Status update: The rise of the social-media extortionist
If you’ve read recent headlines about high-profile tech CEOs getting hacked, you probably felt a stab of dark amusement at the thought of internet fat cats finally getting a taste of what the rest of us have had to drink.
A single group, called OurMine, has managed to catch Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, AOL’s Steve Case and, most recently, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with their password pants down. And it’s nothing more than a sleazy PR stunt.
Exactly how their accounts were compromised is a lesson in the basics of password hygiene; we think they’d know better than to reuse old, simple passwords across different services — apparently not? The why of these high-profile compromises is an ongoing story of low-level crime and extortion reminiscent of pickpockets at a traveling quack-doc medicine roadshow.
Unlike other groups, OurMine isn’t a hacktivist collective doing it to right any social wrongs, a “leet” hacker earning their reputation or a Crimean crime ring having some lulz in between running illicit botnet-for-hire operations for despotic governments. It’s just hackers who’ve decided to make a “security company” out of their attacks. A company that’s hitting PR home runs every time it brags about taking over yet another CEO’s account.
The group appears to be combing file dumps from recent high-profile breaches for tech CEO names and trying out their old passwords on different services to see what works. If the old password has been recycled and is still valid, OurMine then takes over the account. For example, some of the passwords they’re cross-matching appear to be from the 2012 LinkedIn break-in, which surfaced in May as a database for sale.
In the case of Google’s Sundar Pichai, OurMine took over his Quora account, claiming to have notified Quora of a security hole. Quora, however, told Engadget that no such report was made, which is just as well, given the intrusion was possible only because of password reuse, anyway. Once OurMine had access to Pichai’s Quora, it was then able to get into his Twitter account simply because they were linked.
When OurMine hits pay dirt like this, it starts by posting from the victim’s account, usually followed by a sensational blog post on the group’s homepage. The OurMine website proudly features screenshots of numerous hacked accounts it’s allegedly taken control of.
Each takeover is accompanied by finger-wagging on its blog about following better security practices — it’s all part of a carefully orchestrated act dressed up as a well-intended cautionary tale. Then OurMine conveniently mentions it just happens to be selling services that offer some kind of better protection. None of which addresses the fact that password reuse is an inherently human issue.
That’s right: All these CEOs have been hacked by a group that claims to be doing it to make people more secure, but are actually selling a security product. It’s like someone taking your wallet out of your open bag in a cafe, and then offering to sell you a wallet chain, but only after telling the whole cafe how they took your wallet. What’s worse, many media outlets keep falling for it, while failing to point out the group’s business agenda.
We already mentioned OurMine hijacking the social accounts of high-profile CEOs, but the company doesn’t stop there. It has also pulled its cyber-snake-oil routine on many other names with wealth and status, including VCs Mark Suster and Vinod Khosla, Spotify founder Daniel Ek, Randi Zuckerberg, Amazon Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels, Matthew Inman (“The Oatmeal”) and even “Magic Mike” actor Channing Tatum.
I’ll be honest. For me, most of those names fall into the category of privileged upper-class douchebags whose contributions to our struggling, open internet are, in terms of social issues and censorship, more negative than positive. But when they got to Channing Tatum, the altruistic bringer of sexypants hotness and happiness to all who love a fine male form, all bets were off. And they hacked and ridiculed The Oatmeal!? OurMine, you done us wrong.
So what are OurMine’s products anyway? What’s the “miracle cure” these hacker docs are selling?
If you believe the company materials, OurMine offers “top-notch vulnerability assessment.” Its “About” page states that it is “an elite hacker group known for many hacks” that identifies as white hat hackers. “We are experienced in many fields of hacking and can crack anything from a network to a social media account.” They explain, “Not only will we give you access to all your accounts again, we will give you future security tips and assist you with securing your account to it’s[sic] maximum potential.”
Indeed. The OurMine team also uses its Twitter account to showcase retweets of people. Just normal, not-famous people, grateful that OurMine gave them back access to their accounts after takeover. Customer satisfaction right there?
Victims/customers can choose from four services. Each of them talks of “scans,” with very little explanation or technical details of what’s actually involved. When we asked what exactly a “scan” entails, OurMine told Engadget, “We will scan all of his accounts and try to hack it for him, if we wasn’t[sic] able to hack it we will refund him, but of course it’s[sic] should be his own account.”
The services offered all have vague names. “Social Media” will “scan” Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and costs $30. “Websites” in which they “scan website for any vulnerability” is $1,000. There’s also an ongoing service called “Accounts: All Websites” where OurMine does something beyond understanding called “Scan your accounts for all websites” — whatever that is, it costs $150 a month.
Naturally, OurMine doesn’t just cater to individuals. For a mere $5,000 you can buy what looks to be the OurMine enterprise package, where you’ll get “Scan all staff members in the company; Scan websites of the company,” and something left to interpretation called “Scan application.”
It’s all prepaid, of course, via PayPal for your convenience.
Sadly, as long as humans remain fallible, this racket might be one that’s likely here to stay. Unless someone decides to take legal action, that is. What OurMine is doing very likely violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The CFAA is a broad anti-hacking statute that criminalizes unauthorized access; it is the same statute at issue in a recent ruling that puts acts like sharing passwords on your Netflix account into federal crime territory. Not to mention that the bit where OurMine offers their paid services to “secure” people’s accounts may also count as extortion as per California Penal Code Section 518-527.
If there’s one takeaway for you and me, though, it’s that we need no further proof that all those hacked databases are actively being picked over and used to hijack accounts. So much so it’s become a business. So, unless you want to be the next person having their “gratitude” retweeted by OurMine, go do a password inventory, set up two-factor, and disconnect old services that have access to your accounts already.
Images: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Sundar Pichai, Google); OurMine (About page screenshot)
Download the Chffr app for free to help self-driving cars learn
Self-driving cars are undoubtedly part of the future of owning an automobile, and George Hotz’s company Comma.ai is making it easier than ever to get involved.
Hotz’s Chffr app (available only to Android users for now) actually helps teach autonomous cars how to better drive and understand human behaviors while doing so. You simply download the app, mount your phone on your windshield and leave the app open as you drive around as usual. Data collected while you go about your day will be uploaded to Comma.ai’s servers.
When you use Chffr you receive Comma Points, which are accumulated on the bottom right of the app’s screen. It’s unclear as to what you get for accumulating said points at the moment, but perhaps it’ll all pay off with a cool surprise in the future.
If you’re interested in cultivating the self-driving car movement, download the app here (available for beta testing) now.
Via: CNET
Scientists find a way to make cells respond to stimuli
Through the use of synthetic biology researchers have been able to program cells to perform unique functions, like produce drugs in response to disease markers. In order to create more complex cellular circuits, several MIT engineers have now found a way to program cells to respond to a series of events.
These cells can remember up to three different inputs and by using this system, scientists can program cellular trajectories and create environmental sensors that store complex histories. As a result, complex computing systems can be built by integrating the element of memory together with computation. This will allow scientists to create biological “state machines” that exist in different conditions, which all depends on their identities and the order of inputs they receive.
Timothy Lu, and others working at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics created circuits that could record events, then incorporated genes into recombinase binding sites. When recombinases rearrange the DNA the circuits are able to control which genes get turned on or off.
This technique can be used to follow the progression of diseases such as cancer. By knowing the order where cancer-causing mutations are acquired, scientists might determine how cancer cells develop into tumors and respond to drugs.
Source: MIT News
Security bugs put Apple devices running iOS and Mac OS X at risk
Multiple security vulnerabilities were revealed by Cisco’s Talos security team earlier this week, identifying areas at risk of possible exploits in iOS devices and Mac OS X. Some experts believe the exploits to be complex to pull off and likely not worth the time to attack. Regardless, the bugs have already been fixed in the latest versions of both operating systems.
In its post, Talos described five particular vulnerabilities that would allow someone to insert malicious code that would activate when OS X processes certain image file formats: TIFF, OpenEXR, Digital Asset Exchange and BMP. The security team found the first exploit to have the most potential danger as it could be triggered by many applications like iMessages that automatically render that file format when received or present multiple images in tiled arrangement.
While the exploits appear similar to the Stagefright Android bug revealed last year, the comparison isn’t totally sound. For one, Apple devices and computers run far fewer versions of its operating systems and thus fewer are left behind in the updating cycle. But several of the attack vectors via MMS and iMessage proposed by Talos remain hypothetical, and even those they successfully simulated in OS X and Safari have a lower reward profile than multimedia messaging, reports Macworld. Dan Guido, CEO of security firm Trail of Bits, further dismantles the Stagefright comparison and points out on Reddit that crafting an exploit for iOS, tvOS or watchOS could take as much as six months.
Apple declined to comment, but the latest versions fixing the vulnerabilities for both OS X El Capitan and iOS 9.3.3 were released on Monday, July 18th — the day before Talos’ report was released.
Via: Wired
Source: Talos
NASA astronauts head underwater to simulate Mars missions
Once a year, NASA’s astronauts make a big change — trading their vocation of conducting scientific experiments in space for one of underwater research. For the next two and a half weeks, an international team of ‘Aquanauts’ will be living on the ocean floor at NASA’s Aquarius habitat off of the coast of Florida. As always, the NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) expedition will serve as a testing ground for new equipment. This year, it’s also giving the team a taste of what it would be like to live on Mars.
It’s not so much the underwater aspect of the mission that will simulate a trip to Mars as it is how NASA is handling it. While aquanauts are busy running marine biology studios, testing software and working on a coral restoration project, they’ll be talking to NASA on a simulated radio delay, replicating the kind of communication difficulties that one might experience on a Martian or deep space mission. In fact, NEEMO project lead Bill Todd says much of the mission will be carefully choreographed to mimic a Mars-like experience. “Equipment can fail, communication can be challenging and tasks can take longer than expected,” he says. “All cases are equally beneficial. It’s how we learn and how we are able to assemble all of this together so that someday we’re prepared for the unexpected when we are living on and traversing the Martian surface.”
While underwater, the crew will also be testing a mini DNA sequencer for use in the International Space Station, as well as a telemedicine device for future missions. You can follow the crew’s exploits on Twitter right here.
Source: Twitter, NASA
‘Pokémon Go’ has most first-week downloads in App Store history
Despite only being available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand for its first week, Apple has officially confirmed that Pokémon Go had the most downloads in its first week of any in the App Store’s history. Considering that the game has launched in over 26 countries since then, including opening in Japan today, it might just keep breaking records.
The success has led to billions of dollars in stock gains for Nintendo, which saw its share value double before creeping back down, which has even gotten stock “shorters” to start playing with it. And companies are starting to see their value boosted by association: the game launched in Japan today with a heavy McDonald’s promotion partnership, and the burger giant saw a subsequent 20 percent leap in its stock value. Despite criticism that Nintendo just cashed in on a franchise name without bringing over real gameplay, the game continues its onslaught as a mobile juggernaut.
Source: TechCrunch
MacRumors Giveaway: Win ‘The ONE Light Keyboard’ for Learning to Play Music
For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with The ONE Music Group to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a 61-key portable Light Keyboard that’s designed to integrate with an iPhone or iPad to help you learn how to play music.
Each key is backlit and touch responsive, lighting up in time with sheet music and video lessons to make it easy to pick up the basics and move on to more complex songs. It features 64 note polyphony, more than 128 GM tones and 20 preset notes, built-in speakers, an optional pedal socket, auxiliary in and out, microphone plug-in, USB midi output, and a collapsible built-in music stand.
Available in either onyx black or white gold, The One is ideal for beginners, but also well-suited to experienced players. Because many features are controlled via the app, there are no unnecessary buttons allowing it to be more portable than the average keyboard. It weighs 11 pounds and can be powered through an included power supply or six AA batteries for use on the go.
The app that accompanies the keyboard has more than 100 video lessons that users can complete at their own pace, and there are thousands of sheet music to learn. There are also some built-in games designed to make practicing melodies more fun.
The One Music Group also sells a full size Smart Piano that’s able to connect to an iOS device, priced at $1,500, but the Light Keyboard is a smaller, more affordable alternative that can be purchased for $300. One MacRumors reader will get a keyboard for free through our giveaway.To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.
You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (July 22) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on July 29. The winner will be chosen randomly on July 29 and will be contacted by email. The winner has 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.
Tag: giveaway
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Pokémon Go Set App Store Record for Most Ever Downloads During its First Week of Availability
Ultra popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go set a new App Store record during its first week of availability, seeing more first week downloads than any other app in App Store history. Apple unveiled the statistic to iMore’s Rene Ritchie this morning.
According to Apple, #PokemonGo has set an @AppStore record with more downloads in its first week than any other app in the Store’s history.
— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) July 22, 2016
Pokémon Go was first released in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States on July 5, rolling out to other countries over the course of the next two weeks. Pokémon Go is now available in 30 countries around the world.
Despite server issues and in-game bugs that have yet to be resolved, Pokémon Go has become a smash hit, luring players outside to explore their neighborhoods in search of Pokémon. Last week, Pokémon Go had earned an estimated 7.5 million downloads in the United States alone, hauling in more than $1.6 million each day, and at two weeks, that number had grown to 21 million daily active users.
On the instant success of Pokémon Go, Nintendo shares jumped more than 25 percent, and businesses and restaurants near PokéStops, where players can collect items and find Pokémon, have reported significant increases in foot traffic.
In Japan, Pokémon Go today launched with a McDonald’s sponsorship deal, hinting at future methods Niantic will use to monetize the game. In Japan, McDonald’s locations are marked as “Gyms” where players can battle each other for control of the spot to earn daily prizes and experience.
Over the course of the next year, Apple could make upwards of $3 billion in revenue from Pokémon Go, as it receives a 30 percent cut of all in-app purchases.
Tag: Pokémon GO
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Review: AyeGear’s J25 Jacket Holds a MacBook, Two iPhones, Two iPads, and More
One of the realities of living in Toronto, Canada, about a two-hour drive from the nearest American city when traffic cooperates, is experiencing a distinctly four-season climate. Winter lives up to the stereotype of being bitterly cold, before giving way to a mild and rainy spring, and eventually a hot and humid summer. The warmth lasts for no more than three to four months, however, before the leaves turn orange in October and Starbucks brings out the Pumpkin Spice Latte.
For the past three months, I have been testing the AyeGear J25 Jacket to see how it holds up to those Canadian extremes, starting with a below-freezing, snowy day in early April to a comparatively sweltering 90º day in mid July. In addition to wearing the jacket around Toronto, I brought it with me on a recent trip to San Francisco, allowing me to test its convenience going through airport security and away from home in general. Ahead, find out if the jacket lived up to the task.
Fashion and Functionality
The jacket has over 25 separate compartments for storing portable devices, valuables, travel essentials, and general items, including six credit card and ID holders, two hand pockets, two chest pockets, two sleeve pockets, two smartphone pockets, two tablet pockets, two pen holders, two coin holders, two memory stick holders, two SD card holders, one back laptop pocket, and one passport holder.
There is also a Velcro-based earphone routing system along the neck of the jacket, an elastic strap that can hold a drink bottle, and an in-pocket retractable reel for securing your keys — or anything with a carabiner clip.
On my trip to San Francisco, I packed a tableful of items into the jacket with ease, including a 15-inch MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, two iPhones, two SD cards, EarPods, Lightning-to-USB cable, wall charger, pack of chewing gum, car keys, sunglasses, passport, boarding pass, charging case, portable battery pack, wallet, and loose change. In addition to all of that, the jacket could hold two iPads.
My immediate reaction after putting on the jacket was that, perhaps as to be expected, it was rather heavy. It almost feels like wearing a lead apron at a dentist office during teeth X-rays. Walking around with all of your electronics and personal belongings strapped to your body obviously hunkers you down somewhat, and wearing this jacket for an extended period of time can become rather uncomfortable.
The weight might be a worthy tradeoff for frequent flyers, however, as the jacket makes airport security a much less frustrating experience. Anyone that has stood in line at the TSA checkpoint knows it can be a tedious, albeit important, process: take your shoes off, take your laptop out of its bag, and place all of your individual belongings in the bins before proceeding through the metal detector.
When wearing the jacket, however, all you have to do is quickly take it off with your shoes, much to the delight of those waiting behind you.
AyeGear’s J25 Jacket is built to last in all weather conditions. It is made from a mixture of cotton (67 percent) and nylon (33 percent) that proved to be waterproof — water drops bead off — and wrinkle free. The jacket also has an adjustable rollaway zipped hood, a breathable lining, and removable sleeves to turn the jacket into a vest, making it useful for hiking trips or similar activities in warmer weather.
In terms of fashion, the AyeGear J25 is not an incredibly stylish jacket — but it’s not ugly either. As a 20-something who typically wears skinny jeans and a slim v-neck crew shirt, I found the jacket to be baggier than ones I normally wear. To be fair, however, the jacket serves a specific purpose that inherently prevents it from being more of a formfitting jacket that I might purchase from a fashion retailer like H&M.
It also looks much nicer as a vest, in my opinion, so give it a go without the sleeves and hood when possible or consider the cheaper V26 Vest instead.
Value
One knock against the AyeGear J25 is its price: £149.99, which is $198.75 in the U.S. or around $260 in Canada and Australia based on current exchange rates — and that’s after the British pound’s recent post-Brexit vote decline. The jacket is certainly convenient, but whether it is worth dropping two bills on is debatable.
As is often the case, a better deal can be found on Amazon, where the jacket sells for between $149.99 and $190. Prices vary depending on the size selected.
Bottom Line
AyeGear’s J25 Jacket is a convenient, multipurpose jacket that fills a niche, particularly for the outdoorsman or frequent flyers, but its drawbacks of being somewhat heavy and expensive should be duly considered. For most people, it may be wiser to save your money and stick with a traditional jacket and backpack combo.
How to Buy
The J25 Jacket can be purchased on AyeGear’s website (~$198) or Amazon ($149.99-$190) in small, medium, large, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, or 5XL. Free delivery is offered within the U.K., while worldwide shipping is available.
Note: AyeGear provided the J5 Jacket to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received.
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Acer Chromebook R11 review: Solid laptop, mediocre convertible
Acer Chromebook R11 Full review
As we head toward the future of Android apps being available on Chrome OS, the idea of a small, convertible touchscreen Chromebook makes a little more sense. Before that announcement at Google I/O 2016, a Chromebook that could fold back into a touch-only device didn’t really have much appeal. Chrome apps weren’t ready for touch, and the OS as a whole still preferred a mouse and keyboard.
The Acer Chromebook R11 is one of these convertible Chromebooks that launched a bit ahead of its time, being ready for the touchscreen convertible future before Android app support came to the OS. And even at this point, though we know Android apps are coming, they won’t be here for everyone for several months. There’s little reason to buy a Chromebook for what it could do in the future — what it can do right now is far more important.
Acer knows the Chromebook world, and has the sales numbers from the past few years to prove it. But does the Chromebook R11 continue the company’s history of making great Chromebooks with this convertible-style laptop? Our full review will tell you just that.
About this review
I (Andrew Martonik) am writing this review after over a week using the Acer Chromebook R11, configured with 4GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, which was provided to Android Central for review by Acer. The entirety of the review was written with impressions of the laptop running on the stable channel of Chrome OS, except where noted.
Basic, but built well
Acer Chromebook R11 Hardware and display
The Chromebook R11, just like the non-convertible Chromebook 11 before it, builds on a standard design that Acer has been using since the original C720 Chromebook. It’s a mashup of different plastics of varying thicknesses and textures, accented by an etched metal lid that brings some grip and style to what is otherwise a pretty bland laptop. However the smooth plastic on the inside clashes with the textured plastic around the screen and sides, while exposed screw holes along the bottom and there are visible seams all around that remind you of an older style of laptop. It pales in comparison to the sleek all-metal look and feel of the ASUS Chromebook Flip, its main competitor.
With all of that being said I still don’t mind the look, even in the white color I have here (a black choice seems to be sporadically available) — I just wish there was a bit more of a cohesive design here that didn’t look like it was put together by a committee of people who were never put in the same room.
In typical Acer fashion, the Chromebook R11 is still built to take a beating, even though the chintzy plastic doesn’t immediately give you great feelings about how robust it is. The chassis doesn’t unnecessarily flex in your hands, the keyboard offers good travel without bounce in the frame and the display hinge is tight. You shouldn’t go throwing this around the room, but getting bumped around in your backpack or tossed on the couch isn’t going to cause any issues.
And that’s a good thing, because the Chromebook R11 is quite compact — and while it’s not the thinnest laptop ever it weighs in at just 2.76 pounds, light enough to carry around every day without issue.
Though the resolution of the Chromebook R11’s 11.6-inch display is a somewhat disappointing 1366×768, it is absolutely great in terms of clarity, brightness and colors. Aside from the 1920×1080 display on the ASUS Chromebook Flip (which is also smaller, it should be said), this is quite possibly the nicest Chromebook display I’ve ever seen (Pixel aside, of course). And that’s really saying something considering it’s notably a step down from the Dell Chromebook 13.
This is also a touchscreen, of course, which is plenty responsive and supports multi-touch manipulation. And even though there isn’t much of an application for touch on Chrome OS as it stands today, the future will bring Android apps that you may be far more inclined to use directly with the touchscreen. Those who have no desire to use the touchscreen will have to either understand they’re paying extra for a feature they won’t use or look elsewhere. But considering the affordable price of the Chromebook R11 and the great quality of the panel itself (touch aside), you shouldn’t dismiss it just because you aren’t going to be tapping and swiping on it every day.
What’s inside
Acer Chromebook R11 Specs
You get a very standard set of internals and ports on the Acer Chromebook R11, with a mid-range fanless Celeron processor supported by 2 or 4GB of RAM, and 16 or 32GB of storage. In terms of ports, it’s all standard Chromebook: a couple of USB ports, HDMI out and an SD card slot. Nothing too fancy here.
| Display | 11.6-inch 1366×768 IPS |
| Processor | Intel Celeron N3150quad-core 1.6GHz (turbo 2.08GHz) |
| Memory | 2/4GB DDR3L |
| Storage | 16/32GB |
| Connectivity | 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Ports | USB 3.0, USB 2.0, HDMI 1.4microSD card, headphone/mic |
| Battery | 3-cell Lithium-ion, 3220 mAh9.5 hours estimated battery life |
| Charger | 45W/19V chargerproprietary plug |
| Camera | HD web cam (1280×720) |
| Sound | Stereo speakersmicrophone |
| Dimensions | 294.6 x 203.2 x 19.2 mm |
| Weight | 2.76 lb |
One good, one bad
Acer Chromebook R11 Keyboard and trackpad
The keyboard situation on the Acer Chromebook R11 is identical to Acer’s previous Chromebooks, which is to say it’s quite good for the price but isn’t going to blow you away. The keys themselves are cheap and have a little too much texture for my personal preference, but they have good travel, proper spring and almost no side-to-side movement. I had no issue at all typing on the Chromebook R11 for everything from quick tweets up to long emails, and including this entire review. There’s no backlighting here, which shouldn’t come as a surprise at this price range.
A really solid keyboard, paired with a bad trackpad.
The trackpad situation isn’t quite as rosy, unfortunately. Somehow, I feel like Acer has regressed from the trackpad it offered some two years ago on the C720 Chromebook. The trackpad surface is the same glossy plastic as the rest of the inside of the laptop, which just doesn’t offer me the right amount of drag — my finger sticks far too much — to be able to smoothly track around the interface and select precise elements with one finger. This makes precise actions like selecting text and clicking small interface elements quite frustrating. Large movements like getting the cursor across the screen or scrolling with two fingers are no problem at all, which shows that the issue isn’t necessarily the trackpad firmware or the performance of the processor … it really comes down to the surface of the trackpad itself.
Perhaps I’m spoiled by the glass trackpads on the likes of the Dell Chromebook 13, but even inexpensive models like the ASUS Chromebook Flip do far better than this.
Actually using it
Acer Chromebook R11 Daily use and battery life
Beyond the looks and feel, how does it actually work in day-to-day use? That’s what is really important.
Performance
Fanless, lower-powered Chromebooks haven’t really done much to impress me as of yet, with only the Rockchip-powered ASUS Chromebook Flip offering enough to really get me to recommend it without hesitation. The Intel Celeron N3150 in the Chromebook R11 slots its performance a step below the Chromebook Flip, for sure, but easily outperforms the last generation of fanless Celeron models running an N2850 processor.
It can handle what an average user needs to do.
So what does that mean in terms of regular use? Using a model with 4GB of RAM — which is the only configuration I’d ever recommend — the Chromebook R11 is capable for a basic set of tasks, but can bog down if you give it a bit too much to do. I regularly load up my Chromebooks with about 10 tabs in the browser and a couple more apps — often Tweetdeck and Slack, at least — and in this situation the Chromebook R11 did show signs of slowing down. It took quite a bit to get actual window switching or text input to become noticeably slow; the only place where slowdowns were really noticeable is in initial page load times, and when reloading pages in the background.
But in dealing with individual tasks, or hopping between just a handful of open tabs, the Chromebook R11 took care of what I needed it to do just fine. Importantly it also streamed video well, and could handle Google Cast display mirroring, too.
Battery life and charging
Acer quotes nine and a half hours of battery life out of the Chromebook R11, but as is often the case my heavier use drained the battery quicker than that. The 3220 mAh battery averaged out to giving me about eight hours of use, which as I note above usually involves several tabs open in the browser, plus one or two additional apps running at any given time.
I often kept the screen quite bright, at about 75% brightness — a little high perhaps, but not unreasonable. For an 11-inch Chromebook, getting around eight hours of battery life is pretty good but not stellar, and considering the performance shortcomings of using a fanless design I do expect a little more of a positive trade-off in battery life. The lighter, more powerful ASUS Chromebook Flip lasted longer for me.
You get a very standard Acer charger, color-matched white to the laptop, that’s a bit more compact than what you got with Acer Chromebooks of yesteryear and is almost identical to the one that comes with the larger Acer Chromebook 14. It’s ugly, and still has the standard two-cable-and-brick design (I’d prefer something more compact for a small laptop like this), but it gets the job done.
Convertible tablet use
I got a great taste for using Chrome OS in a tablet environment when I reviewed the ASUS Chromebook Flip, and my findings of using it on the Chromebook R11 are much the same — with a few changes. The Chromebook R11, just like the Flip, can fold back its screen into a few different modes, whether that’s a “tent” or “display” mode for all-touch use while propped up, or folded all the way back into a tablet-like form factor (which, remember, weighs 2.76-pounds). When you enter any of these modes (automatically when the screen pivots to a certain point), Chrome OS switches into a full-screen experience with every window maximized, where you can quickly swap between them with the use of a task-switching button in the status area.
The tablet-focused interface works fine enough, and the touchscreen is very responsive, but the issue is that Chrome apps and web pages just aren’t designed to be touched. When you navigate to a webpage on a Chromebook, the web page looks like it belongs on a laptop, and it expects a mouse pointer — and often a keyboard — to navigate properly. Sure you can swipe and scroll through pages, tap large interface elements and read or watch videos just fine, but as soon as you need to tap small buttons, highlight text or type, you have to flip the keyboard back around and do it the “normal” way. Having the choice is great, and I found myself using it for some casual content consumption, but for the most part I left the Chromebook R11 in its standard laptop configuration.
What it really comes down to is this: if you want a tablet, right now, you should just buy an Android tablet — yes, maybe even one that offers a keyboard accessory. Perhaps in the future we’ll see new Chromebook form factors that make a bit more sense — such as those with detachable keyboards — as convertible devices, but right now using a 2.76-pound tablet is a poor experience, even if the software was perfectly made for touch.
The future: Android apps
One of the main reasons an enthusiast may be considering a Chromebook R11 is that it’s one of the first Chromebooks available to be compatible with the Google Play Store and Android apps. At the time of writing that list is limited to just the ASUS Chromebook Flip, Google Chromebook Pixel (2015) and the Chromebook R11, and only in the Developer Channel, which nobody should really be using on a daily basis.
I’ve written specifically about the experience of using Android apps on the Chromebook R11, and the general feeling right now is that this isn’t something to get too excited about yet. Being in the Dev Channel alone introduces a performance decrease and lots of instability, and issues with Android apps being either incompatible or not ready for use on a laptop are very clear. Even once Android apps arrive in the Chrome OS Stable Channel — which should happen at some point near the end of 2016 — the issues with the apps themselves will largely still remain.
There are some situations in which having Android apps on your Chromebook is useful, but it isn’t a game-changing experience just yet, and for that reason there’s no need to buy the Chromebook R11 specifically to run Android apps. My estimation is that by the time the compatibility and design issues with Android apps on Chrome OS are addressed, there will be far better models of Chromebooks to choose from that are also better set up to use them. The Chromebook R11 just isn’t that great when being used as a pseudo-tablet, and having Android apps installed doesn’t change that.
Good for the basics
Acer Chromebook R11 Bottom line
Being a convertible laptop that offers a touchscreen and the promise of Android apps in the future seems tempting. As such, expectations may be unreasonably high considering what the Chromebook R11 can actually do. It isn’t going to blow you away in terms of design, the trackpad definitely isn’t leading the industry, and the convertible functions are more of a novelty than a truly useful feature. Yup, this is a pretty mediocre convertible and doesn’t really work any better as a “tablet” than the handful of other convertible Chromebooks out there. And even when Android apps arrive for everyone, this may not be the model to get if you want to try them out.
Keeping that all in mind, if we lower the bar back down to what we’d normally expect from a $275 Chromebook, this is actually a decent offering for the right person. The Acer Chromebook R11 is a compact laptop with a really good screen, solid build, almost full-day battery life and performance that’s good enough for the average user. Sure it isn’t doing anything particularly special and isn’t one to clamor over, but it’s a really good basic Chromebook — don’t let the extra stuff get in the way of your decision, positively or negatively.
See at Amazon
Where to buy the Acer Chromebook R11
You can find the Acer Chromebook R11 at pretty much any major electronics retailer, though things narrow down a bit if you want to buy a model with 4GB of RAM (believe me, you do). Best Buy at the time of writing offers it, but as models come and go often from other retailers, be sure to shop around a bit for the best price on the model you need.
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