Author: Clinton

The G Suite team has announced that 25 new pre-integrated apps have been added to their SAML Single Sign-on (SSO) support in the platform.  SAML is one of two SSO standards that are supported by G Suite and additional apps being supported means that it is easier for Admins to get their users enabled across various services used by their organization.

For those who may not be familiar with Single Sign-On, the hint is somewhat in the name.  SSO allows a domain user to use their network username & password to sign into other services that their organization uses.  It cuts down on users having to remember several passwords but also gives admins greater control and recover tools for those additional services.

The additional apps will be hitting on domains over the course of the next two weeks and Admins are encouraged to review their configurations in order to enable the new apps.

The touch enablement of Chrome OS continues, as well as the merging of look-and-feel elements between it and Android.  The latest example is in the Chrome OS Canary Channel, the pre-alpha builds of the platform, where you will now find the Power menu to look strikingly similar to its Android counterpart.

The new came from long time Chrome OS evangelist François Beaufort who posted about the find on Google+.  If you are a fan of Chrome OS, Francois is one you need to follow as he is great at finding these little nuggets, especially in the Canary Channel.

Google has rolled out a new cloud-side update to Google Contacts that links it with Google Pay Send, allowing you to send funds to a contact directly from within the app.  The feature appears to have a limited rollout at this point so don’t be too surprised if you don’t see the link yet.

If you do have it, you will know when you go to Google Contacts and open up a contact’s information page.  There on the menu bar just below their picture, you will find a “$” icon with “Send” under it.  Tapping it will prompt you for the email address to send the fund to then finally a Google Pay Send page to input the amount.

Google Allo is set to have a big change on the web version of the chat app that should make it far more useful going forward.  In a Tweet last week, Google Principle Engineer for Google Allo, Justin Uberti said that device independence for the web version is on its way.

Yes, we are in the process of migrating the backend system to support completely independent devices.

— Justin Uberti (@juberti) March 8, 2018

What this would mean is that you could use Allo on your laptop without having to have it connected to Allo on your phone.

A new commit in the Chrome OS Gerrit points to the floating virtual keyboard being enabled by default when you enter into tablet mode on your compatible Chromebook.  The feature leverages existing flags that you can find in the Stable Channel today, but this commit make the default behavior change.

Today, if you go chrome://flags/#enable-floating-virtual-keyboard you can enable the floating virtual keyboard on your Chromebook.  Then, when you go into tablet mode, the keyboard can be moved from fixed to floating using the overflow menu (the three vertical dots).  You’ll also find several other virtual keyboard flags to play with if you do a search for “virtual keyboard” on the flags page.

There is a new commit for Chrome OS that will make life a lot easier for Chromebook users who connect their devices to external monitors.  The commit, which has its flag live now in the Chrome OS Dev Channel (Chrome 66), will preserve app window locations when you disconnect a monitor and reconnect it.

The flag, for those running a device in the Dev Channel, is chrome://flags/#ash-enable-persistent-window-bounds so you can test it out now.  Given it is essentially in the Alpha build of Chrome 66, it may still be buggy so bare that in mind as you test it.