The past couple of years have brought the arrival of some much-needed features on Android in the launch and fast expansion of Fast Pair and Nearby Share, but despite Google’s promise over a year ago, neither has arrived on Windows PCs, the company’s own Google TV platform, or even ChromeOS.
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If you’re still on an older Windows PC running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, Google might be giving you a big reason to finally upgrade. Starting in early 2023, Google Chrome will strip support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
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When it comes to an all-around solution to texting and sharing files between your phone and Windows computer, there isn’t one. Intel is aiming to fix that with a new Windows app called Unison that will be capable of sending texts and sharing files to and from your Android device or iPhone.
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Windows made a big move last year in onboarding the Amazon Appstore – a place to download Android apps onto your Windows machine. Since the release, Windows has expanded Amazon Appstore availability to over 20 regions and countries.
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Windows 11 brings support for Android apps to be natively installed on PCs, and with a new update, that feature is picking up some performance improvements and more.
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Windows 11 famously made it an exhaustive chore to change your default browser, but it has since eased up quite a lot. Now, Google Chrome is rolling out the ability to become your default browser on Windows with a single click.
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Android is already a flexible platform, but it seems power users will get even more flexibility in the next major update. Thanks to Android 13, phones such as the Pixel 6 are able to run virtual machines for Windows and Linux with better performance and fewer headaches.
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While Chrome OS is Google’s “desktop” platform for laptops and other computers, many Android users turn to Windows for a more powerful operating system. Google is now fully embracing that trend, with plans to bring Nearby Share and Fast Pair to Windows PCs.
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The ability to share your copy/paste clipboard between your phone and computer is a neat trick, but one that’s not always been very easy on Android devices. In its latest update, Microsoft has just granted the ability to sync your clipboard across Windows and Android, thanks to SwiftKey.
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With the recent release of M1-powered Apple Macs and MacBooks that are capable of running iOS apps, it seems as though on the PC side of the fence we may soon see something similar occur. According to Windows Central, Microsoft’s “Project Latte” could see Android apps run on Windows.
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Back in June, Google announced that Windows apps are coming to Chrome OS through a third-party partnership — instead of an in-house solution. Parallels Desktop for Chromebook Enterprise is launching today to provide access to Windows apps that some businesses still need.
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Last month, Google announced a partnership with Parallels to bring Windows apps to Chrome OS. An interview today provided a high-level overview of how this works and what will be required.
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The biggest complaint for many regarding Google’s Chrome OS platform has been app support, but that’s apparently changing in the near future. Thanks to an official partnership between Google and Parallels, full apps from Windows are coming to Chrome OS.
Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are the most popular Chromium-based browsers, and being based on the same foundation, they see development often shared between the two companies. This week, both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome are picking up support for better spellcheck, thanks to a joint effort.
Android Messages for Web went official just last week and so far, it seems like everyone is loving it. Having access to your messages from the desktop is great, but locking it to a tab can be a bit annoying. Thankfully, a third-party developer has managed to build an unofficial desktop client for all major platforms.
Google launched YouTube Music just a couple of weeks ago and it makes a lot of improvements to the company’s streaming strategy. One thing it doesn’t fix, though, is the lack of a native app for desktop operating systems. Luckily, a third-party developer is coming to the rescue.
While the Pixelbook only runs Chrome OS, its hardware isn’t — technically speaking — entirely locked in to the lightweight laptop (and lately, tablet) OS from Google. In fact, according to some new commits discovered by a Redditor over at /r/ChromeOS, Google is working on an “AltOS” mode that might allow it a bit more flexibility, although for now things are still muddy at best…
If you’re a Windows user like me, you’ll probably remember when you set up your machine and tried to change the default browser from Edge to Chrome. Microsoft pushes Edge hard on Windows 10, and doesn’t really do any favors for Google’s browser. However, the company has recently made its Browser Protection tool available on Chrome…
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With VLC’s 3.0 update, it has introduced some slight design tweaks and new features. The best one, though, is the ability to cast local content directly from your Android or Windows devices. Here’s how…
Google Chrome is one of the best browsers available today, if not the best, but its relationship with various operating systems is certainly strained. On Windows, users have wanted Chrome in the Store for a long time, and today, it’s finally happening. Well, it’s kind of happening.
Google, just like Amazon, is working hard to get its virtual assistant on almost every physical platform that it possibly can. This includes phones, speakers, security cameras, appliances, TVs, and more. But as someone who spends close to 80 to 90 percent of my time on a computer, I want an official Google Assistant app that is accessible from both my Apple laptop and Windows desktop.
While we know Google is working to bring Assistant to Chromebooks, and there are ways to build your own Assistant app for Mac and PC, there isn’t an official option that packs with it all of the functionality found elsewhere.
A notorious problem given by Android and iOS‘ dominance in the mobile space is the lack of interest developers have in putting their effort into less successful and widely adopted platforms such as Windows Phone. However, in its grand plan, Microsoft announced compatibility of apps between the desktop and mobile versions of Windows 10 under the “Universal Windows Platform” umbrella.
To encourage devs, the Redmond giant also worked on some porting tools, the so called Windows ‘bridges’, namely “Project Islandwood” and “Project Astoria” – for porting from iOS and Android respectively – which after a troubled beginning are seeing their roads separating, with the former going forward and Astoria officially shutting down as of today, after a period of apparent hiatus.
Chrome on Mac, Window, and Linux is being updated this week to version 48. The latest update contains the usual bug fixes and improvements for the desktop browser, but mobile devices will see the bulk of the improvements. Future updates to Chrome, we’ve learned, will bring a new compression algorithm that will help the browser load faster pages and use less power on all platforms.
You probably know about this little notification center, but it’s very unlikely that you ever use it. That fact is according to data that Google itself has compiled, and — as is definitely not unusual — low usage means cutting features in the name of simplicity…
In some cases, these desktop notifications would appear while users were gone, so in 2013 Chrome launched the notification center, a place for users to find notifications from Chrome apps and extensions that they’d missed.
However, in practice, few users visit the notification center. To keep Chrome simple, it will be removed from Windows, Mac, and Linux in the upcoming release. The notification center on Chrome OS will remain unchanged.