Category: Chrome OS

Dark mode (or theme) is something that a lot of people love but sadly, to this point, it is not something that has been available in Chrome OS.  That appears to be set to change.  The team over at Chrome Unboxed discovered a new flag in the platforms Dev Channel that allows you to enable a Dark mode on your system tray.

As a reminder, the Chrome OS Dev Channel is currently on Chrome 66 so if this flag stays in place, we should see it hit the Stable channel April.  As a further reminder, the Dev Channel is essentially the Alpha channel for the platform.  That means it will be unstable and you will likely run into bugs.  But, if you are brave or have a spare Chromebook you can run in the Dev Channel, here is how you enable Dark Mode.

We are only two months into 2018 but it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Chrome OS.  This year is slated to be a busy one with 8 releases of the platform scheduled to happen this calendar year.  One of those, Chrome 64, has already happened but by the time we get to December, we will be rolling out Chrome 71 believe it or not.

The Chromium team has put together a tentative schedule of releases for Chrome OS for 2018.  While the calendar is subject to change due to unforeseen bugs or other issues, last year the team was pretty much on target all year with releases.  It is a reasonable bet that 2018 will follow suite.

One of the best features of the Google Pixelbook is the built-in and dedicated keyboard key for Google Assistant.  As I put in my review of the Pixelbook, the Google Assistant integration works great and it has proven to be a far more handy feature than I expected it to be when I first got the Chromebook.

By default, the Assistant keyboard button opens up with the default interaction as the keyboard.  In other words, typing your request to Assistant.  Google does this because it has also designed the Pixelbook to respond to “Hey, Google” (assuming you have enabled it).  But sometimes, having the keyboard key configured to accept voice commands can be handy.  Think of it as being similar to when you tap and hold the Home button down on your Android phone.

In this How To, I’ll show you how you can configure the Assistant keyboard key to open up and listen for your voice commands instead of typed inputs.

At Mobile World Congress today, Lenovo has announced an expansion of their education ready Chromebooks.  The company introduced the 100e, 300e and 500e devices with the entry level 100e starting at just $219.  All three devices are ruggedized and two of the models have touchscreens.

The 100e is the entry level model and is the only non-touchscreen device.  It is powered by a dual-core Celeron N3350 CPU with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and an 11.6″ display.   It has two USB 3.0 ports as well as two USB-C ports for charging.

There is no debate that the Google Pixelbook is a premium device.  Not only does the $999 starting price tag give that away, but the overall design of the machine itself screams premium.  It could well be the most attractive – dare I say sexy? – laptop on the market today, regardless of platform.

Google launched the Pixelbook, and the accompanying Pixelbook Pen in October 2017 with the launch of the Pixel 2 phone lineup.  At the time, and still today, many scoffed at the idea of a $1000 Chromebook, citing previous web-only experiences with Chrome OS.  But the world, and Chrome OS, has changed.  No longer does the platform require a constant connection to be functional and add to that the native Android app support of the Pixelbook, you have a device that can serve many purposes in your day-to-day life at work and at home.

The question for the Pixelbook, and really any Chromebook, is can it meet your needs?  I suspect that for the vast majority of readers, it will hit the 90-95% of what you need.  The question is can you live without the other 5-10% or compromise to make it work on this device?  That’s something I can’t answer for you as everyone’s 5-10% is different.

Recently I received a Google Pixelbook to review.  After spending a couple of weeks with it as my primary laptop device (as well as my Android tablet), I’m nothing short of impressed.  No the Pixelbook is not perfect but it is close.  Really close.

Actually, I should clarify that statement.  The Pixelbook, from a hardware perspective, is second-to-none.  The only limitations are with Chrome OS itself.  And with the additional features that are coming in future Chrome OS builds, that will change.

If you have been looking for the stock wallpaper from the Google Pixelbook, look no further.  I’ve added the waves on white sand wallpaper to the Wallpaper page here on the site but also have added it to this post below the break.  That’ll save those of you who aren’t interested having to wait for it to download.

The wallpaper measures 2400×2400 so you can manipulate it to work on all of your tablets, Chromebooks and of course, you phone.