Mac & MacBook User

We know what you’re thinking. ‘Why on Earth would I need a Chromebook when I already have a MacBook?’ But would you take your MacBook, which could well cost up to £2000, on a hiking holiday when you might be trekking through the wilderness in the rain? Would you work on it in a coffee shop or down the pub? Would you take it camping for watching movies in the evening, knowing it would spend most of your vacation in your tent? Or maybe you only have a desktop Mac; would you buy a Mac notebook just to use on the occasional trip? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘No, it’s too expensive and/or valuable to risk,’ you might want to consider a much cheaper alternative; a…

It’s time to take the plunge and get started with our Chromebook. For our experiment, we chose an Acer Chromebook 314, featuring an Intel Celeron N4000 processor with Intel UHD graphics, a 14-inch Acer ComfyView LCD screen, 4GB of memory and 32GB of storage. It has Wi-Fi ‘ac’ and Bluetooth 5.0 for communication, and for connectivity, two USB 3.0 ports and two USB-C ports. There’s also a microSD reader, and a 3.5mm jack port for headphones or external speakers. Charging its 12.5-hour battery is through USB-C, and the bundled transformer is fairly small and light, so it won’t take up much room in your bag. The Acer Chromebook 314 costs just £220/$196/240 € on Amazon, which gives a good balance between price and performance. It’s possible to buy Chromebooks for…

Picture the scene. You’re at a factory or building site, and need to incorporate some new figures into a spreadsheet and email it back to the office. You left your MacBook at home as you didn’t want to risk damaging it, so how will your Chromebook cope? Should you be worried, and if so, what about? One thing you definitely don’t need to be concerned about is battery life. A combination of a low-powered processor and a minimalistic operating system combine to give Chromebooks an amazing power efficiency. The model we’re using, the Acer Chromebook 314, runs for over 12 hours on a single charge, beating the 16-inch MacBook Pro and being not too far behind the 13-inch MBP and the MacBook Air. It charges through a USB-C cable, so…

To tether with an Android phone, open Settings and click Connected Devices. Next to Android Phone, select Set Up and follow the on-screen instructions. To use tethering in this way, you need to be running Chrome OS 71 or later; open Settings and click on About Chrome OS to find out which you’re running. If you’re on an iPhone it’s a little more complicated, but not too difficult. On your phone, open Settings, tap Personal Hotspot and switch on Allow Others to Join. Note the Wi-Fi Password underneath. On your Chromebook, open Settings, click Network and then click the triangle to the right of your current wireless access point. Choose your iPhone from the list of local SSIDs, then enter the Wi-Fi Password from the Personal Hotspot page on your…

You can access your computer remotely from your Chromebook (macOS 10.10+, Windows 7+, Linux). First you need to open a Chrome or Firefox browser. If you only have Safari, download Chrome from the App Store; it’s free. Now go to: https://remotedesktop.google.com/access and follow the on-screen instructions. It’s a simple setup process. You first need to follow a link to download an extension for Chrome on your Mac, give it permissions (you’re guided through this step by step), and choose a six-figure passcode. Then, on your Chromebook, you need to open Chrome and go to the remote access web page you opened on your computer earlier. Click on your computer’s name, enter the passcode you’ve just set up and you can access your files and apps remotely. Obviously, the computer has…

If you’re going on a camping or caravanning trip, or going away from home on business, you might want to use your notebook for entertainment in the evenings. And if you don’t want to risk an expensive Apple device, a Chromebook is perfect for the job. Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. The Chromebook can handle streaming video services just as well as any other computer with a web browser. If you want to watch Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube, live TV and catchup services such as the BBC iPlayer, UKTV Play and ITV Hub and more, you’re OK using your Chromebook. Naturally you need an Internet connection, which is fine if you’re in a hotel or B&B with Wi-Fi, but for camping in the…