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Chromebooks, John Lewis returns, and whatever ...

M

MikeSh

Well-Known Member
SWMBO wants something portable with a physical keyboard, particularly for emailing. So after much umming and aahhing and reading reviews (and being a Google user) I bought an Asus 302 Chromebook from John Lewis.
Lovely little thing, well built, responsive, but it turned out to have a crucial problem - no email client except gmail. OK, bound to be one in the add-ons .... ahh, well, just the one, and it's $50 a year !!! There is also a weird Thunderbird extension available free, but calling that clunky is generous.
A bit of trawling found an awful lot of people with the same feelings, ie. Google ..... long way off into the forest .... "the plot". Android apps should fix it, but as they seem to be as deep in the forest as the rest of the plot I took the computer back to JL and now having another ponder.

No problem with getting a refund from JL, but the colleague who handled it mentioned two things. One was that the Chromebook was their most often returned device - can't say I'm surprised.
The other was that they are going to be introducing a handling charge for returns, which I can quite understand and don't have a problem with. So just be aware of that when you get your next bit of electronics or are recommending JL. (I assume this will not apply to things covered by law such as distance selling and faulty goods.)
 
I generally have a look around the store, decide what I want then buy on line with the collect in store option for my PC world stuff. It's the buying on line that gives you the legal protection, not the delivery method. Worked a couple of times for me with return 'cause changed mind. Items returned to store, no quibbling when you show them your on line receipt. Best of both worlds.
 
Yes ... but :)
Currently JL will accept a return within 35 days. The distance selling regs allow you to "cancel the order" within 7 days of receiving the goods. There is probably a bit of a grey area between returning the goods unopened and having given them a test drive which might mean you have 'accepted' them.
Yes, most stores won't quibble, but it still isn't as good as the current JL policy.
 
I ordered a soundbar from JL, received via courier, tested it, didn't like it and returned it no prob.
 
But but but, can't the Gmail client handle any email, as on Android? Or are you scared they will read your emails?

And what is wrong with imap and webmail?
 
Mike0001 said:
But but but, can't the Gmail client handle any email, as on Android?
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I believe gmail used to be able to handle third party e-mail but it appears not any more (I think this got scrapped some years ago as I did consider using it at one time but found I couldn't even then). A check a few days ago suggested it could 'import' inboxes, but that's not really what we need.
Checking on my tablet I don't think Android has a non-gmail e-mail client any more - it used to - but there are apps that cover it well and we use one of those anyway.

Mike0001 said:
Or are you scared they will read your emails?
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That is a consideration, but not a deal breaker.

Mike0001 said:
And what is wrong with imap and webmail?
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We are all IMAP. Webmail means logging in to each account (I have three and SHMBO two) individually each time. Using a client like Thunderbird on the desktop or TypeApp on Android means you can just open it and check all accounts in one go, plus get notifications, etc.
 
Gmail most definitely does handle other accounts on Android. It is easy to switch between them.

Looking at email clients, I typed email in the play store and hundreds of apps appeared. Strange. My personal favourite is AquaMail.
 
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You can forward emails from other accounts into your 'primary' account and when you reply, you can chose which account shows as the sender to the recipient. I have 4 gmail accounts and forward 3 into one of then, so it saves swapping to the different accounts to read the emails from them.
 
Mike0001 said:
Gmail most definitely does handle other accounts on Android. It is easy to switch between them.

Looking at email clients, I typed email in the play store and hundreds of apps appeared. Strange. My personal favourite is AquaMail.
Click to expand...
OK, but as Android isn't yet available on Chrome OS it's all moot. And with the struggles they seem to be having it wouldn't surprise me if Google pull the plug on it. This is my one criticism (well, one of the major ones) of Google, that they add and subtract features willy-nilly with no notice.
 
Trev said:
You can forward emails from other accounts into your 'primary' account and when you reply, you can chose which account shows as the sender to the recipient. I have 4 gmail accounts and forward 3 into one of then, so it saves swapping to the different accounts to read the emails from them.
Click to expand...
What then happens to the 'sent' copy? Or deletes? I'll bet there is no IMAP type of handling link back to the original account, which I believe is what was available in the past.
 
Don't know. I'll have a play later and see what's what. But I think that you can decide what happens to the email in the 'donor' account: Delete or keep in inbox.
 
We are talking about two different things. Trev is correct about the email account, and other email account can be forwarded to it, not just gmail. You can also link together several gmail accounts in the web interface, easily moving from one to another.

However, the Gmail app is an email client for just about any account, and the accounts are kept separate, as in Thunderbird. It is just easier to set up with gmail accounts, you don't need to know the imap or pop server details.
 
Mike0001 said:
However, the Gmail app is an email client for just about any account, and the accounts are kept separate, as in Thunderbird. It is just easier to set up with gmail accounts ...
Click to expand...
I've been having another look at the support for gmail and it seems as I thought. It's a client in so far as you can check other email account inboxes and reply (using a spoofed from address I assume), but I don't think you can manage the account, which a proper client like Thunderbird can do.
Gmail only works as a full client with gmail accounts, of which it can handle more than one (though I've no idea how gracefully it does this).
 
Mike0001 said:
, you don't need to know the imap or pop server details.
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Neither Thunderbird or TypeApp require these nowadays (unless you use a very obscure email supplier I guess). You just supply the email address and password and they nip round the back and return with all the nitty-gritty stuff ... job done :)
 
MikeSh said:
I've been having another look at the support for gmail and it seems as I thought. It's a client in so far as you can check other email account inboxes and reply (using a spoofed from address I assume), but I don't think you can manage the account, which a proper client like Thunderbird can do.
Gmail only works as a full client with gmail accounts, of which it can handle more than one (though I've no idea how gracefully it does this).
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, the Gmail app is not able to fully manage gmail either. As far as I can see, only the full web interface can do that. I don't see any way to set up filters, possibly being able to create new labels is missing too. I am not sure you can link accounts either.

On Android 6 and 5, possibly others, and using Chrome in desktop mode as browser, managing gmail is still deficient. I have to go to my PC to do that. In Opera, you do get a link bottom of screen to the desktop version.

Handling several accounts works well, though. They appear as a dropdown menu.
 
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Yes, the one I got was listed as beta channel. Would it be persuaded to allow Play Store using the info linked above? No! When I trawled a bit I found that, of course, I was not alone and because it's beta channel no-one knows for sure if the ability hasn't been revoked for some reason.
Developer channel? Well, I want a system SWMBO can handle, so stable is slightly important.
Then I saw the news item about AA on Chrome being delayed yet again and basically said: sod this for a bag of monkeys :mad:

HP ultrabook (W10) arriving tomorrow - twice the price, but at least I have a good idea of what it will be able to do out-of-the-box :)
 
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