Saturday, March 19, 2016

Play-ing on a Saturday

It is another Saturday morning with the Chromebook.

I am listening to "Car Talk" on NPR.  I am in my sweatpants, and my computer is in my lap.

There is nothing on my mind this Saturday except play.  After a long week of work, I like to play on the weekend.  After a week of temperatures in the 70's with sunshine, it has cooled off and there is rain in the air, so it looks like indoor activities.

So, what can you do on the Chromebook without spending money?

Google Play.

Music

This was covered here: Sreaming Music on the Chromebook

Books

I love to read, and there are hundreds of free books that are available with a few clicks.  I discovered that a number of books that were required reading in college are available for free (seems that ancient texts are fair game to be republished).  For my clergy friends, Wesley's sermons and writings are here-free.  And if you ar into trashy novels, there s a great selection for free. (I think my parents would have loved this resource--they bought thousands of used paperbacks over the years for less than a quarter. That genre is here for free and they can easily be stacked on a tablet.)

Movies and TV

There are lots of free videos on the internet...YouTube is one of the easiest places to go.  Google Play has several hours of free videos available too.  Mostly documentaries and animation, but it is Saturday after all.  Why not a documentary about cybercrime? I just put The Most Dangerous Town on the Internet: Where Cybercrime Goes to Hide on my wishlist.

I saw a number of older TV shows that you can get episodes for free.

And though it is not free, there are lots of cheap movies and TV programs available in Google Play for less than $3 dollars.

Some of my friends would say that almost anything can be found online for free, including live sports, movies and all kinds of television and movies.  These websites tend to be riddled with pop-ups and viruses for Windows machines.  The Chromebook may be the best device to access these sites since the operating system is a browser and relatively difficult to destroy.

Newsstand

Most of what I found was for tablet readers only.  But there is an app for iPad and iPhone, and I was able to add a free magazine to my library and open it immediately on my tablet.  Even though the language in the store makes you think it is only available on Android devices, that is not the case.

I just added to my library: TIME: Nelson Mandela Commemorative Issue.

I think I will stay busy today.

No comments:

Post a Comment