The Chromebook market is seeing a continuous growth as more users learn the advantages of placing their content into the cloud. Intel, which for the past 18 months has made considerable advances into the Chromebook market, has created an app that would make it easier for customers to transfer files and data from their smartphones or PCs into their Intel-powered Chromebooks. Dubbed as "Intel Easy Migration App," it is now available in the Google Play and Apple App Store. It can also be downloaded for Microsoft Windows systems.
Once installed, users can start moving their contacts, photos, files and bookmarks into a Google account with just a few clicks. All of the transferred files become accessible through the web. Intel's migration app is available to users of Android, iOS and Windows. If the user is unsure of his Chromebook's processor, he can find out by installing a Chrome extension.
It should be noted that the app doesn't actually transfer the files to the Chromebook directly as caused by the device's limited capacity in storage. The files are uploaded instead to the various cloud services of Google. Users can easily access their files using a Chrome OS device.
"Migrate your iPhone pictures, videos and files onto your Intel-powered Chromebook with the Intel Easy Migration app," says Intel. "For a one-click transfer, try Quick Migration. To hand-pick files, choose the Custom Migration setting."
As a way to elaborate further on what Intel's migration app can do for the users, some of its key features include the ability to migrate all or selected images and videos to Google+ Photos, the ability to migrate all local or Hotmail contacts to Google Contacts, the ability to pause the migration process and resume it a later time, and real time viewing of one's Google Drive space.
Intel said that the migration process is a one-time sync and assures that the user's phone or PC data will not be deleted nor modified. Moreover, the app allows one to trigger a privacy setting for all the content which is visible solely to the user and not to anyone else.
However, there are also a few things that the app may not be able to do. First, it will not be able to replace the desktop and mobile apps with web-based versions. Next, it has no ability to add music files to Google Play Music. Lastly, the app doesn't give the flexibility of using other web services apart from those that are offered by Google. One example is when customers would want to use Microsoft OneDrive storage for editing their documents through Office Online. The app is not designed for such action.
For any Chromebook purchase, Google is also offering a Drive storage of 1TB for two years. With this offer, Intel-powered Chromebooks may just keep their ARM-based rivals up on their heels.
