Category: Chrome OS

After months of rumors and commits in Chrome OS development, it was made official at Google I/O yesterday:  Chrome OS will soon natively support Linux apps.  It is a significant step forward for the platform and should bring improved tools to developers on the platform.

During the keynote, where this was almost mentioned as an after thought, Android Studio was highlighted as being one of the apps that will work once this feature rolls out to everyone.

As expected, the Chrome OS Dev Channel has been updated to Chrome 68, a few days after Chrome 67 made its way into the Beta Channel for the platform.  The new build is 68.0.3417.0 (Platform version: 10643.0.0) for those keeping score at home and is the first Chrome 68 build to make it to the Dev Channel.

For those that are new to Chrome OS, there are four primary development channels for the platform:

• Canary – Pre-Alpha testing and can only be accessed via a “jailbreak”
• Dev – Alpha testing
• Beta – Beta testing
• Stable – The production channel that the vast majority of users are in

The Chrome OS Dev Channel is not recommended for daily use and is aimed at testers only.

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 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 fifth and somewhat surprising Chrome 67 build has been released to the Chrome OS Dev Channel.  For readers new to Chrome OS, the Dev Channel is what would be considered the Alpha channel for the platform.  Build 67.0.3396.19 (Platform version: 10575.17.0) comes just two days after the fourth build was released and brings the update to all devices.  The released on April 25th, build .17, was noted that it was for some devices.

From a feature or fixes update, there isn’t much to report.  This is basically the same build but has had a few underpinnings that allow it to get it out for all devices.

Google has released the fourth and potentially the final Chrome 67 build into the Chrome OS Dev Channel.  Build 67.0.3396.17 (Platform version: 10575.13.0) is rolling out for most devices in what would be considered the Alpha channel of the Chrome OS platform.

As a reminder to readers, the Chrome OS Dev Channel is the alpha testing channel for the platform and not intended for daily use.  It is aimed at testers and developers and will contain bugs and have crash issues as it is tested.