Author: Clinton

A new commit in the Chrome OS Gerrit suggests that the ability to continue reading a tab open in Chrome for Android on your Chromebook is coming.  The commit indicates that users will be able to start reading content on a site on their Android device then be able to move it to Chrome on their Chromebook to continue reading.

The concept is not new.  Microsoft Edge for Android and iOS has the ability to send a page you are reviewing to your PC via a button in the browser.  Microsoft calls this Continuum and it is a great feature for PC users.

OnePlus has released a new build of the Android P Developer Preview for owners of the OnePlus 6 registered in the beta testing program.  The update is based on Google’s own Developer Preview 4 (Beta 3) which OnePlus has taken and added their special touches that make up their variant, OxygenOS.  The update is broadly rolling out now and should be to everyone over the course of the next few days.

As you may recall, when Google announced Android P back at Google I/O, it came with the opportunity for the first time for select devices from select OEMs to participate in the beta program.  OnePlus with the OnePlus 6 is one of those.  Developer Preview 4 was released for Pixel devices a few weeks back and given that OnePlus has to layer in their own elements that make up OxygenOS, they’ve done a good job of getting it out in a timely manner.

There is a great deal on a refurbished Acer Chromebook 15 over at Amazon, but you will need to step on it to pick one up.  Right now the online retailer has the well appointed Chromebook for $224, a savings of $55 off the regular price.  It is a great price on a solid Chromebook performer with a large screen and excellent battery life.

For those that don’t recall, the Acer Chromebook 15 comes with a 15.6″ Full HD Touch display, 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB of storage.  It is powered by the Pentium N4200 which has a 2MB of cache and clocked at up to 2.5GHz.  All of this is powered by a 3220 mAh battery that provides up to 12 hours of usage on a single charge.

YouTube Music, the newest music streaming service from Google, has for a long time been an option for US users to have as their default music option.  This was true of the old version of the service as well as the new one.  Now those of you in the UK have the same option to make YouTube Music your default music choice.

The update to enable the feature is a cloud-side update and will appear as an option in your music settings within Google Assistant.  Once enabled, you can say, “Hey Google, play Rush from YouTube Music” and it will play music from Canadian band on your Google Home device.

Last month, Google announced that a new, Material Design laden sign in screen was coming to everyone.  The original plan was that it would roll out June 14th but due to “unforeseen delays”, it is now rolling out over a month later.

Functionally, you aren’t going to find anything different in this new sign in screen other than the brighter, more contemporary Material Design look to it.  It does exactly what you would expect it to do which is to allow you to sign into your Google account.  But the update brings the site in line with many other Google apps and services as the Mountain View company has been working diligently on updating their wares to Material Design.

Google today announced the opening of an Early Access program for their new Chromebook Grab and Go initiative for the enterprise.  Aimed at lowering IT costs and making devices available to anyone, the Grab and Go program provides Chromebooks charged and ready to go for anyone in the enterprise to check out and use for their laptop that day.  Because nothing is stored locally on the device and all in the cloud, the only thing that users need are their login credentials and all their content is there.  It is the ultimate example of the simplistic but powerful way that Chrome OS works today.

Chrome devices and Chrome Enterprise are the key ingredients that make this program so effective. With Grab and Go, centrally-located racks with fully-charged Chromebooks are available 24/7. As soon as an issue arises, employees can grab any of these devices and log in through their corporate account. Because their work is already stored in the cloud, they can jump back into projects immediately, as if they never left their old device.

The post from Google, IHS estimates that large enterprises lose up to $60 per year with IT downtime.  The Chromebook Grab and Go program aims to throttle that back by having devices always available for workers when their primary laptop is down.