DAWN TO DUSK NEWS: laptop

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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24pt;">Why Your Kid’s Next Laptop — But Not
Yours — Should Be a Chromebook</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shopping for a laptop for your
budding young genius? It may be time to ditch Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s
OS X and start living <i>la vida Google</i> with a Chromebook.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you’ve never heard of
Chromebooks, don’t feel bad. These small and (mostly) inexpensive machines
haven’t exactly been setting the world on fire since they were introduced in
June 2011. Lately, though, Chromebooks seem to be taking off.
Acer, HP and Toshiba have all released new models over the last few months, and
tech research firm Gartner predicts that Chromebook sales will more than double
in 2014.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What’s a Chromebook?<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chromebooks look like ordinary
laptops, but they hold a huge difference inside: They run the Chrome operating
system, which is built around the same code used by Google’s Chrome browser.
And instead of storing software and data on the machine’s hard drive,
Chromebooks are set up to put it online, in the cloud. And there’s more: On a
Chromebook, you don’t spend a fortune on productivity software like Microsoft
Office; rather, you configure your Chromebook to use lightweight apps that run
on web pages. Many of the apps are free. And you won’t have to futz around with
system settings while trying to decipher inscrutable error messages, so you’ll
be able to get actual work done .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This doesn’t mean Chromebooks are
the best choice for everyone. There are good reasons why Windows PCs and Macs
will continue to rule in personal computing for years to come. But Chromebooks
are a mighty attractive option for your kids, for three excellent reasons:</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They’re cheap.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> WiFi Chromebooks typically cost between $200 and $300, so
when your kids knock their laptop off the arm of the couch and break the screen
(which has happened in my house more times than I care to recall), it won’t be
quite so painful. And since most of the apps are free, you won’t be stuck
forking over hundreds of dollars for additional software.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They’re fast. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Press the power button, log into your Google account (if you
don’t have one already, you’ll need to create one), and you’re in. Close the
lid when you’re done, reopen it later, and you’re back exactly where you
started. Your only real limit is the speed of your Internet connection.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They’re easy.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> If you know how to use a browser — and especially if you’re
familiar with Google Chrome — then you know how to use a Chromebook. They’re
less prone to the maddening technical glitches that drive owners of PCs (and,
yes, Macs too) absolutely bonkers. They’re also more secure: Because Chrome OS
has yet to become popular with malware authors, you’re unlikely to catch some
nasty Net-borne virus. And if by chance you do, Google has built in some nifty
safeguards to limit the damage and revert your system to its pristine state.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These things make Chromebooks an
especially good fit for classrooms. Teachers don’t have to waste 10 minutes of
class time waiting for everyone’s Windows machines to boot up or spend time
troubleshooting someone’s iWork installation. If the machine isn’t working,
kids can just grab another Chromebook off the hardware cart, log into their
accounts, and get to work.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Working without a net<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So what happens if you’re stuck on a
WiFi-less plane or trapped in some godforsaken wasteland where the nearest
Starbucks hotspot is 50 miles away?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The biggest rap against Chromebooks
has been that once you’re out of range of a WiFi network, they turn into
expensive doorstops. That isn’t completely true anymore, thanks to the offline
capabilities that Google and others have built into their apps.</span></div>
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<img alt="image" height="281" id="yui_3_12_0_1_1393855507499_4804" src="https://s1.yimg.com/cd/resizer/FIT_TO_WIDTH-w500/c8dc7bf6da0d881a9e12e55acf064e9317d558d8" width="500" /><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are now hundreds of apps in
the Chrome Web Store that will work offline, including all the major
productivity programs. For example, you can work on any Google Doc or compose
emails without being connected to the Net. Once you’re reconnected, your files
will automatically sync to your Google Drive or outbox. For some reason,
however, this is not set up by default; you’ll have to dig into the Settings
menu and tell your apps you want them to work offline, add new Chrome apps to
enable this capability, or download files to your machine and use the built-in
Quickoffice app to edit and upload them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another strange exception is Google
Calendar: For reasons that surpass all understanding, you can view two months’
worth of your calendar offline and RSVP to invites, but you can’t add new
appointments to it without a live connection. Hello, Google?</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">La vida Google<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I spent a couple of weeks with an <u><a href="http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MJAAA.002" target="_blank">Acer</a> Chromebook <a href="http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MJAAA.002" target="_blank">C</a><a href="http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MJAAA.002" target="_blank">720</a><a href="http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MJAAA.002" target="_blank">P</a></u> as my traveling companion, and it was not
that much different from using an ordinary laptop. The 3-pound machine is boxy
and unexciting to look at, but it does the job. Acer promised boot-up times of
seven seconds and seven-plus hours of battery life, and it delivered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s got the goods in the tech
department, too. It comes with 32 GB of local storage, which allowed me to
download documents from my Dropbox account and open them up in Google Apps, as
well as 100 GB of free storage on Google Drive (in the cloud). The C720P
features an HDMI port for attaching an external display, two USB ports for plugging
in thumb drives or external mice and keyboards, and an SD card slot for
additional storage. The $299 unit also has an 11.6-inch touchscreen, though it
seems mostly useful for flinging birds at pigs or tapping on tiles in Mahjong
Solitaire. Outside of games, I hardly laid a finger on it.</span></div>
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<img alt="image" height="372" id="yui_3_12_0_1_1393855507499_5041" src="https://s.yimg.com/cd/resizer/FIT_TO_WIDTH-w500/682dcf5c62bfa706a6b5fd567c09abefcb32b54c" width="500" /><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I used the Chromebook to write this
post, check email, build spreadsheets, watch movies on Netflix, chat up friends
on Facebook, share photos on Instagram, stream music on Pandora, and do almost
everything else I’d do with a “normal” computer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The key word in that sentence is <i>almost</i>.
One of the most notable differences with Chromebooks — and a big reason why
they’re not the best choice for everyone — is what’s missing. Like, say, direct
support for peripherals. While you can connect your Chromebook to your HDTV,
you can’t just plug your printer into one and expect it to work. You’ll have to
connect it to the cloud and email your printer the document you want to see on
paper. Want to hook up a scanner or a Wacom tablet? Fuhgeddaboudit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then there are the apps. There are
thousands of them in the Chrome Web Store, but they
may not necessarily be the ones you’re used to. Love GarageBand? Can’t live
without Photoshop? You’ll have to make do with cheap imitations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you’ve been living on Planet
Microsoft or inside the Apple universe for a long time, you’ll likely find it
hard to transition to Googleville. While Chrome’s productivity apps do 90
percent of what most people need them to do, they simply aren’t as powerful as
the ones you’ll get with Microsoft Office.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But your kids don’t have that
problem. They don’t need to run powerful productivity apps. They aren’t set in
their computing ways. Between home, school and the library, they’ll rarely
encounter a situation where there’s no WiFi to be found. They will take to a
Chromebook like guppies to a 50-gallon tank.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While they, too, will miss some apps
— I could find no Chrome OS equivalent to Minecraft, for example — you might
actually see that as a plus. And the next time you hear a sickening crunch as
your child sits on the Chromebook she left on the couch instead of putting it
away like you told her to, you’ll be thanking God, or at least Google, that it
wasn’t a $1,200 MacBook. </span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Posted BY::Muhammad Usman</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Source:Yahoo news</span></div>
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Why Your Kid’s Next Laptop — But Not Yours — Should Be a Chromebook

Why Your Kid’s Next Laptop — But Not Yours — Should Be a Chromebook Shopping for a laptop for your budding young genius? It may be...