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AMD brings Ryzen 7020C “Mendocino” chips to Chromebooks

AMD’s Athlon and Ryzen 7020 series processors are budget chips that pair up to four Zen 2 CPU cores with two RDNA 2 graphics cores, delivering surprisingly decent performance at a low price point. So after making their debut in Windows laptops and handhelds, it’s unsurprising to see AMD expanding its Mendocino processor lineup with […]

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Extending Chromebook software support could save billions of dollars and reduce e-waste

When the first Chromebooks hit the street in 2011 they came with a promise that Google would deliver regular software and security updates for at least four years. A few years later Google extended that to five years. But as I noted in 2018, that wasn’t nearly long enough for many users, especially since the […]

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Google prepares to let you stream Android apps from phones to Chromebooks with Cross-Device Services app

Google’s Cross-Device Services app is now live in the Google Play Store, more than a year after the company first unveiled it was working on a service that would let you use a Chromebook to interact with some apps on your Android phone. It’s not actually active yet, but the folks at 9to5Google report that the […]

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Fydetab Duo is an ARM-powered 2-in-1 that runs FydeOS (crowdfunding)

The developers behind the Chromium OS fork FydeOS have revealed their first in-house hardware project. It’s a 2-in-1 device called the Fydetab Duo and it’s a 12.35 inch tablet with a Rockchip RK3588S processor, a detachable keyboard and a stylus. While it ships with FydeOS, its makers say can also run GNU/Linux distributions or Android […]

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MediaTek Kompanio 520 and 528 Chromebook chips bring graphics and battery life improvements to budget Chromebooks

MediaTek has introduced two new chips designed to bring new capabilities to low-cost Chromebooks. Among other things, the new MediaTek Kompanio 520 and 528 processors bring CPU and graphics upgrades, battery life improvements, and support for higher-resolution displays, when compared with the previous-gen Kompanio 500. The company says the first Chromebooks featuring the new processors […]

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Lilbits: Virtualbox 7.0, MediaTek Dimensity 1080, and Steam gaming on Chromebooks

Oracle has released VirtualBox 7.0 and the latest version of the popular open source virtualization software brings a number of new features that should make it easier to install Windows 11 in a virtual machine, an updated 3D graphics stack, and support for full disk encryption of virtual machines. It’s also the first version of […]

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Lilbits: Pixel Watch leaked (again), improving Linux performance on modern AMD chips, and Linux for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

Google is holding an event on October 6th when the company is expected to unveil the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones, as well as the company’s first Pixel Watch. Officially Google hasn’t said when you’ll actually be able to get your hands on one. Unofficially though? They appear to be already shipping to […]

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Lilbits: Windows 11 2022 Update, NVIDIA RTX 40 series, and a review of LG’s unreleased rollable phone

Microsoft is rolling out the latest big update to Windows 11, bringing changes to the Start Menu, taskbar, and Snap Layouts, among other things. There’s also finally support for native tabs in the File Explorer, and the Amazon Appstore and Windows Subsystem for Android is rolling out in more countries (with more Android apps available […]

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Chromebook shipments are falling fast (but they’re still higher than at the start of the pandemic)

The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected PC shipments in unusual ways. Toward the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, shipments of PCs, smartphones, and all sorts of other tech products slowed due to supply chain shortages (which still haven’t entirely gone away yet). But as many people around the world found themselves working from […]

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Lilbits: New Surface hardware this fall, new video and PDF editing features for Chromebooks

MS Ignite is Microsoft’s annual conference for developers and IT pros, and the company has announced that this year’s version will take place October 12 – 14, and it’ll be the company’s first in-person conference since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. There may be some news in October for folks who aren’t developers or […]