Articles by Ara Wagoner

As millions of us continue to work and learn from home, Prime Day deals will make a great time to replacing your aging desktop or add another Chromebook to your family’s collection. The best Chromebooks have been hard to come by for the last several months, and while the selection is still smaller than in Prime Day events from the past, there are still a few deals worth watching!

Part of why Chromebooks have always had great deals on Prime Day is that modestly-spec’d budget Chromebooks perform more consistently than cheap Windows laptops. Google also has durability and usability standards — because many Chromebooks are designed for chaotic classrooms — that make Chromebooks ideal for younger and less tech-savvy users. All this adds up to Chromebooks being great investments for families looking for a computer that won’t break the bank and won’t die the second you breathe on it wrong.

Here are some of the best Chromebook deals we’ve found so far.

Best deal

Lenovo Chromebook Fle…

Naturally fabulous

Sorta Sage Google Pixel 5

$700 at Amazon

Pros

Beautiful, earthy look
More vibrant and fun
Can elevate it further with clear/accent cases

Cons

Will clash with some case colors

Sorta Sage is the latest color to come to Google after Not Pink and Sky Blue, and I’m very hopeful it spreads from the Pixel 5 to other Google devices because this is the most perfect shade of green I’ve seen on a phone in five years. It’s not so bright to evoke some candy-colored neon green, nor is it too dark to avoid getting confused with teal or grey. It’s precisely the proper green for a down-to-earth look.

Matte magic

Just Black Google Pixel 5

$700 at Amazon

Pros

Everything goes with black
Matte texturing avoid smudges
Understated and professional

Cons

Black is boring
Like seriously, get some color in your life

If Sorta Sage doesn’t have you all green with envy, there’s always tried and true Just Black to give you that timeless look. Black is the universa…

It may be hard to pick the best Pixel 5 case because there will be so many options. Whether you want a ruggedly handsome heavy duty case, a super slim and stylish case, or something in between like the perfectly balanced Caseology Parallax, these are the best Google Pixel 5 cases to be found right now.

Safe and stylish

Caseology Parallax

Staff pick

This mesmerizing case has protected my last two Pixels with grace, and the colorways for the Pixel 5 are quite fetching. The Aqua Green will fit the green Pixel 5 perfectly while Burgundy and Navy Blue jazz up the black Pixel 5.

$15 at Amazon

Long-term protection

Tudia Dualshield Merge Series

If you want a heavy-duty case without a heavy-duty price, Tudia has been the go-to for years. The Merge Series gives you the impact protection and grip of a flexible TPU sleeve with the sturdiness of a polycarbonate back.

$12 at Amazon

Textured for grip

Spigen Liquid Air

This slim case won’t but up your new Pixel 5, but it will add e…

With hundreds of films from the most popular franchises on the planet — not to mention thousands of TV episodes from our childhood — it’s little wonder that Disney+ is popular. However, when errors invade your movie marathon, things are anything but magical. There’s a few different errors Disney+ can spit out when things go awry, but Error 83 is by far the most prevalent Disney+ error you come across. Here’s a few of the reasons you may be seeing it, and what you can do about it.

Reason #1 — Server timeout

Error 83 is one of the most common errors. When the servers are overloaded and your Disney+ session can’t connect to the servers fast enough to pass a DRM/account check — or can’t connect at all — Error 83 is what Disney+ displays when it can’t play your video as requested.

This is far and away the most common reason to see Error 83, and dealing with it can take a few forms:

Try again. Server issues are usually intermittent, so if at first you don’t succeed, try, try…

After being tested in Canada, GroupWatch will now let up to 7 Disney+ subscribers watch the same movie or show together.

What you need to know

Disney+ has brought its new GroupWatch feature to the United States.
This allows you to watch a movie or TV show with up for 6 friends (for a total of 7 concurrent participants).
While watching, you can share reaction emoji which will appear on the screen.

Being able to get together for movie night is getting less and less possible these days, and so I’m pleased as punch to see that after being tested in a few other market, Disney Plus has finally rolled out its group watching feature, called GroupWatch. This gives you the ability to share out a link to friends and family and then watch your intended TV show or movie synchronized even if you’re hundreds of miles away.

Similar features have been rolled out other streaming services like Movies Anywhere in recent months, and the feature is very similar on Disney+. A new group symbol now app…

Chromebooks are great computers for a lot of different uses, but the best Chromebooks for students single out a few particular features in addition to a easy-to-use computing experience for less. Education Chromebooks are designed to withstand the use and abuse of a classroom full of students, as well as being carried around in an overstuffed backpack. Reinforced hinges and ports are the norm, as are water-resistant keyboards and all-day battery life. These lightweight laptops also have some of the easiest and most useful keyboard shortcuts to help your child get homework done quickly once they find their rhythm. There are a lot of great options to choose from, but our top pick is the ASUS Chromebook Flip C214.

Best Chromebook for Students: ASUS Chromebook Flip C214

The ASUS Chromebook Flip C214 is the best Chromebook for students because it provides an excellent experience in a compact, durable package. The 11.6-inch screen is easy to see in a wide array of angles — even in di…

While Amazon’s smart home lineup continues to boom, Google’s is stagnating.

Amazon announced dozens of updated smart home devices this last week, from a drone home security camera to a new swiveling Echo Show and an excellent overhaul of the Echo speaker line. They even rolled out a game streaming service that looks like it might be able to beat Stadia at its own game.

We’re also three days out from Google’s Launch Night In event, where we’ll see the latest Pixels and updates to several Google Nest products. As someone who uses Google Assistant-powered speakers and is loving the absolute crap out her Pixel 4a, I should be giddy as a kid on Christmas Eve right now. Unfortunately, I just can’t help this sinking feeling in the back of my mind that whatever Google shows us on Wednesday will feel like crumbs after Amazon’s feast.

Nowhere is this more apparent than the upcoming Nest Audio. This is the first direct successor to the original Google Home, which came out in 2016 — yeah,…

The OnePlus 8 Pro is big, beautiful, and finally gives us all the features we’ve been hoping to see in a OnePlus flagship for years: IP water resistance and wireless charging. The back glass comes in some new colors this year — Glacial Green and Ultramarine Blue — but it’s still a glass-backed phone, and that means you’ll want to protect it so that you’re not blowing hundreds of dollars repairing or replacing it. After extensive research, these are the best OnePlus 8 Pro cases you can buy.

So sleek and svelte

X-Level Guardian

Staff pick

This case might not be textured like the Spigen Liquid Air, but it trades that texturing for a slimmer profile and color options. It also comes in black, but the burgundy Wine Red is colorful, but not garish, adding a little sophistication to your 8 Pro.

$10 at Amazon

Clear and cool

Supcase UB Style

While Supcase is better known for its macho heavy-duty cases, I’m a fan of the UB Style because it allows the color of the OnePlus 8 Pro t…

Best answer: If you’re not intending to use many Android apps or download offline video, you can maybe squeak by on 32GB, but in 2020, you should really be buying a Chromebook with 64GB of internal storage. More storage is always better, especially for Chromebooks, with some funky permissions when it comes to how Android apps see and use microSD storage.

64GB is good: ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 ($562 at Amazon)
128GB is better: Lenovo Chromebook Duet ($300 at Best Buy)

How much Chromebook storage you really need and why it matters

Chrome OS is a lightweight system that doesn’t need much room, but like any system, more and more features over the years has caused the system size to grow continually. On a 32GB Chromebook, the system takes up 13.8 GB, leaving you about 9-10GB of space for apps and personal files. I have used 32GB Chromebooks for over a year continuously without filling them up, but once you start installing downloading music or games, it’ll fill up fast.

Chrome OS…

What you need to know

Amazon has unveiled the next generation of Echo speakers with an all-new spherical design.
The new design is rolling out with a new generation Echo, Eco Dot, Echo Dot with Clock, and Echo Dot Kids Edition.
The new speakers are powered by Amazon’s new AZ1 processor, which offers more efficient power consumption and faster voice comprehension.

Today, Amazon kicked off its event with a whole new generation of Amazon Echo speakers, each powered by a new chipset and sporting a brand new design that’s a significant departure the hockey puck style of the current speakers. The new spherical design lends itself to housing a larger speaker inside, and it elevated the profile of the Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock so that it’s easier to see the speaker on a cluttered nightstand or busy desk.

The all-new Amazon Echo will be $99 and in many ways replaces the Echo Plus, as it adds in the Zigbee smart hub capabilities and Amazon Sidewalk Bridge capabilities. The new Am…