Since the Aura Desktop was released for Chrome OS last year, the Chrome team have been slow rolling out improvements. Today’s update sees many improvements and changes to the desktop.

What’s New in Chrome OS 27

Support has been added for Panel windows. This feature lets certain applications, such as Google’s new Hangouts app, to appear ‘docked’ in the Launcher so they can be accessed at all times, regardless of what you’re doing.

Google’s new Hangouts app in ‘Panel’ mode

The launcher can now be positioned on the left, right and top of the screen; to suit your workflow. Right-click on the launcher to bring up positioning options.

Another launcher-related tweak is the introduction of app lists to open items. Apps in the launcher will now display a list of all the open instances of that particular app and the “Chrome” icon will display a list of all the open tabs (think of Windows 7 jump lists).

Chrome OS 27 adds “Jump List” Style Feature

If your trackpad supports it, you can use horizontal three finger scrub to move between tabs.

The File Manager now has a new folder hierarchy display, making it faster to navigate to the right folder. Also, the search field will now autocomplete.

Hardware support has also been improved in this release.

Memory management optimisation has been achieved on low memory devices, benefitting users of the early Chromebook models.

Enhanced support for common wireless touchpads/mice has been added, including the ability to display battery indicator of a wireless mouse. Users of Apple’s Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse will be pleased to know that these are supported, too.

Additionally, Pepper Flash has been updated to 11.7.700.202-r2 and GTalk plugin has been updated to 3.15.2.0. The Chrome Office Viewer extension has also been updated.

Finally, this release includes many bug fixes, performance and security improvements.

Like with every Chrome OS release, it also includes the latest updates to the Chrome browser. Check out our news post about the Chrome 27 update which is included in this release of Chrome OS.

Chrome OS 27.0.1453.103 is available now for all Chrome devices, including the Samsung Chromebook. Devices will be receive updates over the next several days.

Google has added a new Message Centre to the latest beta channel build of Chrome for Windows.

The feature allows applications and web-services to deliver richer and more engaging alerts to the desktop.

As well as being able to show formatted text and images in notifications, they can also show ‘actions’ like ‘Call’ or ‘Reply to Email’ so that users can interact with alerts straight away, without needing to manually open an application or website.

Example of notification with and without ‘action’ items

‘Stored’

Now, Google know that we aren’t always at our desks, or paying attention to stuff that pops up on screen. So, when a message is delivered but neither dismissed nor acted upon, it is stored inside the Message Center (kept in the System Tray). An unread count relaying how many notifications you have waiting is shown on the tray item for the feature.

Notifications remain “unread” until you open the Message Center.

But the best part about its introduction – aside from the beautiful design and useful functions – is the power to pick and choose what apps and sites can show desktop alerts.

Don’t want GMail toasts? Fed up of Facebook pop-ups? Open the Message Center from the system tray, click ‘Settings’, then pick and choose what alerts you’re okay with seeing:

Chrome Notification Settings

For now this new feature is only enabled by default for those using the beta (and Dev or Canary) builds of Chrome. It is likely to arrive in regular Chrome in around two weeks.

Can’t wait? You can download the Chrome beta from the link below. But do be aware that installing Chrome Beta will replace any stable version installed.

Download Chrome Beta for Windows

Mac & Linux Users

So it’s arrived for Windows users, but what about those on OS X? Relax, as we told you last week, the feature is current in active development for Mac and getting better by the day.

The Chrome Message Center on Mac OS X

Curiously, the feature is yet to show up in Linux builds, so Tux-fans will need to be patient.

The C7 Chromebook by Acer

The device, marked as ‘Coming Soon’, is listed as coming with a 16GB solid-state drive (SSD) in place of 320GB mechanical hard-disk the C7 original shipped with.

Other parts, from the 1.1Ghz dual-core CPU to the 11.6″ matte screen, remain unchanged.

Acer first released the C7 laptop in November 2012. A revised model with double the amount of RAM and improved battery life followed in March of this year.

So far only Best Buy are listing the revised model, and no formal word on its release has been given by Acer. But that’s not unusual. The RAM-bumped C7 released earlier this year arrived to little in the way of publicity.

But it’s a good move on Acer’s part. As a web-centric device without (and it pains me to say it) proper local-media playback features, the 320GB HDD that the device originally shipped with always seemed like over kill. An SSD will not only give the C7 faster start-up timea and more pep in performance, but potentially some battery gains, too.

Want in? You’ll need to be stateside, have $199 to space, and be prepared to wait. No due date yet known.

Acer C7 (v3) on BestBuy.com

Over 25 new photographic wallpapers have been added to the Chrome OS wallpaper library today.

The designs by photographers Trey Ratcliff and Greg Spencer join an already impressive line-up of photographic wallpapers available to Chrome OS users.

The relatively new-ish Wallpaper Picker in Chrome OS means that unlike other operating systems you don’t have a giant stack of unused wallpapers collecting dust on your hard-drive. Only the images you choose to use are cached on disk

When offline, cached wallpapers will appear in colour in the picker app, while those unavailable are desaturated.

The new wallpapers, as well the old ones, can be viewed and downloaded using the Chrome OS wallpaper picker. To access this in Chrome OS simply right click on the desktop and choose ‘Set Wallpaper…’.

For non-Chrome OS users you can sift through and grab your favourite drapes using the app linked to below.

Chrome OS Wallpapers App for Google Chrome

Chrome for Android has hit version 27 in the stable channel today. The highlight the feature in this release is full screen mode on phones, scrolling down the page will make the toolbar disappear. Fullscreen mode does not yet work on tablets.

Searching from the omnibox will keep your search query visible in the omnibox, making it easier to edit, and show more search results. Chrome for Android now adds support for client-side certificates, you can now access sites that require you to use a certificate and Chrome will allow you to select an installed certificate.

A minor additions to tablets, tab history has been added. Long press the browser back button to view your tab history

Finally, there has been countless stability and performance fixes.

You can find today’s update in the Google Play Store. You need to running Android 4.0+ to use Chrome.

Google Chrome for Android on Play

The Chrome team have released version 27 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux users. Web page loading is now 5% faster on average. Support for the File System Sync API has been added, allowing websites to save and synchronize data on Google Drive.

This release features a new search customized New Tab Page layout, using the Instant Extended API. This new API improves ranking of predictions, improves spell correction, and numerous fundamental improvements for Omnibox predictions.

Finally, the Chrome App Launcher should now be accessible by default for Windows users.

Chrome 27 also features a slew of security updates, making your browsing experience even more secure.

• Security fixes with use-after-free scenarios with SVG, clipboard, media, flash, widget and speech
• Fixes with Memory safety using Web Audio
• Resolved issues with XXS extraction

Finally, Webkit has been updated to version 537.35 and V8 has been updated to version 3.17.14

Chrome 27 will be last ever release using WebKit. Chrome 28 will use Blink.

An official Hangouts extension for Chrome and Chrome OS is already available to install from the Chrome Web Store. If you’re a Google+ user you’ll also find the new chat experience available from there, too.

But the revamped chat service isn’t enabled by default on GMail for everyone just yet. Google are rolling it out to users in stages.

If you don’t yet have Hangouts in Gmail but want it, here’s how to manually turn it on.

Turn On Hangouts in Gmail

• Sign in to GMail (note: doesn’t currently work for Google Apps users)
• Expand the Google Talk box in the left-hand sidebar by clicking the ‘speech bubble’ icon.
• Click on your chat avatar
• Select ‘Try the new Hangouts’ option

See the image below if you’re unsure of where it is.

Enable hangouts in Gmail

Gmail will instantly reload when you click this option, so if you’re in the middle of something important (i.e. gossip, or reading the latest bit of spam from Amazon) be sure to save, make excuses, etc.

Don’t like Hangouts? You can revert to the “old” Google Talk by following the same steps above but choosing ‘Revert to Old Chat’ at the last step.

While there was excitement for what Google did announce, there was also disappoint for what Google did not announce. Where was Android 4.3? Where was the new Nexus 7? When will Google Glass be released?

Looking back through our predictions for I/O 2013, I can not decided if we were very wrong with what Google was going to announce or if Google still has plenty to show us before the year is out.

In this editorial, I will give you my thoughts on this year’s event.

Developers! Developers! Developers!

Like with Steve Ballmer, it was all about the developers this year. I am not a developer, I have never coded. But I do understand some of the basics such as what an API is and what an IDE is used for. Earlier this week Sundar Pichai, VP for Android, Chrome and Google Apps, told Wired that this year’s announcements will be focused on developers rather than consumers. And thats what we got.

Android Studio looked awesome, it was the first time Android developers will have a dedicated IDE to use. Being able to quickly view different screen sizes on the fly and makes changes, just looks brilliant and super useful. Changes to the Google Play Developers Console will hopefully increase app revenue for developers, which is currently much lower than on iOS. 

Android Studio

Google Play Services was updated too, which added a bunch of new APIs which developers can implement into their apps. The new synced notifications using GCM and new location-based APIs got the most appulses.

A feature of Google’s mobile ecosphere which I believed was lacking was gaming. Apple has got Game Centre and Microsoft has got Xbox, Google needs unified game service. It seems such an obvious and easy system for Google to implement; it has the social side with Google+ and it has its cloud services to be able to do game syncing and cloud storage. Thankfully Google has finally implemented a gaming system into Google Play Services called Google Play Games services. It has added everything I was after; leaderboards, achievements and online matches using Google+ and game data cloud syncing. I have tried out the new service by playing World of Goo and Riptide GP, and it works well. 

However, I am very disappointed that there isn’t a Google Play Games app. Like Game Centre on iOS, i was hoping for the following:

• Lists all Google Play Games-enabled games which links to the Google Play Store
• A news stream of all your Google+ friends gaming achievements
• A list of games you have played, which can display the achievements and scores you have achieved in each game.

Basically an app which is the centre of Google Play Games, I can see all my score and achievements all in one place without having to open each game. Hopefully, Google will add this feature soon.

Android Police has put together a list of Google Play Games enabled games.

During the keynote it was hard to understand all these new features to help developers build apps, distribute and market their apps and APIs to plug their apps into Google services. Although, when you heard the cheers from the audience, you knew it must be good and important for Android. From our point of view as users, if developers love it and can make developing apps easier for them, it will eventually benefit us with awesome apps we get to use.

Where was Android?

It was a big surprise that we didn’t get a new version of Android. Rumours leading up to the event pointed to Android 4.3 to be shown off at I/O, but it never materialised. Though, it doesn’t mean its not coming. Server logs show that Google is testing 4.3, and even Googler Sara Sinclair Brody confirmed a new version of Android is on the way. 

With no new version Android at I/O, some have argued this is a good thing. It gives OEMs time to catch up, since many devices are not even on Jelly Bean yet. Android Central’s Jerry Hildenbrand point out that the update to Google Play Services was more important than a new version of Android, since it added many new features for apps to take advantage of and plus all Android devices will receive the update regardless of OEM or carriers control.

I will make a small prediction (even though I have not been terribly good at that this week), Google will announce Android 4.3 which will ship with the new Nexus 7 in July.

Google Play

Amazon has a music cloud locker. Spotify has a subscription music service. iTunes has a music store. Google now has all three.

When you take a step back, have a look at what Google has achieved with Google Play Music, it now provides the ultimate music service. Before, you had iTunes which provided users with a brilliant music store but a very an old fashioned syncing solution. Amazon has a great music store + cloud locker, but no subscription based music option. Spotify has the subscription model which is very popular at the moment, but no means to buy music which is missing from the Spotify library and be able to store it in the cloud to sync with all your devices.

Google Play Music now allows me to stream and add to my library all the great music I love on a subscription mode I love. I am a fan of AC/DC and Example, but they don’t license their music for subscription. This is not an issue anymore, since any music missing from the All Access library I can now upload to Google Play Music or buy from Google Play Music to add to my library.

This great freedom with Google Play Music is why I will be cancelling my Spotify subscription when it arrives in the UK. The ultimate music service, with store/subscription/storage. No other music service can offer this at the moment, and its may be unlikely for some time. I think only Amazon could match this.

Google Play Music – Now All Access!

Social, Hangouts, Search, Maps

Some great improvements to these core Google services.

• Social – the new Google+ news stream is brilliant, makes me want to use Google+ more (which I am guessing is Google’s aim).
• Hangouts – A unified messaging service is what should we should have got 2 years ago when Google+ launched. It works great. But there are now dozens of messaging services, with all our friends on different services, its a complete mess at the moment.
• Search – we can now talk to our computer to give us information, OMG! its like Star Trek!
• Maps – complete redesign using the power of OpenGL, viewing the earth from space is incredible

You don’t need me to tell you how great they are, try them out for yourself! 

SPACE!

Google TV

It was really disappointing that I/O did not have a big announcement for Google TV. We did get an update to Google TV to Android 4.2, with a promise that Google TV will now follow the same development cycle as Android. This move is fairly significant since we could soon see Google encouraging Android developers to build the same app for the phone, the tablet and the TV. Its just another screen size to build for, since the code base will be the same going forward.

No Nexus Q running Google TV was also disappointing, though Google did confirm that new Google TV hardware will be coming later this year. Plus, it has been spotted by an FCC document that the Nexus Q may be making a re-release soon.

Anything else…

Google Play Books got a brilliant update during I/O which was kept quiet. Users can now upload their own PDFs and EPUBs to their Google Play Books cloud locker via the Google Play website and the documents are synced to all your devices. The implementation is brilliant. I uploaded a EPUB book and Google was able to find the cover picture and all the book information, so it looks like a regular book purchased from the Google Play Books store.

One final closing comment. A few months ago, just before the Google I/O tickets went on sale, I posted this comment on my Google+ profile:

I think people are missing the point of Google I/O 

Its an event for android and web developers to speak to the Google team to understand how to best make use of APIs and build better apps.

Its not a place to pick up free Google hardware. Its a wasted ticket which could have gone to a developer wanting to learn.

With a much more developer-focused event and with very little hardware announcements, it should be a clear indication to non-developers that this is not an event for them. Google did give away a Chromebook Pixel to all attendees, but compared to previous years, it’s considerably less to what they used to give out.

Mac users now have access to Chrome’s new ‘Message Center’ in Canary builds.

The feature, already available to ChromeOS and Windows Dev Channel users, provides a centralised place for viewing and responding to various alerts from services, apps, and extensions.

At present the feature isn’t too fancy; a status bar item has been added to the OS X menubar; an unread notification count (if applicable) appears beside this; and clicking on the item opens the message center.

In keeping with other platforms the status bar icon does not, currently, change colour when unread messages are waiting.

Also, depending on the type of notification sent (though most apps/sites still use standard ‘webkit’ notifications) you may see so-called ‘action buttons’. These range from ‘send message’ on an email notifications to a ‘call’ button on a contact alert.

Notification with Action

Google Chrome Canary for Mac OS X can be downloaded at the the following link:

Google Chrome Canary Build for OS X

Glass

• Twitter and Facebook have today released apps for Glass. Tumblr and CCN apps will be arriving soon.

Nexus Q

• Google has confirmed today that the new Google Play Music app does not work with the Nexus Q. The small number of users with a Nexus Q will no longer be able to stream music using their Nexus Q. YouTube and Play Movies will continue to function. Google is yet to announce a re-release of this device.

Google+

• Google+ Games is to close on 30th June. In light of yesterday’s Google Play Game Services launch, Google+ Games will be retired in favour of Google’s new gaming platform.
• Google has confirmed today that Hangouts will soon get SMS integration.

Android

• During the “Best Practices for Bluetooth Development” session, Googler Sara Sinclair Brody confirmed that Android will be supporting Bluetooth Low Energy in a future Android release. This new version of Android will feature API level 18, currently API level 17 is part of Android 4.2. Sara Sinclair says that API level 18 will be landing in a few short months. 

Developer Sessions

Majority of sessions at I/O have been recorded and uploaded to YouTube, you can find Day 1 and 2 sessions available online now.

Developers

• Android Studio – a new IDE for Android which is powered by IntelliJ IDEA. Available today as free download.
• Google Play services 3.1 – adds support for four new APIs.
  • Google Play games services – Google+ social features into your games. Support for achievements, leaderboards and matchmaking.
  • Location APIs – allowing apps to add location and context awareness.
  • Google Cloud Messaging Improvements – bidirectional XMPP messaging between server and devices, plus synced notifications.
  • Cross-Platform Single Sign On – Allows users to sign in once on all their devices using Google+.
• Google Play Developer Console – new features in console
  • App translations
  • Revenue Graphs
  • Alpha and beta testing
  • Staged Rollouts
  • Optimisation tips
  • Google Analytics
  • Referral tracking
• Google App Engine to support PHP and Cloud Storage, targeting Amazon EC2 customers

Google Play

• Google Play website redesign
• Google Play Music All Access - Subscription based music streaming. It provides unlimited access to music for $9.99/month (or $7.99/month before 30th June) Currently US only, but coming to other countries very soon.
  • You can combine your library of music stored in the cloud with Google’s streaming library.
  • Google Play Music website redesign supporting new All Access service.
  • Updated Google Play Music Android app supporting new All Access service.
• Google Play for Education – Google Play can now manage mass deployment of apps to education tablets with payments handled by school purchase orders.
• Google Play Books app updated with a new user interface and support for cloud-syncing ePubs and PDFs. You can now upload ePUB and PDF documents via the web, and they will sync to all your devices.

Google+

• Complete redesign of Google+ stream.
• New Google+ Photo features
  • Can now pick your best photos from each library, known as Highlights
  • Google+ is able to auto-enhance all your photos
  • Google+ is able to make your photos “Awesome” by adding HDR, making people smile in photos, turning your photos into GIFs.
• Hangouts – a new unified messaging service. It supports single or group text chat with pictures and supports video chat. It is available within Google+ and Gmail, as well as an Android app (which replaces Google Talk), iOS app and Chrome extension.
• Hangouts app coming to Glass

Search

• Google Voice Search coming to Chrome and Chrome OS. Just say “Ok, Google…”
• Google Search now recognises hot words, such as “show me photos from New York” or “when does my flight leave”
• Google Search app updated supporting new cards. Location-based Reminders, details on music, TV, books, video games and public transit.

Maps

• All-new Google Maps for the web. New user interface with benefits from WebGL technologies. Integrating Google Earth into Google Maps, with no plugin required. 
• Redesigned Google Maps Android app and all-new iPad app coming this summer.

Gmail

• Gmail messages now have action boxes, which allows you to take certain actions on an email message. For instance, a email message about an event can be added to your Google Calendar, or an email about a flight will display an action box about that flight.
• US Gmail users can now send money as an attachment using Google Wallet. Furthermore Google Wallet is now supported on HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 2.

Google TV

• Google TV updated to Android 4.2.2, Chrome is now a separate app. Users will gain the benefits of Android Jelly Bean, plus improved updating system making updates quicker for OEMs. Chrome is now a separate and can benefit from a six-week update cycle, plus the browser now supports hardware-based content protection for DRM content.
• New Google TV hardware to be released later this year.

YouTube

• YouTube to support VP9 video streaming
• YouTube for Google TV has been updated with a new home screen UI and support for paid subscriptions. 

Android

• 900 million devices activated
• 48 billion apps downloaded
• Samsung Galaxy S4 with stock Android and guarantee updates. Available from Google Play Store from 26th June for $649

Chrome

• 750 million active users – World’s most-popular browser
• Data Compression coming to Chrome for Mobile coming weeks.

You can watch to full 3 and half hour keynote on YouTube, including Larry Page’s Q&A session.

Google is to unveil a music streaming service at today’s I/O event, rumours suggest.

Universal Music, Warner Music Group and Sony are said to be on board according to The Verge, thus granting the service access to music from some of the worlds biggest artists.

Google launched a cloud-based music player and music store – Google Play Music – back in 2011.

Interestingly, sources say that a free-tier option will not be offered, potentially making it a less attractive proposition than Spotify, Rdio and other services offering free ad-supported access; and two separate versions will be on offer: one powered by YouTube and one powered by Google Play Music.

The feature, which has been available directly from Google’s homepage for a while, albeit with a slightly different look (scroll on down), is likely a prelude to the arrival of Google Now on Chrome.

Extended Instant New Tab Page in Google Chrome Dev

Perhaps more interestingly it that the “searching” interface has been revamped to match that seen in Google Now:

Voice Search on Google Chrome

Voice Search on Google Now

For comparison, here’s how the voice search interface used to look on Google. You’ll notice that as well as ditching the mini-box, the microphone icon now matches that used on Android.

Google Voice Search

libudev0 error in Ubuntu 13.04

Having trouble installing Google Chrome in Ubuntu 13.04? You’re not alone.

A dependency change in Ubuntu means that the libudev0 package Google Chrome needs to run isn’t currently available from Ubuntu’s repositories.

The good news is that Google are working to fix this issue, and the next stable release will install just dandy.

But if you want to install Chrome right now you’ll need to fix the issue by hand. Install one of the following packages first, choosing the right one for your architecture (you can find this out from System Settings > Details):

libudev0 32bit .deb   libudev0 64bit .deb

As .Deb files these are easy to install: simply double-click on them and follow the prompts that appear on screen.

Once you’ve install libudev0 you can proceed to download and install Google Chrome itself.

Download Google Chrome

End result:

Google Chrome in Ubuntu 13.04

Pick a nickname in the chatbox below to chat along with fellow Google fans as you watch.

V1 Apps in Chrome OS Will Lose Shortcut Emblem

Chrome OS will not include ‘app arrows’ on old-style Chrome Web Apps – at least not for now.

So-called ‘V1′ applications on Chrome OS Dev & the Chrome Windows application launcher currently display a web shortcut emblem in the lower left-hand corner. This to help visually differentiate them from the newer packaged applications (dubbed V2) so that, Chrome devs say, “expectations are set appropriately’.

Packaged applications offer a greater set of features and functionality that the older, browser-bound web apps.

But, in an update to code today, these pesky little arrows have been removed from Chrome OS, though not from Chrome Dev on Windows.

The reasoning? Chrome devs say:

“[It] makes ChromeOS look ugly, since it has many default apps, most of which will have this “shortcut” UI. 

We [will] live with the dissonance in the short-term [and] aim to bring ChromeOS in sync with [Chrome on Mac and Windows] when we have more v2 apps (specially among the set of default apps).”

Sounds fair to me.

Are you using Chrome OS Dev? What’s your preferred solution for marking V1 apps from V2 ones? 

We first told you that Scratchpad was being axed last November. At that time Google Keep wasn’t even on the radar, so the decision to cease development did seem rather strange.

Google launched Keep earlier this year with a web-interface and mobile apps for Android and iOS. An official Chrome web app was made available at the beginning of May.

Scratchpad to Keep Notification on Chrome OS

For full details head on over to the Google support site, link below.

Scratchpad to Google Keep Migration Help

Mingchi Kuo of KGI Securities predicts that Google will launch an own-brand ‘Androidbook’ later this year once work on Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie is complete. It’s this release of Android that, according to Kuo, ‘is targeted at [Notebooks]‘.

But, if Kuo is proved correct, that won’t matter too much as Samsung, amongst other brand vendors, are aiming to release low-cost notebooks running Jellybean ‘in the coming 3-4 months’. 

Kuo is the latest in a line of industry folk to put weight behind the claims, joining Chinese Trade insider Digitimes, and Intel execs who, in April, confirmed that its new wave of sub-$200 Atom-powered notebooks will be Android-based.

With tacit confirmation that Chrome OS and Android won’t be merging anytime soon, one can’t help but wonder how the two lines of low-cost laptops would sit against one another.

Work on moulding Chrome OS into a more versatile device continues (most recently with the introduction of packaged apps).