SomeITBloke

We are currently trialling GAFE & Chromebooks. Contact Roger Slade at Getech Schools - Contact They supplied us with 5 licences via normal school PO and they lent us 15 Chromebooks for a months trial, just needed to cover the costs of the return.

Yes did attend all those meetings, seems a long time ago now. Still with E2BN but did change the line provider from Easynet as they were a liability.

Ha! obviously not been to MK for a while. Just had to replace two snapped coil springs thanks to the councils new policy of letting the roads turn in to the surface of the moon.

Still going strong

I think simple passwords can only be via PowerShell and not via the web GUI

With the poor line up of supported devices this was always on the cards. Hopefully this will mean more focus on Chromebooks. Now if someone would just hurry up and add a rear camera in the lid.

Should have showed her this poster.

Take a look at Video Transfer https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/video-transfer-photo-video/id640087629?mt=8 Open a browser on a machine, browse to the IP address of the iPad and download a hand zip file. Free version is limited to certain number of files at a time but is quick and easy.

With solutions like Tapestry and 2BuildAProfile there is no reason incidents like this should still occur.

TBF you don't get the same functionality as when printing from a windows device, so depending on your requirements this may or may not be of use. The following has been enough so far; Create a copy of the printer and set the preferences. If you want colour then this has to be the default as if the default is black Chrome wont override it. Our driver only has hold print and this is set in the driver to "chromebk" Make sure you can print to it from your server as you would normally, make sure the above settings work as intended. Install Google Cloud Print Service for Windows https://support.google.com/a/answer/3179170?hl=en and follow the steps to add the printer to Cloud Print for your GAFE Domain From your GAFE admin add the printer to your managed Chromebooks Your users will now see the printer available and when they print the job will be held at the copier for collection later under the ID "chromebk". There is also this from Ricoh - https://www.ricoh-usa.com/products/software/product_details2.aspx?cid=148&scid=162&sid=2794&ptm=overview still waitingg on my rep to get back to me regarding costs.

Have 5 MP C5503s for the past year with close to 1M pages printed across the fleet. Agree with some of the posts above. Pros: Cost - Lowest rental and cost per print when we went out to tender. Support - Great initial training, engineers visit with 4h, however if you get any printers included as part of an agreement there will be lots of head scratching by them. Supply Ordering - All supplies can be ordered with a couple of clicks via their portal. Reliability - Only one of the devices has required engineer visits, and that's when one just spat all it's toner everywhere inside requiring 2 days engineers time and many many boxes. Drivers - Drivers are hugely customisable. Being able to have only hold print available at the driver has reduced waste no end. Also works well with the Google Cloud Print beta installed on our print server. Cons: Managing address books across devices can be fiddly Device Web interface is slow. Often get device in use please try again when trying to save changes. It helpfully forgets your changes so you have to go through the process again. Warning Lights - As @dhicks mentioned, they like to flash lights when at 20% and yes with 4 bottles they will be doing it a lot. Some of the cons may not be an issue with papercut though.

It does look like Microsoft are looking to move schools down the per pupil subscription route, especially if the new Minecraft: Education Edition is anything to go by. Frequently Asked Questions - Minecraft Education Edition Why allow schools to licence 30 machines in an IT Suite when you can licence 600 pupils every year.

I'm currently running a Chromebook trial to assess their viability to replace our aging Netbooks and IT Suite. Number one on my list of priorities is also the longevity of the devices. So far I have had units from Lenovo, HP, Acer and Dell. All have had user replaceable batteries. Here is an example of the Dell Chromebook 11 & Acer Chromebook 11 Warranties however vary wildly. So far Dell has the best offering with a 4y NBD Warranty available, although no battery option like their Latitudes. Another thing to check is Googles Chrombook EOL policy https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en as I have found some devices I have been quoted for will be EOL in a years time. At the moment you would be looking at 2020 for the most recent models.