Happy Holidays!

Things are winding down here as well. People are traveling across continents to be with their families. Some may be bringing Chromebooks as presents, or will be receiving them four days from today, (central time US). 
We will be in a low volume output from today to the first of the year. We are not shutting down completely.

Here are our wishes for safe holidays, prosperous new year, and more fun for all.

                                            

The Chrome OS

Linux Based: 
If you wonder what the chrome OS, the engine powering Chromebooks is there is no mystery to its origins: The Chrome OS is a stripped-down environment running on Linux. For maximum security, Chromebooks are shipped in a locked-down state but you can enable the developer mode to do whatever you want with the underlying system.
Installing Ubuntu alongside Chrome OS and switching between the two is a possibility. Advanced users can even replace Chrome OS with a standard Linux distribution.
The ability to run other software makes the Chromebook a very powerful and open ARM computer than devices such as Microsoft Windows RT which does not allow you to install desktop applications because it has a locked boot loader.

Chrome OS makes unnecessary the use of antivirus software, locally installed applications (in your hard drive), which run separate updaters, system optimization tools, huge control panels loaded with settings dating back to the stone age of computing, drivers for compatibility, and the many programs that run when you boot a legacy computer. 
You do not need to fire up a rocket to go grocery shopping, I mean literally.

How different are Chromebooks from legacy machines?
Control access: with a Chromebook, the owner can prevent anyone from even logging in. The owner can prevent the "guest" mode and anyone other that herself/himself from even browsing.
When those limitations are not set, anyone can use a Chromebook but will be limited to her/his own Google account. This means that the the Chromebook is an individual machine that can be used safely used bu many.

Printing Options: Cloud Print
You will not be able to connect your printer on to a Chromebook but you have two very simple ways to print:
One: you have a Cloud Print ready printer, or
two: you install Chrome, the browser, on a legacy computer connected to a legacy printer, and set up the Google Cloud Print Connector, that will allow remote printing on that device. With Chromebooks, you can literally print to ALL Google Print printers over the internet. That is printer sharing at a global scale.

Wiping out personal data: bring in the powerwash.
You may want to give your used Chromebook computer to another person but you want to remove all your personal data. Through the settings, you basically factory reset your computer with a keystroke. The computer is like new, and with the six-week refresh cycle, it may be even faster than view you first purchased it.

Viewing files locally, those that are not stored in the cloud: Chromebooks have a Files app along with local file viewers that allow you to watch videos, play music, read pdfs and Microsoft Office documents, view images, etc... You can download all sorts of media, and open them from the files app.

The Chrome OS is a stable and secure system that leads the way toward a new computing reality, one where security, speed and flexibility reign supreme. We welcome your suggestions and comments as a way to produce a better communication environment. Visit us at www.p2commercial.com

Increasing profits by switching to Chromebooks

Total Cost to Own: TCTO

How profitable will your firm become by switching some of its operations , overtime, to Chromebooks. We emphasize the time factor here because most organizations have invested a significant amount in building their IT departments, training employees and creating valuable documents to run their operations.

In the table that follows, we have listed the costs, and compared the traditional window PC to the average Chromebook. It becomes apparent that the acquisition cost aside, there are humongous savings that can be generated by switching.

See what you can save with Chrome devices

Tell us how many employees there are in your organization, and we'll estimate how much a PC deployment would cost and what you could save over 3 years with Chromebooks for Business, which includes:

• Chromebooks
• Chrome management console
• Support

Calculate your savings

How many re in your organization?  

                                                                          PC        Chromebook

Purchase price                                                                                $615          $249

Hardware maintenance                                        $123      $90

IT Software & Infrastructure                                 $585     $150

Management and administrative overhead          $3,485     $219

End-user Costs                                                 $1,455     $364

3 year total cost of ownership                              $6,213      $1,072

No given set of figures used in any presentation will ever draw a consensus from the readers or from the intended audience, but they serve as a starting point. Managing a large inventory of traditional PCs is a costly expense that businesses should consider seriously. 
Even if the savings over three years were only fifty percent of the projected amount per unit, a company with one hundred (100) employees  will save $257,050. You can buy a lot of Chromebooks with that amount. For more about Chromebooks, visit our eStore

Running Office 365 on a Chromebook

Let's cut through the chase and agree that Microsoft Office 365, a web enabled version of the quarter century old flagship program works on Chromebooks. We are going to take the rest of this edition of our blog to show you how.
Selecting the Office 365 that is right for you, or that you are authorized to "purchase". The information can be found in the Office 365 catalog . We settled for the Office 365 Business Premium at a cost of $12.50 per month. Microsoft offers its program as it has always done: different price points, i.e different functionality. It even limits the number of appliances, and users per version. Google Apps for Work does not impose any such restrictions. There is only one version for various segments: education, government and business, that is refreshed OTA every six weeks, guaranteed.
Two-step process: Desktop version, just like in 1999
Unlike pure web based applications, Microsoft Office 365 requires at least two steps before it can work on a Chromebook.
Step one: Downloading Office 365 on a PC or a Mac. That is correct, you must first go through the process of creating an account, and downloading the "cloud" program on a PC or a Mac. We only worked with a PC to do it. Our version allows us the install it on 5 PCs/Macs, 5 tablets and 5 phones, and that is it. 
Step two: Web Version: Get the Apps. We know that you cannot download any programs on a Chromebook itself, but you can install extensions, in this case from the Chrome Web Store onto the chrome browser of your Chromebook. You must add each component of Office 365 to your browser, one at a time.
Once completed, Microsoft Office 365 are located where the rest of your apps are: in the launcher. We do not offer Microsoft 365 training in our blog.

Be careful when signing on to Office 365, you must sign on the business or school side of the screen because what you thought was a Microsoft account only works in that area.

After completing the drill, you are now ready to run Microsoft Office 365 the desktop/cloud hybrid on your Chromebook. All your files will be saved, not on Google Drive, but on Microsoft OneDrive, each manufacturer's cloud storage option. 

Our objective was to show that all the uninformed talk from so called experts, or more accurately "hired pens" about Chromebooks being for kids or not suited for "real work" miss the point. Chromebooks offer other advantages that are missed in the chatter surrounding the cloud. They are affordable, they run fast and last up to 10 hours per full charge.

The software anxiety that I mentioned in an earlier post appears to be a fiction, something that the competition without doubt, is fueling. Chromebooks are now moving into the enterprise market after taking over education. The Dell 13 Chromebook is the new generation of Chromebooks that are built to target that market. Just like Samsung and Asus built the first commercialized Chromebooks for education, and now all the major manufacturer produce Chromebooks, there will be a growing number of options made available to businesses. When that happens, the prices will also fall, while quality and security improve.
Chromebooks are the only computers in the market today whose performance increases with time, they do not require antivirus software, costly patching, and scheduled backups.  

Pricing of Office 365 also varies depending on the components included in the option you choose. Here is a list of business options: 

Office 365 Business

Office 365 Business Essentials

Office 365 Business Premium

Office 365 ProPlus

Office 365 Enterprise E1

Office 365 Enterprise E3

Office 365 Enterprise E5

 

For $5.00 per month, you do not have the desktop version, see below:

Get business-class email & the web version of Office applications

• Business-class email hosting with 50 GB mailbox
• Web version of Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (desktop version of apps not included)
• 1 TB file storage & sharing
• HD video conferencing with Skype for Business*
• 24/7 phone & web support

Software anxiety

Invariably, articles about Chromebooks will more often than not, include a mention that they do not run Microsoft office or some other legacy software. I wonder sometimes if those making the statements read what they write. Why on earth would Chromebooks need to be running bug filled legacy software to be considered useful computers? These must be the same people who dismiss Tesla's cars because they do not run on gas. The mileage anxiety is caused by the fear of getting stuck when the electric charge runs out, and you cannot get back home.
Software anxiety when it comes to Chromebooks, is the perception that you are buying a computer that does not have enough software written for it.

Let's see what most businesses use computers for:
Schedule meetings, production runs, trips, presentations, send, receive emails, write reports, memos, create and share data in words, numbers or graphics forms, research and disseminate information on the net.

How about individuals?
They too need schedules, emails, research, net surfing, reading, watching movies, listening to music, etc...

Individuals using Chromebooks can accomplish every single task listed here immediately after taking the computer out of the box and plugging into an outlet. Chromebooks have all the necessary apps available for that, and they are free! What apps are we talking about: Gmail, Google calendar, Google drive home to Google docs, Google contacts, Google sheets, slides, drawings, forms). Add hangout, search, Google Voice, and the entire Google ecosystem. You may be experiencing an overload condition, rather than a software anxiety.

Business users have many concerns centered around security. Businesses must protect not only their assets, but the assets of others that they are entrusted with. Chromebooks fit right into that mode because, as you must know, they are free of any bug infestation. Chromebooks do not carry your data around, in fact, they carry nothing. If a Chromebook breaks down or is stolen, a most likely scenario, all your IT department will do is disable it, and give you another one so you can continue doing whatever you were doing.
A whole team can use the same Chromebook and never access the other users' files because each user has her/his own access credentials. Chromebooks allow each user to set their own profile. Think of it like Uber, the driver knows your name, and where you are going. 
You can use a Chromebook as a guest, but nothing is saved after your visit because there is no account to save it to. In legacy systems where no such accounts exist, anyone can load your hard drive with junk, and malware that takes up space, and spreads through the network.

We have already talked about running Chromebooks offline, and the amount of work that can be done during that time.

Chromebooks are built for the cloud, the cloud makes all this possible. What is the cloud? It is the data centers that your provider uses to store your data. Just think of them as your secured hard drives. Why? Because your Chromebooks do not have them, one of the reasons why most legacy computers break down.

It should be clear by now that software anxiety does not exist. Millions of schools, businesses, and individuals have made the shift to a product that is lean, secure, reliable and affordable. Google's Chrome store has all the software you may want use with your Chromebook. Visit us at www.p2commercial.com

Using Chromebooks without internet connection

Chromebooks were built for the internet, and for that reason, many people believe that without an internet connection, these machines are useless. The truth may surprise many but as a matter of fact there are just so many things that you can do with a disconnected Chromebook.

Write emails: with Gmail offline , you can read your mail, write emails that will be saved and sent as soon as an internet connection is available. The notion that that Chromebooks are useless is just one of those myths that cannot stand scrutiny.

Google Drive lets you create, view and edit google documents, sheets, drawings and slides while offline, giving you the opportunity to continue work on projects.  Far from being the "brick" that a lot of writer describe, Chromebooks are really very affordable tools for normal use. 
In addition to the above, Chromebook users can play games, listen to their music, they can view Microsoft Office and Adobe documents as well without an internet connection.

There are other applications available that Chromebook users can access to by going to the Chrome Web store. The number of applications that are available has seen a steady increase fueled by the volume of Chromebook sales and adoption. After schools where Chromebooks are the number one device used by students, Chromebooks are making their way into the Corporate world. The Dell Chromebook 13 and the Asus Flip are products that are ready for prime time. 

Next time when you hear someone boast that Chromebooks are useless, unless their are connected, help them understand that the truth lies somewhere else. Click here to visit the largest selection of Chromebooks on the web today

What is a Chromebook?

The Chromebook, what is it?

The Operating System: Chrome OS.

Simply put, it is a device that runs Google's Chrome Operating System (OS). The Chrome OS is an operating system based on the Linux kernel. Google's OS is designed to work with web applications, and installed applications. The OS is designed to run on both x86 and ARM chips.  The software architecture is very simple as stated above, it is Google Chrome running within a new windowing system. All web-based applications work automatically. The OS has a 6-week refresh cycle, the first of its kind. It means that Chromebook users have a system that is getting better over time, as opposed to loaded down legacy software systems currently available on the market.

The Computers: there are two main offerings: the Chromebook, and the Chromebox

The Chromebook, the laptop version became commercially available in 2011 after the prototype, the CR-48 was introduced in 2010. It is manufactured by practically all the major hardware producers, such as Dell, HP, Samsung, Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo, Acer, etc... Google has it's own line of Chromebooks called Pixel. 

Acer and Samsung released the first commercially available Chromebooks in the summer of 2011, it was not until the end of 2012 that the arrival of the ARM chip. Today, Chromebooks are offered in a variety of chip flavors, have all types of graphic cards, displays, but the Chrome OS is the same in all of them. They have become the top sellers on markets like Amazon. According to a NPD report , in 2013, Chromebooks captured 21% of the laptop market, and 8% of the overall computer tablet market in the United States. A new report shows a 29% increase in the sales of Chromebooks. 

Chromebooks are used in all kinds of environments and settings: K-12 schools, Fortune 500, Government agencies, Individuals and anyone. Chromebooks are now offered in screen sizes from 10 to 25 inch, with or without touchscreen capability, in hybrid format and much more.

The Chromebox: it is the desktop computer running Chrome OS. It connects to the standard computer peripherals such as a keyboard, a monitor and a mouse yet  has a tiny footprint relative to its legacy counterparts. (Towers, mini-towers and everything in between). 

Chromeboxes are used in video streaming, video conferencing, signage, and and regular cloud based operations they were designed to perform.

Both the Chromebook and the Chromebox have access to Google's endless supply of free applications for individual use, and the paid Google Apps for Work suite for businesses.

Yes, you can run Office and other software on Chromebooks using extensions.

No, Chromebooks do not catch bugs, and the likes, 

Finally, Chromebooks will not break your budget.

We invite you you to visit www.p2commercial.com for more information, or to order your Chromebook or Chromebox.

Productivity

Productivity.
If one word can define Chromebooks, it is productivity. For so long, we have grown accustomed to window machines, and for some, to Apple products. For Window machines, the ones that I am personally more interested in here, the speed, the price, the maintenance are constant sources of irritation.
Speed:
Chromebooks, regardless of the brand, are fast in accessing the internet: 10 seconds or less, and that includes signing on to the system. When was the last time you had anything come close to that?
Price:
Leaving aside Google's Pixel Chromebooks that few have heard of, Chromebooks are affordable compared to Window machines, in general. Most Chromebooks are priced under $300.00, the price of a smartphone! You do not have to dig at all to access all that the Google's ecosystem has to offer, at no cost, in term of applications: Gmail, Calendar, Search, Contacts
           Google Drive: for those who have only known and worked with the old  Microsoft Office, this is Office on steroids. it is your "hard drive" in the cloud, i.e. a remote data center, where you create and store ALL types of files.
          Google Drive houses
                Google Docs, your word processing app,
                Google Sheets, your spreadsheet app,
                Google Slides, your slides app,
                Google Docs, your word processing app,
                Google Forms, your Forms app,
                Google Drawings , your Drawings app,
Why give the list of the apps that you get with a Chromebook? The answer is very simple: to counter those who claim that Chromebooks are useless to average person because they have no application to run. Those who believe that you need  all the rich text futures of some legacy software to surf the net, read or write emails, or simply create an intake form for your small business, even to just do your homework.
Chromebooks make efficient use of your budget by streamlining your cash outlay: all the applications you need are not only free, they are also kept up to date, so you do not have to.

For Businesses:
Google offers a business suite of applications called Google Apps for Work. This suite combines all the apps listed above with 24/7 support and a 99.9% up time guaranty. It includes a 30 GB base mixed storage per account.  To date more than 5,000,000 businesses have adopted this suite, schools, and governments, including the DOD use Google Apps for some o their activities

Maintenance:
How do you maintain a device that has no moving parts, that stores your data in the cloud and make it accessible to you, 24/7 from ANY device that connects to the internet? The answer is you do not. The files you create using any of the applications listed are saved automatically, as you type! Did I mention that you can upload Any file type, and access it the same way?
Chromebooks only have local solid state drives whose sole purpose is temporary storage, the cloud is where all happens.
Because you do not have to buy any software, that you access your information securely on the go, businesses that adopt the system can deploy their resources to other productive uses that enhance their overall's productivity without compromising their competitiveness.