The Chrome Cast

This week on The Chrome Cast, we spend the first portion of the show discussing the incredible job the Stadia team has done in bringing the Stadia experience over to iPhone and iPad via an impressive PWA. With so much happening in Stadia from game streaming to messaging to chat and Wi-Fi controller pairing, it is amazing to see a PWA do so much completely contained in a browser tab.

In the second half, we discuss Google’s recent acquisition of Neverware, makers of CloudReady OS. If you are not familiar, this company has be repurposing old Windows and MacOS laptops with a custom version of Chromium OS for years, and now they are officially part of the Google team. The ramifications could be wide, here, and we’re not entirely sure what Google is up to with this move, but we have some thoughts.

This episode is also brought to you by NordVPN. Get a VPN that takes your privacy seriously. NordVPN is our VPN of choice and will secure your browsing on your Chromebook or on any device. Use NordVPN to keep your private data to yourself whether you are at home or on the go! CLICK HERE to try it out and get a 3-year deal for $3.49/month.

Join our Patreon community and get access to things like behind-the-scenes footage, early access to videos, private Discord server access, an ad-free experience on the mobile and desktop versions of the website, your name listed on all our YouTube videos, and monthly live stream Q&A. CLICK HERE to be a part of our community.

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This week on The Chrome Cast, we spend much of our time talking through a ton of the new features on board in Chrome OS 87. From new wallpapers to Bluetooth battery reporting to ALT+TAB keyboard navigation, there’s quite a bit in this update to digest.

From there we move on to talking about some of the features that are nested behind feature flags in Chrome OS 87 like holding space, the new global media controls and more. Finally, we wrap things up by talking a bit about printers, the death of Google Cloud Print, and how Chromebooks are actually quite adept at printing these days.

SHOW NOTES

This episode is also brought to you by NordVPN. Get a VPN that takes your privacy seriously. NordVPN is our VPN of choice and will secure your browsing on your Chromebook or on any device. Use NordVPN to keep your private data to yourself whether you are at home or on the go! CLICK HERE to try it out and get a 3-year deal for $3.49/month.

Join our Patreon community and get access to things like behind-the-scenes footage, early access to videos, private Discord server access, an ad-free experience on the mobile and desktop versions of the website, your name listed on all our YouTube videos, and monthly live stream Q&A. CLICK HERE to be a part of our community.

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This episode is sponsored by VIZOR for Chromebooks. Schools, do you have Chromebooks? Introducing VIZOR for Chromebooks, a Chromebook management solution that goes beyond your Google Admin functionality. It integrates with G Suite and with your Student Information System. Track who has what, track check-out programs, and manage repairs. Schedule a product demo to see if VIZOR for Chromebooks can help your school.

This week on The Chrome Cast, we spend our time talking through two confusing segments of the current Chromebook market: tablets and high-end Chromebooks.  Both of these categories have great current and upcoming options, but both are likely confusing for consumers on the outside looking in.  For tablets, the issue is the lack of options with only one notable upcoming device worth getting hyped about.  For high-end Chromebooks, the problem comes down to the fact that great Chromebooks are coming down in price and justifying the extra expense is simply getting tough to do these days.

NOTABLE LINKS

This episode is also brought to you by NordVPN. Get a VPN that takes your privacy seriously. NordVPN is our VPN of choice and will secure your browsing on your Chromebook or on any device. Use NordVPN to keep your private data to yourself whether you are at home or on the go! CLICK HERE to try it out and get a 3-year deal for $3.49/month.

Join our Patreon community and get access to things like behind-the-scenes footage, early access to videos, private Discord server access, an ad-free experience on the mobile and desktop versions of the website, your name listed on all our YouTube videos, and monthly live stream Q&A. CLICK HERE to be a part of our community. 

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This week on The Chrome Cast, we spend a bit of time talking through our latest, favorite deals as well as our picks for 2020 Gear of the Year.  From $200 Lenovo Duet's to big sales on AirPods Pro, there are so many deals going on it is a bit dizzying.  Between those deals and discussing some of our favorite tech from 2020, it makes for a fun first half of the show.

After the break, our discussion shifts to the future as we explore all the Chromebooks we are expecting in 2021, and let me tell you: it's an absolute avalanche.  While we expect a few more devices could debut before the end of 2020, 2021 looks like a more likely target for nearly every Chromebook we're keeping tabs on right now.  With 7 distinct groups/families of Chromebook on the way, increased interest in Chrome OS, and more manufacturers getting in on  Chromebooks than ever before, 2021 is looking like it will be a crazy ride for Chrome OS fans.

NOTABLE LINKS

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This week on The Chrome Cast, we start things off by covering our current giveaways (both a Lenovo Chromebook Duet and Acer Chromebook Spin 713), tons of other great deals out there on Chromebooks for the holiday season, and we follow it all up with an overview of the Best Chromebooks of 2020 video that we published just this week.  Simply put, whether you're in it to get a Chromebook for free or just looking for a great deal on one, the first half of this week's show is for you.

In the latter section, we shift gears to Apple's new M1-powered Macbooks and Mac Mini.  These devices have been reviewed and the resulting reactions to Apple's new silicon is very, very good.  What we see as a result is a shift in mainstream computing that could end up producing better quality Chromebooks in the long run that are powered by more-custom ARM chips built and bread for use on Chromebooks.  Perhaps we'll even see Google's own silicon sometime in 2021.

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This week on The Chrome Cast, we're talking about ARM yet again.  There's a reason we find ourselves in this lane week in and week out, and it is because ARM is finally emerging in the market as a viable counterpart to Intel's desktop dominance.  We see this more clearly than ever with both the announcement of Apple's first line of M1 ARM-powered devices and MediaTek's new Chromebook-specific ARM chips.  While there's a long way to go yet in the ARM vs. x86 (a.k.a Intel and AMD) conversation, ARM is coming into its own on desktop like never before.

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This week on The Chrome Cast, we're getting prepped and excited for a few reasons as we approach the MediaTek Summit next week.  For one, we know there is going to be some Chromebook-specific news in regard to the upcoming MT8195 chips we expect to see in Chromebooks beginning in 2021.  More exciting is the swag box MediaTek sent over that had some fun stuff inside, but most notably contained a brand-new Lenovo Chromebook Duet that we're ready to give away in the next couple weeks.

The second half of the podcast this week focuses in on the open web, why it is important, and how video calling has been distilled in the last 6 months to the point where our knee-jerk reaction to starting or joining a video call is looking for that sweet, simple URL.  When pushed to choose the most effective, most productive way to get work done via video, humanity looks to have chosen services like Zoom and Google Meet that function and exist via the open web.  That's a pretty significant thing.

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This week on The Chrome Cast, our conversation is as varied as the week's content has been.  From a new version of Chrome OS arriving, rolling out slowly, being not-really-delayed, and finally landing for nearly everyone, it has been an odd release cycle to be sure.  Additionally, we've seen the confident return of Chromebook inventory in stores, leading to pre-Black Friday sales on all sorts of devices that we've simply not seen for quite some time.

Hosts: Joe Humphrey, Gabriel Brangers and Robby Payne

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This week on The Chrome Cast, we’re diving into the new ARM-powered Chromebook that Acer just unveiled this week (the Chromebook Spin 513) that just so happens to be running on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Compute platform. Though this device is still clearly a work in progress, the inclusion of Snapdragon chips in the Chrome OS story is notable as more high-end ARM chips are slated for 2021 from MediaTek as well. It should make for a very interesting fight.

Beyond the Acer Chromebook Spin 513, we spend a bit of time talking through the recent upgrades to the experience of PUBG Mobile on the humble Lenovo Chromebook Duet and why it matters that a huge game developer has clearly taken a shine to Chromebooks for once. As more developers realize the nascent potential of the Chrome OS user base, we really feel like Android apps on Chromebooks have only scratched the surface thus far.

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This week on The Chrome Cast, we’re peeling back the onion a bit to take a deeper look at why the laptop industry’s transitions over the ARM-based chips is so important for Chrome OS. While Chromebooks have run fine on both ARM and x86 processors alike for years, it’s never quite felt like Google has been all-in on the idea.

As Apple readies itself to fully unveil the new Macbooks with ARM processors inside, it is beginning to feel like the entire industry is at the edge of a pretty big shift from a general reliance on Intel to an ARM-focused future. The next few years will be very interesting as it develops, but Chromebooks stand to benefit the most from this shift and we’re ready to see the fruits of change.

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