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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Living in the Cloud - I'm ready for Chrome OS -Update


Chrome OS is all the rage right now in the tech circles. Google has released a very early version to certain people installed on their CR-48 laptop. Chrome OS basically takes everything to the web and, for all intents and purposes, turns an OS into a browser, and doesn't do much on the actual device. To be able to take advantage of this, you have to have a lot of your resources as web apps or web sites.

Chrome

I'm hoping to be one of the lucky ones to get a CR-48 to test out and evaluate. I'm pretty well set in the cloud as it is now. The only thing I'm still using on the computer is PowerPoint. But, I'm moving most of my presentations to either Google Docs or Prezi.

Chrome Web Browser (currently running 9.0.597.19 beta)

1. Home email - my home email, through my cable internet service is web mail.
2. School email - web mail, through Microsoft Exchange
3. Gmail - secondary email and used for my Google accounts - love the fact that it keeps multiple email replies together in a conversation.
4. School student data system - attendance, information, gradebook - all web based (PowerSchool)
5. Evernote - notes, lesson plans, and so much more - web based
6. Blogger - web based blogging platform - this blog and my class blogs
7. Google Sites - class website and reference web site with links, resources, and files
8. iGoogle with Google Reader, Google Bookmarks, Google Notebook, Google Calendar, Google Tasks, Google Contacts...all web based.
9. Picasa - online photo storage
10. Google Chrome extensions and web apps:

  1. Tweetdeck web app
  2. Clip to Evernote
  3. Aviary screen capture and edit
  4. Google URL shortner
  5. Bookmark to Diigo
  6. Chromey calculator
12. Dropbox - cloud file storage and sync to access my files
13. Google Docs - online office suite - uploading my PowerPoint files and videos to Docs and YouTube
14. Aviary - online graphics, photo and detailing suite.
15. Prezi - very cool, online, presentation program


That's just the main things I use on a daily basis. I really don't need to access a hard drive or have local storage of apps/software or files to be able to do my work. It also means I have access to all of my stuff no matter where I am: home, school, at a different computer in the district, or even on my Palm Pre+. I can access everything from anywhere. 

What I really like about Chrome OS is that it would be perfect for education. (I wrote about that here). 

What about you? Can you live in the cloud and still get things done?


UPDATE: Very interesting. I got home on Friday (the day I originally wrote this post) and UPS shows up with a Google Chrome OS CR-48 notebook for me. I will be posting a review this week, so stay tuned. So far, I really like it. 


Related Links and Posts
Technology I use on a daily Basis
Chrome OS homepage
Cloud File Storage, Backup and Sync
Backing up your Cloud/Web based Data
Operating Systems and Web Based Apps
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