Category: Chrome OS

After a surprising fifth Chrome 65 build last week, the Chrome OS Beta Channel has finally ticked over to Chrome 66.  The new build for the channel is 66.0.3359.48 (Platform version: 10452.23.0), which is the same build that is currently in the Chrome OS Dev Channel (the Alpha testing channel).  That means that the Dev channel will likely move up to Chrome 67 at some point this week, if not later today.

It should be noted that devices that have Android app support will see the update land on them in a few days.  The Chromium team is slow rolling the update out to those devices.  I can confirm that my Acer Chromebook 15, which I keep in the Chrome OS Beta Channel,  has not received the update.

After a leaked image a few months ago, the Chrome OS world has been ripe with anticipation for a Chrome based tablet form factor.  Now, at least in the education sector, we have an answer.  The Acer Chromebook Tab 10 is a 9.7″ tablet that runs Chrome OS and supports Android apps.

The $320 Chromebook Tab 10 has 32GB of storage, which can be expanded thanks to the MicroSD slot.  It has 4GB of RAM and is powered by Rockchip (but Google trademark owned) OP1 SoC.  It will be available in April for purchase.

Chrome 65 rolled out to Chrome OS last week and with it came a lot of improvements and changes.  One thing that was added that was not documented was inline replies in Android messaging apps.

If you are using the Android app version of a messaging app like Hangouts or Facebook Messenger, you can now reply to that message from the notification that you get when you receive the message.

A busy day on the Chrome OS front.  The Chrome OS Dev Channel was updated to a sixth Chrome 66 build and now the Chrome OS Stable Channel has seen its second Chrome 65 build.  The new build is 65.0.3325.184 (Platform version: 10323.62.0/1) for those keeping score at home.  Perhaps more important to everyone is that this build is coming to Chromebooks that can run Android apps.

Having checked for this update this morning on my Pixelbook, which you can do by typing chrome://help in the browser bar, the update is already out there and has been applied.

A new and much improved Keyboard Shortcut Viewer is coming to Chrome OS.  In the Chrome OS Canary Channel, which is currently running a pre-alpha build of Chrome 67, the viewer has been radically updated to a Material Design look and feel.

The find comes from long time platform evangelist François Beaufort via his Google+ profile.  François is one of the best sources for what is coming in the Canary channel and this is another great example of it.

A week later than expected, the update to Chrome 65 for the Chrome OS Stable Channel has been released.  The update brings a number of new features and enhancements to the platform as well as some key security updates.

The new build is 65.0.3325.167 (Platform version: 10323.58.0/1) for those keeping score at home and is available to a number of devices.  Generally speaking, if your device can run Android apps, you won’t get updated to this build but rather will get updated in a subsequent update in another week or two.  That has been the trend for several months now in Chrome OS.