SharpLance

Early in November 2014, Microsoft announced that Skype would work within a browser. For the time being, one would need a traditional computer to install a plug-in but only until Skype implements the WebRTC standard. After implementing the WebRTC standard, Skype would work on the Chromebook. Mozilla and Google are already far in the WebRTC development so the opportunity to Skype from a Chromebook is likely going to happen very soon. If Skype doesn't do it, they would be quickly moved aside by browser based WebRTC solutions such as Mozilla's Firefox Hello and Google Hangout. Here's a link to WebRTC if you want to look more into it. With Mozilla Firefox beta, you could try the WebRTC feature by using Firefox Hello .

Only you know what you need. All I can do is share my opinion and perhaps give you a new insight. For new laptops costing less than $250, I would pick the laptop which syncs with the office services you primarily use. If using Microsoft Office 365, a cheap Windows laptop would work nicely and don't expect it to run Premiere or the latest games at 24-100 fps. Think of it as an office machine with basic web browsing ability. Miscellaneous applications such as DropBox or Norton would work nicely on it. If using Google services such as Gmail, Drive, or Docs, go with the Chromebook. While it is true that the Windows laptop could still use Google services, one would be even more productive on the Chromebook. It is mainly a browser with some off-line capabilities which includes playing movies from Google Play. You'd spend less time updating the OS or applications. Chromebook does the browsing tasks well and stays out of the way like a tablet.

For seamless texting (aka SMS) capability on multiple platforms at no cost, one could set up Google Voice with Google Hangouts. The main benefit of doing that is to allow one to text from any platform including from a non-cellular tablet or Chromebook using Google Hangouts. Clear instructions could be found on Google's website .

I still have one of the early Chromebooks, the Samsung 5 550, and wanted to improve the webcam. After some research, I bought a C920 webcam from Logitech. Stuck the C920 into the Chromebook's USB port and fired up Hangouts to only observe that the Chromebook still uses the internal camera. After a brief look on Google, I found out that one has to go to chrome://settings/content and change the camera to the external C920. I followed the directions and the C920 worked in the Camera app but every time I started up Hangouts, the Chromebook reverted back to the internal camera. So I cleared my Chrome cache, and the right camera finally worked in Google Hangouts. The C920 quality is immensely better than the internal camera however the CPU on the Samsung 5 550 Chromebook is not fast enough to do high definition (HD) videos. Regardless the lack of HD, I'd still have to say that the C920 video quality is immensely better than before so it was still worth getting it.

Soon there will be a Chromebook with 192 cores and yet delivering 11-13 hours of battery life due to the efficient, fanless, and low wattage CPU. Some of you may quickly figured out that I am referring to the Acer Chromebook 13 powered by NVIDIA Tegra K1. With popular gaming engines being converted to WebGL such as Unreal Engine 4, this development represents an exciting new frontier for Chromebooks. Naturally the possibilities extends much more than gaming as seen in the video at NVIDIA. It is a buy for early adopters. http:// blogs.nvidia.com /blog/2014/08/11/ tegra -k1- chromebooks /

As of April 15, 2014, t his is the best comprehensive review on the current Chromebooks. Personally, I agree with them on going with 4 GB RAM for the best experience. So far, Chromebooks with the Intel Haswell processors are the best performers. http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-chromebook/

ComputerWorld's article on the speed of Google's patches to the Chrome and ChromeOS vulnerabilities within 48 hours of revelation serves as a reminder on why one may want to consider using a Chromebook if internet security is a high priority. No device is completely safe but some are harder than others to exploit. No company has closed vulnerabilities as quickly as Google did after the recent Pwn2Own and Pwnium hacking events.

Every year, especially in the United States, many basketball fans follow the NCAA March Madness tournament. NCAA has set up a 2014 March Madness website  [NCAA.com] to allow people to watch the games with statistics. The point of this blog is to point out that the video works beautifully on the old Samsung Chromebook without any shutter (Samsung 5 Series 550 3G with an Intel Celeron chip - see chip specs here [Intel.com]). If getting a newer Chromebook, I would make sure the chip performance is at least at par or better than the above mentioned Chromebook.

The Chromebook is still being used for basic browsing and Netflix. Yesterday I had my first mishap with the device. The battery was running low so I fumbled around in the dark looking for the power port and accidentally moved a developer switch. I didn't know such a switch existed on the Chromebook so I was surprised the following day to see my Chromebook fail to boot. It took a long time to find the switch because the icon near it looks like the place where you plug in a lock. For fun, I had other people look for the switch as well. None could find it so far.