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I am so glad that we are finally able to talk about the new Chromebook Plus features the
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Chrome OS team introduced at the very cool event they held in New York City recently
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We've known about many of these features and the new hardware that's going to showcase it for a little while at this point, so I'm really excited to be able to share everything
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Google announced at the event with you all today. I do want to mention a quick caveat about this particular video
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We also have a hardware-focused video that quickly showcases each of the new Chromebook
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Plus models that debuted at the event. Both of these initial videos are simply meant to introduce you to all the new software and
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hardware arriving today and some other goodies that Google has planned for the coming weeks
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for Chromebooks. We're going to dive into many of these new features and new hardware, obviously in a
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bunch of different videos down the road, so be sure to get subscribed to the channel so
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you don't miss out on all of those other videos too. And speaking of subscribing, we also want to point you to our new upgraded Chrome Unbox
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Plus community. We're growing by the day and if you're a fan of Chrome OS and Chromebooks, it is THE
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place to chat about all things Chromebook with a group of like-minded, equally Chrome
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OS obsessed folks that have a great time together in a positive and uplifting community
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Joining is really simple and for just $2 a month, you get access to the community I just
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talked about, an ad-free experience at chromeunbox.com, and the ability to get in on exclusive giveaways
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content, and even AMAs with the Chrome OS team. You can check it out and learn more over at chromeunbox.com forward slash join
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Now, on to the new stuff. There were tons of software announcements made, some that we've heard about before
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and some that were brand new, so let's quickly chat about each one of them
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As everything else does these days, the new Chrome OS features start with AI
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Many of the features were teased back at the October Chromebook Plus event, but this time
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around, I promise, they're all arriving today on Chromebook Plus devices. And the first is Help Me Write
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As we've seen on the Chrome browser for a bit leading up to this event, the idea of
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Help Me Write is simple enough. Bring a little bit of AI right where you need it across the OS
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Wherever you are on your Chromebook, you can summon Google's Help Me Write to get inspiration
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or reword a post, an email, a note, or just about any block of text that you can think of
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And then next up is the new AI-powered wallpapers and video backgrounds. Again, these are all OS-level features that work across the board
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For wallpapers, this means that users can get a guided prompt to create unique, one-of-a-kind
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backgrounds for their devices. And for the video backgrounds, it means that you can create interesting backdrops that
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are delivered at the device level and work on any video chat service you choose to use
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Whether that's Google Meet or Zoom or WhatsApp, whatever, your unique AI-created video background
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works wherever you chat. It's a pretty cool trick. Google also debuted the new Magic Editor for Google Photos on Chromebook Plus
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Simply open a photo that you want to edit in Google Photos, hit the Magic Editor button
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and you can circle objects to reposition or resize them, improve the lighting, change
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the background, change the sky even, for all of your Google Photos collection
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The last big AI announcement is the inclusion of Gemini right on your shelf, starting with
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Chrome OS 1.25. Similar to what you get at the website for Gemini Chat, you'll now have a dedicated PWA
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version pinned right to the shelf for quick queries about anything you can think to ask
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From image generation to document creation to coding help, Gemini is at your fingertips
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on your Chromebook moving forward. And that brings me to probably one of the biggest announcements made at this event
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Gemini Advanced for Chromebook Plus users for free for a full year
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Normally $19.99 a month, the Google One AI Premium plan is included for new Chromebook
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Plus users for 12 months for free. And it includes Gemini Advanced, 2TB of drive storage, and Gemini for Docs, Sheets, Slides
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and Gmail too. The Chrome OS team was clear on one thing at this event. AI at a device level should be for everyone, and you shouldn't have to pay north of $1,000
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to get it. Was that a clear dig at the new AI PCs announced by Microsoft the week prior
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Sure it was, but the message rings clear. With new Chromebook Plus devices starting at $349, Google is serious about getting devices
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in people's hands that leverage AI throughout the OS at prices that don't really hurt you
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too much at the register. But before we wrap up, there were a few other fun features Google announced as well
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Google Tasks is coming to the Quick Settings calendar area for easier task management
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GIF recording is coming to the already excellent Chrome OS screen capture tool
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And a new game dashboard is also launching to make gaming possible on non-touch Chromebooks
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with button mapping while also giving users the ability to record gaming sessions and
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share those recordings very easily. And finally, Google shared a few features that are in the coming soon phase, including
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a new Help Me Read feature with Gemini. Like Help Me Write, Help Me Read will quickly summarize a bunch of text on the page and
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help you easily grasp and understand loads of content really fast. There's also a new feature on the way to help you pick up where you left off on your Chromebook
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A new screen will now surface when you open your Chromebook up that will show you what
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you had opened previously, be it a bunch of Chrome tabs, windows, or apps
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They didn't really delve too deep into this feature, but if it's like other productivity
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options for Chromebooks, think like virtual desks, when it launches it's going to be
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incredibly helpful to your workflow. And the final feature that we got to see is one of the most impressive, allowing users
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with low mobility to still use a Chromebook using just their face
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That's right, I was able to toy around with controlling a Chromebook with just head movements
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and gestures on my face like winks and eyebrow raises and opening my mouth
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It's seriously wild to experience and pretty crazy that we'll have it as a Chrome OS feature
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across the board for all Chromebooks later this year. This is a lot, I know
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That's why we wanted to kind of cover all of this on the surface and dive deeper into
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many of these new features in the coming weeks. There's just so much to talk about, but one of the best parts of the presentation was
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the fact that Google is really sticking to their guns about keeping AI-powered computing
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in a reasonable price range. The new hardware reflects this, and the new features introduced don't feel like AI just
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for AI's sake. Instead, it feels like the Chrome OS team is really clearly aligned in introducing new
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features that are actually beneficial to end users. And that's the Chrome OS that we like to get excited for
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But guys, that's it for this one. If you enjoyed this video, give us a thumbs up, head down there, hit that subscribe button
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and be sure to click the notification icon as well if you'd like to be alerted when we
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make future videos just like this one. Until next time, we'll see ya. Thanks for watching
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And I'll see you in the next one.
