My Google Chromebook 2nd Edition

I have what is called a Dana AlphaSmart. I explored it to have something less than a laptop, but more than pen and pad. I have found it OK, but as with all PALM systems, there's a need to be careful when it's about to run out of battery energy or just its life force for you're as dead in the water for losing your work--and it has just this little viewer as I had with early electric/digital typewriters trying to make the switch to digital. This one is lovely. I am setting it up now, so pleased by how the book (yes I did purchase an extra guide) helps me do it easily. I still need to meet the point of how it works offline for I spend a lot of time on a commuter bus. But even if that doesn't work out, being able to carry it around the house (so light!) and to other places with Wi-Fi (like my beloved antiquarian bookstore), I can so easily take it and work.

I am very pleased with this particular model of the Chromebook. I had purchased an 11" screen unit a year ago via an online auction hose and w/i a few hours of owning it, put it back up for auction - I disliked it that much.Although this unit as a little more weight then I wish, likely because it is a 14" screen, it serves its purpose very well.I find it difficult to separate the function of the Chromebook vs this particular model, but I have to say that overall, it is good for $249. The screen is a little washed out at times, not giving me the contrast I would like, but I just watched a one-hour tv show and have no complaints, it is more text.The keys are very responsive as is the touch-pad.About the only thing I wish was different was the charging setup. I would like to use USB 3.0 charging instead of a dedicated ac adapter.

Michael Miller's Chromebook has quickly oriented me to the use and operation of Chromebook.For nearly three decades I have used Microsoft Windows operating systems. As a retired american I have found that I have greatly reduced computing needs. Surfing the web, paying bills, watching movies, and writing fill my PC requirements. Keeping Windows updated and free of virus and worms has become an annoying expense and hassle.While studying alternatives to Windows OS I came upon Michael Miller's book. The first chapter clearly explains the benefits and drawbacks of the Chromebook as compared to Windows, resulting in a decision to purchase Google Chrome. "My Google Chromebook (2nd Edition)" has continued to help me quickly learn the set up and use. Tricky subjects such as setting up a cloud printing system are clearly conceptualized and explained.Chromebook meets my expectations and retired budget and Miller's book has helped me quickly get up to speed with minimal stress.

Not bad. But some of the information I feel was cribbed off an older chromebook site and never double-checked for accuracy. Example: It would be nice to know exactly how to use sd cards if away from wifi (say you are traveling) and you needed to download movies or books for the trip...or even games. The only thing this book told me to do was download said items using a conventional computer (despite earlier claims that you can do this with a chromebook) and then put the card into your chromebook. Really? What about your earlier claims, Mr. Miller. Or the OS goes on the fritz. What do you do? Follow a set of directions to download the OS into a 4 gb flash drive. Conveniently, said download is supposedly available on the Chrome website (yes, it is available, but it DOES NOT WORK). It has never worked, yet Google keeps saying it does, and every fellow chromebook user has the opposite experience. This is annoying because I love my chromebook.For the price of the book, I wanted DETAILED instructions. But you won't get them. Really...go online and read the material from the horse's mouth. If that doesn't work, torment the online csr's, they are a good, no bs bunch. This book could have been really good...but it is thin, cursory,often inadequate, and weirdly incomplete. Use the website. It, at least is free.

This book fulfilled all my expectations. I bought my Chromebook computer 1-yr. prior to the book, and I was able to motor around my Chromebook pretty good, but I always suspected that there were many more things the Chromebook could do for me. The book was able to fill-in all those blanks for me, and still is! I much prefer having an actual book to refer to rather than tutorials on a computer. I can take the book around with me and read it when I feel like it, it never runs out of battery, and I doubt if anyone will steal it like they would the actual computer. I only wish I would have bought the book with the computer. Oh well!

This is the second how to book that I've read on the Chromebook. It provides good coverage of the device and the supporting operating system. I wouldn't say I learned more from this book than the other that I read. Nor would I say I learned less. The coverage of Chrome OS topics was about the same in both books. However, each author had a slightly different spin on the material. Either book will bring you up to speed on how to use a Chromebook. However, I don't think you need both books to accomplish this goal.

My mom is in her 70's and I bought her a Chromebook this year. We bought this book to help here (a non Googler) to understand how to use it. I think it's been helpful to her... hence the 4 star rating rather than 5. I'm not positive. Don't hold me 4 star against it... I'm just not positive how easy it made Chromebook for her. I do know it helped at least a little at first and will be a resource for her when I'm not around.