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There’s a lot of buzz around the in-development Crostini Project for Chrome OS and the potential impact it could have on the entire Chromebook ecosystem. We’re really hoping that in just under two weeks, developers will give us some insight into the roadmap for Linux apps on Chrome OS as they gather for the annual Google I/O conference in California.
Until then, we still have a lot of new goodies to keep track of here at Chrome Unboxed and it looks like the list just got longer as Chrome OS version 66 has just been announced and with it a huge list of feature updates.
I’ll go ahead and share the update here and over the next couple of days we’ll be testing and tearing down all that’s new in the latest version of Chrome OS. Normally, major updates contain more bug fixes and security updates that actual new features but as you will see in the list below, there’s a truckload of stuff rolling out with this milestone update.
- Adding new keyboard shortcut to move windows from display-to-display
- New Chrome OS Keyboard Shortcut Helper
- External Display Settings enhancements
- Enable Video Recording in Chrome Camera App
- Overview window animation improvements
- Extending more devices support for Magic Tether
- Picture in Picture Magnification
- Ability to zoom up to 20x with Chrome OS magnifier
- Ability to adjust full screen mag zoom level through pinch gesture
- Screen sharing support for Android apps installed via the Google Play Store
- Add Google Play into first login Opt-in window
- Google Play GDPR support
- Google Play Maximized Window support improvements
- Automatically pass user credentials from Chrome OS login to network 802.1x authentication
- Native printing support extended to Google Play applications
- Add Sync notice during initial sign-in
Yeah, that’s a big ole’ list.
The first one that caught my eye is the extended support for magic tether. What devices have been added is not clear but you can bet we’ll be testing it on every phone we can find. Presumably, this is a reference to the “Instant Tether” feature available for Pixel devices.
We also see a lot of features to Android app support that should give the Play Store apps a more native feel and better functionality on Chrome OS. Android on Chromebooks has come a long way but there’s definitely room for more improvement.
The first item on the list is a reference to a feature shared by Googler Francios Beaufort that brings a keyboard shortcut to let users switch windows between native and extended displays. #workflow
There’s also the new video recording function that Robby shared yesterday as well as a new Picture in Picture feature that we have been anticipating for months.
Along with the feature updates, Intel devices using the 3.18 kernel will now have the patch to protect against the Meltdown vulnerability. That means all Chrome OS devices on version 66 will now be immune to the nasty bug. Great news, indeed.
Stay tuned. We have a lot of stuff coming at you this weekend including more details on Chrome OS 66, some product highlights and more.
Thanks to Will Smith for the quick eye and sharing this update because we were busy playing with some new third-party Google Home speakers we just acquired. 🙂
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Source: Chrome releases
