CTL isn’t a well-known brand for many, but the company has been putting out some interesting and compelling Chrome OS devices for quite a while now. Recently, the company opened sales on the CTL Chromebox CBx2-7, a computer made for the Chrome OS power user.
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Chrome OS tablets were once viewed as Google’s potential answer to the iPad, but to date only one major release has hit the market. Now, we’re finally seeing a second Chrome OS tablet for the mass market in the Asus Chromebook Detachable CM3.
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Following the desktop update last week, Chrome OS 91 is beginning to roll out today. There’s one particularly big feature addition in this release and a handful of other enhancements, which will be available over the coming days.
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Since their debut years ago, Chromebooks have long been criticized for lacking native apps. That’s something Google has addressed by delivering support for Android apps and, more importantly, Linux apps on Chromebooks, and now the latter is finally dropping its beta label.
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At the start of 2021, a “near final version” of the operating system with which Microsoft intends to counter Chrome OS leaked. It revealed key visual similarities to Google’s offering, but it has now emerged that Windows 10X is not shipping in 2021 and might have been killed, at least in its current iteration.
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Google’s apps for messaging and video calling, Google Meet and Google Chat, will soon be installed by default on Chrome OS devices.
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Back in October, Google and Parallels let enterprise users run Windows on Chromebooks for the first time. A big update is now rolling out to Parallels Desktop for Chrome OS that adds a slew of new features.
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Chrome OS will soon be testing a frequently requested feature, the ability to have the current date and notification icons displayed in the corner of the shelf.
Update: Google has changed the flags that are used to add the date to your Chrome OS shelf.
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Following the desktop update last week, Chrome OS 90 is beginning to roll out today. There are a handful of usability enhancements in this release, which will be available over the coming days.
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While Chromebooks have long been used as affordable, low-power computers, there’s also a growing market for premium, high-end devices running Chrome OS. To that end, Nvidia and MediaTek have announced that they are now working together on bringing RTX graphics to future Chromebooks.
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A useful feature of Chrome OS is Guest Mode, which essentially acts as an incognito mode for a friend or family member to use your machine without access to any of your data. Unfortunately, though, there’s a bug that can actually reveal your location data to another user who is on Chromebook’s guest mode.
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Lenovo has launched a series of new Chromebooks including the 14e Gen 2, 100e, 300e, and 500e Gen 3 with a major focus on the massive education sector.
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Google’s Chrome OS has the advantage of including support for Android and the platform’s vast app collection. Now, Chromebooks are finally getting updated to Android 11 to bring some new features and better functionality, but the update is in beta-only for the time being.
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The first Chromebooks launched a decade ago, and Google is celebrating that milestone with a big Chrome OS 89 update that introduces a ton of user-facing features. The company is also using this occasion to look at where Chromebooks will go in the future.
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Following the desktop and mobile updates last week, Chrome OS 89 is beginning to roll out today. There are a number of big usability enhancements in this release that will be available over the coming days.
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Google has rolled out a new wallpaper collection to Chromebooks called “Imaginary” that adds 12 colorful new images to Chrome OS. Each background contains a fun, digitally-sculpted scene.
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Google has historically released new versions of Chrome every six weeks with smaller patches rolled out in between. In a big change, Google Chrome is moving to a four-week update cycle this year.
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Chromebooks are doing very well amid distance learning, and Google is doubling down on that with 40 new Chrome OS devices built for education coming this year. Meanwhile, Chrome OS 89 in March will add a native screen recording tool.
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Last month, we learned that Chromebook shipments grew over 4x amid the pandemic and shift to distance learning. That demand in 2020 has led Chrome OS to overtake macOS in worldwide sales.
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Cloud streaming particularly excels on devices that would otherwise never get access to AAA titles. To emphasize that today, Google announced that it’s giving most Chromebook owners a three-month Stadia Pro trial.
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While question marks and doom do unfortunately surround the cloud gaming platform at the moment, Google will be hoping for big growth after confirming that all new Chromebooks will come with Stadia pre-installed.
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As of last year, downloading certain apps from the Play Store on Chrome OS would automatically “install” the Progressive Web App. The latest service to follow this PWA approach is YouTube Music, though Google is taking a circuitous route with a separate Chromebook listing.
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Chrome OS’s upcoming Android “Phone Hub” may be getting the ability to mirror your phone’s screen as an exclusive feature for Google Pixel phones.
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Remote learning today involves a lot of video calls, and Google is working to improve Meet, as well as Zoom, performance on Chromebooks. Efforts are focused on boosting program efficiencies and making live optimizations.
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