Oreo Beta Testing Opens for The Nokia 3

While the attention on Nokia this weekend and this week will be their activities at Mobile World Congress, it doesn’t mean that things are standing still back home.  HMD Global’s Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas took to Twitter in the wee hours of the morning here in the US to let people know that the Android Oreo beta program for the Nokia 3 has now kicked off.

It is great news and follows up on Nokia’s promise last year to bring Oreo to all of their current devices, including the budget friendly Nokia 3.

A New Commit Suggests Linux VMs Could Be Coming to Chrome OS

While Chrome OS is Linux based at heart, it is currently not able to run Linux apps or development tools natively.  There are workarounds out there but they generally require you to put your Chromebook in Developer mode which bypasses many of the security features of the platform – not ideal for the everyday users.

That is what makes a new commit found in the Chrome OS Gerrit so exciting.  The commit suggests that support for Linux VMs (Virtual Machines) could be coming to the platform.  This would allow users to run popular Linux-based apps on their Chromebooks without having to change out of the Stable channel or bypass security features of the platform.

Google Pixelbook – The Ultimate Chromebook Experience

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.

Google Investigating Battery Drain Issues With The Pixel 2 Lineup

Google is in the process of researching a new bug that is impacting Pixel 2 owners where rapid battery draining is occurring.  So far the Mountain View company hasn’t pinpointed the cause of the problem, which is not impacting all users.

A thread in the Google Product Forums, in the Pixel community, has been ongoing, particularly since the release of the February Android Security Update.  That appears to be when the issue began for several users although Google, right now at least, cannot find a correlation between the two, according to a source at 9to5Google.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Lineup Announced – Pre-Orders Start March 2

As expect, Samsung has announced the all new Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ at Mobile World Congress today.  The two flagship devices are solid upgrades to last year’s S8 series with the S9+ having some unique features over the standard S9.

The S9 and the S9+ are both powered by the Snapdragon 845 here in the US, with the S9 having 4GB of RAM and starting with 64GB of storage.  You can go up to 256GB on that built-in storage on both devices but, the S9+ will have 6GB of RAM on board.

The Galaxy S9 has a 12MP rear facing camera while the S9+ has a dual camera configuration with an adjustable aperture.  The S9 is powered by a 3000mAh battery behind the 5.8″ QHD Super AMOLED display while the 6.2″ S9+ will have a slight bigger 3500mAh battery.

 

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