For years, the knock on Chrome OS was that it was “just a browser.” A PC, people thought, had to be more than that. But now, almost six years since that first Chromebook, just a browser has turned out to be just enough for a growing group of users. Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the first quarter of this year, and according to Google, US schools buy more Chromebooks than all other devices combined.
Even now, the Chrome OS revolution is only beginning. In the next few weeks, Chromebooks will suddenly have accessto the millions of apps in Google’s Play Store, which will work on a Chrome OS device the way they work on Android phones. Also, Google’s beginning a big move into the boardroom, trying to convince businesses to use Chromebooks instead of their old Windows XP machines. And a whole new breed of Chromebooks is about to hit shelves. Not only are they high-end, they’re going to be completely different from the laptops we’ve known before.
For a sneak peak at what may be possible, Lenovo is looking at adding Chrome OS to the list of operating systems for its new laptop, the Lenovo Yoga Book.
When Mike Bloomberg, ex-mayor of New York, said he’d like to fire the lower-scoring half of the city’s teachers and give their students to the better-scoring half, doubling the size of their classes but paying them twice as much, he was affirming his belief in a particular theory of learning. For a short demonstration of…
Through these virtual escape rooms, librarians have been able to serve their communities, as well as those living far outside of them, by giving people something to do while stuck at home. These digital challenges have become a tool for teaching and homeschooling, librarians say, as well as a device for staff development and team…
Highlights • An abundance of toys present reduced quality of toddlers’ play. • Fewer toys at once may help toddlers to focus better and play more creatively. • This can done in many settings to support development and promote healthy play. Source: The influence of the number of toys in the environment on toddlers’ play The…
Over the past decade, academic research has increasingly examined issues of multitasking and distraction as people try to squeeze more activities into their busy lives. Prior to the Internet age, some cognition science research focused on how behavior might be better understood, improved and made more efficient in business, hospital or other high-pressure settings. But…
We live in an age of Big: Big Computers, Big Data, and Big Lies. Faced with an unprecedented torrent of information, data scientists have turned to the visual arts to make sense of big data. The result of this unlikely marriage — often called “data visualizations” or “infographics” — have repeatedly provided us with new…
Computing pioneer Evelyn Berezin died at 93 this week. She was most known as the designer of the first true word-processing computer. But she designed many other innovative computing systems and helmed Redactron Corporation, a company that helped transform offices by producing and distributing her word-processor device. Source: Computing pioneer Evelyn Berezin died this week—she should…
For years, the knock on Chrome OS was that it was “just a browser.” A PC, people thought, had to be more than that. But now, almost six years since that first Chromebook, just a browser has turned out to be just enough for a growing group of users. Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the first quarter of this year, and according to Google, US schools buy more Chromebooks than all other devices combined.
