Chromebooks - Talk to me. (or similar)
Chromebooks - Talk to me. (or similar) Posted on: 12.12.2013 by nayit ruiz jaramillo Ok I'm buying my mum a Chromebook or something similar for Xmas.Who's got one or any experience and what are they like and who makes the one you would recommend. Price range? Well it's my mum so price is of little concern but price must be relevant to her usage needs. Worth noting. My mum is 71. She does not need an all-singing-all-dancing machine. She will literally just use it to surf the internet and leave her political rants on the BBC New website and probably send hate mail to David Cameron (yes like me she is a raving Commie). She won't be using any peripherals. She HATES tablets, they are not good for her hands or posture and a Surface is not practical for her. Little netbooks are too small so I'm believeing 11" screen or very similar. As light as possible would be good. ...and remember this is my mum I'm asking about so please keep the usual piss-taking down to a respectful level. Try to be helpful. First person that says "get her a QuadCore Macbook Pro" gets banned I thank you in advance. May angels sing you to a restful sleep tonite knowing that you have helped me, help a lovely lady out. Karlos | |
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
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| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
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| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
|
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
|
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
|
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
|
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
|
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
|
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
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| nayit ruiz jaramillo 16.12.2013 | No... no laptops... I know how much cheap laptops cost but the point is that ChromeBooks 'seem' to be the most hassle free way of getting a 71 year old woman onto to internet with absolutely zero need for me to be on tap to answer questions. Surfing - that is all she wants to do... nothing else. And the machine has to be ultra light. Auto software and virus protection updates, 7 second boot up. Who needs a Windows or Mac laptop when you have all that for about |
| Golden Faubert 15.12.2013 | my sister just started college and i was going to buy her one, had a look, didn't like it, just way too restricted, i ended up buying a brand new 15.6" windows laptop directly from HP for |
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
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| nayit ruiz jaramillo 16.12.2013 | No... no laptops... I know how much cheap laptops cost but the point is that ChromeBooks 'seem' to be the most hassle free way of getting a 71 year old woman onto to internet with absolutely zero need for me to be on tap to answer questions. Surfing - that is all she wants to do... nothing else. And the machine has to be ultra light. Auto software and virus protection updates, 7 second boot up. Who needs a Windows or Mac laptop when you have all that for about |
| Golden Faubert 15.12.2013 | my sister just started college and i was going to buy her one, had a look, didn't like it, just way too restricted, i ended up buying a brand new 15.6" windows laptop directly from HP for |
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
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| nayit ruiz jaramillo 16.12.2013 | No... no laptops... I know how much cheap laptops cost but the point is that ChromeBooks 'seem' to be the most hassle free way of getting a 71 year old woman onto to internet with absolutely zero need for me to be on tap to answer questions. Surfing - that is all she wants to do... nothing else. And the machine has to be ultra light. Auto software and virus protection updates, 7 second boot up. Who needs a Windows or Mac laptop when you have all that for about |
| nayit ruiz jaramillo 16.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Kid Quest
I will not be buying a Windows laptop. She simply does not need one and I have enough on my plate without having to fanny about with another laptop. The whole reason that I am considering a ChromeBook is the total simplicity of one. Having looked a bit more into them I believe I'm gonna get a mid-priced Chromebook. It really is only something to surf on. She does not need storage, she won't be saving music, pictures or video (that's all taken care for her by me and my sis)... she just wants to vent her anger at the government, switch her gas supplier do all the online stuff that people are having to do these days because everything is easier online such as renewing her car tax etc. Also, her eyesight is fine. She was happy with the iPad screen size but the onscreen keyboard was not good for her hands and the flatness was not good for her posture so a Chromebook screen will be fine. She had a go on my old 12" iBook and she was happy with the size of that, it's just that I won't part with it. Cheers fellas. |
| April Burnap 15.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50
I'd recommend a Vaio. Solid and reliable. Also, I'd suggest maybe booting with Windows 7 as opposed to 8, purely because 8 is crazily complicated and a bitch to use, interface-wise... |
| Golden Faubert 15.12.2013 | my sister just started college and i was going to buy her one, had a look, didn't like it, just way too restricted, i ended up buying a brand new 15.6" windows laptop directly from HP for |
| nayit ruiz jaramillo 12.12.2013 | Ok I'm buying my mum a Chromebook or something similar for Xmas. Who's got one or any experience and what are they like and who makes the one you would recommend. Price range? Well it's my mum so price is of little concern but price must be relevant to her usage needs. Worth noting. My mum is 71. She does not need an all-singing-all-dancing machine. She will literally just use it to surf the internet and leave her political rants on the BBC New website and probably send hate mail to David Cameron (yes like me she is a raving Commie). She won't be using any peripherals. She HATES tablets, they are not good for her hands or posture and a Surface is not practical for her. Little netbooks are too small so I'm believeing 11" screen or very similar. As light as possible would be good. ...and remember this is my mum I'm asking about so please keep the usual piss-taking down to a respectful level. Try to be helpful. First person that says "get her a QuadCore Macbook Pro" gets banned I thank you in advance. May angels sing you to a restful sleep tonite knowing that you have helped me, help a lovely lady out. Karlos |
| Alycia Niederriter 18.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Karlos Santos
|
| nayit ruiz jaramillo 16.12.2013 | No... no laptops... I know how much cheap laptops cost but the point is that ChromeBooks 'seem' to be the most hassle free way of getting a 71 year old woman onto to internet with absolutely zero need for me to be on tap to answer questions. Surfing - that is all she wants to do... nothing else. And the machine has to be ultra light. Auto software and virus protection updates, 7 second boot up. Who needs a Windows or Mac laptop when you have all that for about |
| Alycia Niederriter 16.12.2013 | 11 or 13" Samsung laptop or something similar that does chrome OS.. Something like dual core, 2gb RAM, 120B~ hard drive or some small amount of hard drive... Will cost you about 200 or 350. Don't have any links, I'd just look around on amazon or ebuyer etc |
| Jetta Drenzek 16.12.2013 | The only Chromebooks worth getting where the HP 11... But they all exploded (seriously) and now they're in short supply. I know because I was going to get the slam piece one but now I'm shit out of luck. Although I would rather her have no present rather than one that burns her house down. In my opinion, Chromebooks will be a lot better in a year or two when HTML5 has an actual standard and global internet coverage is even better than it is now. |
| nayit ruiz jaramillo 16.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by Kid Quest
I will not be buying a Windows laptop. She simply does not need one and I have enough on my plate without having to fanny about with another laptop. The whole reason that I am considering a ChromeBook is the total simplicity of one. Having looked a bit more into them I believe I'm gonna get a mid-priced Chromebook. It really is only something to surf on. She does not need storage, she won't be saving music, pictures or video (that's all taken care for her by me and my sis)... she just wants to vent her anger at the government, switch her gas supplier do all the online stuff that people are having to do these days because everything is easier online such as renewing her car tax etc. Also, her eyesight is fine. She was happy with the iPad screen size but the onscreen keyboard was not good for her hands and the flatness was not good for her posture so a Chromebook screen will be fine. She had a go on my old 12" iBook and she was happy with the size of that, it's just that I won't part with it. Cheers fellas. |
| Dung Domingus 15.12.2013 | He's talking about his mother. Having worked level 1 tech support before I'd recommend a chromebook if she is not tech savvy and calls you asking how to do stuff on the computer. Chromebooks may be restricted to us, but the average user only uses the browser 99.9% of the time anyway and there are are chrome web store alternatives to the .01% of the time. The biggest strength I see is not having to worry about system up keep or the user accidentally messing up settings. |
| April Burnap 15.12.2013 |
Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50
I'd recommend a Vaio. Solid and reliable. Also, I'd suggest maybe booting with Windows 7 as opposed to 8, purely because 8 is crazily complicated and a bitch to use, interface-wise... |
| Golden Faubert 15.12.2013 | my sister just started college and i was going to buy her one, had a look, didn't like it, just way too restricted, i ended up buying a brand new 15.6" windows laptop directly from HP for |
| Dung Domingus 11.12.2013 | Chromebooks vary in price and horsepower. You have the upper echelon with the chromebook (google pixel) and the more budget friendly units that most brands make. I believe as of now Samsung, Acer, and HP make chromebooks in the $250-$350ish range (with dell releasing one in the coming months). Everyone disses them, but I believe they are a great alternative to those who aren't very computer literate, won't be doing anything that is cpu/gpu intensive, or don't need a windows/linux/osx specific program. There's no worrying about viruses or system maintenance. Most peoples' complaint is that they rely on the cloud/internet too much. Much of the functionality has been made available offline since the launch of chrome os. Keep in mind that if your mother keeps lots of pictures, movies, etc. she may need to acclimate to the cloud as chromebooks have very limited storage. I believe most of them come with 2 years free google drive storage though (can't remember the exact amount). All of the budget chromebooks are extremely light. The learning curve is also not as bad as learning to use windows 8 or osx. If she's getting one I'd recommend you set her up with google chrome as her default browser at the very least and possibly a gmail account now. This will make the learning curve much easier as chrome os is essentially the same thing as the browser. From what your mother likes to do a chromebook sounds like it would more than suffice. I recommended my gf to get one and she hasn't had any problems with it (She has the Samsung one). Edit: Also if she uses things like skype and such she may need to transition into using google service equivalents (hangouts) or finding online alternatives. The chrome webstore has a fairly large selection of apps and extensions so finding alternatives isn't too much of an issue. |
| Gaynell Rydberg 11.12.2013 | Dual core MBP. Forealz though... I believe 11" is way too small. Esp if her eyesight is going. 13" minimum. I believe Chromebooks are a waste of money since you can get a Windows laptop for like 300-400 easily nowadays. |
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