Articles by Jerry Hildenbrand

Chromebooks can do a lot right out of the box. However, if you want just a little more, you can install Linux apps to most newer models (see the full list here) and have access to a complete catalog of desktop-class applications.

Products used in this guide

Google’s newest: Google Pixelbook Go (From $850 at Amazon)

How to enable Linux

Your Chromebook already runs Linux because Chrome is its own Linux distribution, but it’s a very locked-down version without access to most Linux tools and programs by default. Luckily, turning everything on is easy.

At the bottom right of your system tray, click on the clock.
Select the gear icon to open the settings.

Scroll down until you see “Linux (Beta)” and choose Turn On.
Read and follow the simple on-screen prompts and wait for things to finish. This could take 10-15 minutes.

Once the terminal window opens, you are ready to type Linux commands. You can always find the Linux terminal in your app drawer if you choose to close it now.
A…

BlackBerry started the smartphone craze and Apple changed how we use them. Android has its roots in both and that’s what makes it great.

It all starts back in 2002 when a company called Danger builds a device called the Hiptop — a.k.a. the T-Mobile Sidekick for everyone in the U.S. Yes, there were “data-driven” devices in Japan, and companies were making PDAs, but the smartphone craze can be traced directly back to the Sidekick.

Ironically, the Sidekick wasn’t a smartphone and even back then nobody claimed it was anything other than a great way to send messages and have fun playing Rockets and Rocks even though it did feature a robust (by 2002) standards suite of productivity tools like an online calendar and a day planner. But people loved them, and two companies took notice: Microsoft, which bought Danger and went on to build the Kin as a failed direct successor, and BlackBerry who decided that the idea could be done better and people would love it even more.

A look at early…

Custom chips are about to mean so much more.

ARM announced new CPU designs for 2020 and one of them is something nobody saw coming — a program that would help companies that make processors build specially customized chips targeting specific user-facing improvements.

You might have read about how the new Cortex-X1 CPU will be 22% faster than the new Cortex A78 design, but that doesn’t do the new Cortex-X program justice. The exciting part of it all is how companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, or even Google could work with ARM and build a chip that’s a fully customized reference design. In other words, the people who invented the technology will help make it work for a specific use case.

Cores can be big and fast or little and slow — it all depends on how long you want the battery to last.

There is no magic involved. A CPU is made of individual processing units called cores. You’ve heard of dual-core or octa-core processors before, and that simply means that the actual silico…

Gaming hardware is there for Android, but the content just isn’t; I wish companies like Nintendo cared about Android.

The Nintendo Switch is freaking awesome. Pretty much anyone you ask will agree if they aren’t too busy playing Animal Crossing or Zelda. It’s portable but can connect to a television, has wireless controllers that mostly don’t suck, and every big name developer is tripping over its own feet trying to get games ported to the platform. Yes, it has Skyrim.

But under the small screen is the same type of hardware you would find inside a high-end Android device. In fact, if NVIDIA had chosen to remake the Shield Tablet, it probably would use the exact same hardware as the Switch. There is nothing magic inside, just an ARM CPU with a bunch of GPU cores built by NVIDIA just like the Shield TV.

The hardware in your expensive phone has the muscle to do it.

The difference, of course, is the software. The Switch has a basic but fairly complex OS running on it (or you can …

Microsoft has developed a “thin client” version of Windows that seems a lot like Chrome OS. But there are plenty of differences that matter.

Back when the world first saw the Microsoft Surface Duo (a folding device that runs Android) and the Surface Neo (a larger two-screen laptop-style device that runs Windows), there was a lot of talk about their software.

Most of the conversation was about the decision to put Android on a Microsoft-branded device, but the really interesting news was a new version of Windows dubbed Windows 10X that was designed from the ground up to run on light hardware and dual displays.

Microsoft has shifted course a bit, and now Windows 10X is going to be released with single display clamshell devices (think netbook but better quality) first, which puts them in direct competition with Chromebooks. For some, these thin-client Windows laptops will be a better choice, and for others, a Chromebook will be the one to buy. The difference is in the details.

The be…

Earlier this week Sony announced two new IMX image sensors that are going to change everything when it comes to “smart” photography.

That’s a really bold statement to make, but it’s also an easy prediction because of how smartphones and other smart products use their cameras. You expect a bigger “real” camera with an expensive lens to take great photos because the hardware being used makes it easier. But when you’re using a tiny sensor in a tiny device and a fixed lens, you don’t have expensive optics to do the heavy lifting. Instead, things like AI are used, and that’s what makes Sony’s new sensors special: they have a small AI processor embedded in the sensor package.

These sensors have nothing to do with a phone or any consumer products. They’re designed for industrial and manufacturing machine vision equipment and companies like Amazon have expressed interest because an all-in-one solution means there is plenty of cost savings built into the product. But like all things, the se…

After using both the Galaxy S10e and the new iPhone SE, my money would go to Samsung.

Phones are crazy expensive right now if you insist on buying a company’s latest and greatest. But if you’re like me, you’re just not going to spend $1,000 of your hard-earned dollars on a phone when you know there are alternatives that offer almost as much for a good bit less cash.

Thankfully, there are some great phones you can buy right around the $400 – $500 mark. The Pixel 3a is still a good buy, Apple’s iPhone SE 2020 is super cheap for a new iPhone, and Samsung still sells 2019’s sleeper hit, the Galaxy S10e. I’ve tried them all — not just picked them up and looked at them, but signed in with all my accounts and actually used them — and for my money, the Galaxy S10e is the clear choice if you want 90% of a flagship phone at 50% of the price.

I just can’t iOS

I’ll let you in on a secret — I like the iPhone. I always have. Apple makes great hardware and when it comes to the basics of…

There’s an app for everything — even saving some money every month on your phone bill!

Everyone likes to save a little cash when it comes time to pay the monthly cell phone bill. Once you’ve done all your homework and found the plan that’s best for you from the company that offers the best service there are still a few things you can do to make sure you’re not spending too much on things you don’t need or want. Like everything else, there are apps for that!

Here are five apps that can help you trim a little fat from your monthly phone bill.

My Data Manager

You should only be paying for the data you need. While some carriers like Google’s Project Fi only bill for the exact amount of data you use each month, most companies don’t give credit for data paid for but not used. That means paying for the right amount is pretty important.

Ways to monitor how much data you use are probably built into your phone, but the best way to make sure we use any software utility is to make i…

There is only one sure way to have access to the wonderful (and buggy) bleeding edge of Android: buy Google’s own phone.

The last thing any sensible person should want to do is use beta software on their phone. Your phone is a treasure trove of personal information that should be kept safe by tried and true software, not a test version that has none of the guarantees that come from using software that’s been vetted, tested, and held back for more vetting and testing.

But a lot of people just don’t care and, like me, really want to see what Google has in store as soon as possible. To scratch that itch, there is the Android Beta Program and a Google Pixel phone.

I love the smell of beta software in the morning.

Sure, there will be other phones that participate in the Android 11 beta. We’ll see those announcements as we move into the “proper” consumer beta on June 3. But there is also a good chance you’ll need to jump through some sort of hoop or have to wait until an Android ph…

Microsoft apparently hasn’t learned that a billion Windows 10 customers don’t want a Windows-powered Chromebook clone.

Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer of Windows and devices Panos Panay had some important things to say recently. Of course, because the world is stuck at home those things were shared via a blog post instead of what would have been something with a little more pizzazz with people at hand, but the message still came through loud and clear: Microsoft is trying (again) to take the fight to Chromebooks.

Third time’s the charm.

The gist of it all is that even though Windows RT was bad, Windows 10S was a failure, and while people actually are excited about Windows 10X and dual-display devices, Chromebook sales hurt the bottom line hard enough that everything is being shifted to make the future of Windows more like Chrome OS. Single screen clamshells are now the focus instead of dual-display hardware, and there appears to be a major shift to the cloud to make it all b…