The one that has really blown my mind is Magic Eraser. For those unfamiliar with the Pixel line, Magic Eraser is a tool in Google Photos that does what it sounds like it might do \u2014 it automatically erases things from photos.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Now, I need to make clear that I am not a photo professional in any capacity, and so seeing anyone do pretty much anything with Photoshop looks like wizardry to me. Nevertheless, I was simultaneously impressed and a little bit afraid for humanity after playing around with this tool. I would open up Google Photos, I would click on a photo, I would click the Magic Eraser button, and gray outlines would appear around various people in the photo\u2019s background. If I clicked one of the outlined people, that person would just disappear from the photo. Entirely. And instantly<\/em>. Like, maybe it takes a couple milliseconds or whatever. But the process is very, very fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Here\u2019s a photo of me on a ski slope. Magic Eraser nixed those three people from behind me on the left. If you look closely, you can kind of see that the one person\u2019s poles are still there, but the other two are seamlessly gone. So there, people!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Now, I know that Pixel (and other Android) phones have had this feature for ages, but Pixel phones, as Google tells it, also have special chips inside them made specifically for this AI business. What boggles my mind is that a feature like this is running on a 12th Gen Intel Core i3. On a laptop that costs $399.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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You\u2019ll be able to have ChromeBook Plus devices generate wallpapers for you based on text prompts, but that\u2019s coming down the line.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Next thing: there are some very neat Plus-exclusive wallpapers. They\u2019re dynamic, and the time of day that they reflect changes based on the actual time of day in your time zone. There are only two of these available at the moment, but it\u2019s a neat idea that seems, in retrospect, like an obvious thing that people might want. It\u2019s also fitting to have these available now for ChromeOS since Apple just <\/em>released a whole bunch of stunning dynamic screensavers for its Macs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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It\u2019s a fairly portable laptop, weighing just over three pounds.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
The feature that\u2019s a bit less jazzy but does actually intrigue me is Offline File Sync, which automatically downloads files from your Google Drive account as a background task. Turning this on is a little bit tricky; you have to dig through your Advanced settings to toggle it on. Now that I\u2019ve done this, whenever I dive into my Google Drive files through the Files app, I can see a little checkmark next to each of my items indicating that it\u2019s available offline.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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This feature seemed kind of boring when it was demonstrated at the Chromebook Plus launch event, but I\u2019ve had all kinds of use cases pop up for it since then. Sure, I have Offline Sync enabled for my personal Google Drive account, and it\u2019s not like I couldn\u2019t edit files offline before. But there\u2019s something about having them all laid out there, with little checkmarks, that just feels right and gives me comfort. (I also see no reason why this couldn\u2019t be on non-Plus Chromebooks, but perhaps it will make its way there as time goes on.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Agree to Continue: Asus Chromebook Plus CX34<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n
To start using the Chromebook Plus CX34, you\u2019ll need to agree to the following:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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You can also say yes or no to the following:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n- Automatically send ChromeOS diagnostic and usage data to Google<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
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That\u2019s one mandatory agreement and one optional agreement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And then there is AI video calling stuff. I, frankly, am weary of AI video calling stuff. As someone who writes about new laptops for a living, I have been hearing about AI video calling stuff nonstop for this entire year. But Google has done something with its version that I really appreciate: it\u2019s made it really simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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When you are on a video call, some buttons pop up on the bottom of your screen. One reads, \u201cImprove Lighting\u201d; click it, and the lighting on your face improves. Another says, \u201cCancel Background Noise.\u201d Other buttons allow you to blur your background to two different levels. That\u2019s it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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These features are built in to the platform level, which means they\u2019ll work with Meet, Zoom, or whatever app you\u2019re using. I did run into one complication, which is that the Plus controls don\u2019t always seem to be communicating with meeting software\u2019s local controls. During one video chat, I instinctively used the blur setting within Google Meet to blur my background. I wasn\u2019t then able to un-blur my background from the Plus menu; I had to do that in the Meet app.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Still, this is a much easier process than I\u2019m used to. On many laptops, you have to dive into some not-very-good app and choose between a dizzying assortment of different lighting and microphone settings in order to achieve these same ends. But if there\u2019s one thing ChromeOS is really good at, it\u2019s simplifying.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n