Google Slides: ready to be your go-to presentation app

After one month of using cloud-based Google Slides on my Pixel, I do not want to go back to a desktop-based presentation program. 

My first encounter with Slides was updating a 50+ page PowerPoint presentation for work, which was saved to the hard drive on my desktop, which also was at work.

That's great, if I want to do it all while I'm at work. Not as nice if I'm travelling and have access to a bunch of devices, but not the desktop that my PowerPoint presentation is saved on. 

Yes, I know that you can also save and update PowerPoint with OneDrive in the clouds, but this is the Pixel blog, not a Surface Pro blog, so I'm gonna tell you how this whole thing worked for me using Slides. 

I emailed the PowerPoint presentation to myself before I left work and saved it in Slides - which I had read but didn't have complete faith in - was compatible with PowerPoint. 

So now, my PowerPoint document is accessible from my Pixel, but also my phone, my tablet, or whatever other device I happen to be near. I can read it and update it from anywhere. After updating the first ten pages, I simply cut and paste those changes to the PowerPoint presentation when I got back in the office and had time to do it. It took a few minutes, but it was pretty easy overall. 

There is a tremendous amount of freedom in knowing that I'm not locked to the desktop. 

Next up and just last week, I was in a three-day meeting using a MS Office laptop that was not mine and I needed to create a new presentation for a meeting that same week, but I didn't have either my Pixel or my desktop available. 

So I turned to Slides; I created a beautiful presentation in minutes that I updated later that evening on my Pixel. I emailed the presentation to my the person who needed it and we reviewed it in the meeting that I was at later in the week from my colleagues laptop, a MS-based Dell laptop. 

Truthfully, this was one area where I was a little apprehensive about forking over the $999 for the Pixel and why I had considered one of those sleek MS Surface Pros. I had seen people using them and they look like awesome little devices. But I really do not like the colors (personal preference) and I also am pretty attached to the Google ecosystem. 

I also had considered the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2, which has the Hancom Office products. I gave Hancom a test drive on my work tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0. I think the product works beautifully on the Tab Pro, but on the Tab 4 it was an instant headache making any changes or even scrolling through the document for that matter. But I attribute that more to the mid-range specs on the tablet than because of any problems with Hancom itself. 

Other than the aforementioned reasons, I love the fact that Slides is constantly updating itself and I never have to fear getting a phone call, walking away from my desk, and forgetting to update it. 

I'm a huge Google Slides fan. Wonder if they sell Google Slides bumper stickers?

Why I chose Google's $999 Chromebook Pixel

Last summer, I spent one month on a Chromebook, using it almost every day. It was the white HP Chromebook 14. 

I didn't have WiFi in my house at the time, so one of the reasons I chose this model was because it also came with a lifetime supply of data from T-Mobile. Not a lot of data, but enough to get you started. You could add more as you needed. I had heard most of the negatives: you need to be connected to the Internet to use the Chromebook, Chromebooks are cheap, Chromebooks are for people who can't afford "real" computers, and a few others that you might have heard. 

But I hadn't had a desktop computer in my house for a number of years and I really hadn't needed one. Once in a while I would bring a laptop home from work, but more often than not, I would do pretty much everything on my Android tablets, which I used bluetooth keyboards with when I needed that experience. So, I reasoned, a Chromebook could meet my needs.

I really liked my Chromebook experience. I created a really cool website, worked on a blog, created a killer resume from a template I found on the Chromebook, and, more recently have been using Google Slides on the HP Chromebook to update a lengthy work PowerPoint document from home.

While I loved the Chromebook experience, the resolution on the HP Chromebook 14 wasn't all that great. So over the last few months, I started researching newer Chromebooks and new larger Android tablets with keyboards.

I was strongly cosidering buying a Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2" with a keyboard for a total price of around $650. The first tablet I owned, however, was the original Samsung Galaxy Tab. I guess you could say I'm an early adapter. I loved that thing and it worked great - for nine months. But at nine months and one day, I started having serious battery drain issues. I sent the thing in to Samsung twice and it was returned with the same problem. Samsung would not replace my device. So when it came time to spend a little more money, all I could think of was if I buy the somewhat pricey Tab Pro and it for some reason stops working, Samsung will not have my back and I'll be out $550. So I just couldn't pull the trigger on the Tab Pro, though I am enamored with it.

Then, I found out that Google just launched the Chromebook Pixel 2. It had everything I had been looking for with its quality and looks. So I ordered it for $999 Friday, sight unseen and it arrived Tuesday.

My next blog will cover week one with the Pixel 2. I will give you a preview: I love everything about it - except one thing.