If you wanted a portable ONLY for online work like accessing bank and brokerage sites, checking Gmail from the web interface, etc., maybe a zoom meeting, would you think a 15” Chromebook would be a good choice?
Is printing from a Chromebook a pain?


I was thinking this one might be good, mainly because of the larger screen

[www.amazon.com]

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

DuckDuckGo is working on a lot of privacy/no tracking stuff, and I think there is, or will be soon, Chrome options.

Load the DDG browser on your iPhone, and sign up for the betas. Only way to do it AFAIK.

You can easily expand the storage on a Chromebook with one of those tiny USB 3 thumb drives. I got a 64GB for my sweetie. Prime Day is coming up.....

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The police have no duty to respond. See Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005) or Warren v. District of Columbia[1] (444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981)

[www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2022 06:16PM by Racer X.

I don’t know the market for chrome books but they’re certainly good at what you describe

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I think I need to go somewhere I can try one out. Maybe Microcenter has some.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

FYI has Best Buy has the ASUS - 14.0" Chromebook - Intel Celeron N3350 - 4GB Memory - 32GB eMMC - Grey on sale for $129.

Quote
Forrest
FYI has Best Buy has the ASUS - 14.0" Chromebook - Intel Celeron N3350 - 4GB Memory - 32GB eMMC - Grey on sale for $129.

Thanks. I could probably try it out there, too.
I’ll see what price Microcenter has also, as BB isn’t my favorite place. Lol

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

Clark Howard is a fan of a dedicated Chromebook for financial needs. He doesn't want people to use the same computer for financial needs and other computing. Here's what he says about having a financial Chromebook:

A Chromebook should only be used to access your bank or credit union accounts, those financial institutions’ online bill pay, and your brokerage or investment accounts. You may also use it to access the official credit bureau sites at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, as well as pulling your free annual credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com.

and:

And you should never, ever, EVER use your Chromebook for any of the following purposes:
Surfing the web
Online shopping
E-mail access
Visiting Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform

[clark.com]

I haven't done what he suggests. I use the same laptop for financial and other uses, but I also use 2FA at our primary investment site and a unique 14 letter/number/symbol password at the site. They also guarantee they will refund any monies lost through fraudulent activities so I feel pretty safe. But, I probably should get a financial Chromebook...

Strikes me as overkill, although I can understand how it would be useful for naive users.

Make sure the chromebook works with a password manager.

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Im sure it will work just not speedy. Wife has a 2018 iPad Pro for all of what you mentioned... but not made for typing, if that's a use you might see.


Sorry to thread hijack...

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mattkime
Strikes me as overkill, although I can understand how it would be useful for naive users.

Make sure the chromebook works with a password manager.

100%. WTF is the point?

IMHO, and sorry to stereotype -- but when I hear this kind of thinking seems to only come from life long and life frustrated windows users. Every single time the computer goes "blip" straight to defense mode. Ive been hacked. Run malware, check virus software is up to date. Check drive health. Call the IT guy at work... on and on.

As a life long mac user... never. Maybe a reboot migHello there, be the most drastic.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Clark can take things to an extreme.
He also used to take flights from Atl to Birmingham just to rack up mileage points for free airline trips.
He is a nice guy, but I will take his advice on this with a tiny grain of salt. He has made boat loads of money dispensing it though.
Clark is my late husband’s first cousin.

I probably should just decide which new Mac I need and get on with it and skip the Chromebook.
I am having more trouble than usual deciding what I want to do about this.
Thanks for putting up with all my questions and hesitations.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

Well if you are lookign for one mac to do it all, wait for June and see if the M2 MBA comes out?

Technically, all standard M1s are the same speed... so MBA, mini and iMac perform the same.

So a nicely equipped MBA, could perform all the duties of that Chromebook, plus hook to a monitor and have the same performance as a mini. Of course its a smaller screen, and no touch screen, so would have to decide if those are important. Or if you want to stay all apple, mini + iPad. (my wifes setup)

So many choices.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/2022 10:31AM by jdc.

Quote
jdc
Well if you are lookign for one mac to do it all, wait for June and see if the M2 MBA comes out?

Technically, all standard M1s are the same speed... so MBA, mini and iMac perform the same.

So a nicely equipped MBA, could perform all the duties of that Chromebook, plus hook to a monitor and have the same performance as a mini. Of course its a smaller screen, and no touch screen, so would have to decide if those are important. Or if you want to stay all apple, mini + iPad. (my wifes setup)

So many choices.

Too many choices.
I was thinking about a MB Air. From what I have read, it will probably be later in the year for the upgrade, unless I buy one now, of course. Lol
I am out right now and think I may head over to the Microcenter and just poke around.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)