After breaching 50 million installs on the Play Store, Google's podcasts app is receiving some long-awaited love. Earlier this year it received a full redesign and you can now add subscription sources directly via RSS feed. This week, your subscriptions tab began showing the same horizontal carousel … [Read more...] about The Google Podcasts web app comes closer to replacing its app counterpart
New & Upcoming Features
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Take a look at these new additions to Virtual Desks on Chromebooks [VIDEO]
Virtual Desks have been what we would consider a complete feature for Chromebooks for nearly a year at this point. By complete, I simply mean the feature works as intended and delivers a solid productivity boost to users who choose to leverage it. There are no broken pieces with the existing … [Read more...] about Take a look at these new additions to Virtual Desks on Chromebooks [VIDEO]
New Chromebook screen recording feature is live in Chrome OS Beta 88 [VIDEO]
Back in early October we covered the arrival of a big, new feature for Chromebooks: native screen recording and capture. While screen captures have been a thing on Chromebooks for quite some time, there's never really been any UI involved and the process was about as bare-bones as you can get. … [Read more...] about New Chromebook screen recording feature is live in Chrome OS Beta 88 [VIDEO]
Nest WiFi can now prioritize your bandwidth for gaming and video conferencing
Last year, we saw that a 'gaming preferred' setting was coming to the Nest Wifi via the Google Home app. Gaming preferred would allow you to prioritize devices in the home for more bandwidth usage while playing on Stadia, a game console, or a computer. There was even a support page placed up to … [Read more...] about Nest WiFi can now prioritize your bandwidth for gaming and video conferencing
Chrome 87 brings the largest speed and battery improvements in years, new productivity features
As the holidays inch closer, the Chrome team is releasing their final build of the year. Focusing heavily on their desire to help users get things done and reclaim precious time has been a goal of most of Google's app and service updates lately, especially across Maps, Search, and more. Chrome 87 is … [Read more...] about Chrome 87 brings the largest speed and battery improvements in years, new productivity features
YouTube Music is getting a Spotify-like ‘Year in Review’ feature that I’ve envied for years
I've been called a contrarian by those close to me for years. I don't think that I desperately desire to be different for difference sake, but I do like to explore fringe opportunities and unorthodox ways of getting common tasks done. For the most part, that is why Chrome Unboxed exists in the … [Read more...] about YouTube Music is getting a Spotify-like ‘Year in Review’ feature that I’ve envied for years
Hands-on with the new web-based Google Meet custom backgrounds and blurs on a Chromebook
If I'm being honest, I've long held a bit of jealousy towards Zoom users (and eventually Google Meet users, too) on desktop platforms and their custom backgrounds and background blurring abilities. Yes, I know the background blurs look mediocre at best and the backgrounds, while fun, bleed into the … [Read more...] about Hands-on with the new web-based Google Meet custom backgrounds and blurs on a Chromebook
Hands-on with the new Chrome OS Dark/Light Mode [Video]
It has been just over a year since Google officially launched Dark Mode for the Android operating system and not long after, we discovered that developers were already hard at work preparing a similar experience for Chrome OS. While we've been tracking this feature for quite some time, Chrome OS' … [Read more...] about Hands-on with the new Chrome OS Dark/Light Mode [Video]
Parallels videos show off seamless Windows and Chrome OS integration
Parallels, the company responsible for bringing a full Windows desktop experience to Chrome OS, has just released a handful of quick videos highlighting the seamless integration between the two operating systems. Quick history lesson for the uninitiated. For nearly 20 years, Parallels has focused on … [Read more...] about Parallels videos show off seamless Windows and Chrome OS integration
Google Assistant is receiving more natural sounding voice models again
Google just added two new natural language Assistant voices to their platform so that developers can deliver higher quality experiences to their users. The two new English-speaking voices come as an updated to their prosody model. You can listen to one of them below to get a sense for how different … [Read more...] about Google Assistant is receiving more natural sounding voice models again
Stadia now officially supports playing over a mobile data connection
Back in July, the Stadia team announced that users could try out an experimental feature in beta which would allow them to play games over 4G and 5G data connections on the go. Now, that feature has exited beta and is now widely available through a server side update to the app, according to Reddit … [Read more...] about Stadia now officially supports playing over a mobile data connection
Google Nest Hub Max gets complete UI rework, dark theme and sticky notes
Thanks to Youtuber Jan Boromeusz reporting to Ben Schoon over at 9to5Google, we now have a full look at the Nest Hub Max's refreshed UI which focuses on placing more useful and personal information in front of the user. There's also a new dark theme and the long awaited sticky notes feature. Let's … [Read more...] about Google Nest Hub Max gets complete UI rework, dark theme and sticky notes
