The 10 best Chromebooks and must-have Chrome OS apps
- 17 August, 2015 18:34
The 10 best Chromebooks
Chromebooks have been burning up the sales charts at Amazon for a long time now, but it can be difficult for newcomers to figure out which model to buy. Paste Magazine has a helpful list of the ten best Chromebooks you can buy right now.
Luke Larsen reports for Paste Magazine:
Chromebooks have come a long way in the past couple of years, both in terms of hardware and software. In 2015, you have a lot of different options in terms of price point, size, build quality and configurations. In terms of software, Chrome OS and the Chrome Web Store have filled in a lot of the holes that used to exist in the experience of working entirely in a browser.
10. HP Chromebook 14
Must-have Chrome OS apps for your Chromebook
Speaking of Chromebooks, a redditor on the Chrome OS subreddit is getting a new Chromebook and wanted to know which apps he should install on it:
Notmuch asked his question:
"My nine year old macbook is pretty much done (may it rest in peace) and I have an acer chromebook (13", 4gb ram) being delivered today. I have an android phone so i'm kind of used to google's platform. Any must-have apps I should download right away, or any other useful tips / hints i should be aware of? many thanks in advance."
His fellow Chrome OS redditors responded with their app recommendations:
Jackalriot: "Better History because its interface makes it easier for me to find sites I've previously visited.
Flix Plus by Lifehacker for extra features and customization of Netflix.
Google Calendar (by Google) for an easy dropdown menu of my next calendar events. It's also really nice to just be able to glance up to see how long until my next event.
Google Dictionary (by Google) for easily checking up on words I might not know, without having to leave the page I'm on.
Google Translate for easily translating words without having to leave the page I'm on, just as with Google Dictionary.
imgur Extension by Metronomik for fast and easy capturing and uploading to Imgur.
Magic Actions for YouTube to stop autoplay and always play in my specified quality.
Reddit Enhancement Suite for an enhanced Reddit experience, like user tagging, inline image viewing, live comment preview and new comment counter.
Spotify Web Player Hotkeys to control Spotify Web Player.
TechSmith Snagit for recording video of my screen.
If you only meant apps, and not also extensions, then it's a rather short list: Caret for my various coding needs.
Chrome Remote Desktop for accessing my own Chromebook remotely, and provide tech support for my family.
Pixlr Editor as my lite-Photoshop. This is however just a glorified bookmark to their web editor.
Sunrise Calendar for my (you guessed it) calendars.
Spotify for music listening. Just as with Pixlr Editor though, it's just a glorified bookmark. But it comes in handy, because I can pin it to my shelf.
I'd also like to throw in my support for /u/DavidA122 's picks of h264ify, uBlock Origin and Pushbullet.
Chanixh: "Some more which I use : Google Cast, Hangout and Keep, The Great Suspender, Secure Shell."
Zuxicovp: "Also want to mention Honey, for shopping online, and OneTab, for making it easier to manage a bunch of tabs. Also, Hacker Vision, which is the best night mode I've been able to find to make the web easier on the eyes at night."
DavidA: "With you having an Android phone, PushBullet is something you should take a look at. It's great for integration between your phone and Chromebook. uBlock origin is a great ad-blocker, and h264ify is a useful extension for YouTube if the videos stutter, which can be common sometimes."
Mortenlu: "Alientube for youtube replaces youtube comments with reddit comments. Really good for finding relevant discussions."
Prairiedock: "Every computer should have a text editor. (Google Docs is really a word processor, not a plaintext editor.) "Caret" is hands-down the best for Chrome OS."
Hrlngrv: "If you have some old 16-bit DOS games you'd like to play again, you'll want DOSBox. There are extensions to mount DropBox and OneDrive so they're available in the File app. If you use those for online storage, you may find these extensions handy. Finally, if you're a US Xfinity subscriber, you may also want to install the Xfinity extension to watch TV."
Crasbowl: "Last pass is an extension that stores all your passwords and even makes up passwords for you."
