There’s a shiny new developer channel release of Chrome OS rolling out, and there are a few interesting changes to look out for.
Version 40.0.2209.2, being made available for all devices on the developer channel bar the HP Chromebook and HP Chromebook 11, adds the following changes:
Firstly, remember those new-look App Folders we mentioned a week back? They’ve landed in this update to give the Apps List a bit of a Material Design touch.
If you’re a user of the Experimental Apps List you’ll notice a fifth icon in the apps row: ‘All Apps‘ (see image above).
“Currently has no icon, and it’s a simple slide transition, but eventually it will have a folder-like icon with a folder open animation,” explains the commit.
Custom wallpapers are now synced across devices using the File System API. Previously only wallpapers that we selected from the Wallpaper Picker gallery were kept in tune.
On the chrome://flags side you’ll find a ‘new ZIP unpacker‘ option to play with.
Based on the File System Provider API, it remains visually similar to the old aVFS method (so if you switch it on don’t expect too much of a difference). But on the backend it is different. It uses the same API that will be bringing us Dropbox, Box and sFTP access from the file manager in the near future, so is implemented as an extension (albeit one made an internal component to stop you from uninstalling it by accident).