Category: Chrome OS

A fifth Chrome 68 build has arrived for the Chrome OS Beta Channel, the last stop before a Chrome OS build arrives for the masses in the Stable Channel.  The new build is 68.0.3440.70 (Platform version: 10718.58.0) and it is rolling out to the majority of devices in that channel now.

The update comes a week to the day after the last update and contains a number of bug fixes and stability improvements to the platform.  The Chromium team did not release a change log with this update which is generally a good sign that they are confident that the build is ready for prime time in the Stable Channel.  Given that Chrome 68 is expected to land in the Stable Channel on July 24th, this is very likely the last Chrome 68 build for the Beta Channel.

The Chrome OS Dev Channel has a new Chrome 69 build now available.  The new build is the fourth Chrome 69-based build to land in what is considered the “alpha” testing channel.  69.0.3494.0 (Platform version: 10888.0.0) is the new build that you are looking for and it is available for the majority of devices in the channel now.

As you would expect for a build at this early stage, there are a lot of bug fixes and tweaks in this update according to the release notes.  Doing a quick dive into them, I did not find any new features mentioned.  This looks like a prep build to get it ready to go to Beta testing in the Chrome OS Beta Channel.

A new commit in the Chrome OS Gerrit suggests that the ability to continue reading a tab open in Chrome for Android on your Chromebook is coming.  The commit indicates that users will be able to start reading content on a site on their Android device then be able to move it to Chrome on their Chromebook to continue reading.

The concept is not new.  Microsoft Edge for Android and iOS has the ability to send a page you are reviewing to your PC via a button in the browser.  Microsoft calls this Continuum and it is a great feature for PC users.

There is a great deal on a refurbished Acer Chromebook 15 over at Amazon, but you will need to step on it to pick one up.  Right now the online retailer has the well appointed Chromebook for $224, a savings of $55 off the regular price.  It is a great price on a solid Chromebook performer with a large screen and excellent battery life.

For those that don’t recall, the Acer Chromebook 15 comes with a 15.6″ Full HD Touch display, 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB of storage.  It is powered by the Pentium N4200 which has a 2MB of cache and clocked at up to 2.5GHz.  All of this is powered by a 3220 mAh battery that provides up to 12 hours of usage on a single charge.

As part of the Amazon Prime Day sales, you can now pick up the excellent ASUS C302 Flip Chromebook for $449.  That’s a savings of $50 off the regular price.  That’s for the well appointed Intel m3 model that comes with 64GB of storage.  If you want to pick up the faster Intel m5 model, that’s on sale too for $599, a savings of $49.

The Asus Chromebook C302 has a 12.5″ display that has a resolution of 1920 x 1080.  It has an Intel Core M processor clocked at 2.2 GHz so it has a lot of horsepower under the hood.  Couple this with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and 64GB of storage, you have a Chromebook that can handle being your every day computer needs.

The Chrome OS Dev Channel, essentially the alpha build channel for the platform, has received its third Chrome 69 based build today.  Build 69.0.3486.0 (Platform version: 10866.1.0) is the new build for testers in the channel and should be available to most devices already.  You can always check for the update by typing chrome://help in the browser bar.

As you would expect with an early build of any platform, this update to the Dev Channel has a slew of fixes to issues that were in the previous builds.  An issue with external monitor support has been fixed and Linux app stability & support, known as Project Crostini, has been improved in this update too.