Chromebooks have become increasingly popular in recent years, thanks to their affordability, security, and ease of use. But for users who need a bit more power and versatility, there’s now Chromebook Plus.

Chromebook Plus is a new category of Chromebooks that offer twice the performance of traditional Chromebooks. They also come with more powerful processors, more memory, and more storage. This makes them ideal for users who need to run more demanding applications, such as video editing software, or who need to store large amounts of data.

All Chromebook Plus laptops come with the the following guaranteed hardware specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i3 12th Gen or above, or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series or above
• RAM: 8GB+
• Storage: 128GB+
• Webcamera: 1080p+ with Temporal Noise Reduction
• Display: Full HD IPS or better display

So that was all about the announcement of the “upgraded” hardware features of Chromebook Plus.

Now can we think of the reasons why Chromebook was introduced in the first place and what is the purpose of a computer running a cloud-based operating system?

The first thing that comes to mind is to have all the processing power remain on the cloud. So all your precious files are securely stored in the cloud. So you use cloud based applications to run your day-to-day tasks. Which eventually saves the cost of having high end hardware on your laptop. Which would save more battery and let your laptop run through the day without a charger.

Google wants to equip you with running Photoshop on your Chromebook laptop. Wants to have AI generated wallpapers light up your laptop. With all that around, i would give up any hope that the laptop would still run the entire 10 hour working day without a charge.

Where do all these benefits of the original thought of a Chromebook go now?

If you have such a powerful specs on your laptop, would you still prefer Chromebook over installing Linux?

Google has announced that Chromebooks will receive 10 years of automatic updates, starting in 2024. This is a significant increase from the current 8-year update policy, and it means that Chromebook users can expect to receive security and feature updates for even longer.

The new update policy will apply to all Chromebooks released in 2021 or later. Older Chromebooks will still receive updates for their current support period, but users and IT admins will have the option to extend automatic updates to 10 years from the platform’s release.

This is a welcome news for Chromebook users, as it means that they can enjoy more features, functionality, performance, and security for longer. It also means that they can save money and reduce e-waste by not having to replace their devices as often. According to a report by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), doubling the lifespan of Chromebooks could save $1.8 billion in taxpayer money and prevent millions of pounds of e-waste.

The new policy will apply to all Chromebooks released in 2021 or later. For older models, users will have the option to turn on the extended updates. Google has also stated that even if a Chromebook stops receiving automatic updates, it still comes with strong built-in security features.

MWC 2023 is under way and every company in the mobile market, be it the mobile equipment providers, smartphone manufacturers, wearables manufacturers as well as tech giants supporting them are all present on the floor announcing their newest features. As part of the summit, Google has now announced 9 new exciting features for Android and WearOS.

Google Keep single note widget

For those of you who love the checklist/to-do feature of Keep, can now pin notes, check off to-do lists, view reminders and customize the colors and images from your Home screen—all from the new Google Keep widget on Android phones and tablets.

Google Keep notes on your smart watch

If you are one of the smart watch users running WearOS, you can now browse or create notes on Google Keep using your voice with two new shortcuts for your Wear OS watch face.

Annotate PDFs in the Google Drive app for Android

Use a stylus or simply touch the screen to annotate PDFs in the Google Drive app for Android. You can also try different ink strokes to provide notes or feedback freehand, or use the highlighter tool to save important text neatly on your tablet or phone. Then hide, undo, delete or save a new copy of your annotated documents.

Google Meet noise cancellation

Google Meet now has built in noise cancellation feature, available to all Android devices. You can now be better prepared for your next meeting!

Fast Pair on Chromebook

Soon, Fast Pair will be able to connect new Bluetooth headphones to your Chromebook with just one tap. And if you’ve already set up headphones with your Android phone, your Chromebook will automatically connect to them as well.

New Emojis

Google seems to keeping adding to the collection of its emoji library and this time its not missed either. New emoji combinations are now available on Emoji Kitchen for you to mash up, remix and share as stickers via Gboard. Use them to make some noise for your favorite basketball team (just in time for March Madness ) or express your spring colors with friends.

Google Wallet Tap to Pay Animations

Fun new tap to pay animations on Google Wallet to help confirm your in-store transactions, so keep an eye out for some cheerful penguins, plus many others.

Google Chrome Zoom upto 300% while still preserving page layout

You can now easily increase the size of content on Chrome — including text, images, video and interactive controls — by up to 300% to suit your vision preferences while still preserving the page layout. This includes the ability to set your preferred content size as a default so you don’t have to change it every time you open up Chrome.

Improvements in smart watch accessibility

With Wear OS 3+, we’ll now have Mono-audio to help limit disorientation caused by split-audio and while color-correction and grayscale modes give you more choice for your watch display.