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For readers who are in the Essential Phone beta program, you have a new second beta for Android Oreo rolling out to you today.  The new build is version OPM1.170911.213 for those keeping score and brings a handful of new features as well as a significant number of bug fixes from the first beta.  The new build is 142MB in size so it is advisable to download it via WiFi.

As for new features, this new build brings some of the standard Oreo features to the PH-1.  These include:

• Smart text selection
• Instant apps
• Picture-in-picture

Also, sign-in to apps has been improve as has the overall startup time of the Essential Phone.  All of these are positive steps in the evolution of Essential’s Oreo build as it brings more of the standard features of Oreo to the device.

The venerable Samsung Galaxy Note 5 keeps on keeping on.  Samsung today has released an update for the 2015 phablet that brings the December Android Security Update to the phone.

The new update is build NRD90M.N920GDDS3CQL4 for those keeping score at home and it is aimed at the unlocked variants of the Note 5.  It is a very small update, coming in at 17MB.  That means that this update is essentially only the December Android Security Update.

Like any laptop, there are times when you will want or perhaps need to reset your Chromebook.  In Chrome OS terms, that is called a Powerwash and as the name implies, it completely wipes any apps, accounts and data on the device and restores it to the factory default.

The easiest way to perform a Powerwash on a Chromebook is to go into the Settings and execute it from there.  However, if your Chromebook is corrupted and you can’t open Settings, what do you do?  Simple:  perform the wash by using keyboard commands.

Long time Chrome OS users will know this trick but for those of you who are new to the platform, this may not be known.  That’s where this How To comes into play.  I’ll outline the keystrokes you need to use in order to reset your Chromebook.

It should be noted that in this How To, I’m assuming you are not using a Chromebook tied to a corporate or education account.  In those cases, your Admin must reset the devices.

For those of you who have been waiting for the ultra high end version of the new Google Pixelbook, your wait is over.  Google today has posted the Intel i7-based model in their store and you can place your order now.  But, and this is important, you won’t get it until January as they don’t start shipping until January 3, 2017.

For those who don’t recall, this Pixelbook sports the Intel i7 processor, has 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.  It is identical in form and function to the base model, i5 powered Pixelbook.  Price wise, it is an eye watering $1649 but is currently on sale for $100 off.

The question is do you really need this high powered of a Chromebook?  Outside of a few edge cases, I’d argue no.  Here’s why.