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I’m totally taking credit for this roll-out of ChromeOS 131. I put out a post yesterday bemoaning the week-late nature of this latest update from the ChromeOS team and what do you know? The latest stable version of the OS just so happened to start hitting machines late last night and early this morning. You are welcome.
All jokes aside, it’s good to see ChromeOS 131 rolling out now with the January 14th estimated arrival of M132 looming just over 4 weeks away. With all the holidays between now and then, I’m sure the ChromeOS team will have its hands full getting things in order for that release to show up on time. Getting 131 out the door helps that effort quite a bit.
What’s new in ChromeOS 131
There are no release notes just yet, so the smaller updates and changes we expected this time around aren’t readily apparent just yet. I’m sure I’ll stumble on a few fun nuggets in the next few days as we wait for a proper rundown of what is new, but this update definitely looks like a small shift versus the bigger feature drops we’ve had in the past couple updates since the fall Chromebook event.
One thing that is definitely working without a flag this time around is the multi-calendar feature for the shelf. I checked on a few different devices already, and all my calendars are now accessible right from the shelf with no need of flags or additional settings. I said it yesterday and I stand by it: I’ll take small bug fixes and security updates this time around and be happy with just getting my multi-calendar fixed up. Google delivered on that!
Apart from that, however, I’ve looked around for larger UI changes and have thus far come up empty. Nothing I’ve experienced explains the week-long delay, so this might just be a case of the ChromeOS team getting a bit behind on smashing a bug or two. Hopefully, the official release notes will uncover a few fun, new things to try out, but at this point I’m not expecting anything mind-blowing. Other than a couple devices, it does look like everyone is getting the update on time this go around, so that’s nice, too. Head to Settings > About ChromeOS > Check for updates to get the latest version on your device.
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