Category: Chrome OS

One of the tricks with Chrome OS is knowing which version is in the Stable, Beta or Dev channel for your particular device.  For most people, this is no big deal but when you see posts here on ClintonFitch.com and others about new builds, it may make you curious.  The challenge is figuring out where this information can be found.

Kevin Tofel, a long time friend and an influential podcaster/journalist on IoT and mobile tech in general, posted a link to a site yesterday that frankly, I never knew existed.  It is found at this link and lists all of the current versions of Chrome OS, for every device, in every channel.

There is little doubt that Google is on a mission to add Google Assistant to all the things.  That, now apparently, includes your Chromebook.  A new merged commit in the Chromium Gerrit suggest that Google Assistant flags will be coming to Chrome OS.  This means that any device on the platform, assuming it meets performance specs, could potentially have Assistant a tap away.

Right now Google Assistant on Chrome OS is exclusive to the Google Pixelbook.  For that device, a specific build, which enables Google Assistant, is provided each time there is a build update on the platform.  But, according to this commit, a flag option could be made available to enable it on any device.

In their continuing effort to keep end users safe and aware when they are visiting a non-secure website, Google has announced that starting in July 2018, these sites will be clearly identified in the Chrome browser.  The change will coincide with the release of Chrome 68 and will be across all platforms as well as Chrome OS.  A non-secure website is noted as http:// when you visit the site while a secure, encrypted site is noted as https:// in the URL.

The official announcement should not come as a surprise.  Google has already been urging sites to move to secure deployments with changes in how page ranking is done for secure versus non-secure sites.  This is the culmination of that effort.

With the release of the third build of Chrome 65 into the Chrome OS Dev channel, a new feature has popped up in settings that has big and positive implications for those who use their Chromebooks connected to an external monitor.  The new settings is enabled with a flag setting, chrome://flags/#enable-display-zoom-setting which enables the ability to change how scaling is done on external monitors.

Currently with a Chromebook, if you connect it to an external monitor, especially a high resolution monitor, you end up with having to scale the display to be able to read everything.  Usually this is 125% of normal to make things bigger and readable.  Doing this effectively changes the resolution to something lower, thus you lose screen real estate.

The much anticipated update to Chrome 64 has arrived in the Chrome OS Stable channel.  The new version is build 64.0.3282.134 (Platform version: 10176.65.0) and it contains several new features along with the normal bug fixes and security updates that come with every new build of Chrome OS.

Here is the rundown of the new features in this build:

• Take screenshots faster on Chromebooks with a 360-degree hinge by pressing the power and volume down buttons at the same time
• Revamped Intent Picker for Play Applications (Same window by default with override)
• Lockscreen Performance Improvements
• Enable VPN for Google Play Apps
• Enhancements to our protected media pipeline for Android
• Android Container Auto Update Optimizations
• Touchscreen pairing settings

In addition to these new features, there is now a flag you can set to enabled split screen viewing.  This was something that was found in a commit last month.  Android apps can now run in the background too.

The Chrome OS Beta Channel has a new Chrome 64 based update rolling out, its third overall in the 64 train and second update in less than a week.  The new version is build 64.0.3282.134 (Platform version: 10176.65.0) and is rolling out now.  If you are in the Beta Channel, you can force the update by typing chrome://help in the browser’s omnibar and checking for an update.

As you would expect, this new build is a bug fix release as the Chromium team gets feedback from testers and preps the build for general availability in the Stable channel.  There are no new features according to the release log.