The technology community is abuzz with excitement over the next-generation of Chromebooks. Yesterday, my colleague Joe Wilcox reviewed the sexy $279 Chromebook 11 by Hewlett-Packard. Sadly, while HP's Chromebook looks great, it is very much under-powered. After all, the specs are the same as last year's Samsung model -- ARM processor and a paltry 2GB of RAM.

Today, Acer announces the C720 which undercuts the HP variant in price and trumps it in specifications.

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Many people reading this review tangle up in features. They have a spec-sheet mindset that obscures seeing some products' benefits. Google gets the difference, and you should too. The paper holder that wraps around a Starbucks coffee cup is a feature. Protecting your hand from burning is a benefit. While related, the two are distinct. Any evaluation of Chromebook -- or any other thing to be purchased -- should focus on benefits first. Specs are a distraction.

In offering my first impressions about HP Chromebook 11, I step back from features and focus on benefits and who gets the most from them. Based on the out-of-the-box experience, for most people reading this review, I would not recommend the computer, which Google co-designed, over Intel Haswell-based Chromebooks. However, keeping with suspicions expressed yesterday, the tiny Chromebook would be right for students. Design, size, portability, functionality and value for price offer the right mix of benefits for preschool-to-grade 12 students. HP Chromebook 11 is what white MacBook was to kids last decade.

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Presentations are loved and loathed in just about equal measure. A great presentation helps to drive a message home; a bad one makes a meeting drag on forever. PowerPoint may be the king of presentations, but the online office tools that are available in Google Drive also have a good following. Now Google has recognized the fact that monitors are almost universally widescreen these days, adding the ability to create widescreen format slides in presentations.

The change in aspect ratio may seem like a minor feature, but it is immensely useful. Be gone foul borders! Presentations can now make use of every pixel of your display, or give a full cinema experience when projected to a larger audience. Widescreen slides have not just been introduced, they have been made the default setting -- and there are 16:9 and 16:10 formats to choose from.

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Nearly a year after unveiling an ARM-based Chromebook with Samsung, Google has a newer, costlier and not-so-updated model from HP. Like the older computer, screen dimensions, physical size and weight are comparable -- as is the stingy RAM, which as a long-time Chromebook user I must fault. But there's a sexy, new enclosure and four bright color accents that could make this tiny beauty the PC stocking stuffer of Holiday 2013.

HP's push into Chromebooks should disturb Microsoft. The manufacturer is the software giant's most-loyal OEM partner. If "traitor" isn't a word uttered in response throughout the hallowed halls of the Redmond, Wash. campus, it should be. Just as Microsoft moves Windows 8.1 to market, HP primes not one, but two, new Chromebooks -- the other with 14-inch display -- in the only segment of the PC market that is growing.

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Yesterday, Microsoft did what many of us have expected -- the company removed the native YouTube app from Windows Phone Store and replaced it with the all-too-familiar version that links to the mobile site.

The latest update for the native YouTube app was released in mid-August, but it was blocked shortly after by Google on the grounds that the app "violates [YouTube's] Terms of Service". As a result, Microsoft had no other option but to remove the latest native version from Windows Phone Store because the app was practically rendered useless. I have reached out to Microsoft for a comment on the matter and here is the software giant's response.

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Many people are settling into the idea that a 7 inch screen is the ideal size for a tablet. The extra screen space provided by a 10 inch model sounds great in theory, but it does result in a device that is slightly more cumbersome to take from place to place. Looked at in terms of portability, 7 inches is perfect -- large enough to make most tasks easy, but small enough to easily slip into a bag, if not necessarily a pocket.

The slightly smaller size also makes an important difference to the price tag, and there is a burgeoning market for tablets of this size. It is interesting to see that as the screens of phones gradually get larger and larger, the general trend for the tablet is to shrink -- the two are on a collision course!

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In early September, Google announced that it would be integrating Google+ sign-in with its authorship program, making it even easier to make sure you get the credit for the content you create. This most recent development is just one in a long line of moves by Google toward integration of its existing products both with one another, and with the new products it continues to release.

If you're not familiar with Google Authorship, it's a markup that authors can use to link the content they create for their blog or website to their Google+ profile, and by extension their online identity. When setup correctly, an author's Google+ profile photo as well as a homepage address (when applicable) will be displayed next to their content's entry on the search engine results page (SERP).

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Windows Phone 8 developers looking to increase their app revenues through the use of ads can now take advantage of Google's AdMob, as the search giant just released the first official build that is compatible with Microsoft's latest smartphone operating system.

The new AdMob SDK (Software Development Kit) arrives close to one year after Microsoft released the OS. It is currently available in beta trim, and allows developers to tap into the search giant's popular mobile advertising network, but without the same perks that Android and iOS developers receive.

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Google has released Chrome for Android 30 FINAL, a major new update to its mobile web browser. The main highlight in version 30 is updated swiping gestures, but other new features include the ability to search by image, faster searching through the Google Search app and improved password sync.

The chief changes are three updated swiping gestures. Users can now swipe horizontally across the top toolbar to quickly switch back and forth between tabs, or drag vertically down from the toolbar to enter Tab Switcher view.

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Jelly Bean has long surpassed Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread in the Android distribution charts, and is steadily approaching the 50 percent mark in green droid popularity based on the number of devices accessing Google Play during the seven days ending October 2.

In this month's distribution charts, Jelly Bean accounts for 48.6 percent share (45.1 percent a month ago). Unlike previous months when Android 4.3 was not taken into account due to its low market share, in early October we see the latest iteration listed with a modest 1.5 percent distribution level. Android 4.1 still takes the lion's share with 36.5 percent (previously 36.6 percent) share while Android 4.2 reached 10.6 (previously 8.5 percent) percent of all registered devices.

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Flutter, the app that lets you control music and movie playback using gestures picked up by a webcam, is to continue life as a Google product. The innovative app is the latest acquisition by the search giant, and comes just three years after the company was founded in San Francisco, California. Flutter is extremely upbeat about the purchase, seemingly keen to reap the benefits of the Google marketing machine.

Flutter CEO Navneet Dalal announces the acquisition on the Flutter website:

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Google unveiled the Chromecast HDMI dongle during its big new Nexus 7 launch event in July and the tiny device garnered quite a bit of attention. For $35, customers could suddenly get functionality once reserved for specialized set-top boxes like Roku and Google TV. Plug it into your display and start "casting" media to it.

Now Chromescast gets one more option, and it's something that even Google TV does not have -- Hulu Plus. Google's Shanna Prevé calls it "the same intuitive, remote-free experience you’ve come to enjoy with the other Chromecast-supported apps, and is as simple as pressing the Cast button which will now appear in the app".

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Today Google releases Chrome 30 FINAL for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame and the latest build includes a new search option -- right-click an image, select "Search Google for this image", and you'll get a list of web pages containing matching graphics.

The Chrome Releases blog reports that version 30 also includes "a number of new apps/extension API's" and "lots of under the hood changes for stability and performance". The technical details are available in the SVN Log, if you happen to be interested.

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Google has unveiled the first public beta of Google Web Designer, its HTML5 web coding tool for Mac and Windows. Although geared towards advertisers looking to build rich interactive web ads using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, Google Web Designer can also be used for a variety of wider applications too.

The app has been launched as part of Google’s drive to make it easier for advertisers to code content for a variety of platforms -- mobile and desktop -- using HTML5. The idea is that users can simply design the ad and it will work seamlessly across multiple devices with no additional tweaking required.

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The Grammys and MTV Music Awards might be over for another year, but there's still a chance for your favorite artist to bag an accolade before 2014 arrives, as YouTube today announces its very own awards show.

Google wishes to pay tribute to the musicians who help to make the video service the popular destination it has become. "On Sunday, November 3, YouTube will host the first-ever YouTube Music Awards, a live-streamed event honoring the artists and songs that you have turned into hits over the past year", says Danielle Tiedt, Vice President of Marketing.

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