Author: Clinton

A small but important update is rolling out to Google Assistant on Android.  You can now rate apps and services leveraged by Assistant to give your feedback on how well it works or doesn’t work.  It is a cloud side update so as long as you have the latest Google app installed, you should be good-to-go.

To access the apps and services in Google Assistant so you can rate them, long press the Home button on your phone then press the blue envelop in the upper right corner to open up the Assistant Explorer.  You will then see suggests services and apps that tie into Assistant as well as services that you already use.

Rumors have persisted for the past several months that an updated MacBook Air is coming in 2018.  Early rumors suggested that we would see the new 13″ updated Air by mid-year, possibly as soon as WWDC in June.  But those rumors seem to have been put to bed based on a report by DigiTimes.

In that report, it is indicated that Apple’s supply chain partners have been informed that production of the new MacBook Air won’t begin until the second half of 2018, meaning July at the earliest for production to begin.  While no reason was provided, speculation is that core components like processors were in short supply for Apple’s needs.

Just two days after the final beta build of Chrome 66 was released to the Chrome OS Beta Channel, that final build has now made its way to the Chrome OS Stable Channel as the official build.  The build is the same as the final beta, 66.0.3359.137 (Platform version: 10452.74.0) and it is available for most machines.  As is often the case with the first build in the Stable Channel, this build is not available for devices that are running Android apps.  There will be a second build, likely next week, which will be available for those Chromebooks.

My Pixelbook remains at Chrome 65 this morning as an example.

While there are a few new features in this new build, the focus is on improvements of existing features.  There is also a focus on security, as you would expect, with patches for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities in this build too.

The short of it is, Apple Podcasts are doing well.  The service, which launched way back in 2005 as a part of iTunes, has slowly been building both content and users of the now independent app for iPhone and iOS.  Now, according to a report from Fast Company, the Cupertino company has now seen some 50 billion all time downloads on the service.

In all, there are some 18.5 million podcast episodes available for download in Apple Podcasts with over 100 languages supported in those episodes.  It is a staggering number on the whole and is a proof point that Apple has positioned itself well as being the go-to place to find a podcast on virtually any subject out there.

The Camera app for Chrome OS has been updated in the Chrome Web Store and brings the ability to record videos using your built-in web cam.  The new build is version 5.0 and technically, because it is a Chrome web app, it could be installed on a Windows PC or Mac if you have Chrome installed.  Why you would want to do this, I have no idea…. but you can.

Functionally, beyond adding the ability to record videos, there isn’t much new in the update.  The will record your videos in the maximum resolution of your web cam and will store them to your local storage on your Chromebook.

A somewhat surprising sixth beta build has landed in the Chrome OS Beta Channel today, three days after had been expected to be released to the Stable Channel.  Build 66.0.3359.137 (Platform version: 10452.74.0) is now available to most device that are registered in the Beta Channel and you can check for the update by typing chrome://help in the browser bar.

Chrome 66 for Chrome OS had been expected to be released by April 24th according to the Chromium Release Calendar but clearly the team has found some show stopping bugs or issues that have prevented that release.  Delays are not common but they do happen if testers find an issue late in the beta cycle.