After rolling out to Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux, version 73 of Chrome OS is now available. Notable features include Linux support on Chromebooks managed by enterprise admins, settings changes, and improved out-of-memory management.
With the release of the Pixel Slate, Google has firmly cemented, for better or worse, that Chrome OS is their leading option for tablets, not necessarily Android. One thing these tablets haven’t had that most recent Android phones offer is Qi wireless charging, but that’s changing with the upcoming “Flapjack” Chrome OS tablet.
With version 73 now available on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android, the next beta release of Google’s browser is rolling out. Chrome 74 notably brings Dark Mode support to Windows, and can instruct websites to respect any OS-level user preference to reduce motion.
If you want or need to use a VPN with Chrome OS, one of the easiest ways is to download one for Android like NordVPN or Private Internet Access. Chrome OS is able to integrate with these VPN apps to protect your browsing and your Android apps’ networking, but this protection was never extended to Linux apps. Google is finally looking to change this, after months of being aware of it.
At the 2018 Made by Google Event, Google debuted the Google Pixel Slate with new-to-Chrome-OS fingerprint support. Before that device has even had the chance to launch, it seems two more upcoming Chromebooks are gaining the same fingerprint capability.
Update: New details have come to light about the two devices.
After releasing an incremental update for Chrome on Mac, Windows, and Linux last Friday, Google revealed yesterday that it addresses a zero-day exploit. The company’s security team advises users to update Chrome on all platforms immediately as there is evidence of a malicious party actively using the attack.
Chrome OS is a big player in the education space, and Google is continuing its lead with the new Chromebook App Hub. Announced at SXSW Edu today, it provides a collection of trusted apps and other activities that best leverage a Chromebook’s capabilities.
Google has been hard at work bringing Fuchsia to a wide variety of devices ranging from IoT devices like the Google Home Hub to more traditional computers like the Pixelbook. According to a new code change, the next devices to get the Fuchsia “tap” will be the newly released Chromebooks built with AMD processors, like the HP Chromebook 14 and Acer Chromebook 315.
Linux apps have added a new level of utility to Chrome OS, enabling programs that go beyond the typical web and Android apps. However, Chrome OS wasn’t quite ready for certain tasks like video editing due to a lack of audio in Linux apps. That’s changing as of Chrome OS 74, now in the Dev channel, which offers audio playback for the Linux apps support.
Chrome OS 72 Stable has been available for almost two weeks now, bringing Android Pie to a few devices, but in the past few days, some users have noticed a serious slowdown issue. Thankfully, there’s a few ways to avoid it entirely.
Following last year’s Google Material Theme and complete launcher redesign aimed at tablets and other touchscreen devices, Chrome OS 72 is rolling out today. This big release brings Android 9 Pie to more Chromebooks and features a handful of other notable changes to Assistant, Cast, and PiP.
Thanks to improvements Google has launched over the years, Chrome OS is now capable of running four different kinds of apps — Chrome apps and extensions, Web apps (including PWAs), Android apps, and Linux apps — each of which is managed differently. This has made app management on Chrome OS into something of a mess, but Google is looking to unify the platform with a project called the “App Service.”
Google introduced Instant Tethering in 2017 to let Chrome OS devices automatically share an Android phone’s cellular connection. Initially limited to Google devices, it’s now available on 15 additional Chromebooks and 31 Android phones.
We learned last year that at least one Chromebase, the official name for an all-in-one style Chrome OS device, was in development from Chromium source code. Acer is the first to unveil their next generation of Chromebase hardware with the Acer Chromebase for Meetings 24V2 and Acer Chromebase 24I2.
Chrome OS is gaining traction across all industries, especially education, with Google Cloud today highlighting the deployment of Chromebooks at Square. Known for its mobile-based payments reader, the company is offering Pixelbooks to new employees and piloting with the design team.
Last year it was spotted that Google was finally adding the ability to have multiple Google accounts on a single Chrome OS profile. Now, in the latest Canary channel update, the account manager is getting a fresh new design.
If you use a Chromebook, one of the best reasons to own a Pixel phone was for its compatibility with Chrome OS’s Instant Tethering. With Instant Tethering, any time your Chromebook isn’t on WiFi, it would initiate a hotspot from your Pixel (or Nexus). Reports are now coming in that Android phones other than Pixel and Nexus devices are beginning to get Instant Tethering.
If you’ve kept up with Chrome OS in the past six months or so, you’ll know that one of the more interesting new features to launch is Linux apps support. While this has potential to introduce all sorts of new applications to Chrome OS, there are some features missing that hold it back, in this early stage. One of the most anticipated features, graphics acceleration (or GPU support), necessary for running Linux games and some other apps, will be available to test soon on Chrome OS.
Chrome OS is rapidly becoming a serious player in the Linux field. Now, Google seems to be further integrating the Linux app support with the existing Android app support by allowing the Chrome OS Linux apps to access files from the separated ‘Play files’.
Chrome OS has always been based on Linux, but with its new beta support for Linux apps, the system has been opened to a wealth of powerful new applications otherwise inaccessible. The problem is, unless you’re already a Linux guru, you likely have no idea what those Linux apps are. Google is looking to fix this by making Linux apps you can install discoverable from the Chrome OS app launcher.
Brydge, a company most-known for its very popular detachable iPad keyboards, has recently expanded its business to give some serious attention to a popular Google platform as well. That’s Chrome OS, of course, and the G-Type keyboard for the Pixel Slate was the first out the door last fall. Now, Brydge is showing some more cool stuff at CES.
Midway through last year, Google launched one of my favorite features of Chrome OS, Linux app support. As it stands, this support works through a virtualized Linux, based on Debian. However, there’s many, many flavors of Linux out there, each with their own pros and cons. Google seems to be accounting for that with the ability for companies to choose their own Linux distro for Chrome OS’s Linux apps support.
While CES is becoming less and less of a show for Android, Google’s presence at the show has been growing more and more thanks to the Assistant. This year, the company had a bigger booth than ever before, and there were tons of products around the show floor that caught our interest. Following up on the past two years, here are our Best of CES 2019 awards.
Intel and ARM have been your only two options for a processor on a Chromebook since Chrome OS first launched. Now, it seems AMD is getting into the game with the latest HP Chromebook 14, being demoed at CES 2019.
