With quite a bit of activity since Friday, you may of wondered what might of been going on here but on Friday I noted there seemed to be a flash sale on at Amazon and something got me interested
I had been talking about about technology in a less point scoring way with my BFF who uses her smartphone a lot and well as most of you know I don't use one them having a regular long lasting cellphone and a portable music player for sound, preferring to be switched off when I'm out.
I had seen and have sometimes contemplated owning a tablet but aren't very co-ordinated so swiping might be an issue and I prefer a keyboard as much as just being able to turn it on and do something appeals.
There have been a few attempts to mix small form computers with a keyboard from Netbooks around 2008 to about 2011, optional keyboards for tablets to so called 2 in 1 'transformer' tablets with snap off detachable keyboards but these really have taken off in the last five years,
This was on offer for some 20 % which helped.
It is what is called a Chromebook which in a lot of ways are a cross between the functions of a Tablet but with a keyboard and thanks to working remotely by the internet can do things like basic editing of pictures, handle documents and emails as well as use internet sites such as Facebook.
It also is integrated more with A.I. compared with my last one plus the backlit keyboard is a boon when working in dull environments.
The thing they don't do is play massive games, use the iTunes store or copy music from cd but to be honest most of us use our computers through browsers 90% of the time.
You do things like writing documents using apps just like a tablet or smart phone but you get a bigger screen which is more suited to watching say a movie online.
This happens because it uses a form of Linux running through the Chrome browser to control its functions and that runs very quickly on a less powerful processor, making the battery last around 14 hours maximum and not get too hot to touch.
This Asus is really intended for Junior high schoolers used often in education which kind of clinched it for because it is simple to use and robust matching my needs so you could say it's the perfect JoBook.
The screen is a super HD 1980x 768 but common on small laptops being an improvement on the 1440 x 768 of my older notebook which helps using most site layouts showing more without using the cursor which has a lovely bold black pointer.
There wasn't much to do upon opening it beyond confirming it had a UK layout keyboard and that I speak English, you just log onto your network (and the Wifi is really fast) and enter you Google Account which if you've use things like GMail, Blogger and GooglePlus you'll have anyway and you're away.
Ir picked up my previous Google bookmarks and passwords just fine.
It has 2 USB 3.1 sockets, plus a USB c, a HDMI connector for a monitor, a headphone jack and SD C and then there's cloud storage too.
Google Chrome looks after updating itself for you without the seven hundredth update keeping you up all night and shockingly can be used after 10 seconds and switches off after about 3 seconds which makes it ideal for checking your emails or social media accounts.
For what I want it for, it's ideal.
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