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Are your tired of the viruses, finding virus protection, the constant updating, and just the overall hassle of having to deal with Microsoft’s Windows OS?

If so you may want to think about making the jump to ChromeOS. No need for virus protection due to the way +Google Chrome handles tab and browser functionality, updating takes place in the background with a simple reboot when ready, and it’s not going to hurt your wallet upon entry. However, you will need to do some prep work first.
The first thing you want to do is set up your ability to function in the cloud. This means getting ready for the transition from local storage and applications running from your hard drive to going cloud storage and applications that run from the cloud. You’ll first need to identify any software you use locally and look for a cloud option. For most people this comes down to Microsoft’s Office suite which can be replaced by +Google Drive or any other free utilities out there. Once you get used to applications like Drive then Office starts feeling really bloated by comparison. Going full on Google with their applications is a big help too.

Google Drive can also be your cloud storage or you can use Microsoft’s own Skydrive if you have a Hotmail/Outlook account. There are many free storage vendors out there and these are just a few other choices: Dropbox and Amazon. Check the amount of storage you think you need and in most cases you can always pay for more on a very small monthly fee.

If you have accounting software or business software you will want to research the cloud versions that are out there. In most cases you will be able to find a suitable alternative. For design people, you may want to sit out the full conversion and just use ChromeOS as a secondary machine. Right now the design applications are not quite there yet to where you can go full cloud but it’s coming.

Once you have every thing set up you then want to live in the cloud for the next month from your current Windows machine. That means only using cloud features when on your machine. Try not to save to your local machine or run programs located on your local machine. You want to be strict with yourself too and not cut corners. Before going full cloud it is important the pieces are all in place and you are comfortable in this new dynamic.

After that month, if you feel you have been successful then it’s time to make a ChromeOS device purchase. I would recommend the Samsung Chromebook that retails through Amazon at $249. It’s a solid machine and delivers more bang for the buck than the other Chromebooks on the market. If you can afford to go premium and money is of no issue then head on over to the +Google Play store and buy the Chromebook Pixel for that extreme premium experience. Just to be clear though, the price for the Pixel is very high and the actual OS experience will not change by much since the touchscreen features in the Pixel are not even anywhere near in wide use as of yet. If you want to stick with desktops then you can buy a Chromebox and hook up your monitor, mouse, and keyboard to that. Whatever you get I would recommend sticking with the SSD (Solid State Drive) and not being tempted on an even cheaper price for a Chromebook that has a standard HDD (Hard Disk Drive) which will effect boot time and also contains moving parts that can (and will) break like every PC and Notebook out there. The less moving parts the better.

Setting up your Chromebook is as easy as turning it on and entering your Google Gmail account. If you have an Android phone you can easily cross sync applications and move seamlessly between ChromeOS and Android. Let’s say you buy another ChromeOS device later, all of your applications will sync over as if you had been using it forever. The ease of use is off the chart once you’ve made the jump and are comfortable with using the cloud.

FAQ:
1) Don’t you have to be connected to the internet at all times? 
For the most part the answer is YES although there are several apps (including Drive) that have an Offline mode. As far as being connected to the internet, most people today use a notebook or device only when connected to the internet anyway. On top of that, it’s not often that I find that I’m not around somewhere that has a connection to ride on.

2) But it’s just a browser right? Why pay for that when I have a browser on my Windows machine? 
Ah, but you are missing the point. Everything you need is within that browser and in the cloud now. With the exception to the premium price on the Pixel you are saving money on a Chromebook purchase versus a regular Windows PC in many ways. Whether it be paying for virus protection/cleaning viruses from you PC (really there are free ones out there that are better than pay ones for you Windows people), buying a license for Office over using the FREE Google Drive, or factoring in the time spent sitting through Microsoft updates that take forever, a ChromeOS device free’s you up from all of this. Ending the Windows hassle alone is worth so much. Not to mention the added bonus of automatically storing everything in the cloud saves you time when logging in from elsewhere and always being able to have access to your stuff.

3) What if I find I can’t be full cloud after the fact? 
No worries, you still will have a device that can handle the majority of your needs in addition to having whatever backup Windows device you came from. ChromeOS won’t be a full option for everyone but I would say the majority of people would have no issue making the jump.

If you have any questions regarding ChromeOS then please feel free to ask them in the comments and I’ll get back to you with a reply. 

The-Internship

The Internship was hilarious and it had my wife and I cracking up all the way through. If you’re into Google like me then you will be in Google paradise.

I really liked the story of the older generation being able to show the younger generation that sometimes the old ways of looking at things don’t necessarily mean they are antiquated by tech of today. While in return, tech can bring everything together and coincide with those old ways just perfectly.

Some other things we noticed:

1) It was nice to see Josh Brener from the Samsung SG3 and Note 2 commercials turn in a big co-starring role.

2) The Google Campus is amazing every time you see it and from where ever you see it.

3) The first part of the movie was shot right here in Atlanta, Georgia. You see the Fox theater and the Hotel right across the street from it. As well as a mattress store over on Jimmy Carter Blvd.

4) On the Google campus it looks like most people sport the Samsung Chromebook or a Mac. Sorry Windows but you’re an endangered species today and you only have yourself to blame.

5) Yo-Yo steals the show many times.

6) Don’t blink or you may miss the 2 Sergey Brin cameos.

7) Harry Potter fans will WANT to see this movie. You will laugh your ass off during the Quidditch match.

It was a great movie that further highlights Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s comedic talent while at the same time showcasing a great company.  Don’t miss this one.

amy-adams-henry-cavill-man-of-steel

The Man of Steel may just be the very BEST version of Superman to ever be filmed if not the best superhero movie altogether.

Zack Snyder has pulled off the Superman movie that comic fans have been waiting and yearning for. This isn’t simply a retread of the origin story all over again. The origin is sprinkled into flashbacks that never draw away from the main story as it plays out.

Finally Superman get’s an enemy on screen that is truly worthy of his character. I grew up with Superman the Motion Picture and  Superman 2 but it’s time to move on and just stop the comparisons. Those movies were good for their time but the Man of Steel is so much more.

The last 40 minutes are so intense that I really want to go and see it again just to take it all in. Visuals are done only as Zack Snyder can do them while the story is serious and yet maintains the soul of the Superman/Clark Kent character. The movie studios didn’t turn him into a dark brooding vigilante in other words.

With the Dark Knight Trilogy and now Man of Steel, DC has a lock on the best superhero movies out there. With exception to the new Spider-man series (by Sony) Marvel is just dishing out soulless, loud, comedy pieces that amount to nothing more than run of the mill event pictures. These DC entries take on reality and insert the character with an outcome that beats the Marvel Studios movies by leaps and bounds.

Man of Steel has knocked off Star Trek: Into Darkness as my favorite big movie this summer so far.

silent_hill__revelation_

Silent Hill: Revelation is now streaming on Netflix. While it isn’t quite as good as the first one and the CGI has suffered a bit of a drop off, it still pulls you back into the town of Silent Hill with its ever interesting variety of creatures and sites to behold.

The Silent Hill movies are not “good” movies but they are fun to watch just for the simple fact that there are flashes of the games that many of us have played. I mean come on… Pyramid Head is freaking creepy!!!

The story takes place several years after the last one and while at first you may be confused by the set up it quickly brings you back up to speed as to the how and why the little girl (now a teen) is back.

If you have Netflix then you might as well take it for a stream and check it out.

Upside_Down

Upside Down caught my eye when I went into the Google Play movie section. I clicked on it and watched the trailer only to be pulled in by the visuals and the imaginative world that had been created.

The price for the HD version was only $12.99 so I said, “What the hey…” and took a leap.

Being the logical and scientific thinking person I am I had to suspend my belief in every law of physics to enjoy this movie but to tell you the truth it wasn’t hard to do with the visuals that are on screen. For an estimated budget of $60 million the visuals impress beyond that of many mega budget films.

Anyway, this is a world in which there are two worlds on top of one another and connected yet not connected. If you come from one world then you are tied to its gravity. So two people can be standing on the tip of a mountain on either world and have a chat with each other standing above/below one another. It’s an interesting concept that throws out physics but is fun to watch.

The women will like this one for the love story and the guys will like this one for the visuals and the concept so you can even throw this one on as a movie that a couple can watch. All in all I enjoyed it a lot and the price was good.

I watched this on the HD TV via Google TV since I bought it in Google Play Movies but you can also buy it on Amazon Instant Video in HD for the slightly higher $14.99 if you don’t have a device that can put your Google Movies up on the TV.

I predict that Windows will become marginalized into a “business only OS” in the future. As it stands right now, with ChromeOS and Android hitting notebooks there is no need for the home user to buy into Microsoft’s Windows OS anymore.

This once great titan is not able to let go of old ways and because of that, tech for the most part has moved on.

tron_uprising

I cannot wait for the next season of Tron: Uprising. This is such a great show. It fits in between the original Tron and Tron: Legacy to fill in some of the gaps and flesh out the Grid in ways that Legacy didn’t have time to do. The visuals are eye popping and the animation is simply some of the best I’ve seen. It’s very stylized much as Aeon Flux was at the time when it was first released. The story has a running theme and gets very dark at times. This isn’t specifically a kids cartoon. The themes and action (programs get derezzed all the time) draw the mature viewer in.

The first season sets up the Uprising and by the last minutes of the last episode you really want to dive right into the second season to see how this all plays out.

You can currently see all 19 episodes of the first season on Netflix.

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