Google Chromebooks now in 2,000 schools, usage doubled in three months

Google has really ramped up its education efforts lately, and it looks like it's paid off: according to the Mountain View company, its Chromebooks are now in use in 2,000 schools, which is twice as many as there were three months ago. Three of the more recent participants include Transylvania County Schools in North Carolina with 900 devices, St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florida with 2,200 and the Rocketship Education charter network in the Bay Area with 1,100. The education team has been making efforts in the global community as well, with cloud-promoting appearances at various education conferences such as the Florida Education Technology Conference in Orlando and the British Education Training and Technology show in the UK. We're not sure exactly which flavor ofChromebook the students are getting their hands on, but we're sure no matter what they use, they'll grow up well-versed in what could be the future of computing.

[Source: Engadget]

Acer outs C710-2605 Chromebook, 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM, 100GB Google Drive for two years

When we tried out Acer's C7 Chromebook, we liked the price, but some aspects of the build let it down. Now, the firm's updated the line with a new model -- the C710-2605. This time the price goes up to $299, but for your money you get twice the RAM (4GB) a bigger hard drive (500GB) as well as an improved battery (now 5,000 mAh). The form factor remains the same -- at 11.6 inches -- along with the same 1,366 x 768 display and 1.10GHz Celeron chip as before. Other features include WiFi in a/b/g and n flavours, a built in webcam, three USB ports, HDMI, VGA and Ethernet LAN. Of course, Chrome OS was designed for the cloud, so you'll get 100GB of Google Drive storage for two years thrown into the deal as well. Surprised by the stealth release? So were we, but the good news is, it looks like you can pick one up right away for the afore mentioned asking price, just head on over to the source.

[Source: Engadget]

Listing reveals 3G Samsung Chromebook is on its way for $329.99

Well, this has got us scratching our collective heads. Yesterday, Samsung was fairly certain that its latest and greatest Chromebook would be a WiFi-only affair. Today, however, and a listing has appeared on the company's official website and Amazon that shows a 3G-enabled option is available for $329.99. Neither site mentions network options, so presumably you get the same 100MB a month for two years Verizon data that its brethren receive -- and given that we described it as being "80 percent of the MacBook Air experience for a quarter of the price," the 3G version seems well worth the extra $80.

[Source: Engadget]