"Chrome OS is free, there's no product key." What? How confusing this is to me. All of the refurbished say "OS installed" but some say "OS Licence Key" missing. Anyhow I ended up ordering one that included the OS Licence key for $165.00 including tax and S&H. I won't know if it will come with the free 100 gb google drive or the 12 free in-flight passes until I fire it up. Thank you all for taking the time to respond. I got it from cowboom.com which is a Best Buy company so returning it should be no problem. I am obsessed with cowboom.com, and pleased with all the purchases I have made with them in the past. These are the items people trade in or return to Best Buy that they fix up and sell. Products and prices change all day long so you have to research and then be ready to jump when the item becomes available. That's what I did tonight with the Chromebook so I am ready to give it a try. Thanks again - TM

Then I would say go with a tablet that is more portable and easily can travel with you. We only take our tablets now when we travel in the RV. We can do everything we need to do on the tablets. Plus there is no worry about it over heating or getting hot like a laptop they don't have those problems. For the price you are wanting to spend it will probably be in the 7" range, you can find a 10" on sale sometimes. If you want to go with straight Android not a branded one like Amazon then I would look at the Asus Transformer or one of the smaller Asus tablets. The Amazon Fire is good but it is a branded version of Android so it is more limited than a regular Android, The books would be of course for the Kindle and from Amazon. But you can add the kindle reader to any Android tablet. Plus with regular Android you can add other reader programs and read any format of book not just kindle books. I would not get anything below Android 4.1 as far as the operating system goes. You can find several of the unknown brands around for much cheaper, some are fine some use cheaper products in them. Another alternative altogether is a tablet that runs windows. For example this one by HP which is on for $299 today at Woot. It is a factory reconditioned which does not bother me, I have bought several tablets that were factory reconditioned with no problems. And it does come with a 1yr factory warranty. HP ElitePad 900 10.1" Tablet, Intel Atom Z2760 1.8GHz, 128GB SSD, 2GB RAM, 802.11n, Bluetooth, Win8Pro 32-bit Asus Tablets at this link you can see various of the Asus tablets from 7" to 10" brand new and refurbished. Products ******Now this right here is a really really good deal on this 10" LG G Pad which is a quad core running the latest version of Android. Plus there is a code there for $20 off. This might be the deal of the day.And it is from newegg a very good place to do business. It is brand new, it has some very unique features and it also has IPS display excellent! It is a very good entry level first tablet, not as powerful and full bodied as some of the others but those others will be in the $400-500 or more range. For $229 this is a nice first tablet. LG G Pad 10.1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GB Memory 16GB eMMC 10.1" Touchscreen Tablet Android 4.4 (KitKat) LG G Pad In that same size/price category is the Acer Iconia with some decent specs for an entry level also. Acer Iconia 10.1" Tablet 32GB Quad Core samsung is also a good brand in tablets(maybe out of the price range). Google nexus is good The main things you need to look for in the specs is the resolution it should be at least 1280 x 600 or so higher is better. The version of Android it is running 4.1 or higher. The Ram memory and storage space plus the ability to add an additional sd card. 1-2 GB of RAM or higher. Usually 16 GB is the internal storage and most take up to a 32GB sd card. just let me know if I can help with anything. That LG is a sweet deal. I would go for ASUS, Samsung, Google, or the LG or Acer Iconia all very decent brands and offer nice options.

It definitely will not replace my tablets, I love them a lot! But I am certainly enjoying learning the many abilities this chromebook has. Everyone has their own preferences but I have never had a problem with an HP product. I have had multiple computers and other HP devices with great performance. I have also had ACER , ASUS, Lenovo also good products. Many of my elderly friends and neighbors are wanting an alternative to windows this is going to be a good option for them since their needs are very simple tasks. The learning curve is minimal especially for those who were already familiar with Chrome browser and have it sync all their settings and bookmarks etc. I am very pleased with it thus far. I did consider one of the flips that folds over to become a touchscreen tablet or a small laptop/notebook. But for now I wanted the bigger screen size and keyboard. My arthritis in my hands was getting bad from holding my tablet and phone in my hands this gives my hands a break and actually typing gives my fingers exercise they need. The touchpad is surprisingly responsive and I am actually liking it. I do have a usb mouse too for when I need it.

@hc mcdole thank you so much for all of the information and the wonderful pictures! Yes, he got them from Kroger! I was shocked as they are nothing like the typical plants I always see there so I went the next day to see what else may be there that he decided to pass over and there was a huge red and green maranta that stopped me in my tracks! It was splayed out in the center of the table and taking most of the space- so other plants were around....and on it. I would have taken it home then but would have needed more space so planed to return after my son's karate class.....well we know how this story goes! It was of course GONE and I was heartbroken yada yada lol but back to the ones my husband did get- the begonia was BEAUTIFUL day one and two as you can see from the pic.....but by the 3rd 4th day before I finally had time to repot it this weeked) it started declining rapidly. I think it was in too went soil for too long. The very tips started to fold down then the leaves started to get darker and soggy looking then crispy one by one. There are a few large leaves that still are darkened like this about halfway, but the smaller leaves were just crispy and barely hanging on. The roots were....okay as far as I could tell during the repot, Im just not sure if it will bounce back from this or not. Im hoping so its a beautiful plant. Would you suggest I do anything in particular?