Google Chrome

Really fast
Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zItInA2ruMk”]

The above video is reportedly Chrome OS running on a tablet, looking very unfinished, but hey, at least it’s something. This isn’t an official video by any means, but put together by web developer Francois Beaufort. You’ll notice that icons look much different, being bigger and more tablet optimized. The QWERTY keyboard looks very familiar, almost Honeycomb-like as well.

We don’t expect this to be close to even the final build of the Chrome OS that will ship on a tablet — if it ever does. It’s cool nonetheless. Check out a few shots after the break. (via Lilputing)

Expand
Expanding
Close

Macstories has discovered the latest build of Chrome Canary adds native fullscreen support in Lion. The fullscreen in the Canary build is definitely much better than the current Chrome’s botched fullscreen. In Canary, fullscreen feels native and has earned a spot in mission control and three finger swipe. You’ll also notice there is a curtain button to toggle the tool bar on and off. Interested? We expect this feature to come to the next Chrome update, but go ahead and download the latest Canary build. Check out a few more images after the break.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8HnmpIFUPk]

No need for a Ticket Restro in the Google Paris Office where they work on YouTube and Chrome mostly.

Get in line behind us here.

Via Elgan
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google’s rapid development cycle with Chrome not only lifted the browser’s version number into the stratosphere, it has as well produced some of the industry-leading features and innovations. Initially, those capabilities were late in Chrome OS, but with the operating system now in the wild and powering Chromebooks, Google has taken a more aggressive stance to keeping Chrome OS and Chrome on the same page.

Today, the search company announced on the Google Chrome releases blog that Chromebooks are getting updated to Chrome 13, the latest stable version which was released two days ago for Windows, Linux and Mac desktops. Chrome version 13.0.782.108 (platform version 587.100) is now available on the Stable Channel for the Acer AC700, Samsung Series 5 and Cr-48  Chromebooks. It includes all of the features of Chrome 13 plus several Chromebook-specific additions. Release highlights after the break:

Expand
Expanding
Close

A new extension called Start Google Plus brings functionality of Twitter and Facebook to Google+. The extension not only allows you to post to all three social networks, but puts Twitter and Facebook into your Google+ stream too.

Another cool feature Start Google Plus offers is the ability to import your Facebook photos. SGP is available on Chrome and Firefox. Check out a few photos of the extension after the break. (via Lifehacker)

Expand
Expanding
Close

If you are a mainstream Chrome user like I imagine most of you are, the first stable version of Chrome 13 is now available for auto upgrade.  Why upgrade?

Google Instant Pages prefetches links so that page load times increse dramatically.  Linux and Windows users will now also get a print preview (Linux before Mac?! oh ChromeOS :P)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jn93FDx9oI]

To manually upgrade, go to about Chrome and hit the upgrade button (below):
Expand
Expanding
Close

Stunning 45-degree views are now available in Maps for more places in the US and abroad.

Never content with resting on its laurels, Google have been iterating their products at a pace faster than ever before. Here’s a quick overview of some of the noteworthy changes we spotted in Google’s popular services, such as Docs, Tasks, Chrome Web Store, Blogger and Maps. The latter now features breathtaking 45° imagery for many more US cities (full list here), including international locales, such as Córdoba, Spain. If you haven’t yet seen highly detailed aerial photography in action, definitely give it a try now by checking out the Córdoba, William P. Hobby Airport or the Houston Ship Channel 45° views from all four directions.

Chrome Web Store, the Google-ran online repository of web apps, now supports more markets, having added sixteen new countries for 31 countries in total. In-app payments in web apps distributed on Chrome Web Store are also a go-go: Google confirmed paid transactions in web apps will be available to users in twenty countries “later this year”. Zyngas of this world will love it, that’s for sure. More features in other services right below the fold.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EEOWbIqQdE]

Expand
Expanding
Close

The Guardian is reporting Chrome has overtaken Firefox as the #2 browser in the UK. Chrome now has 22% of the market and Internet Explorer, which is currently first, holds 45%. In fourth, Safari has 9% of the market. (via web metrics firm Statcounter) Chrome’s success is due in part to TV advertising. Chrome is Google’s first product advertised in the UK.

Also today, Net Applications is saying Safari now has 8% market share worldwide. (via MacDailyNews) Check out the graph below:

Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0XLL86e1FU]

Google today released a new bottom-floating toolbar for Internet Explorer and Chrome users (no Firefox?) called Google Related.  They explain it like this:

Google Related is a browsing assistant that offers interesting and useful content while you are browsing the web. For instance, if you’re browsing a page about a restaurant in San Francisco, Google Related will assist you by displaying useful information about this restaurant such as the location of the restaurant on a map, user reviews, related restaurants in the area, and other webpages related to San Francisco restaurants — all in one place.

Whenever you’re navigating to a new page, Google Related will look for interesting related content and, if available, display it in a bar at the bottom of your page. Google Related can display categories such as videos, news articles, maps, reviews, images, web sites and more. To preview a listed item or see additional items, just use your mouse to hover over different categories in the bar. For example, when you hover over a video link, the video pops up in a preview box and you can play the video directly on the page.

This is an interesting move that will likely get a lot more clicks through Google…if it catches on.
Expand
Expanding
Close

We here at 9to5Google love Chrome Experiments, nifty little web apps that showcase what can be achieved with HTML5 and the Chrome browser. Be it a simple project like the Google I/O countdown timer or mind-boggling stuff such as this interactive music video, Google Experiments is a go-to place for a glimpse of where web technologies are headed. All Is Not Lost, the latest Chrome experiment and an HTML5 music collaboration between the band OK Go, the dance troupe and choreographers Pilobolus and Google, is one such example.

It lets you embed your message in a music video and have the band dance it out, Keiko Hirayama, senior marketing manager with the Google Tokyo team explains in a post over at the Chrome blog. Upon visiting the experiment’s landing page, you’re only required to type in your message. The web app will then load the video and make the band dance it out with a little bit of HTML5’s canvas magic…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Now that Apple let Lion out of the cage, Google is developing a Chrome browser version to take advantage of the operating system’s gestures support. The search company announced on the Google Chrome Releases blog a new developer build (version 14.0.835.0) that re-enables a two-finger gesture “which respects the system preference”. A three-finger swipe that would previously move you backward and forward in browsing history now respects system-wide preference in Lion that flips between full-screen apps. Chrome still lets you go forward and backward in browsing history by invoking a two-finger swipe left or right.

The release also comes with a multi-profile user interface improvements and support for a new communication protocol for Web Sockets. The former lets one browse the web using multiple online identities and switch them easily. Windows and Linux builds added platform-specific tweaks and changes as well. It’ll be some time before Chrome 14 makes it down to the stable channel, but if you wish to try out experimental new features without messing with your existing Chrome installation and user profile, we recommend installing the Canary build of the browser.

Cross-posted on 9to5Mc.com

Expand
Expanding
Close

As you know, Acer lost its CEO Gianfranco Lanci who resigned in March for his inability to produce an answer to Apple’s iPad which ushered in the post-PC era. At the same time, Samsung’s notebook shipments are declining due to weak netbook sales affected by, you guessed right, the iPad and tablets in general. It doesn’t come as a surprise then that Lanci is rumored to be joining Samsung Electronics in August to “help the Korea-based electronics giant expand its notebook business, especially in Europe”, per DigiTimes’ article:

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Dell and Samsung have both contacted Lanci, aiming to leverage the former Acer CEO’s expertise in the management of channel sales in Europe. Acer, Asustek Computer as well as Hewlett-Packard (HP) which all count Europe as one of their leading markets, reportedly have been on high alert on Lanci’s move, said the sources.

One possible issue: Lanci signed a one-year non-compete agreement with Acer when he resigned on March 31. This, the sources assert, should be settled easily between Samsung and Acer should Lanci take the job. Samsung is the world’s seventh-largest notebook vendor by units and sixth in Europe. They shipped 9.9 million notebooks in 2010, IDC estimated, and are one of the premium partners authorized to manufacture Chromebooks. On top of inexpensive netbooks and notebooks, Samsung is also increasingly rivaling Apple with flagship offerings such as the Series 9, an ultrathin notebook The Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg likened to the MacBook Air. That machine is also on T3’s Gadget Awards 2011 shortlist in Computer of the Year and T3 Design Award categories. In addition to Samsung, Acer stumbled, too…
Expand
Expanding
Close

The latest Chrome Canary and Dev build now features updated multiple profile support, which was once a rough feature. As you can see in the screenshot above, you can have a number of profiles which can be switched between each other easily and feature their own icon. Profiles don’t have to be linked to a Google account and when signing into another profile you no longer have to restart Chrome. This is a neat little feature we hope makes its way into ChromeOS. To try it out, visit about:flags and enable multiple profiles.

via Lifehacker

If found in their data center’s servers, Google will now notify you if you have malware running on your computer when making a Google Search. Google announced the new feature today, and hopes to use their vast wealth of information to make this effective. Google explains:

Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers. After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software, or “malware

Obliviously this won’t pick up every single piece of malware out there, but it’s a nice little addition to an already great search platform.

If Samsung and Acer Chromebooks aren’t doing it for you and you’ve got a lot of extra money to throw at your ChomeOS experience, notorious ChomeOS hacker Hexxeh has ported the latest build of the ChromeOS to The $1000 MacBook Air.

Hexxeh uses the Boot Camp Bios Emulator to get it working but sadly that adds about 15 seconds to the boot process.

Every piece of hardware works except for the Bluetooth (because Bluetooth isn’t supported by Chromium OS yet). So WiFi works, graphics are fully accelerated via nVidia’s drivers, screen brightness controls work, sound works, touchpad works. Basically everything works. The touchpad drivers could use some tweaking, as scrolling is currently painfully slow, but that’s about the only issue I can think of. Boot time is around 22 seconds to the login screen, most of which is wasted by Apple’s EFI implementation, as once control is passed to the kernel, the boot only takes a further 6-7 seconds thanks to the fast SSD inside the Air. Battery life is probably slightly better than that of OS X.

In case you haven’t visited 9to5mac.com recently, MacBook Airs are due for an update any day now (back to the drawing board?).  But perhaps it is something to try out with your old MacBook Air?

via BlogsDNA

A new Chrome Extension called GTools+ allows you to customize Google+ to your liking. The extension features many customizations — like moving Chat to the Google Bar, adding an unread counter for Gmail and Reader, language translation for posts from your foreign friends, and the ability to keep the Google Bar at the top of the page when you scroll down. GTools+ is available on the Chrome Web Store. All of GTools+’s features:

- Unified Google bar, your personalized menu is possible on all Google services!
- Stick the Google+ bar always on top when you scrolling
- Prevent open in new tab or window when you click on link inside the Google+ bar
- Change the position of the chat for put in the Google+ Bar
- Change the color of the notification bubble in the Google+ bar
- Right click on the extension icon for go to the options page fastest
- Add a translation link in the context menu (auto detect the post language)
- Add notification for Gmail and Reader in the Google Bar.
- Edit the color of any notification bubble.

via Nirmal TV
Expand
Expanding
Close

A new extension Google+Facebook adds your Facebook newsfeed right into Google+. As you can see in the screenshot above, a Facebook icon is placed right next to the home icon at the top of the page. While it doesn’t give you all the functionality of Facebook, it’s a nice tool to have to update your status and check out the latest news from your friends that haven’t moved to Google+.

Google+Facebook was developed using the Crossrider framework, a framework that is used to build an extension across all three popular browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. While we wish the extension was up on the Chrome Web Store, for those of us who use Chrome, it sadly isn’t. For now we’ll have to hit up the download that is available on Crossrider. Check out Crossrider’s demonstration of Google+Facebook after the break.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[UPDATE 1, July 5, 2011  8:31 Eastern]: Facebook has blocked the Chrome extension for exporting friends  Author Mohamed Mansour wrote on the extension page that “Facebook is trying so hard to not allow you to export your friends. They started to remove emails of your friends from your profile by today July 5th 2011. It will no longer work for many people. New version with a different design is currently deploying. You might have to do exports daily. It uses a different approach, and I will maintain this version. Just bear with me.”

Transferring your Facebook contacts to Google+ is a bit tricky because of, you know, the walled garden of Facebook which restricts how you can take your social graph elsewhere (unlike the Google Takeout service). Some workarounds tackle the issue, like the Friends to Gmail web app which will copy your Facebook contacts to Gmail. You can also pull a similar stunt via Yahoo Mail. Both solutions, however, require that you first copy Facebook friends to an online address book and then use this data to build your social graph on Google+.

A new Chrome extensions takes the pain out of this, allowing you to continue building your Facebook relationships on Google’s social service in one easy step. It’s called Facebook Friend Exporter and right now works only with the English version of Facebook and only via standard HTTP connection (SSL Facebook isn’t supported yet). What’s best…

Expand
Expanding
Close

A big milestone today as Google’s Chrome hits a cool 20 percent web usage share according to StatCounter numbers for the month of June (via TNW) based on aggregate data collected from their network of three million websites.

For the first time ever, Chrome passed the 20 percent mark globally, accounting for 20.65 share of all web browsing the world over. Compare that to just 2.8 percent in the year-ago period. Google’s browser is now chasing Firefox which fell from 30 percent in June 2010 to 28 percent in June 2011. All versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer have also fallen to 44 percent globally, down from 59 percent in June 2010.

In the United States Chrome’s rise was less rapid, hitting 16 percent in June while Microsoft’s and Mozilla’s browsers scored 46.5 percent and 24.7 percent, respectively. What’s especially interesting is Chrome’s share in South America where it grabbed 29.72 percent of the market, beating Firefox (24 percent) to the browser punch (Microsoft’s browser had 44.1 percent share). An indication of things to come globally?

Expand
Expanding
Close

One of the big hurdles to get over when considering Cloud computers is the “What if I am offline” argument –and the number one place people have traditionally been unable to get online is on an airplane.

Gogo Wireless a few years ago started putting that to rest and it is almost unthinkable to take a domestic flight these days without wireless Internet  onboard.

But Google, who want to reinforce the belief that the Internet is everywhere, has teamed up with Virgin and Gogo to give consumers a taste of what its like to operate a computer off with data 35,000 feet below.  The plan will have ChromeOS reps at Virgin gates handing out and instructing passengers on how to use the Chromebooks (we see Samsung’s beautiful Series 5 12-inch devices above – which should fit really well in cramped spaces vs. clunky Windows laptops).  Customers must put down a credit card as a deposit to make sure the Chromebooks make it back, but the transaction is otherwise free.  Virgin and Google are also working on a Chrome web App that will help travelers get ready for their flight.

This is an incredibly smart idea and a great way to make the public aware of these devices…so long as the wireless bandwidth can handle it. (It also might get a few more people signed up with Google)

Full press release below:
Expand
Expanding
Close