Saturday, August 30, 2014

Setting up a Printer with a Chromebook

Setting up a printer with a Chromebook is actually easier than setting it up on Windows up to Windows 8.

If you have an old printer you can set it up on Windows.

If your printer is cloud ready, it will be automatically set up from the printer itself.

(The printer displays ID information which is then transmitted to the cloud to register the printer from your Chromebook browser)

If Bluetooth ready, the printer will also require an adapter an adapter for that particular printer, such as Hewlett-Packard or Canon.

I sold two old printers on eBay for $90 apiece and replaced them with a new cloud ready printer from Brother at $50.

I have not set it up because my internet service here at  Willow Valley has been down for a few days.

That is a good reason to have an alternative such as Freedompop, which I will use if the service is not restored in a few days.

http://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/printers.html

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Why the Chromebook is better

The Chromebook is better than Windows for seniors who use keyboards . Why is that so?

The Chromebook gets the job done simply and quickly without the hassles and huge investment of time to keep things running as with Windows.

Chromebooks are laptops which are easily portable and work well with a large display too. They do not have the typical fragile mechanical hard drive of Windows.

Schools and businesses are shifting to them and Chromebooks are taking an increasing share of the market.

Chromebooks avoid the many hassles and costs of Windows. Windows is a Swiss Army knife which can do many things but only at the cost of a lot more complexity and support.

When things go wrong with Windows, for example, millions of computers must be sent updates and must be updated while with Chromebooks a single change in one place instantly updates the system for all computers.

Recently a Windows update had to be recalled from millions and millions of computers and Microsoft Office was found to crash easily.

With the Chromebook any such change can be made instantly centrally in one place and instantly effective for all Chromebooks.

Viruses abound with Windows. The user is faced with constant delays of one sort or another.

With Windows things are constantly changing so that you need to scrap old and buy  and learn new.

With the Chromebook, the user is not required to use all kinds of technical software  nostrums to keep things running.

When a computer crashes your data is kept locally and is not lost as in Windows. A user can go to any other Chromebook and keep on working.

Data is kept like dollars in a bank like environment and not vulnerable locally as in your mattress.

Chromebooks are not bogged down with the necessity of running hundreds of processes required by Windows.

They also take advantage of distant super computers to get the job done quickly.

Chromebooks especially run extremely fast and have long battery lives. Because they are so simple, they are inexpensive.

They can do nearly everything a Windows computer can do with very few exceptions easily done in better ways. Nowadays they can even do office tasks offline. They can even run Windows Office on subscription.

Applications are free and are automatically installed quickly.

If you have ever used a computer with a keyboard and require a keyboard, a Chromebook will be a natural for you.

If you need help with computing an alternative is an Apple device. Apple devices are what Windows computers should have been.

They are expensive, of course, but are worth the price if you need help. An Apple iPad might be all you need.

If you are a technical expert and have technical needs you may be best advised to use Linux, an alternative. Surprisingly, Linux can be run on Chromebooks.

With any computer nowadays you do need a good fast wireless connection as with tablets.
 
My two Chromebook computers are the Acer C 720 and the HP Chromebook 14. Find information on both, with many comments, from Amazon.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Fastest is Bestest

The best computer is the fastest computer.

After all, since most of what you do is possible with any computer or smartphone, and any computer is simply a tool to get things done, the quicker you can get things done the better.

The whole idea with the computer is to get done faster, unless you have something which cannot be done with a fast computer, pretty unlikely.

Unless you need help, available really only from Apple, the latest Chromebooks and no contract smartphones will do the job cheaply.

To take advantage of a high speed computer, you also need a reliable and fast internet service.

There are two WiFi ways to connect. One is to a Internet provider via cable and wireless router . The other is to connect to a cell tower direct.

Cable service requires that everything be just right along the pipeline. Just having too many splitters between the service and your computer can drastically cut results.

Cell service does not have these problems. It has other problems.

The quality of cell tower service depends entirely, on how close you are to the cell tower signal. That can vary a lot, even over just a short distance.

Typically cell service is good in metro areas and not so good away from them. There is also a choice of slow 3G service or high speed 4G service.

4G service can be outstanding but it may or may not be available where you need it. In my experience cheaper 3G will handle most needs when traveling and away from home.

Yet I have found 4G service to be available at home at a reasonable cost. There is less waiting time to connect with with a website than with my cable service.

My Republic Wireless phone connects to the cheapest available service.

It took some considerable tinkering for my cable service to work as well as cell service even though it has the full potential to do so and exceed it except for waiting times to connect with websites.