I guess the first one I'll start with is
our son's graduation present so okay
despite my youthful appearance I do have
a son that is going into high school now
which makes me feel very that's unreal I
yeah but for his grad present we decided
we to get him a Chromebook cool yeah so
we have never owned a Chromebook before
lots of different computers and whatnot
but we needed to have something that
allowed him the flexibility of
applications but also the integration
with the programs and the different
infrastructure that the school board
uses yeah so and these days if I may
like everything's going online right so
exactly yeah so we looked at you know we
started with the you know really small
budget of Amazon fire tablets yeah more
like yeah this isn't really gonna work
and then we started looking at you know
we looked at the gannets like oh there's
you know $6,000 for a MacBook Pros like
I'm not doing that for for a grade 9 so
we settled on this Chromebook from Zeus
and it's one of the only ones on the
market right now that converts to a
tablet that's so you flip it over and
you have full 13 inch tablet mode
so is it touchscreen like with your
finger it is a touch screen aqua with
Gorilla Glass and he absolutely loves it
and so because it is it is the
Chromebook you have access to the Google
Play Store and so all of his apps that
he's used through Google Play on his
phones he has access to but also because
of that it integrates with what the
school board does through the Google
Docs and yeah that's what I'm thinking
yeah so it's it's really was quite a
cost-effective option for a young child
I don't know if I can call him a child
anymore he's no teenager yeah but but
for you know somebody who's learning
technology the responsibility of being
you know on their own device but in a
way that is safe and so that was one of
the key components as we needed
something that was safe that wasn't
gonna be you know I didn't want to have
to worry about a ton of viruses and
stuff like that
obviously have to be start smart with
apps in the App Store and what you
download but it's a really good way for
getting him into the market yeah then we
can understand it he was a little bit
bummed that Chromebooks do not run
minecraft but that's alright I want him
to be doing school not minecraft yeah
it's an interesting shift in the
paradigm though isn't it yeah as now
it's not like the old days to call it
the old days I don't buy like a CD right
hop it in the optical drive and install
the program you you basically it's like
a phone you go through the App Store and
pick the apps that you want I'm sure
he'll find other apps and you can't
install like a I mean this is off off
the cuff but can you install like an
Android version of of Minecraft like it
does such a thing so he can it's it has
to do with the architecture within how
it done for OSS or the SOC no no it like
the like the the programming
architecture so it's not because
minecraft is Java based the chromebox
dawn of java oh okay yeah interesting
yeah total shift in the way things work
and it's interesting that like with the
education system going to this like work
online and we're communicating now with
like Google meat I guess it's not all is
it yep Google me zoom all the kind of
stuff yeah right so all of those work
which is great I mean yeah really the
only limitation we found so far was
minecraft I'm like if that's the crazy
that's the biggest word you've got then
yeah we did alright and so it's funny we
a couple of years ago we were at we went
to Staples and so they've got all their
different devices out on display and he
went looking for his cuz he's like he
wanted to know how much it was oh yes
you know didn't want to tell him but he
started looking at other devices he's
like this one's really expensive and it
doesn't look as nice as mine and this is
expensive this looks nice but he's like
wow you guys did all right way to go
mind dad but I'm like nice that was part
of it that man now he's so he's
presumably 13 yes he'll no 14 in
November all right so the
like with my kids two of them are under
13 so their Google account is provided
by the education system so I have this
fear with if they started using a
Chromebook that when they graduate the
education system might shut down their
account and they lose like their files
and everything else like do we so I
would presume because he's 13 and you
got to be 13 plus that he's created his
own Google again yes yep and we so we we
created the account for him we I still
retained the ownership of it so to speak
like he did okay like the parent mode
that's right he doesn't have the
password and stuff and and that is for
the purpose of a safe monitoring yeah I
can it tells me when he signs up for
something we have reports on how he uses
his device that goes to his email so he
can start to learn now what his usage
statistics are and some might think that
sounds a little big brother-ish but i
think as a father like it's really
important that we that we help keep our
kids accountable and keep them safe
because there's so much nasty stuff out
there right now
oh and not like and there's malware I
mean we're hearing about malware in the
in the Play Store and stuff that's
spying on things and and clipboards that
get uploaded to various servers and
things like that so so it can be scary
yeah but what the nice thing is because
it's a a relatively safe device yeah and
because of that parental input if having
the email or not I can teach him how to
safely use his computer cool I can and
you know and I've taught him how to
access you know like all of his cross
Google you know his extensions his
history all that kind of stuff because
it syncs it up so he's like oh right
because as soon as so he's done
something on his Chromebook and then he
can log into Chrome on the family
computer and suddenly he's got access to
all of his things that's right so I'm
starting to teach him in a safe
environment that you know sink nature
and the back-and-forth compatibility and
it's it's really fun as a dad being able
to watch my son
go to the next level and it's not just
like you know when I was a kid and it's
like you get a computer and you do
things for the sake of learning it's
like I'm actually working him through it
so that he understands it has a better
more mature outlook on what he can do
and what he should do and shouldn't do
and it's uh it's good excellent yeah it
sounds a great gift