societal religious preachers, I was saving myself jail time for going ballistic on the first one that screwed up my child's mind. :mad:
Let's see here: no memory card slot, file management is lackluster, port...what ports? (mini usb at least please)...those are the continual crap points of an ipad...i am sorry but having to connect it to a computer for itunes file transfers sucks major ass, and having to rely on icloud or internet for file tranfer/archiving blows when you have to no other option but shit networks (think mainland china...as in my point of reference)
Apple needs to LISTEN to the needs of the power ipad users...LISTEN.
For the record, as a grad student I blew out massive research papers on my ipad, as an education professional i have developed lesson plans, curricula, and have busted out effective drawings that are crucial for my lesson plan execution and are many times central to my lessons. observation reports (complete with photos and other visual supplementals) created on my ipad are both impactful and relevant for conveying information to colleges and parents. Typing on an ipad screen is cake for me as well.
Also for the record i, including my wife and two kids, have a total of five ipads...gen. 1,2,3 & 4. I habe reluctantly skipped the ipad air as i am holding out for the supposed "pro" model to come soon...these incremental generationsl improvements are a joke after a while...give someone like me, who is also a creative professional (synth music) an ipad with serious balls please...and don't forget true multi-window multi-tasking... Majorly sick and tired of having to use an unseen clipboard, open and close programs & whatever just to move audio/midi files between apps...seriously kills creative mojo dude.
Sorry for the sloppy writing but i am tired and in relaxation mode
So basically you want a file manager and that would solve most of your problems. I also want one too, there is a program called ES File Explorer in Android that not only gives you access to your local directory but allows the mounting of pretty much every cloud storage solution there is, NAS, Samba and FTP sites, etc. To copy my media files back from different machines all I have to do is make sure there is shared folder on the target machine and then I can access it from ES. It's clean, easy, zero hassles.
With iOS, I have to go to the program where the file(s) is/are and then upload them to whatever cloud storage that particular app supports. A lot of the times I have to do one file at a time, again it depends on the app. Also, Even though I have iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and Box installed on my iPad not all apps support them all, in fact most just support iCloud ann Dropbox. Then from the other machine I log into the cloud storage that contains the file(s) and download it/them to that machine. I feel your pain, it sucks but Tallest is correct, it's not what the iPad was designed to do, apps are sandboxed and have limited communication which each other. Hopefully now that IBM is involved things like this will be addressed but I'm not holding my breath.
It's one of the reasons why I have a Nexus 10, a fantastic little machine for 200 bucks. Anyway I use it as a support tool for my iPad. I can easily transfer all of my files to and from any source, for example after I upload that file from iOS to DropBox, I see it appear on my Nexus under ES, then I simply drag and drop it to where I need it to go. Since I have every single data source mounted, it's my file manegament overlord sort of speak. You don't have to follow my example but where there's a will to solve, there's a solution. No need to get upset just adopt, overcome or move on, good luck.
For more information on the available apps simply visit the Chromestore to get a better understanding.
I did that last night, checked out 2 apps. One was teared down by user reviews, the other 404'd on me.
The iPad is a great tool for learning but so is the Chromebook. Is one better over the other, that depends on the needs of the educator but simply saying a Chromebook is useless is just a biased statement mostly predigrated on this being an Apple site. Especially when little to no research has been done on the matter by it's posters. Check out some of the online educational services, it's mind boggiling to see just how much is available and yes a lot of it could easily be ran on an iPad but for the price a ChromeBook is also a good alternative. Their is absolutely no reason why a school couldn't successfully run a viable program using a ChromeBook.
Excellent points. I don't get the biased statements myself here either. I think many just put it down because it's something from Google, but haven't used the device themselves. Why not first try it out before making statements is beyond me.
Here's a good site on the different types of Chrome devices available.
Hmm, that site shows me there are a few 'issues' Chrome/Chromebook/Android:
"Can Google fix High DPI scaling? It makes Chrome unusable on HD screens. Forget 4k! That's eye-burning"
(on the topic of 64-bit) "I tried it & it keeps freezing because it uses 98% cpu. Win8.1 laptop."
"No, Mac still has only 32-bit Chrome. That's why Java doesn't work, and you have to use Safari for in-browser Java apps."
"Someone please help ive been trying to download app from chrome a add blocker I cant get it to work"
"Reporting My 64 bit Windows 8.1 as 32 bit????"
One more thing, yet again I will be suggesting a none Apple product. I have to add this disclaimer as Marvin is currently gunning for me due to my questionable alegiance he thinks I have for Apple.
I don't get that either. Oh well, no reason for a ban, so keep going!
You may now begin your onslaught of negativity upon me.
No need for that. Many people enjoy reading your posts, many appreciate the time you take to elaborate on non-Apple stuff, many people prefer to read about non-Apple HW & SW instead of going to sites they don't want to go to in the first place.
IMO, Chromebooks have no place in schools for one simple fact:
Google is tracking you. Its beyond creepy that Google is tracking 5 year old kids and their activity. I mean really? How does this not bother the educators who are responsible for these children while at school? How would you feel if a stalker tracked what your 5 year old kid was doing?
Only way a school should accept Chromebooks is if Google signs a contract not to track the activities. But of course they won't. That's how they make money.
What next? Are we going to see Google ads pop up during final exams on Chromebooks? Is this where this is all heading?
This is a perfect example of someone who hasn't done any research on how Chromebooks work in a School envinroment works. No, there are no adds, Schools are behind a proxy server that only allow access to certain sites, if and that's a big if they are even allowed to surf outside of the intranet, the bulk of the apps are served from internal web servers which are district controlled. Google, Apple, NSA, whoever can track the childs internet activities just as easily when he's home on mom or dads iPad, your being ridiculous. There is no Google conspiracy to turn your child into an Android user.
So many ignorant responses being posted to this article! First, the iPad is a much better replacement for textbooks. Next, it is a much better device for at least K-8th grades. You DO NOT NEED a keyboard. We have these marvelous inventions called pencil and paper that actually force the student to learn how to write while at the same time they remove the the unnecessary technology layer for the creative process of learning and creating. This is quite simply a case of KISS - keep it simple stupid. (I'm referring to K-8 here.)
“So many ignorant responses...” LOL - I just love it when people judge themselves above the rest.
Have you ever filled in a form on an ipad?? It’s tedious!!!
Have you ever typed a long, formatted text on an Ipad, an essay for example?? It’s frustrating!!!
Have you ever worked on a simple spreadsheet on the iPad??? It’s a nightmare!!!!!!
… and you do know that 8th graders are not the only ones using ipads/laptops/chromebooks, right?
So Google can send your PERSONAL information to business THEY TRUST. NOT THAT YOU TRUST! lol.
So can Apple. In fact their privacy policy is pretty similar to Google's.
"At times Apple may make certain personal information available to strategic partners that work with Apple to provide products and services, or that help Apple market to customers."
So can most other vendors you contract with in all probability. " No company is an island".
I was not aware of this change from the early Chromebooks. Thanks. Still nowhere near the number of apps available for the iPad, but I think Google realized that there's more to a device than just the web. That is particularly true in the classroom, where often the issue is closing down the distractions so that you can get everybody doing the same thing at the same time.
Comments
Reminds me of that quote by Steve Jobs at All Things Digital, D8:
"With the enterprise market, it's not so simple. The people that use the products don't decide for themselves, and the people that make those decisions sometimes are confused..."
The answer is 'fingers'.
What do I win?
Web apps of course silly. I like the ChromeBook, though an inexpensive laptop could do the same thing. What makes ChromeBook appealing to schools besides price is that children can't manipulate anything on the system, do to it's secure boot everytime it boots up it reverts any system files that have changed back to it's original state, super fast boot times, 6 seconds or less, no virus's, little in the way of IT administration, their are a mass amounts of online educational web apps, teachers can easily create study materials using an absolute plefora of online educational creation tools, making things like tests very simple to make without any prior programming knowledge, multi user login, something that the iPad simply doesn't offer, etc. http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/ http://www.elearningart.com/Default.asp
Online apps are vastly becoming as good as their desktop counterparts and are popping up by the hundreds each month, here is a list of online apps for you to try.
Onedrive with Office Online, including; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OutLook, Calendar and of course online storage.
https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/ or https://office.com/start/default.aspx
Zoho, this is an incredible site, they have pretty much everything you need to run a business from the web. Word processor, spreadsheet, CRM, time sheets, billing, web site creator, invoice creation, you name it they have it and with over 10 million active users they are also extremely popular, I recommend spending a little exploring of their offerings.
https://www.zoho.com
ICloud, yep works great on a Chromebook, with Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Calendar, Mail, Notes, etc. Their cloud apps are extremely powerful which means like Office online, Chrome Docs and Zoho you can get real work done.
https://www.apple.com/iwork-for-icloud/
Pixlr, a fantastic photo editing app, not as in depth as Photoshop but pretty great none the less. Their shouldn't be anything you can't get accomplished with this online app and I can't recommend it enough.
http://pixlr.com
Photoshop Express Editor, the online version of the very popular Photoshop Express app on iOS. This is just the start for Adobe and I have no doubt we will see a full fledge online version of Photoshop coming soon.
http://www.photoshop.com/tools
Are you a programmer, online IDE's are great, I use them now almost exclusively. Their useful collabortive features, faster compilers as your using off site servers that utilize more powerful systems then your current home machine, intuitive interfaces, make them one of the fastest growing segment in online apps. Here are a few that you must try.
https://c9.com https://codio.com https://shiftedit.net
Audiotool, do you like creating music then this is a must have app for your aresonal. It's so good that you can replace a lot of your current music creation apps as their isn't much you can't accomplish with it, a must try.
http://www.audiotool.com click on app to get started, requires Flash but it's worth it
There are now 1,000's of online apps and would take me a better part of the day to list and give a short description of all of my favorites. Saying there is no apps for the ChromeBook is a gross misunderstanding for the majority of the people in this thread. In reality there isn't much you can't do with a ChromeBook. For more information on the available apps simply visit the Chromestore to get a better understanding.
The iPad is a great tool for learning but so is the Chromebook. Is one better over the other, that depends on the needs of the educator but simply saying a Chromebook is useless is just a biased statement mostly predigrated on this being an Apple site. Especially when little to no research has been done on the matter by it's posters. Check out some of the online educational services, it's mind boggiling to see just how much is available and yes a lot of it could easily be ran on an iPad but for the price a ChromeBook is also a good alternative. Their is absolutely no reason why a school couldn't successfully run a viable program using a ChromeBook.
Here's a good site on the different types of Chrome devices available.
Maybe Apple needs to make an iPad with a keyboard, i.e,. an ARM based 11.6" MacBook Air (iBook!), and sell it for a competitive price.
Make it use iOS still, so you don't confuse the market and reduce demand for the standard MacBook Airs.
Pricing is always going to be difficult for Apple to compete on, being premium products.
Above I described some of my favorite web apps and why I think ChromeBook isn't just another useless product, I mean why would any self respecting Apple user want to use something as riduclous as a computer that can only run a web browser. The nerve of Google, right.
The ChromeBox, super cool guys and for the price of only 180 dollars they make a very good TV surf station. I love to surf in bed, especially now that I spend so much time in one. The ChromeBox when connected to a 1080P TV is one of the few things that I would say it's an absolute must have. Device's like the Apple TV are great but surfing on them can be a little frustrating. Something like the new Asus or HP ChromeBox come with everything that will assure your couch potato ways are maximized to the fullest. You have access to a full browser with all of the extensions that make surfing a lot more enjoyable then any mobile browser can offer. So even watching watching TV with Zattoo, Hulu, movies and video with Netflix, YouTube, music with Spotify, Pandora, Beats, just to name a few is very enjoyable as you can put those sites into a small box on go on with your surfing. Have a large DVD or BlueRay collection, rip and upload them to Google Drive or OneDrive, both will stream your movies directly from the internet. Already have a bunch of movies ripped from your collection but you did not use a standardized codecs, no problem both will convert your videos into the appropriate format on the fly. The ChromeBox itself also handles most codecs, including the Appleinsider not so popular but most secretly use anyway, Divx and Flash. You can also a remote desktop app to control your OSX, Linux, Unix, Android and Windows machines.
As I mentioned before the starting price for the Asus is only 180 bucks, it comes with 1, 2GB SODIMM but you can easily upgrade it 16GB, or just add an additional 2GB SODIMM for 20 bucks for a total of 4GB and a wireless mouse and keyboard. The storage is a paltry 32GB because the whole idea of a Chrome device is that you store your data on the cloud, which both units come with 2 years of 100GB for free and 1 TB is only 120 a year, anyway if you want the but SSD drive is easily upgradable for both the the Asus and HP. A Sandisk 128GB drive from Amazon only costs 70 bucks but I think simply attaching a large external drive is the better option, I would recommend the Lacie Cloud series, you can put a exception in the firewall and access the drive anywhere in the world cheaply and their nice looking.
Also, don't forget too add a good camera, we bought a ChromeBox for every family household, reason being, to communicate and share family pictures and movies. We all have a 1080P camera connected to our biggest TV's which makes talking with each other an absolute joy. If you saw a ChromeBox with a good camera connected to it in action you would see why Google is pushing their solutions to business, it works extremely well. Since we have all uploaded our pictures, home movies and regular movies our combined film collection is over a 1,000 films. In which we can watch and talk to each other at the same time, a lot of fun, don't go into the basement, shut up grandma. Yes, you could do all of this with a Mac Mini, but not for the same price or ease.
I know I do this a lot, always bringing up none Apple product's but I sincerely try to only do so in threads directly related to these products or when someone brings up a competing product or OS. That being said I really think you guys would like the ChromeBox for your TV, honestly and sincerely. I'm not saying you should replace your Apple TV or Google TV top box's but for a secondary entertainment and family communication system. They make pretty darn good surf machines and great gifts for the family at Christmas.
You may now begin your onslaught of negativity upon me.
<slow clap crescending into an enthusiastic standing ovation!>
Great post and worthy of a complete repost.
A buddy of mine just last week purchased a CB for €230, which he'll be bringing by tomorrow. I also sent him a list of web software which included a couple of your links (Pixlr and PS Express) and now have a few more we can explore together
That would be interesting, I think if they forgo the use of metal, make it 12 inches they might have something. Maybe even use a slower version of the A7 to keep the price down, defiantly make sure it has 2GB of memory for future proofing and add multi user support they might have the perfect education machine. Rehash the idea of the eMate 300, call it the ePad this time but without the green, yuck, I still have an eMate, got one while at the university, I signed up for a Apple pilot program. I liked it, great note taker for classes. I replaced it later with Newton 2100 but after Apple canceled Newton, I was so lost and angry, I had so much invested in accessories, even had the keyboard that cost a fortune. Thank goodness for the Psion 5MX, Nokia Commumicator, Psion Netbook or I would have spiraled into a deep depression.
Look how cute it is, aaaahhh I want another one but with iOS 8. Time to break out my soldering kit, hacker chick away!
Oooohhhh looky you can still buy them on eBay for as low as 50 bucks, there's a lot of 10 for 600 bucks, who wants to go in with me. Oh my gosh, a guy is selling a Macintosh Color, I wanted one of those really bad but my dad said noooo, to expensive here's a crappy old PowerBook 100, enjoy. Just kidding, I loved my PowerBook 100 and it probably served me better then if I would have had to lug around the Claasic. I hate eBay, I'm always buying old computers that end up in my basement. Oh, oh, oh, I'm defiantly buying another Psion 5MX, now that every piece of software is free and readily dowloadable it might be a fun thing to play with. The battery in mine leaked out acid and destroyed it, ugh. Oh my gosh, someone is selling a SGI Tezro, I have one of those, do I need another, what if mine ever broke, I think I need a back up. Help me! I've fallen into an eBay hole and I can't get out.
No, sorry. You’re wrong.
You don’t have to do that and haven’t for years. Problem solved.
So you’re whining about having to hook up a cable and immediately afterward whining that you don’t have to hook up a cable?
They do. That’s why they AREN’T PUTTING THIS GARBAGE ON THE DEVICE.
You don’t understand what the product is for.
Just like every other OS on the market, anywhere.
And this is different from everywhere else how?
You, 2007. Patently false.
I still love my eMate. The battery doesn’t hold a charge, but it’s just four 9 volts hooked together, so it probably won’t be too hard to replace.
Just grab a for parts one off of eBay. Here is one for 10 bucks, they state it powers on but didn't go any further. But I think your right, you could probably replace the battery using off the shelf parts. Let me know how it goes, I will probably follow suit as mine doesn't hold a charge either.
We're not traditional printers dealing with publishers on a regular basis. Our services are along the lines of commercial signage, wayfinding, trade show and POS media, fleet graphics/identification . . .
No we're not in decline yet.
The reason I say debatable, is because YOU and a number of others here including myself, like to experiment, are curious, and strive to make things work... and in the end, find SOLUTIONS to problems that allow us to enjoy tech of all kinds. Only then is it wise to compare the differences, advantages and failures of a given device or system against the solutions found... or possibly not.
Which leads me to the topic at hand here and to state; how many of those school districts, admins, teachers, et al... every looked for solutions or for different and better ways to reach using the technology at their disposal? I bet the majority of them were looking for ways to do as little work and THINKING as possible, and quite possibly don't even use their Chromebooks, let alone a PC or iPad to it's fullest to TEACH PROBLEM SOLVING.
Pardon my all-caps shouting... but it is this part of education that most schools are not teaching and children are not learning. Problem solving, not rote learning and tests against your memory capacity at a given time, is what is needed from western education to stay ahead of the game that they are losing against Asian markets and economies. F*** tests! I want people that can THINK! If I need info on a subject or problem, current and future technology has placed all knowledge at our fingertips; ALL of it! But what makes us special over robots and algorithms, is our ability to a) find the relavent info as fast as possible; b) decipher and sift through it; and finally c) be able to offer a solution using critical THINKING and communication in the most concise and understandable way possible.
Are 15 page reports and rote memory testing what we need to do that? Is it possible that visual aids might be better, or at least a combination? Is not a cyber "face-to-face" presentation not far more powerful than a bloody friggin' [I]typed[/I] report? Are teachers equal everywhere?... or should the average teacher give way to professionals and video classes/seminars? Why do we teach from 7:00 - 2:30, when it has been proven that the mind is most susceptible to concentrated study/work between 9:30 - 4:30? And since no one is a like, why shouldn't a student have the ability to rewatch a class if they fell asleep through the first time? Why are we all still learning and working as if 3/4's of the population is on a farm and we have no access to electricity?
How and what we teach is far more important going forward, than the devices and OSes that we decide to use for this fleeting moment in tech history to get to WISDOM and to change society for the better in the future.
[B]RIP Steve Jobs[/B]... one of the best THINKERS and SOLUTION SOLVERS the world has ever known. Educators: Please. Take. Notes!... however you see fit and with whatever you have at hand to do it with, whether iPad, Chromebook, pen and paper... or simply a stick scribbling in the sand.
Note: another reason why I don't have children of my own: between idiot educators and societal religious preachers, I was saving myself jail time for going ballistic on the first one that screwed up my child's mind. :mad:
So basically you want a file manager and that would solve most of your problems. I also want one too, there is a program called ES File Explorer in Android that not only gives you access to your local directory but allows the mounting of pretty much every cloud storage solution there is, NAS, Samba and FTP sites, etc. To copy my media files back from different machines all I have to do is make sure there is shared folder on the target machine and then I can access it from ES. It's clean, easy, zero hassles.
With iOS, I have to go to the program where the file(s) is/are and then upload them to whatever cloud storage that particular app supports. A lot of the times I have to do one file at a time, again it depends on the app. Also, Even though I have iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and Box installed on my iPad not all apps support them all, in fact most just support iCloud ann Dropbox. Then from the other machine I log into the cloud storage that contains the file(s) and download it/them to that machine. I feel your pain, it sucks but Tallest is correct, it's not what the iPad was designed to do, apps are sandboxed and have limited communication which each other. Hopefully now that IBM is involved things like this will be addressed but I'm not holding my breath.
It's one of the reasons why I have a Nexus 10, a fantastic little machine for 200 bucks. Anyway I use it as a support tool for my iPad. I can easily transfer all of my files to and from any source, for example after I upload that file from iOS to DropBox, I see it appear on my Nexus under ES, then I simply drag and drop it to where I need it to go. Since I have every single data source mounted, it's my file manegament overlord sort of speak. You don't have to follow my example but where there's a will to solve, there's a solution. No need to get upset just adopt, overcome or move on, good luck.
Does it suffer from the 4 year and still not fixed battery problem, or is this only happening on Windows laptops?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2014/07/14/googles-chrome-web-browser-is-killing-your-laptop-battery/
That may be great for schools but not for the tech nurds 'around here'. And why is there an app for this? Creating a recovery device for your Chromebook is about to become much easier with the arrival of a new, dedicated packaged app.
Indeed, the vast availability is large. Looks like we're heading towards a 'Network Computer' area
I wanted to see this, but can't on my desktop....requires Flash
Flash needed.
I did that last night, checked out 2 apps. One was teared down by user reviews, the other 404'd on me.
Excellent points. I don't get the biased statements myself here either. I think many just put it down because it's something from Google, but haven't used the device themselves. Why not first try it out before making statements is beyond me.
Hmm, that site shows me there are a few 'issues' Chrome/Chromebook/Android:
June 4, 2014: Better Late Than Never: Google Finally Brings 64-bit Chrome to Windows That seems....late
Cheapskates: The base model from HP now starts at $429.99, an increase of almost $30 on that originally anticipated. Cry me a river, Chrome lovers
And then all sorts of 'weird' posts from users:
"Can Google fix High DPI scaling? It makes Chrome unusable on HD screens. Forget 4k! That's eye-burning"
(on the topic of 64-bit) "I tried it & it keeps freezing because it uses 98% cpu. Win8.1 laptop."
"No, Mac still has only 32-bit Chrome. That's why Java doesn't work, and you have to use Safari for in-browser Java apps."
"Someone please help ive been trying to download app from chrome a add blocker I cant get it to work"
"Reporting My 64 bit Windows 8.1 as 32 bit????"
I don't get that either. Oh well, no reason for a ban, so keep going!
No need for that. Many people enjoy reading your posts, many appreciate the time you take to elaborate on non-Apple stuff, many people prefer to read about non-Apple HW & SW instead of going to sites they don't want to go to in the first place.
Keep posting Relic. We'll keep on reading them.
This is a perfect example of someone who hasn't done any research on how Chromebooks work in a School envinroment works. No, there are no adds, Schools are behind a proxy server that only allow access to certain sites, if and that's a big if they are even allowed to surf outside of the intranet, the bulk of the apps are served from internal web servers which are district controlled. Google, Apple, NSA, whoever can track the childs internet activities just as easily when he's home on mom or dads iPad, your being ridiculous. There is no Google conspiracy to turn your child into an Android user.
Possible rebuttals could be:
"Have they been convicted of any of these issues?"
"They aren't selling your private data, they are selling anonymously aggregated data."
"Open is good. Google gathers all information there is to be found and make it publicly available, for anyone to see. Free. Free is good, no?"
“So many ignorant responses...” LOL - I just love it when people judge themselves above the rest.
Have you ever filled in a form on an ipad?? It’s tedious!!!
Have you ever typed a long, formatted text on an Ipad, an essay for example?? It’s frustrating!!!
Have you ever worked on a simple spreadsheet on the iPad??? It’s a nightmare!!!!!!
… and you do know that 8th graders are not the only ones using ipads/laptops/chromebooks, right?
It’s cake.
It’s easy.
It’s simple.
So can Apple. In fact their privacy policy is pretty similar to Google's.
"At times Apple may make certain personal information available to strategic partners that work with Apple to provide products and services, or that help Apple market to customers."
So can most other vendors you contract with in all probability. " No company is an island".
"http://www.pcworld.com/article/2453999/chromebooks-beyond-the-cloud-everything-chromebooks-can-do-offline.html"
I was not aware of this change from the early Chromebooks. Thanks. Still nowhere near the number of apps available for the iPad, but I think Google realized that there's more to a device than just the web. That is particularly true in the classroom, where often the issue is closing down the distractions so that you can get everybody doing the same thing at the same time.