Hasta La Gadget!

The traditional chalk and blackboard is still a staple in most of the classrooms around the world, although those living in emerging countries and more backwater areas might not even have a classroom with four walls to call their own, but will instead have to settle for a shack or even in an open air environment. Some of the private schools in tropical countries, on the other hand, have superb facilities and include air-conditioning all year round, now how about that? Well, for areas where learning online is starting to pick up, the notebook would be an essential tool for kids to bring to class, and with over 1,000 schools using Chromebooks these days, it opens up the door for teachers and students alike to take advantage of the web’s vast educational resources. Having said that, Lenovo has just announced a Chromebook that will be based on their popular ThinkPad laptop range, and have dubbed it the Lenovo ThinkPad X131e Chromebook.

Since all classrooms possess unique hardware and software needs, the Lenovo ThinkPad X131e Chromebook intends to deliver the hassle-free experience of Chrome OS alongside the ThinkPad’s rugged design, where there will be specialized features such as a rubber bumper located around the top cover for added protection, stronger corners, reinforced hinges and hinge brackets, and a high definition (HD) LED anti-glare screen.

All of the above mentioned seems to make the Lenovo ThinkPad X131e Chromebook well armed to handle the everyday rigors of a classroom, and thanks to a battery that Lenovo claims is able to last up to 6.5 hours courtesy of its latest-generation Intel processor, the ThinkPad Chromebook ought to have more than enough underneath its hood to handle even the most active students and teachers.

The new Lenovo ThinkPad X131e Chromebook will hit the US for a mere $429 each from February 26th onwards, and schools are then able to add management and support from Google for a one-time cost of $30 per Chromebook.

Press Release
[ Lenovo ThinkPad X131e Chromebook copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The Chromebook world has really amounted to a two-horse town: you’ve had to like either Acer’s designs or Samsung’s if you’ve wanted Chrome OS on the move. Lenovo is at last pushing out the borders, however slightly, with the ThinkPad X131e Chromebook. As suggested by the name, it’s a subtle adaptation of the existing X131e to Google’s platform, where the only real hardware difference is AMD’s removal from the options list. The software really is the point, though — Lenovo sees the combination of a rugged, 11.6-inch laptop with web-only software as being perfect for schools that don’t want headaches with damage, security or storage. Accordingly, the only ones buying as of the February 26th launch will be institutional customers making volume bids. The Lenovo Chromebook won’t affect most grown-ups as a result, but it could shake up an OS ecosystem that has remained tiny for more than two years.

Continue reading Lenovo adopts Chrome OS, intros ThinkPad X131e Chromebook for schools

Filed under: Laptops, Google, Lenovo

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Source: Lenovo

Lenovo announced today that it will be introducing a special version of its ThinkPad X131e, an education-focused notebook, running Google’s Chrome OS, ZDNet’s James Kendrick reports. The Chromebook will be sold exclusively to the education market, and the K-12 segment in particular, beginning February 26 via special bid for volume subscription ordering through schools.

The Chromebook is a version of the existing X131e, which runs Windows and which Lenovo already sells to the education market, but running Google’s lightweight OS. It’ll manage an entire school day’s worth of work on its 6-cell battery, the company claims, with a 1366×768 resolution screen, Intel processor and 4-pound body weight. The company also said that it will be making the new Chromebooks available with customization options designed to help schools configure them to suit their specific needs, Kendrick reports.

Unlike other Chromebooks already on the market, the ThinkPad X131e has a degree of ruggedization that should help it better withstand the rigors of being lugged around and used by younger children. Google has promoted the Chromebook as particularly well suited to classroom adoption, and even ran a program discounting the Series 5 from Samsung to $99 during the 2012 holiday season to try to encourage its adoption.

This is a definite win for Google, which gets to capitalize on Lenovo’s brand to help it further the Chromebook cause, specifically in education where it clearly wants more mindshare. And for Lenovo, it’s another way to attach a market it wants to get into in a bad way. Back in August, Lenovo North America VP and General Manager spoke to Bloomberg about how the company wants to take over Dell’s strong position in the education market, and he said at the time that his company can do so with agressive pricing and “the right products.” A Chromebook is another attack vector for challenging Dell, one that could potentially allow for considerable pricing advantages, since Chrome OS doesn’t carry the hefty licensing fees of Microsoft’s Windows.

Google loves inspiring kids to go wild with ideas in its annual Doodle 4 Google competition, and that tradition is carrying on for 2013. This year’s just-started drawing exhibition asks American kids to visualize what they imagine would be their best day ever — no mean feat, as you’ll see in the video after the break. The K-12 student who wins on the national level may find all that daydreaming worth the effort, however, as the top prizes are about as grand as they were for 2012. Along with seeing their drawing become the homepage doodle for a day, the top-ranking child gets a $50,000 technology grant for their current school, a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook and a Wacom tablet to foster that now-obvious creative talent. Budding young artists need to get their entries to Google’s real or virtual doorsteps by March 22nd; we have a hunch the winner’s best day ever will be May 23rd, when millions of searchers will catch a glimpse of that early magnum opus.

Continue reading Doodle 4 Google 2013 challenges kids to dream big, describe their best day (video)

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Via: SlashGear

Source: Doodle 4 Google

Growing up in the 90s, the use of computers in the classroom was in its infancy as we had a computer class, but we barely had worthwhile applications to teach us besides edutainment titles that featured Carmen Sandiego. Heck – we barely had the Internet when I was growing up and to see how much classrooms have evolved thanks to computers is remarkable. But there are many schools out there who still need help to bring computers into classrooms at an affordable rate, which is what Google is doing this holiday season with its Chromebook.

Google announced today it has teamed up with DonorsChoose.org to offer heavily- discounted Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks for $99 each, which normally retail for $429 for the Wi-Fi-only version.

In order to receive $99 Chromebooks, teachers would need to visit DonorsChoose’s website in order to request a Series 5 Chromebook for their classroom by December 21st, 2012. Once their request is posted, anyone can make a donation to support their classroom. When the teacher meets their funding total, their Chromebooks will be sent from DonorChoose’s fulfillment partner, Lakeshore Learning.

Teachers should know the maximum amount of Chromebooks that can be ordered at one time is 30, seeing as that’s the average amount of students in one classroom.

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