Best alternatives to the Chromebook Pixel

With the Chromebook Pixel heading off into the super high-resolution sunset — at least for now — something has to take its place as king of the Chromebook hill.

For a lot of people, the Chromebook Pixel didn’t make any sense. Our company stance here at Android Central was that it was too expensive and didn’t bring anything more to the table than a lot of other models, so you were better off passing. Personally, I think it’s the best damn laptop I’ve ever had and worth the money. It’s OK to have different opinions. In any case, none of that matters now that Google has stopped selling it and hasn’t announced a replacement. It’s Google Reader all over again. Not really.

I am pretty certain another Chromebook Pixel will be released, but this gives us an opportunity to look at other tier-one level models. These are the Chromebooks you would buy if you couldn’t stomach the price tag but still wanted something a little more “premium” than the average cheap Chromebook.

Don’t think we’re bashing cheap Chromebooks, though. They are the important models because a $200 Chromebook is perfect for plenty of folks. A cheap gateway to the internet that’s safe and easy. Plenty of people are using something like the Acer C720 and still completely satisfied because it still does the things they bought it to do. But if you’re someone who wants to spend a little more money for nicer hardware or just want to go all in on the Chrome experience, here are the best available right now.

The best Chromebook you can buy: Dell Chromebook 13

The fully-specced Dell Chromebook 13 ticks most every box to be at the top of the heap now. The $650 model offers a beautiful 1080p touch screen display, aluminum chassis, glass trackpad and an Intel Core i3 processor. It doesn’t stop there, either. You have USB 3.0 onboard, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 LE connectivity, a backlit keyboard and 32GB of storage. In the coming weeks, the Dell Chromebook 13 is also slated to get access to Google Play and Android apps.

Honestly, this is still a bit of overkill for many folks. The Intel Celeron model is also plenty capable and priced about $200 less. You’ll have the same premium build, minus the touchscreen. It’s still a very solid choice.

I love the battery life and how well the Chromebook 13 is put together, and everything you want to do is responsive and enjoyable — this thing is fast! It was always a true high-end laptop, but the Chromebook Pixel’s exit makes it the best Chromebook you can buy in September 2016.

See at Dell

Something a little lighter: Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2015)

Checking in at 2.9 pounds, the Toshiba Chromebook 2 can still deliver a top-of-the line experience without the extra two pounds of the Dell hanging off of your shoulder. Anyone who has to carry their mobile office in a bag or satchel every day can appreciate the weight reduction.

The best part is the Toshiba is still more than able to do all things Chrome OS smoothly and quick. When compared to the Dell, the biggest drawbacks are lack of a touch screen and a maximum storage capacity of only 16GB. The Core i3 model checks in around $450 while an Intel Celeron mode will save you $150.

If the lighter weight is worth the trade-off of losing the touch screen and cutting the storage in half — and for a lot of us it will be — Toshiba has your high-end Chromebook needs covered.

See at Amazon

A new player appears: Acer Chromebook 14

If you need something a little bigger but still want that high-end feel and specs that deliver, the Acer Chromebook 14 is for you.

The 1080p display has extra-wide viewing angles and uses a proper high-quality IPS panel. the Intel Celeron drives Chrome OS to its full potential and 32GB of space is a big plus when Android apps and Google Play appear this fall. You also get two USB 3.0 ports and 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi — all for around $300.

The aluminum build isn’t quite as thick feeling as the Dell, which is why the larger display Acer weighs about the same as the 13-inch Dell. The trackpad isn’t quite as smooth and the keyboard lacks the backlighting, but you’re also saving about $350.

Some of us want a Chromebook with a larger screen and the Acer Chromebook 14 is my pick for the best in the 14-inch category.

See at Amazon

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How to back up the data on your Galaxy Note 7 before returning it for recall

You’ll need to switch phones when you turn in your recalled Note 7, but you can still keep your stuff.

If you’re going to be taking advantage of Samsung’s voluntary recall for the Note 7 (and you should) you probably want to keep a few things stored on it. Besides the obvious — things like your address book or email — you likely have pictures, music, and other important stuff on the thing. You don’t have to lose it when you get a new phone.

The first thing to remember is that your Note 7 runs Android with Google’s services. That means a lot of your data can be backed up to your Google account in the cloud. This is how Android was designed to work — it’s a cloud-based operating system.

Email, contacts, and calendar

If you’re using Gmail, your email is already backed up. Google’s Contacts and Calendar work the same way. If you are signed into any of these services and use them, you can pick up right where you left off on any device, anywhere by signing in with the same account.

If you’re using another online-based email service, like Yahoo! or Microsoft’s Outlook.com, it sill works the same way. The data isn’t tied to your Google account, of course, but once you sign back in with the same login you’ll have access to everything again. This is true for email, address book, and calendar with most online services.

If you’re syncing a POP email account (like the one from your internet provider) you will need to check the settings on your email account itself to see how message syncing is done. The people who provide you the service can help if you have any questions. For any local (read: not online) address book or calendar apps, you’ll need to check the app settings and see if there is an export feature.

Finally, if you have your work email, contacts and calendar on your Note 7 you need to ask your friendly IT person what to do.

Your media

Chances are you are using the Note 7 camera to take a picture or two, and you want to keep them. You might have a handful of music files and a video or two on there as well. Luckily, backing media files up is easy.

You can store pictures on your computer and transfer them via a USB cable, or you can store them in the cloud. If you were to ask my recommendation, I’d point you towards Google Photos. But there are other services like Dropbox that work, too.

How to back up photos and video to your computer or the cloud

If you have a computer, backing photos up is easy. There’s an advantage to using your own local storage to keep photos — there is no image loss or resizing involved. Hit the link above to see all your options and how to get started.

Music files work mostly the same way. Services like Google Play Music or Amazon Music let you use the cloud, or you can plug into your computer and copy between phone and PC at will. One advantage of using a cloud service is being able to stream your songs from any device, but the files may take a hit on quality. If your music is stored in a lossless format or a very high bitrate Mp3 make sure to keep a copy on your computer. Click the link below to see your options and how they work.

How to back up your music files to your computer or online storage

Samsung Smart Switch

If you’re going to stick with the Note 7 or use any other Samsung Galaxy phone, you can use a service from Samsung called Smart Switch.

Using the cable that came in your box (and the adapter if you need it) you can copy all the data from all your apps, the apps themselves, all your accounts and all of your media files / SD card content from your Note 7 to a computer or another Galaxy phone. The program is easy to use and does a pretty good job.

How to use Samsung Smart Switch to back up your Galaxy phone

There are a couple things to keep in mind here.

• Smart Switch is only an option if the phone you’re putting the data on is a Samsung Galaxy phone. Smart Switch can pull the data off of any Android or iOS phone, but it can only copy it back to a Galaxy model.
• If you’re going to be using a really old Galaxy phone — something like the Galaxy S3 or Note 2 — you might have issues with apps and their data. Things have changed a lot in the past couple of years.
• Any loaner you get from your carrier might not be compatible with Smart Switch. Your carrier isn’t going to be handing out brand new Samsung phones like candy. Expect something that they wouldn’t care about losing.

And remember — if you’re returning your phone through your carrier or a Samsung store, they can help make sure you keep everything that’s yours and help you get it on a new phone. It’s OK to ask for help!

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Panasonic 4K OLED TV for 2017 is coming – and looks like it’ll be a stunner

First there was the Viera CZ950V: Panasonic’s first 4K OLED television. A TV that we first laid eyes on back in January at the CES 2016 trade show; the very first THX certified 4K OLED, no less; a TV that, despite its £6,000 asking price, sold out its limited run of stock in little time.

Which is exactly why Panasonic is pushing forth a brand new OLED TV panel for 2017, name unknown. That hunger for the technology and for the inherent picture quality has made it a viable range to join the brand’s LED-LCD range, as currently headed by the Viera DX902.

So what can we expect from this new Panasonic OLED panel? If the prototype model on display at the IFA 2016 show in Berlin is anything to go by then it’ll be a super-slim telly. It’s interesting to see it in the 55-inch form, which is a little smaller than the 65-inch only CZ950V – so we suspect the 2017 range will come in at least those two sizes, possibly more.

Presented with a white bezel – something unusual for Panasonic in terms of design – this less-than-a-finger-thick TV is a real slender stunner to look at. Ideal for wall-mounting without the overhang.

Pocket-lint

And if the CZ950V was anything to go by, which is a UHD Premium badged TV for the utmost quality, then we can expect the forthcoming panel’s image-handling abilities to be top drawer.

Watching the pre-roll on the show floor at IFA and the blistering colours looked exceptional. And deep, deep blacks are a given too – which were almost indistinguishable from the surrounding black trim of the panel itself.

What we don’t know is how much it will cost. But with OLED prices coming down, fingers crossed that it will shave a couple of grand off the earlier CZ950V and make it a more viable purchase for the ultra-keen home cinema enthusiast.

Clueless Georgia official placed on election cybersecurity panel

When it comes to US government officials who might know a thing or two about cybersecurity, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp doesn’t rank highly. He was behind a massive private data leak that affected millions of that state’s citizens, which involved mailing out CDs filled with every voter’s drivers license and social security number. He also rejected an offer from the Department of Homeland Security to protect Georgia’s antiquated voting machines. But, for some reason, those “accomplishments” led to Kemp being placed on a DHS election cybersecurity panel this week, where he’ll work with other state officials to discuss potential technological threats to elections.

On the face of it, Kemp’s appointment is surprising. He blamed the private data snafu on “voter error” and fired an IT worker involved, reports The Intercept. But, aside from bringing on Ernst & Young to take a look at his departments cybersecurity, he didn’t do much to make up for his mistake. And when it comes to denying DHS protection on voting machines, Kemp said it would be a “vast federal overreach” that “would not equally improve the security of elections.”

Still, Kemp’s placement might not amount to much. He’s being joined by secretary of states from California, Connecticut and Indiana, and panels like this are often put together just to throw ideas around.

Via: The Intercept, Bizjournals, Fusion

Should we be worried about election hacking?

When you know you’re gonna lose, one surefire way to cast doubt on your loss is to say the whole thing was a setup.

That’s exactly what Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump did when he found out that he was trailing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by nine points in Pennsylvania last month. While campaigning in the state, he said that the only way he could lose Pennsylvania is through fraud — as in, electronic voting machines that could be hacked.

This happens to be an issue that everyone from hackers to large information security companies have been trying to draw attention to for more than a decade.

Trump’s malfeasant wet dream started to look like reality when Brian Calkin, from the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (which shares information with the FBI), said Monday that MS-ISAC found three states targeted in recent voting-related hack attacks, though so far he’s not naming names.

That same day, a need-to-know, insider-only FBI flash on recently hacked elections systems was leaked. It confirmed that two unnamed states were breached and voter data snatched. Embarrassingly, the attackers used common off-the-shelf tools left in the default settings, employing a very basic flavor of attack called a SQL injection. Which is to say that literally anyone could’ve done it, possibly even someone with Trump’s IQ.

Many believe the two states in question to be Arizona and Illinois. Earlier this week, Arizona’s state government said its voting system was offline in June to cope with an attack. As for Illinois, its general counsel of the state’s board of elections, Ken Menzel, said a data breach discovered in July saw the theft of registration records for 200,000 voters.

We’re still in the dark as to which state is behind door number three. According to reports, an anonymous attacker in June targeted an unnamed county election official with a phishing email that installed a keylogger. Snatching the unknowing official’s credentials by recording their keystrokes, the invaders got access that would’ve allowed them to do things like delete voter registration records and prevent people from casting ballots.

Phishing and SQL injections — two simple and entirely preventable attacks that have had infosec pundits facepalming in dread all week.

But it’s not just security basics putting our democratic process at risk: It’s hubris. It may not be reassuring coming from hack-illiterate Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, but during a call August 15th with state election officials, he offered them the use of DHS cyber-hygiene services around voting — which would help secure election infrastructure by scanning for vulnerabilities and implementing NIST recommendations. Incidentally, such measures could prevent SQL injection attacks.

Despite those benefits, two states rejected the offer, including the great state of Georgia, which exposed six million voters’ private data in a security blunder earlier this year. That was when the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp sent twelve different media organizations CDs containing the private information of the state’s six million registered voters — which included their names, home addresses, dates of birth, race, gender, Social Security and driver’s license numbers. Among the outlets that received the unencrypted files were The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Georgia GunOwner magazine. The “error” was blamed on one IT employee, who was fired.

In an unpalatable twist this week, Kemp has been named to work with the DHS’s Election Cybersecurity Panel.

Zeynep Tufekci, a University of North Carolina information and library science professor, told NPR over the weekend that Georgia is running electronic-only machines that have zero paper trails. Not only are the machines used in the state more than ten years old and the hardware “falling apart,” he said “the operating system they’re using is Windows 2000, which hasn’t been updated for security for years, which means it’s a sitting duck.”

Unfortunately, this problem isn’t confined to the Peach State. Voting machines throughout the US are so old and feeble they’re practically pedal powered. And they were born that way. Def Con has been joyfully cracking voting machines since at least 2004. In fact, the machines are so badly maintained, historically backdoored, and easily hacked that even Def Con hackers massively stress out about the voting process in their own forums and chat spaces.

For this election, most voting jurisdictions will be using machines that are at, or near, the end of their life cycles. It’s not even an opinion anymore; a study released last year by the Brennan Center called “America’s Voting Machines at Risk” puts it on the record.

According to the paper’s findings, voting machines are like laptops in that they’re not supposed to last a decade and must be upgraded to avoid “flipped votes, freezes, shut downs, long lines, and, in the worst case scenarios, lost votes and erroneous tallies.”

“Voting Machines at Risk” also tells us that “Forty-three states are using some machines that will be at least a decade old in 2016…. In 14 states, machines will be 15 or more years old.”

What’s worse, “nearly every state is using some machines that are no longer manufactured and many election officials struggle to find replacement parts,” according to Larry Norden, the report’s author. He recently told press that “everything from software support, replacement parts and screen calibration were at risk.”

On the upside, the report does mention that the machines get put out to pasture now and again. Apparently the state of Virginia “recently decertified a voting system used in 24 percent of its precincts after discovering that an attacker could get in through the machine’s wireless features to record voting data or inject malicious data.”

It’s all too convenient for Trump and anyone else who loses on election night, who can cite everything here as “proof” that their elections were rigged. The terrifying fact is that our election infrastructure is caught in the crossfire of pisspot politics, its security has been neglected from the get-go, and it’s time for the voting machine glue factory in every curtained stall.

So should we be worried? Yes, I think so.

Distressingly, “America’s Voting Machines at Risk” added that “in interviews with dozens of election officials and independent technology experts, the word ‘crisis’ came up repeatedly.”

At the risk of being crude, that’s not exactly the word I’d use for it.

Image: PETER MUHLY/AFP/Getty Images (voting machines circa 2002)