Easier Copy and Paste for Text

Here’s a simple shortcut that will save you some time on your cr48. Just selecting text automatically copies it and a three finger click pastes what you selected.

VGA Out (Video Mirroring)

To use an external monitor with your cr48 just plug the monitors VGA cable into the port on the left side of the laptop.

To enable or disable video mirroring hold Ctrl and press the Full Screen button.

To use both screens, plug your external monitor into the cr48 while the cr48 is completely off.  When you boot up, both the lcd and external monitor will be active.

This works best with widescreen monitors, because there’s currently no way to change the output resolution.

Google Cloud Print Sharing

Do you use multiple Google accounts on your cr48? I do. Well now you can print using Google Cloud Print on all your Google accounts by simply sharing your printers with those accounts.

1. Sign in to your main Google account that has cloud print enabled.
2. Visit https://www.google.com/cloudprint/manage.html
3. Click the Printers tab.
4. Select Share from the Actions menu that appears when you hover over your printer's name with your cursor.
5. In the dialog that appears, enter the email address for the account you want to share with.
6. Click Share.

You will see a notification the next time you try to print using Google Cloud Print on one of the other accounts you’ve shared your printers with.

To disable sharing, follow the steps above to open the Sharing dialog for the printer and edit the user list.

Screenshot Shortcut

Need to take a screenshot? It’s easy on the cr48, just hold Ctrl and press the Next Window button. This will save a screen capture to the screenshots folder in your downloads.

Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player

Amazon Cloud Drive is another hard drive in the cloud. You can store music, videos, photos, and documents on Amazon's secure servers. Just sign in with your Amazon account or create one, then just upload your files. Cloud Drive offers 5 GB of free storage, enough space to store lots of files.

Amazon Cloud Player allows you to play the music you have stored in your cloud drive. The cr48 can’t upload directly to cloud player so just upload your songs into your cloud drive first. I use cloud player to listen to music on my cr48, just until Google launches their cloud music service soon.

Download the Amazon Cloud Drive App and the Amazon Cloud Player App

Dropbox

Dropbox is the easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online. Dropbox is a Web-based service that enables users to store files in the cloud. Dropbox is probably the most popular online storage solution. Just go and sign up, you get 2GB of free storage. You can use the website to upload files, or you can install their desktop application on your PC that creates a Dropbox folder that automatically syncs files you put in it to the web service. You can access your stuff from anywhere by just logging in to your Dropbox on the web. I use it all the time and I store all types of stuff in my Dropbox.

Download the Dropbox app

DropTunes

DropTunes plays the music you have stored in your Dropbox. Using Droptunes is super easy, just put your songs in your Dropbox, go to DropTunes and enter your Dropbox user email and password. You can browse around different folders and play all your music. 

DropTunes provides a simple web-based player that shows all the songs in the dropbox folder and automatically plays the next song after the current song ends. The player has two versions, flash and HTML5, so devices with low flash performance or no support for flash will find the HTML5 version useful.  In fact, the HTML5 version can play more file formats (mp3, m4a, ogg and wav) while the flash version can only play mp3.  By storing songs in Dropbox and using Droptunes, listening to your favourite music is super easy.

Download the DropTunes app

DragSelect

Do you have a hard time selecting text on your cr48? DragSelect allows you to modify your text selection by dragging handles. You can easily change your selection on websites by dragging the handles left or right. First select something close to the text you want to select and then drag the handles to the part you want to select. The visuals are based on the same feature on Gingerbread Android.

Download DragSelect

Sinuous

I’m not much of a big gaming guy anymore but Sinuous is one of the most addicting games I’ve played in a while. Sinuous is a very straight forward game where your objective is to avoid colliding with red dots by moving your mouse pointer around. As you progress through the levels you will notice the speed and number of dots on screen increasing.

You can activate one of several boosts by picking up the rare labeled dots:
S - Shield
G - Gravity Field
T - Time Warp
M - Minimize Dots
1 - Life up

Think you have what it takes to make it to the high score list? Give it a try!
The game works offline too.

Download Sinuous

Cloud Save

Cloud Save uploads images and files to the cloud with a simple right click. Once installed just right click on an image or download link, select Cloud Save in the context menu and select a host. Cloud Save will send that file to one of the many cloud-based services. If you select a service for the first time, Cloud Save will ask you to authorize it with your account. After that, simply selecting that service through Cloud Save's menu will initiate the file download to your account. You can also select save as to rename the file whatever you want.

You can save files to Dropbox, post images to Picasa, upload documents to Google Docs and save to a whole bunch of other services. It's pretty awesome and it’s free.

Hosts supported right now: Google Docs, Picasa, Dropbox, img.ly, Droplr, Box.net, Flickr, Min.us, Posterous, CloudApp, Twitpic, Twitgoo, Twitrpix, Amazon Cloud Drive, Facebook, Img.ly, Sugarsync, WebDAV

Download Cloud Save

Workaround for Opening Files

Heres a workaround for opening files since the media player and slideshow are not working . Press ctrl+o to open the content browser . Instead of clicking on the file to open it, click and hold/drag the file to the browser bar at the top and release it in any open space. The file will open in a new tab.

Or go to file:///home/chronos/user/Downloads/ and click a file to open it in a new tab.

About and Chrome URLs

Chrome has special URLs that load application-specific pages, instead of websites or files on disk. This is a list of them that I compiled from several different web sources.

about:about - List of about pages.
about:appcache-internals - HTML 5 Application Cache diagnostics.
about:blob-internals
about:blank - Shows a blank HTML document.
about:cache - A list of all the web pages cached by Google Chrome.
about:conflicts - Modules loaded into the main process and ones to load later
about:crash - Crash the active tab.
about:credits - Credits, and  licenses for all software used to make Chrome.

about:dns - DNS prefetching engine diagnostics.
about:flags - Experimental browser features.
about:gpu - Graphics card information, used to assist in GPU debugging.
about:gpucrash
about:gpuhang
about:hang
about:histograms - Detailed technical metrics.
about:inducebrowsercrashforrealz - Crashes the Google Chrome browser.
about:kill
about:memory - Memory used.
about:network - network info
about:net-internals - Network diagnostics. with disable support for diagnostics.
about:plugins - List of installed plugins (not extensions)
about:sandbox
about:shorthang - Hangs the tab's process, making it become unresponsive.
about:stats
about:sync - Synchronization engine diagnostics.
about:sync-internals
about:tasks
about:tcmalloc - Stats as of last page load.
about:terms - Terms of service.
about:view-http-cache - Cached HTTP objects.
about:version - Version info and the command line options used to launch.

chrome://about/about  - List of about pages.
chrome://about/credits - same as about:credits
chrome://about/ipc
chrome://appcache-internals/
chrome://blob-internals/
chrome://bookmarks/ - Bookmark manager.
chrome://bugreport/
chrome://cloudprintresources/
chrome://conflicts/
chrome://constrained-test/
chrome://crashes/
chrome://chromewebdata/
chrome-devtools://devtools/
chrome://downloads - Download manager.
chrome://extensions - Extensions manager.
chrome://extension-icon/chrome://favicon/
chrome://flags/ - experimental browser features
chrome://flash/
chrome://gpu-internals/
chrome://history - history page
chrome://history2/  - history page version 2chrome://keyboard/
chrome://media-internals
chrome://net-internals/ - Network diagnostics. with disable support
chrome://newtab - New Tab page.
chrome://newtab/#mode=app-launcher
chrome://plugins/ - List of installed plugins (not extensions),
chrome://print - Print Preview.
chrome://quota-internals/
chrome://settings - Settings manager.
chrome://settings/about - about chrome
chrome://sync-internals/
chrome://taskmanager
chrome://textfields/
chrome://view-http-cache/ - Cached HTTP objects.

view-cache:url - Shows some under-the-hood cache details.
view-source:url - Displays the source code of the URL specified.

CHROME OS specific pages

chrome://about/os-credits
chrome://activationmessage/
chrome://filebrowse/ - a tab version of the content browser
chrome://imageburner/
chrome://keyboardoverlay/
chrome://mediaplayer/
chrome://mobilesetup/
chrome://register/
chrome://slideshow/
chrome://system/
chrome://userimage/
file:///media/ - usb drive/sd card browser in a tab

If you know of any more please include them in a comment.

Local Player

Does the fact that the media player is broken after the newest update got you down? 

Do you just need to listen to some music? 

You should use Local Player.

It’s a music player right in your browser. 

It plays mp3, ogg, aac and m4a files. 

 

After you download it, and open it and just click the + button and select a music file to play from your download shelf. You can Ctrl + click multiple files in the open dialog to add more than one song at a time. Now Just double-click the file name in the file list, and it'll start to play that file. 

It’s still in early development but it works good for playing all your local music files. It’s even got some keyboard shortcuts just type ? and you’ll see them, some even work from other tabs. You can shuffle songs and repeat one or all songs if you want. You can even open multiple tabs of different Local Players. There’s also different color schemes to choose from. It shows the track info in the tab at the top too.This is a must have app.

Download Local Player

USB and SD Card support

With the most recent Beta update, USB drives and SD cards are now accessible through the advanced file system enabled content browser. Just plug one in and it should open automatically. Later you can hit ctrl+o and click the drive name. To copy files from it just open it in one shelf and then open another shelf to another location and drag the files where you want them. It copies pretty much instantly for small files. You can also access your drive from a tab by typing file:///media/ into the omnibox. There you can right click and save files to wherever you want them or just open them if they’re a supported file type. It’s great to finally have USB and SD card support for easy file transfer and uploading.

App Launcher Extensions

Do you have so many apps that it’s hard to get to them on the new tab page? Are you tired of searching through all of them on the new tab page just to get to your most used ones? Heres a few extensions that pop up all your apps in a menu. This means that you don't have to create a new tab and search through all of your apps to open up any apps you've downloaded.

Appjump is an extension that pops down a list of all your apps that you can organize however you want and even create folders.

Or there’s some that are not as advanced as Appjump.

Like AppLauncher. App Home or LaunchBoard. Or another App Launcher that just shows the titles of apps.
And last but not least there’s the App Launcher by Google. I use this one because it puts them in alphabetical order and it’s simple and you can search. I didn’t like the icon so I edited the extension and used the old chrome webstore icon instead. Download my version.

TeamViewer

Google is working hard on remote access functionality for future versions of Chrome, called Chromoting, but if you’re like me and you can’t wait, you can access your Windows, Mac or Linux computer right now using TeamViewer.

TeamViewer is one of the more reliable and secure methods for remote access to your home or work PC. 

Setup and use is very simple.
First download and install TeamViewer on your PC and run it. Make note of your ID and password.

If you want to make Teamviewer start on startup go to Extras at the top right and then click options. Then just check the box for running on startup.

Then on your cr48 download the TeamViewer app from Chrome Underground and run it, or go to http://login.teamviewer.com.
Now sign up for your free account. When you’re done just sign in.

After signing in, click add new partner in the top left of the screen.

Then in the popup select TeamViewer ID (computer).
Now just type in your ID and password from the TeamViewer program screen on your PC.

Finally, in the pane on the left just double click the PC you wish to access and it should load up your desktop.

On the toolbar at the top you can tweak the settings for best performance under View then select Quality. You can edit your own custom settings there. For me I just use optimize speed but it’s a little slow because my Windows computer is old and isn’t really that great, but it works. 

Please note you'll need to add each computers TeamViewer ID to your free account then you'll have access to it from any PC or cr48.

P.S. You can’t watch videos or listen to music remotely but you can do pretty much anything else.

Pixlr Editor

Personally, for picture editing on the cr48 I use Pixlr Editor. If you are used to working in Photoshop you will feel right at home with this online image editor. Jump in and start using this tool, there is no registration required and it loads in a matter of seconds. The editor is capable of opening Photoshop PSD files and also you can paste from your clipboard. Pixlr Editor is the most popular advanced photo editor online!

Download the Pixlr Editor app or go to http://pixlr.com/editor/

Bitdrive

Use Bitdrive for cloud storage of small files. Bitdrive allows you to share small files. Bitdrive gives you the ability to host files on websites or social networks as links. There is no signup required for files less than 25MB. If you do signup, you can upload files up to 75MB. You can also track and organize your files and you get 200GB of free space! I think it works great and 200 gb of space is a lot. I highly recommend it.

Download the Bitdrive app or go to http://www.bitdrive.net/

Panelize

Panels are awesome. When opened they’re always-on-top across the bottom of the screen. They’re capable of being resized, or quickly popped down out of view. By default, the download manager, google talk and the media player display in panels, but for some reason, there's no way to load websites in panels, until now. 

With Panelize you can put anything into a standalone panel that stays visible when switching to other tabs or windows. Now you can  look up information while composing an email or document, or update Facebook or Twitter while you’re watching a YouTube video.

Download Panelize

To open your current page in a panel, just click the Panelize button and then click Reopen current tab as a panel, but be prepared to do a lot of scrolling, unless it's a mobile version of a website.

This extension supports customizable bookmarks. Add your own links to "Other Bookmarks/Panels" and they'll show up in the popup menu. On first use, you can optionally pre-populate this list with some links to panel-friendly versions of Google web apps.

The mobile versions of websites and applications work best.

Here’s a list of some mobile versions of websites you might want as panels:
Google - http://www.google.com/m
Gmail - https://mail.google.com/mail/x/gdlakb-/gp/
Google Images - http://images.google.com/m
PicasaWeb - https://picasaweb.google.com/m
Facebook - http://m.facebook.com/
Twitter - http://mobile.twitter.com/
wikipedia - http://mobile.wikipedia.org/
A google search can lead you to more mobile websites.

Discovering this extension completely changed the way I use Chrome OS. It’s a definite must have for your cr48.

App Alternatives for Moving to the Cloud

Now that you’ve got a cr48, it’s time to leave your old computer behind and start living in the cloud. Here’s a list of apps that have helped me cross over to Chrome OS more smoothly.

Google Docs for word processing

Scratchpad and Halfnote for note taking
Pixlr Editor as a Photoshop replacement
Picasa and Min.us for storing photos
Picnik Photo Editor and Pixlr Express for simple photo editing
Sketchpad and Kleki for painting and drawing
Audio Editor by Aviary for audio editing and Audiotool for music creation
YouTube Editor for video editing
5calc for a calculator
Chrome Notes or Sticky Notes  for a stickies program
RawScripts for Final Draft
Bitdrive for cloud storage of small files

Please comment and tell us what apps you use in place of old non-cloud PC programs.