The New Generation: 2013

From TVs to tablets: Everything you love, across all your screens

When I was growing up, my family had a single screen we huddled around every day: the television set in the living room. Nowadays, we “huddle” around multiple screens—laptops, smartphones and tablets—using them almost interchangeably as we navigate through our day. In a world of ubiquitous computing, life would be a lot simpler if we didn’t have to learn new behaviors and interfaces each time we switched screens—if we could have one consistent, intuitive experience no matter where we are or what we’re doing. Today, with the launch of Chromecast and the new Nexus 7 tablet, it’s even more effortless to enjoy content you care about—whether it’s video, music, movies, games—wherever you are, across your devices.

Introducing Chromecast
To help make it easy to bring your favorite online entertainment to the biggest screen in your house—the TV—we’re introducing Chromecast. Chromecast is a small and affordable ($35) device that you simply plug in to your high-definition (HD) TV and it allows you to use your phone, tablet or laptop to "cast" online content to your TV screen. It works with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, and Google Play Music, with more apps like Pandora coming soon. With Chromecast, we wanted to create an easy solution that works for everyone, for every TV in the house.

Remote-free
Once your Chromecast is set up, you can use your phone, tablet or laptop to browse and cast content to your TV, play and pause, control the volume, and more. But unlike other streaming solutions, you can still multitask—send emails or surf the web—while enjoying what’s on the TV screen. It works across platforms—Android tablets and smartphones, iPhones, iPads, Chrome for Mac and Windows (more to come), so your personal device is also now your remote control.

Cast the web to your TV
In addition to apps like Netflix, you can use Chromecast to bring a broad range of content available on the web to your big screen, thanks to a new feature in the Chrome browser that allows you to project any browser tab to your TV. From sharing your family photos to enjoying a video clip from your favorite news site, it’s as simple as pressing a button. This feature is launching in beta, but we’re excited for people to try it out and give us their feedback.

Google Cast SDK preview for developers
To ensure a great Chromecast experience over time, we've built Google Cast, a technology that enables developers to build consistent, intuitive multi-screen experiences across mobile devices and TVs. Today, we’re launching a preview version of Google Cast with more information for developers on our Google Developers blog. A handful of early developers are already working on enabling Google Cast technology in their apps, so more supported apps are coming soon. And while the Chromecast device is the first instantiation of Google Cast, we expect the technology to be embedded in a range of hardware from our partners in the future.

The new Nexus 7—the sharpest 7” tablet screen ever
Together with ASUS, we took what you loved about the original Nexus 7 and made it even better. The first thing you’ll notice is the sharpness of the screen: the 323 pixels packed into every inch of the screen makes it the world's highest-resolution 7-inch tablet. It’s lighter than ever, with more than nine hours of HD video playback and 10 hours of web browsing or reading. Nexus 7 now features stereo speakers and virtual surround sound from Fraunhofer (the inventors of the MP3 format), giving you rich and immersive audio.

Android 4.3—a sweeter Jelly Bean
Nexus 7 is the first device to ship with Android 4.3, the newest version of Android. Tablets are perfect for sharing with others, so in Android 4.3, we're introducing restricted profiles, which let you limit access to apps and content. For example, restricted profiles enable parental controls, so certain family members are prevented from accessing mature content. Likewise, retail stores can use tablets to show off product information, and shops can use tablets as point of sale systems. Android 4.3 also now supports Bluetooth Smart technology, opening the door to mobile apps that connect to new devices like fitness sensors. Android 4.3 is rolling out to Nexus devices starting today.

Ready to Play
The new Google Play Games app brings your friends together with the games you love, where you can invite a friend and start challenging gamers around the world, compete for top achievements, and race to the top of the leaderboard. You can also enjoy the world’s largest collection of eBooks, listen to millions of music tracks and immerse yourself in thousands of movies, TV shows, magazines and apps on Google Play. Plus, Nexus 7 comes loaded with your favorite Google apps, like Chrome, Maps, YouTube, Gmail and Google Now.

How to get Chromecast and the new Nexus 7
Starting today, the Chromecast device is available for $35 on Google Play, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. It will be available in Best Buy stores across the U.S. starting July 28. For a limited time, you also get three months of Netflix included. More info available in Google Play.

Nexus 7 starts at $229, and is available in the U.S. beginning July 30 (with more countries coming soon!). Buy Nexus 7 online on Google Play, or check it out at Best Buy, Gamestop, Walmart, Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Amazon, Home Shopping Network, Radio Shack, J&R and B&H Photo. Nexus 7 (LTE) is coming soon with support for T-Mobile and Verizon in the coming weeks. Learn more on our Nexus site.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps

Simpler printing from more places

(Cross-posted on the Google Enterprise Blog)

Have you ever needed to print a boarding pass, whitepaper, or speech, and didn't have your computer at hand? Google Cloud Print helps you print from anywhere to anywhere using any device, and we’ve recently made several improvements on that front.

First, if you have an Android smartphone or tablet, we've released the Cloud Print app in Google Play to make it easier to print documents and files on the go.

Second, if you work out of different offices or other public spaces like a school, you can now easily share a printer with anyone nearby, by simply publishing a link.

In addition, we’re releasing two new tools today to make it even easier to print anywhere, anytime. The first, Google Cloud Printer, makes it possible to print to any of your cloud printers from Windows applications such as Adobe Reader.

The second, Google Cloud Print Service, runs as a Windows service so administrators can easily connect existing printers to Google Cloud Print in their businesses and schools.

We’ll continue evolving Google Cloud Print to make printing simple and easy from as many devices as possible. For now, the future looks good on paper.

Posted by Andrew Warren, Product Manager and Printing Prophet, Google

Better integration between Chrome and Google apps

Today’s release of Chrome for iPad and iPhone makes it easier to integrate your favorite Google apps with Chrome. After you sign in to Chrome, you can sign in to other Google apps with a single click. In addition, if you prefer to follow directions in the Google Maps app instead of in the browser, you can easily set a preference to open these links in the Maps app instead. Try the same for YouTube, Google+, and Google Drive (with more apps coming soon).

Over the coming days, we are also rolling out an experimental data compression service to help you save bandwidth, load pages faster, and browse more securely on your iPhone and iPad. Finally, this update brings fullscreen browsing to your iPad and the ability to access your browsing history from the menu.

Try out the latest version of Chrome for iPhone and iPad today.

Posted by Peter Lee, Software Engineer and Ideating Integrationist

Smarter omnibox suggestions tailored to you

For folks using Chrome Beta on Windows, Mac, or Linux, starting today you’ll notice improvements to omnibox suggestions based on the recency of websites visited, so you’ll get more contextually relevant suggestions at the right time.

In addition, if you use Chrome Beta on your Android phone or tablet, we’re releasing a new update later today to improve the way you navigate and interact with the web. You may notice pages loading faster, and the latest implementation of WebRTC technology allows you to chat face-to-face through your browser without installing any plugins. Try it out by starting a conversation with a friend.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on today’s Beta updates.

Posted by Mark Pearson, Software Engineer and Suggestion Savant

More multilingual mobile web

Today’s Chrome for Android stable update continues to break down the language barrier as you browse the mobile web. In addition to the built-in translation bar, we’ve added improved layout support for right-to-left languages including Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew. This update also brings fullscreen browsing to your tablet.

Furthermore, we’re rolling out an experimental data compression service over the coming days which helps you save bandwidth, load pages faster, and browse more securely on your phone and tablet. Too good to be true, you say? Au contraire. By optimizing the pages you visit, this feature can help you save on data usage and bring you a faster, more dynamic web.

We look forward to your feedback on the latest version of Chrome for Android as it rolls out in the coming days.

Posted by Dan Alcantara, Software Engineer and Professional Polyglot

Richer notifications now available to all Chrome users

Starting today Chrome users on Windows will see their browser updated to include richer notifications (Mac is coming soon). We’re excited to see what developers create and the convenience it brings to your day-to-day lives.

If you haven’t tried Chrome yet, there’s no better time than now!

Posted by Justin DeWitt, Software Engineer and Master of Messages and Meetings

Chromebooks: coming to more stores near you

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

In Northern California where I live, summer is here, which means family vacations, kids’ camps, BBQs and hopefully some relaxation. But it also means back-to-school shopping is just around the corner. So in case you’re on the hunt for a laptop in addition to pens, paper, and stylish new outfits, your search just got a whole lot easier. Chromebooks—a fast, simple, secure laptop that won't break the bank—will now be carried in over 3 times more stores than before, or more than 6,600 stores around the world.

In addition to Best Buy and Amazon.com, we’re excited to welcome several new retailers to the family. Starting today, Walmart will be making the newest Acer Chromebook, which has a 16GB Solid State Drive (SSD), available in approximately 2,800 stores across the U.S., for just $199. Look for Chromebooks coming to the laptop sections of a Walmart near you this summer.

And beginning this weekend, Staples will bring a mix of Chromebooks from Acer, HP and Samsung to every store in the U.S.—more than 1,500 in total. You can also purchase via Staples online, while businesses can purchase through the Staples Advantage B2B program. In the coming months select Office Depot, OfficeMax, and regional chains Fry’s and TigerDirect locations will begin selling Chromebooks.

In the 10 other markets worldwide where Chromebooks are sold, availability in national retailers continues to expand. In addition to Dixons in the UK, now 116 Tesco stores are selling Chromebooks, as well as all Media Markt and Saturn stores in the Netherlands, FNAC stores in France and Elgiganten stores in Sweden. In Australia, all JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman stores will be carrying Chromebooks for their customers as well. With our partners, we’re working hard to bring Chromebooks to even more countries later this year.

Chromebooks make great computers for everyone in the family—and now you shouldn’t have to look very far to find one. Happy summer!

Posted by David Shapiro, Director of Chromebook Marketing, long-time reader, first-time poster

Play Cube Slam face-to-face against your friends

My friends and I used to play video games all the time, squashed together on the couch, engaged in structured intellectual discourse about exactly how badly we were going to destroy each other. Now that we live spread out around the world, it’s a bit harder to dance in each other’s faces and yell “booyah!” every time we win a game. Enter: Cube Slam.

Cube Slam is a video game that you can play face-to-face against your friends. It’s a Chrome Experiment built using WebRTC, an open web technology that lets you video chat right in the browser without installing any plug-ins. That means you can quickly and easily play Cube Slam with your friends, no matter where they are in the world, just by sharing a link.

To win Cube Slam, hit the cube against your friend’s screen three times until the screen explodes. Shields, obstacles, and gravity fields change with every new level, and you can unlock power-ups including fireballs, lasers, multi-balls, mirrored controls, bulletproof shields, fog, ghost balls, time bombs, resized paddles, extra lives, and death balls––though you might want to avoid the death balls. If none of your friends are online, you can always play against Bob the Bear and see what level you can reach. If you install the Cube Slam app, you can even play Bob when you’re offline.

Cube Slam’s graphics are rendered in WebGL and CSS 3D, and its custom soundtrack is delivered dynamically through Web Audio. WebRTC, which enables the two-person game, is available on desktop Chrome and Chrome OS, and will be available on mobile later this year. In the meantime, you can play Cube Slam against Bob the Bear on your phone or tablet. To learn more about what’s going on under the hood, see our technology page and Chromium blog post.

Play a friend. Play a bear. Have fun!

Posted by Clem Wright, Google Creative Lab, Ursine Diversion Division

Roll across platforms and race across screens with two new Chrome Experiments

We spend huge chunks of our lives on our phones and tablets. And since life shouldn't be all work and no play, we've created two new Chrome Experiments—Roll It and Racer—that let you play with other people using phones, tablets, and computers running Chrome.

Roll It brings a classic boardwalk game to your browser using your phone and a desktop or laptop computer. Chrome on the phone lets you aim and roll the ball with a flick of your wrist, while Chrome on the computer renders the 3D graphics of the Roll It alley.

With Racer, you can build slot-car-style race tracks which align across up to five mobile screens. Touch your screen, and your car speeds across all the phones and tablets, not just your own. This shows a hint of what’s possible when web experiences are designed for a multi-player (and multi-device) world.

Both experiments use the latest in web technologies and keep themselves synchronized using WebSockets, which allows data to be sent between multiple devices and servers at any time. Developers interested in learning more should stay tuned to the Chromium blog for documentation on how we made both games.

Have fun, and experiment on!

Posted by Iain Tait, Creative Director and Speed Demon

Browse the web across languages, on the go

Today’s Chrome Beta for Android release brings the built-in translation bar you’ve seen on desktop Chrome to help you read more of the web while you’re on the go, regardless of the language of the web page. When you come across a page written in a language that isn't in the same language as your phone or tablet, look for the translation bar. To translate the page, touch the “Translate” button.

Following fullscreen support on phones, we are now adding fullscreen on tablets as well. As you scroll, the top toolbar disappears so you can immerse yourself in the web page content. Finally, on phones, a “+” in the toolbar now makes creating tabs even easier.

For those of you trying out our experimental data compression feature, you can see a graph (under “Settings > Bandwidth Management”) that shows your estimated bandwidth savings.

The latest version of Chrome Beta for Android is available on Google Play. We look forward to your early feedback.

Posted by Miguel Garcia, Software Engineer & Multilingual Maestro

Richer notifications coming to Chrome

When you’re surfing the web, you can get so immersed that you might not realize you’re late for a meeting or that someone messaged you in another chat window. A couple years ago, we created a way for notifications to appear outside the browser window. Starting in today’s Beta channel release, we’re enabling Chrome apps and extensions to show richer notifications with a revamped user interface (as well as under the hood -- developers can learn more on the Chromium blog).

We’ve designed these notifications to be beautiful, useful and engaging. They can display formatted text and images, and can include actions directly inside the pop-up (so you can respond to that email right away).

Missed a bunch of notifications while you were taking a coffee break? No problem -- you can open up the notification center to see them all in one place.

Notification Center on Windows

Notification Center on ChromeOS

You can also disable notifications from any source whenever you wish, for those times when you want some peace and quiet.

Download Chrome Beta today to get a preview of these features on Windows (Mac support coming soon!).

Posted by Somas Thyagaraja, Product Manager and Nifty Notifier

Searching on the go, made even simpler

Chrome for Android, improved search and fullscreen browsing

Today’s Chrome for Android stable update, now available on Google Play, makes searching on the go even simpler. You can now see your search queries in the omnibox instead of the long search URL, so you can easily refine them and view more results.

To make browsing the mobile web even easier, web pages also display in fullscreen on phones. As you scroll, the top toolbar disappears so you can immerse yourself in the web page content. When you scroll up, the toolbar returns so you can get on to the next thing.

Chrome for iPhone and iPad, with voice search (coming soon)

Over the coming days, we’re rolling out an update for iPhone and iPad as well. You can now speak your searches into the omnibox. Touch the microphone, say your search query aloud and see your results (in some cases spoken back to you), all without typing a single letter. Try these queries with the update (coming soon to the App Store):

“How many miles from San Antonio to Dallas?”
“What’s the weather in Rome?”
“Who stars in The Internship?”

This update also enables faster reloading of web pages by using the cache more efficiently when the network is slow, which is especially useful when you’re on the go. Finally, other iOS apps can now give you the option to open links in Chrome and then return to the app with just one tap.

We look forward to your feedback on the latest versions of Chrome for Android and iOS.

Posted by Yusuf Ozuysal and Milan Broum, Minimalist & Vocal Software Engineers

Every second counts

Last month’s Chrome Beta release contained optimizations so that web pages load 5% faster on average. We’ve included those optimizations in today’s Chrome Stable release so all users will enjoy a faster browsing experience.

A 5% improvement may not seem like much by itself, but our estimates show that when you add up those saved seconds across all Chrome users, it totals to more than 510 years of people’s time saved every week.

Want to make that number even bigger? Download Chrome today.

Posted by James Simonsen, Software Engineer and Saver of Split Seconds

Live from Google I/O: Mo’ screens, mo’ goodness

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

This morning, we kicked off the 6th annual Google I/O developer conference with over 6,000 developers at Moscone Center in San Francisco, 460 I/O Extended sites in 90 countries, and millions of you around the world who tuned in via our livestream. Over the next three days, we’ll be hosting technical sessions, hands-on code labs, and demonstrations of Google's products and partners' technology.

We believe computing is going through one of the most exciting moments in its history: people are increasingly adopting phones, tablets and newer type of devices. And this spread of technology has the potential to make a positive impact in the lives of people around the world—whether it's simply helping you in your daily commute, or connecting you to information that was previously inaccessible.

This is why we focus so much on our two open platforms: Android and Chrome. They enable developers to innovate and reach as many people as possible with their apps and services across multiple devices. Android started as a simple idea to advance open standards on mobile; today it is the world’s leading mobile platform and growing rapidly. Similarly, Chrome launched less than five years ago from an open source project; today it’s the world’s most popular browser.

In line with that vision, we made several announcements today designed to give developers even more tools to build great apps on Android and Chrome. We also shared new innovations from across Google meant to help make life just a little easier for you, including improvements in search, communications, photos, and maps.

Here’s a quick look at some of the announcements we made at I/O:

Android & Google Play: In addition to new developer tools, we unveiled Google Play All Access, a monthly music subscription service with access to millions of songs that joins our music store and locker; and the Google Play game services with real-time multiplayer and leaderboards. Also, coming next month to Google Play is a special Samsung Galaxy S4, which brings together cutting edge hardware from Samsung with Google’s latest software and services—including the user experience that ships with our popular Nexus devices.
Chrome: With over 750 million active users on Chrome, we’re now focused on bringing to mobile the speed, simplicity and security improvements that we’ve seen on the desktop. To that end, today we previewed next-generation video codec VP9 for faster video-streaming performance; the requestAutocomplete API for faster payments; and Chrome Experiments such as "A Journey Through Middle Earth" and Racer to demonstrate the ability to create immersive mobile experiences not possible in years past.
Google+: We unveiled the newly designed Google+, which helps you easily explore content as well dramatically improve your online photo experience to give you crisp, beautiful photos—without the work! We also upgraded Google+ Hangouts—our popular group video application—to help bring all of your real-life conversations online, across any device or platform, and with groups of up to 10 friends.
Search: Search has evolved considerably in recent years: it can now have a real conversation with you, and even make your day a bit smoother by predicting information you might need. Today we added the ability to set reminders by voice and we previewed “spoken answers” on laptops and desktops in Chrome—meaning you can ask Google a question and it will speak the answer back to you.
Maps: Today we previewed the next generation of Google Maps, which gets rid of any clutter in order to put your individual experience and exploration front and center. Each time you click or search, our technology draws you a tailored map that highlights the information you need. From design to directions, the new Google Maps is smarter and more useful.

Technology can have a profound, positive impact on the daily lives of billions of people. But we can’t do this alone—developers play a crucial role. I/O is our chance to come together and thank you for everything you do.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps

Access Google Keep with the new Chrome app

[Cross-posted from the Google Drive Blog]

Last month, Google Keep launched to help you quickly jot down ideas and keep track of things while on the go with your Android device or on the web. Today, with the launch of a new Chrome app, Google Keep is even easier to access on your computer using Chrome.

The Google Keep Chrome app launches in its own window, so you can create notes, cross out your to-do lists, and attach photos to tasks while you work on other things. And if you don’t have an internet connection, don’t fret: the Chrome app works offline because we all know that ideas (big and small) can be sparked at any time.

You can visit the Chrome Web Store to add the app today (use the link, you won’t find it in search)!

Happy note taking!

Posted by Eddy Mead, Software Engineer and Talented Task Tracker

A speedy, more secure way to view Microsoft Office files directly in Chrome

If you use a Chromebook, you’ve already been enjoying the ability to open Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly in your browser. Starting today, we’re excited to bring this same functionality to Chrome on Windows and Mac.

If you’re running Chrome Beta on Windows or Mac and install the Chrome Office Viewer (Beta) extension, you’ll be able to click a link to an Office file and open it directly in Chrome.

In addition to saving you time, the Chrome Office Viewer also protects you from malware delivered via Office files. Just like with web pages and PDFs, we’ve added a specialized sandbox to impede attackers who use compromised Office files to try to steal private information or monitor your activities.

To give it a try on Windows or Mac:

Get Chrome Beta
Install the Chrome Office Viewer (Beta) extension
Start clicking your favorite Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint slides on the web

Since this extension is still in beta, we’d love to get your feedback. When you find issues, please click the “Report an issue” button while viewing the file to report a bug.

Posted by Jelte Liebrand, Software Engineer and Document Dynamo

More improvements for Chrome at the office

You probably use a browser throughout the day to access useful information, stay connected with people, and run web apps -- at work, at home and on the go. However, browser choice at the office may be determined by your company’s IT team. Today we’re making it easier for companies everywhere to choose Chrome for Business.

First of all, your IT administrator can now configure Chrome to automatically launch an alternate browser when you’re running a web app built for older browsers. If you want to use Chrome at work but rely on some older apps, you can now switch seamlessly between two browsers.

Secondly, if your company runs Google Apps for Business or Education, your administrator can easily set up default apps, browser themes, bookmarks, and more than 100 other settings to sync across all employees’ computers. On your personal laptop at home but need to find that company-wide TPS report cover sheet? No problem -- just sign in to Chrome with your work account.

If you want to enjoy the security, speed, and productivity of Chrome at the office, invite your IT team to learn more about these improvements on the Google Enterprise blog.

Posted by Cyrus Mistry, Product Manager and Business Buff

More immersive mobile web

More content, less chrome - on mobile too

Today’s update to Chrome Beta for Android and Chrome for iPhone and iPad brings you more web and less chrome. We’ve heard your feedback, and now web pages can display in fullscreen on phones, which is especially handy on smaller screens. As you scroll down a web page and immerse yourself in the content, the top toolbar disappears. When you scroll up, the toolbar returns so you can get on to the next thing.

Chrome for iPhone and iPad, hassle-free printing

Ever wished you could print that boarding pass or offer from your phone? You can now print from Chrome to printers enabled with Google Cloud Print or AirPrint, as well as save a page to Google Cloud Print.

Chrome Beta for Android, simpler and more efficient browsing

As another step towards simpler browsing, you can now see your search terms in the omnibox, instead of the long search URL and the in-page Google search box. This frees up room to view more search results and makes it easier to change your search terms.

You can also now see your data savings from the experimental data compression feature we introduced in our last Beta update. From this release onwards, go to “Bandwidth Management” in Settings and enable “Reduce Data Usage,” and you’re all set.

We’re also continuing to add plenty of under-the-hood stability, security improvements and bug fixes to Chrome for both Android and iOS. We look forward to your feedback on the latest versions of Chrome, now available in the App Store and on Google Play (use the link, you won't find it in search)!

Posted by Ted Choc and Eric Noyau, Particularly Panoramic Programmers

For Malaysia: Bringing Google Apps and Chromebooks to the classroom

[cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

As a parent of three kids, I have the same aspirations as many other parents and educators—to provide them with the best opportunities to learn and discover their passions. For many students, the web has become an incredible resource for the classroom, offering tools to work collaboratively, share and research. School systems of all sizes—from a single primary school to an entire country such as the Philippines—have “Gone Google” in their schools and embraced the web to transform education.

Today the country of Malaysia is going a step further by adopting Google Apps for 10 million students, teachers and parents. As part of this initiative they are also deploying Chromebooks to primary and secondary schools nationwide. These efforts to integrate the web are a central part of a national plan (PDF) to reform its educational system.

Primary students collaborate on a project together in SK Sri Petaling school in Malaysia

To deploy technology across a nationwide school system, computers need to be simple, manageable and secure. Chromebooks are ideal for learning and sharing in the classroom—there’s nothing complicated to learn, they boot up in seconds and have virus protection built in. They also offer easy setup and deployment, which means they’re ready to go the moment a student opens the lid and logs in. And with reduced overhead costs, Chromebooks are a cost-efficient option* to deploy technology at scale.

To date, more than 3,000 schools worldwide, from Edina, Minnesota to Point England, New Zealand, have deployed Chromebooks to improve attendance and graduation rates, make learning more fun and enable students to take more ownership for their learning.

The web gives our children and students new opportunities to access the world’s information and work collaboratively. We look forward to working with national and regional leaders to make the most of the web with Google Apps and Chromebooks and help them provide the best opportunities to every student.

Posted by Felix Lin, Director of Product Management

*In research sponsored by Google, research firm IDC found that Chromebooks yield three-year cost of ownership savings of $1,135 per device compared to traditional PCs or tablets, require 69% fewer hours to deploy and 92% fewer hours to manage. Learn more.

Faster and faster

In today’s Chrome Beta release, web pages now load 5% faster. Huzzah!

Posted by James Simonsen, Software Engineer and Pithy Poster

Fill out forms faster, from anywhere

For those of you who can never seem to remember that one password, or dread typing your full mailing address into those small form fields on your phone and tablet, today’s Chrome for Android stable update is for you. You can now access your saved passwords and autofill entries on your phone and tablet when you’ve signed in to Chrome, just like you have been able to do on your desktop and laptop computers.

To try it out, make sure you’re signed in to Chrome on both your desktop and mobile device, and let sync take care of the rest. In case you don’t see this right away after upgrading, give it a few days as we complete rolling out the feature to all of you on the latest version of Chrome.

Posted by Chris Hopman, Eidetic Engineer

Oodles of improvements to Chrome’s spell checking

Another stable release of Chrome arrives today, bringing you improved spell checking in the browser. We’ve refreshed the dictionaries for all languages, and users who speak Korean, Tamil, or Albanian will appreciate that we’ve added support for those languages, too. In addition, users who add custom words to the dictionary can now sync their settings to bring those changes to all the devices where they use Chrome.

The “Ask Google for suggestions” spell checking feature, powered by the same technologies used by Google search, now supports grammar checking, proper nouns, homonyms, and context-sensitive spell checking in English. This means that you can now enjoy corrections like the following:

Users on Windows, Linux and Chrome OS will receive these enhancements in the coming weeks (we’re still working on Mac support).

If you haven’t used Chrome yet, give it a try today.

Posted by Rachel Petterson, Software Engineer and Miss Spelling

Painting the streets with the web in Indonesia

People around the world are using the web as a platform to both showcase and create amazing local culture. In the last six months, Chrome has played host to some of Indonesia’s finest up-and-coming artistic talent with the Chrome Open Spaces project.

From old masters like Basuki to contemporary street artists like Darbotz, Indonesia has a long and rich history of art. The rapidly growing population and economy has led to densified urban spaces, crazy traffic and the rise of Indonesian street art. The Chrome Open Spaces project used the web to bring all these elements together.

Designed to showcase the creativity possible with modern web technologies, Chrome Open Spaces called on aspiring artists from across the archipelago to submit drawings via a custom-designed app. The app enabled people to create ‘street art’ online using digital spray paints, brushes and stencils. Over 12,000 drawings were submitted and 11,000 votes were cast. From these virtual paintings, nine winners were chosen to have their creations showcased on buildings and walls across Jakarta and Bandung.

You can check out how their digital creations came to life on the streets and meet the local artists here:

We built Chrome to help drive innovation on the web. Projects like Chrome Open Spaces highlight how technologies that Chrome pioneered, such as HTML5, can be used to showcase local culture and innovation, and also take you to amazing places — both online and offline.

Posted by Krishna Zulkarnain, Country Marketing Manager Indonesia

Make a silent movie by talking to Chrome

Last month, the Web Speech API brought voice recognition to Chrome users in more than 30 languages. We thought it would be fun to demonstrate this new technology by using an old one: silent film.

The Peanut Gallery lets you add intertitles to old black-and-white movie clips just by talking out loud while you watch them. Create a film and share it with friends, so they can bring out their inner screenwriters too.

We hope that developers will find many uses for the Web Speech API, both fun and practical—including new ways to navigate, search, enter text, and interact with the web. We can’t wait to see how people use it.

Posted by Aaron Koblin, Creative Lab

Bringing Chromebooks to new frontiers (literally)

For our international readers, additional details can be found for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Over the past few months, Chromebooks have become a part of everyday life for many people - a computer for the kitchen, for on the go, or for sharing with the family (or not). In the U.S., the Samsung Chromebook has been at the top of Amazon’s best-selling laptop list for 149 days since launch and in the U.K., Dixons says Chromebooks make up more than 10 percent of laptop sales in Currys and PC World stores.

Many of you around the world have told us you're eager to get your hands on a Chromebook, so we've been working with our partners to make this possible. Today we're happy to say we're one step closer to making Chromebooks truly “for everyone” -- or rather, pour tout le monde, für alle, and voor iedereen.

Starting Tuesday, the Acer, HP and Samsung Chromebooks will begin rolling out in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. To help improve computing for organizations, we’re rolling out Chromebooks to businesses and schools in these same countries as well. Learn more on our Enterprise blog.

In the U.S., Chromebooks will also be expanding to more than 1,000 Best Buy stores nationwide -- doubling the number of stores Chromebooks are presently sold in -- over the next couple of weeks.

It’s been rewarding to work with our partners to make Chromebooks available to more people around the world, and we’re looking forward to bringing Chromebooks to even more countries in the months to come.

Posted by Caesar Sengupta, Product Management Director and International Man of Mystery

Update 4/3: The Samsung and Acer Chromebooks will be available in Sweden starting today. See the Swedish blog for more details.

Update 5/27: Chromebooks are now available in Singapore and Malaysia from local retailers.

Update 6/26: The Samsung and Acer Chromebooks are now available in Finland.

Type less when you’re on the go

Tired of filling out web forms on your Android phone or tablet with the same information, time and time again? When you’ve signed in to Chrome on your desktop, you can take your saved passwords and autofill entries across your computers and laptops. With today’s Chrome Beta for Android update, you can now access these from your phone and tablet too. This makes for a faster and simpler way to fill out forms, especially handy on a small screen.

The latest version of Chrome Beta for Android is available on Google Play (use the link, you won't find it in search)! To try syncing passwords, make sure you are on the latest beta version of desktop Chrome. This feature will roll out in the coming days, so you may not see it right away after upgrading. As always, you can manage your signed in preferences in Settings.

Posted by Tommy Nyquist, Software Engineer & Mobile Sync Ninja

Faster browsing for your smaller screens

Our recent Chrome updates bring faster and simpler browsing to your phones and tablets.

Chrome for Android, faster and more responsive

Speed is critical, especially when you’re on the go. With the latest version of Chrome for Android, you can scroll and fling to view all of your favorite web pages with even more speed and ease. Based on the latest version of the V8 Javascript engine, now optimized for mobile, we have improved the Octane performance benchmark by 25 percent on average since our previous update. This means that interactions within web pages in the browser are snappier.

We’ve also added expanded support for HTML5 features such as CSS Filters, which should result in better mobile websites in the future. We plan to continue optimizing Chrome for Android platform at the same rapid pace that you’ve come to expect on Chrome across other platforms.

Chrome for iPhone and iPad, improved search and sharing

If you’re using Chrome on your iPhone or iPad, searching with Google just got even easier. Now you can see your search term in the omnibox, instead of the long search URL. This will help you refine search queries and view more content on the results page. This feature will roll out in the coming weeks, so you may not see it right away after upgrading.

Also, thanks to your feedback, we’ve added a couple more fun features. To quickly view your tab history, simply press and hold the back button to access any page you had previously visited from that tab. Head to "Menu" then "Share" to share a web page via email or to your favorite social network. Now you can also share any web page via Messages.

We’re continuing to add plenty of under-the-hood stability, security improvements and bug fixes to Chrome for both Android and iOS. We look forward to your feedback on the latest versions of Chrome, now available on Google Play and in the App Store.

Posted by Grace Kloba & Rohit Rao, Especially Mobile Software Engineers

Race to win on big and small screens with Chrome Super Sync Sports

Smartphones and tablets are great for all sorts of games, and lately we've been thinking about new ways to play. Chrome Super Sync Sports is a new Chrome Experiment that uses the unique features of mobile devices to create a new gaming experience on big and small screens. In this game up to four friends can compete in running, swimming and cycling on a shared computer screen, using their smartphones or tablets as game controllers.

To get started, you’ll need a computer and a smartphone or tablet that run a modern browser, like Chrome. Visit chrome.com/supersyncsports on your computer, pick a game and decide if you’re playing solo or with friends. Next, visit g.co/super in Chrome on your smartphone or tablet and type in the unique code shown on your computer screen. You’ve now “super sync”ed your mobile device with your computer, and you’re ready to race!

Use the arrow pad on your smartphone or tablet to select one of 50 athletes and prepare yourself for the competition. The motions you make on your mobile touchscreen will move your athlete on your computer screen. To move your athlete forward and win the race, you need to make the correct gestures as quickly as possible. The better you are, the higher your chances of making it to the global leaderboard.

Select your athlete by using the keypad arrows on your mobile

Race using your smartphone or tablet touchscreen

Up to four friends can play using a shared screen

Chrome Super Sync Sports is available for Chrome v15 and above, and for Android 4.0+ and iOS 4.3+ devices. It uses the latest modern web technologies, including HTML5 features such as WebSockets for real-time gaming synchronicity on desktop and mobile, and Canvas and CSS3 for rich and engaging visuals. For more detailed information on the technologies used, see the “About” page.

On your marks, get set, race for your place on the World Leaderboard!

Posted by Steve Vranakis, Executive Creative Director, Google Creative Lab

Bettar spell chek in Chrome

Today’s Chrome Beta release brings improved spell checking to the browser. To start, we’ve refreshed the dictionaries for Chrome’s default spell checker, and have added support for Korean, Tamil and Albanian. Users who sync their settings will also notice their custom dictionary gets shared across devices now, so you won’t need to teach that new Chromebook how to spell your name.

Furthermore, for users who have enabled the "Ask Google for suggestions" spell check feature, we’re now rolling out support for grammar, homonym and context-sensitive spell checking in English, powered by the same technologies used by Google search. Support for additional languages is on the way.

The new spell checking engine - which is also available in Google Docs - even understands proper nouns like "Justin Bieber" and "Skrillex,” so if you're wondering how many Ns there are in Dananananaykroyd, worry no more (there are four).

Users on Windows, Linux and Chrome OS will receive these enhancements in the coming weeks (Mac support coming soon).

Give the newest Chrome Beta a spin and get back to writing that brilliant screenplay you’re working on.

Posted by Rachel Petterson, Software Engineer and Savvy Speller

Bringing voice recognition to the web

Web apps, listen up. Today's Chrome Stable release includes support for the Web Speech API (discussed last month), which developers can use to integrate speech recognition capabilities into their web apps. To see what this might look like, check out this demo on how to compose an email just using your voice.

In addition, today’s release also disables silent extension installs in Chrome for Windows. This keeps Chrome fast and safe by ensuring that you consent to every extension that’s installed on your computer.

Thanks to auto-update, you’ll get these enhancements as we roll out the release. And if you don’t have Chrome yet, you can give it a spin here.

Posted by Glen Shires, Software Engineer and Speech Specialist

The Chromebook Pixel, for what’s next

Chromebooks were designed to make computing speedy, simple and secure. For many of you, they have become the perfect, additional (and yes, affordable) computer: ideal for catching up on emails, sharing documents and chatting via Hangouts. We’re tremendously grateful to our partners—Samsung, Acer, Lenovo and HP—for their commitment. The momentum has been remarkable: the Samsung Chromebook has been #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list for laptops every day since it launched 125 days ago in the U.S., and Chromebooks now represent more than 10 percent of notebook sales at Currys PC World, the largest electronics retailer in the U.K.

So what’s next? Today we’re excited to announce our newest laptop—the Chromebook Pixel—which brings together the best in hardware, software and design to inspire the next generation of Chromebooks. With the Pixel, we set out to rethink all elements of a computer in order to design the best laptop possible, especially for power users who have fully embraced the cloud. The philosophy of Chrome has always been to minimize the “chrome” of the browser. In much the same way, the goal of the Pixel is to make the pixels disappear, giving people the best web experience.

Let’s start with the screen. This Chromebook has the highest pixel density (239 pixels per inch) of any laptop screen on the market today. Packed with 4.3 million pixels, the display offers sharp text, vivid colors and extra-wide viewing angles. With a screen this rich and engaging, you want to reach out and touch it—so we added touch for a more immersive experience. Touch makes it simple and intuitive to do things like organize tabs, swipe through apps and edit photos with the tip of your finger.

The Pixel has been engineered with the highest quality components to ensure it’s comfortable to use all day long and meets the needs of demanding power users. The body of the Pixel is made from an anodized aluminum alloy to create a smooth and durable surface; vents are hidden, screws are invisible and the stereo speakers are seamlessly tucked away beneath the backlit keyboard. The touchpad is made from etched glass, analyzed and honed using a laser microscope to ensure precise navigation. The Pixel also has powerful, full-range speakers for crisp sound, a 720p webcam for clear video, and a total of three microphones designed to cancel out surrounding noise.

Other aspects of the Pixel include:

Speed: Speed has been a core tenet of Chrome and Chromebooks since the beginning. For Pixel, it’s critical that the overall experience, everything from loading webpages to switching between apps, is near instant. Powered by an Intel® Core™ i5 Processor and a solid state Flash memory architecture, the Pixel performs remarkably fast.

Connectivity: The Pixel has an industry-leading WiFi range thanks to carefully positioned antennas and dual-band support. Long-term evolution (LTE) is engineered directly into the machine, delivering fast connectivity across Verizon's network, the largest, fastest 4G LTE network in the U.S. (LTE model optional). It also comes with 12 free GoGo® Inflight Internet passes for those times you need to connect while in the air.

Storage: Since this Chromebook is for people who live in the cloud, one terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage* is included with the Pixel. This enables you to save, access and share photos, videos, documents, and all of your stuff from all of your devices, from anywhere.

Finally, as you’ve come to expect from all Chromebooks, all of your favorite Google products like Search, Gmail, YouTube, Maps and Google+ Hangouts are integrated and just a click away. And since it’s based on Chrome OS, the Pixel boots up in seconds and never slows down, requires almost zero setup or maintenance, and comes with built-in virus protection. Best of all, it stays up to date with automatic updates every few weeks.

If you want to be part of the next step in the Chromebook journey, the Pixel will be available for purchase starting today on Google Play in the U.S. and U.K., and soon on BestBuy.com. The WiFi version ($1,299 U.S. and £1,049 U.K.) will start shipping next week and the LTE version ($1,449) will ship in the U.S. in April. If you’re interested in a hands-on experience, you can visit select Best Buy (U.S.) and Currys PC World (U.K.) store locations.

It’s one of the most exciting times in the history of personal computing, thanks to a rapid pace of change, innovation and consumer adoption of devices. Our goal is to continue to push the experience forward for everyone, working with the entire ecosystem to build the next generation of Chrome OS devices. We hope you enjoy what’s next.

Posted by Linus Upson, Vice President, Engineering

*You will have 1 TB of free storage for 3 years, starting on the date you redeem the offer on eligible Chrome devices.

A Chrome Experiment made with some friends from Oz

You won’t need magical powers to take a journey down the yellow brick road; just point your favorite browser to the latest Chrome Experiment, “Find Your Way to Oz.” Developed in collaboration with Disney and UNIT9 in anticipation of the upcoming film, Oz The Great and Powerful, this experiment takes you through a dusty Kansas circus and leads to a vibrant land, following in the footsteps of the Wizard himself.

Like any good circus, there’s plenty to keep you entertained: compose your own music, play with a fun photo booth and create your own movie with a zoetrope. The path to Oz also involves confronting an ominous tornado; surviving it completes the journey, enabling fans of the movie to watch an exclusive unreleased clip from the film.

Chrome Experiments like “Find Your Way to Oz” would have been impossible a few years ago. Since that time, the web has evolved and allowed developers and designers to create immersive beautiful experiences. For “Find Your Way to Oz” the 3D environment was built entirely with new technologies such as WebGL and CSS3. It’s enhanced by rich audio effects thanks to the Web Audio API. The photo booth and zoetrope were built using the getUserMedia feature of WebRTC, which grants webpages access to your computer’s camera and microphone (with your permission).

For the best experience, you’ll need to use an up-to-date computer built to handle intense graphics. It also works best with a webcam and a modern browser that supports WebGL and WebRTC, like Chrome. For tablet or smartphone users, we have a smaller scale yet equally enjoyable experience that you can try with the latest Chrome browser on your Android device, iPhone or iPad.

If you want to learn more, or run away and join the developer circus, you can get an explanation of the technologies used on the Chromium blog or in our technical case study.

Start your journey towards the yellow brick road at www.findyourwaytooz.com.

Posted by Christos Apartoglou, Marketing Manager

The HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook

It's an exciting time in computing. Now more than ever, you have so many choices when it comes to software, hardware and services. With Chromebooks, people tell us they love its ease-of-use, speed and security, and also enjoy having options when it comes to shape, size and price. So today we’re happy to announce that our newest partner HP is introducing the latest addition to the Chromebook line—the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook.

This HP Chromebook is a great home companion that offers the built-in security, speed and simplicity you’d expect from a Chromebook on a brilliant 14” screen. Enjoy your favorite videos, photos and more in new detail, and with its versatile HDMI and USB ports, the HP Chromebook is easy to customize with peripherals. It’s less than an inch thick and powered by an Intel® Celeron® Processor, so you can work and play at full speed.

With popular products like Gmail, Google+ Hangouts, YouTube and Maps built in, the best of Google is always at your fingertips. With the new HP Chromebook, you can also take advantage of 100GB of free storage on Google Drive*, making it easy to backup stuff in the cloud so that it can be accessed anywhere and from other devices.

Starting today, the HP Chromebook will be available for $329.99 in the US at HPDirect.com and at other retailers soon.

The HP Chromebook is a great new addition to the Chromebook family, and we hope you’ll enjoy it within yours, too. New Chromebooks, more options, for everyone.

Posted by Felix Lin, Director of Product Management

*You will have 100 GB of free storage for 2 years, starting on the date you redeem the offer on eligible Chrome devices.

For schools: the edu-fication of Chromebooks

2013 is already shaping up to be a busy year for the web in education. Earlier this month Lenovo announced the new ThinkPad Chromebook and this week, Jaime Casap, our Global Education evangelist announced in his keynote at FETC in Orlando, that there are now globally more than 2,000 schools using Chromebooks - twice as many as 3 months ago. For more details about what we announced at FETC and BETT in London, U.K., check out our Enterprise Blog. We’re looking forward to all that 2013 has in store!

Connor and Meg at Spring Valley High School are two of the over
14,000 students in Richland School District Two in South Carolina
who are now using Chromebooks for 1:1 learning.

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Group Product Manager

For schools: The new Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook

The Chromebook journey has been about building a faster, simpler and more secure computer for everyone, and today we're excited to introduce a new Chromebook built for schools. Learn more about the Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook from today's post on the enterprise blog.

Posted by Caesar Sengupta, Director of Product Management

Hello Browser

Using your voice to search on your computer or phone is handy, but there’s so much more you can do with voice commands. Imagine if you could dictate documents, have a freestyle rap battle, or control game characters with your browser using only your voice. With today’s Chrome Beta release, this future is closer than you think.

With the inclusion of the Web Speech API for developers, users can start enjoying new, interactive experiences with web apps, like in this demo where you can compose an email by speaking. With this new JavaScript API, developers can integrate speech recognition into their web apps. So, in the near future you’ll be able to talk apps into doing all sorts of things.

To make sure your Chrome installation isn’t being slowed down, today’s Chrome Beta will automatically disable some extensions on Windows that may have been added by third party programs without proper acknowledgement from users. The original intent was to give people an option to add useful extensions when installing applications, but unfortunately this feature has been widely abused by third parties who added extensions without user consent. A notification will appear with the option to re-enable the affected extensions.

Download Chrome Beta to give these latest enhancements a test drive. If you dig APIs more than chocolate cake you can get more details on the Web Speech API and this Chrome release over on the Chromium blog.

Posted by Glen Shires, Software Engineer and Speech Specialist

The New Generation