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Upcoming releases of Chrome OS are expected to bring some serious enhancements to the increasingly robust platform but that doesn’t mean version 73 of Google’s desktop OS is a simple stop-gap in preparation for the next big thing.
Released earlier today, Chrome OS 73 has started rolling out for a few devices and there’s a lot of stuff under to hood to dissect. First, the official release notes and then we’ll touch on some of the high notes.
- Better Chrome OS out-of-memory management
- Report additional telemetry data for Chrome OS devices
- Alerts regarding upcoming removal of remaining Chrome Supervised Users
- Video Player: switch to native media controls
- Demo Mode: Switch language setting
- Audio Focus on
CrOS - Developers can share files/folders with Linux apps.
- Improved native Drive integration with added support for the Drive->Computers root in Files app
- Demo Mode: Offline enrollment and setup functionality
- For managed devices, the remotely configured 20 printer maximum cap will be raised to allow for several thousand native printers for each organizational unit in the Google Admin console.
As you can see, there are quite a few enterprise/managed updates in the latest version of Chrome OS but it also brings some tweaks that will be welcome by most any user.
There’s likely no branding Chrome has suffered more consistently than being a memory hog. I’m still digging into the Chrome Platform Status for the ins and outs of everything developers have done to bring “Better Chrome OS out-of-memory management” but it goes without saying that anything that improves Chrome’s handling of precious memory is welcome.
Audio focus enhances user experience preventing background media playing simultaneously over top current in-focus Android app running on your Chrome devices.
In Chrome OS, Android apps using audio focus will now tell Chrome to pause and resume audio to create a seamless media experience between websites on Chrome, Chrome Apps and Android Apps. This is currently supported only on Chrome OS device running Android P.
Google Developers
Users can also switch to native media controls for video playback and make use of hardware keys found on many keyboards.
There’s a lot of Linux action happening as well, with Chrome OS now having the ability to share files/folders directly with Linux apps. For Enterprises, admins can now grant access to managed devices so users can enable Linux apps on their Chrome devices.
Autoplay for picture-in-picture is now live for sites whose developers have enabled it and a new “skip ad” origin trial is available for devs wanting to offer the Skip Ad button on video sessions.
I have a feeling there’s a lot more to uncover in the latest release of Chrome OS. So, I’m going to dig in and see what’s new and I’ll report back tomorrow with my findings. Stay tuned.
Shop Chromebooks On AmazonSource: Chrome Release Blog
