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More fresh news from François Beaufort and the world of Chrome OS. As tablets and detachables become more prevalant, touch-friendly features and Android-centric UIs are making themselves at home in the Chromebook ecosystem.
The refreshed wallpaper picker for Chrome OS is still behind a flag in the Stable channel but developers are already tweaking the Android-style selector to make it more friendly to tablet users.
In the Canary channel of Chrome OS, users can now open the wallpaper picker and, when in tablet mode, swipe left or right to cycle through the selections. Once the picker is opened, selecting a background image will open a full-size preview that is swipeable.
I tested this out on the Samsung Chromebook Pro and apart from a little lag in transition, it worked flawlessly. With the wallpaper picker sitting in the Stable channel, I wouldn’t be surprised if this feature finds its way there in the near future. I don’t recommend heading to Canary just to check this out but if you happen to be in the experimental channel, give it a try. It’s pretty cool.
This new swipe feature along with things like new Android shortcuts may not seem groundbreaking but they are much-needed fine tuning in order for Chrome OS to take full advantage of emerging form-factors like the HP Chromebook x2 and Acer Chromebook Tab 10.
Source: Chromium repository via François Beaufort
