PSA-Chromebooks about to become a whole load more useful

Haven’t seen a post about this yet so apologies if it’s been done.

Chrome os is about to be updated so that you can install android apps. This makes them fundamentally more useful as you can do so much more offline.

Couple of caveats-only certain current generation chromebooks will support this-I think only the Asus Flip 10 does so far and also a touchscreen makes a big difference to how well the apps work.

Anyone thinking of buying a chromebook may want to hang fire until this fairs is more prevalent-I’m actually tempted by one now!

Is interested in this thread.

noted

Big plus for me is being able to install Office for Android and work in Word offline. The Flip is a dammed nice looking device for the money also.

Will they make one you can plug a printer in to ?

Don’t think chrome os has the capability to plug a printer in. For me it’s not an issue as I have a full fat pc for such things. I want a small light device for word processing on the train.

Ermmmm…..I thought the same until a week ago.

Plugged in to the 8 year old HP usb printer upstairs……

Looks like you’ve plugged a printer in……….

Click here to find an extension for that…….

HP print service downloads and BOOM, can now print from my printer (no cloud print gubbins required)

@slackman-very interesting. Will investigate further…

AFAIK You can’t plug in a printer as much like every mouse and keyboard, it needs the correct ‘driver’ software to be installed and you can’t install software on a chromebook.

Interesting that HP appears to have done some magic though.

I only did it to prove a point to the missus that I couldn’t print from my Chromebook….was happy enough that it worked that I wasn’t fussed with being wrong in front of the wife 🙂

Ok, on second looking it appears to be possibly an HP only thing. Still useful if you have an HP

or buy a cloud ready printer.

As nick says.

I could take a photo of my naughty bits here in France and send them to my printer at home. Of course, the only person to benefit from this will be the burglar in my office.

Watches with interest

Cool. Will make things easier. There are already hacks around that allow you to do similar (I run the Android Snapseed app from Chrome on my Linux laptop).

[burglar] Sits by Stoner’s printer waiting….. [/burglar]

The update is already out for the Flip if you switch to the dev channel. Been using it for a few weeks now. Its rapidly becoming more stable. At first apps crashed all over the shop but now they are to the most part usable.

Will I be able to install Clash of Clans? Got to consider the important issues.

Interested