Chrome

There's a new web app for Chrome called Squoosh this week, made by Google to prove the next generation of web apps are viable. That might seem pretty boring to everyone that's already got their traditional apps already downloaded - but the future is coming. With this app, Developer Advocate Jake Archibald and Drawsplainer Mariko Kosaka show how Javascript in a web browser can make the impossible task of up-scaling a photo quite possible indeed.

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Ads have almost become a dirty word on the Internet. What should have been, and actually is for some, a legitimate source of revenue, bad behaviors by not a small number of players have tainted that market. Both users and browser makers play a game of cat and mouse against misbehaving and even downright malicious ads and we're in for yet another round. Google has just issued a warning, that starting next month, it will be more aggressively removing all ads on a few sites that still refuse to clean up their act.

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If you're on a mobile device and you head over to Google dot com, starting today you'll see something new. Where before now you'd have seen a search bar and a couple other tiny buttons, now you'll see a feed. This is known as Google's Discover feed. This is similar to the system we've seen evolving on Android home screens for a few years - but the idea that it's here, on the web... that's something new.

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Social media not enough distraction for you? If you ever needed the ability to watch web videos of whatever sort while working away on some important thing in another browser tab, then Google Chrome has got you covered. As of today, Google has enabled Picture-in-Picture functionality in the stable version of the web browser. This means that users can now continue playing and watching videos even while navigating away to other tabs or even other apps. Well, at least for some videos.

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Web apps have been battling for supremacy ever since browsers could display more than just text and images. Initially there were these heavy and clunky web applets vying for space against desktop apps. Things then took a different turn with the arrival of smartphones and mobile apps. Now with Google as its biggest champion, web apps have taken on a new name and a new strategy. With Chrome 70, Google is aiming to put Progressive Web apps on the same level as native apps, be it desktop or mobile, though it may still need a few rounds of polishing before it gets there.

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This morning I was about to get up-in-arms about the lack of a headphone jack on the new Google Pixel Slate. Then I saw what they'd done instead. Lots of devices that've abandoned the headphone jack were released over the past couple of years with no reasonable wired alternative. Google, instead of doing what everyone else did, came to the table with USB-C x2.

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The Google Pixel Slate is one giant tablet made to traverse the boundaries between desktop and mobile. This device is sold as a tablet, on it's own, but much like some of the most obvious competition (the iPad Pro, for example), it'll make the most sense with its sold-separately keyboard accessory. This device runs Chrome OS, and because the newest versions of Chrome run Android apps (and have for some time now), you'll find a whole lot of Android going on, too.

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Want to play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey but don’t have the console for it? Not in the mood or in the market to buy one just yet? There is a way now, but you’ll have to pray that the Fates are smiling on you and you are one of the very few lucky ones that have been accepted into Google’s Project Stream beta group so that you could play the game right from your Chrome browser. Which you could, of course, get for free.

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The Google Pixel Slate is one of several surprises set for official reveal on October 9th - and today we're running down the full details. This is the first time we've got what we consider the full picture. That is: Photos (or renders), Code-names, and multiple release-level builds. The latest in a line of leaks is a set of benchmarks that show the many different versions of the device likely headed toward the big event on October 9th as held by Google.

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With more and more people "living" on the Web these days, web browsers have become both gateways as well as points of vulnerability. As one of that major gateways, Google's Chrome browser has an even bigger responsibility to ensure users' safety. And because of its Chrome extensions system, that goes beyond just the core of the browser. With version 30 and future releases, Google will be putting its foot down to ensure that those extensions don't end up costing users their privacy and security and costing Google its credibility.

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This week a new Google Search easter egg was discovered in the wild, complete with a whole bunch of adventurous paths one might take. To play Google's most recently-discovered in-product game, one must drop in on the English-language interface for Google Search. To find the game, on a desktop computer, in Google Search, search for the terms "text game" or "text adventure."

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For the most part, Chrome 69 is a significant release, bringing in a new Material Design, a smarter search bar, and more. But thanks to a rather unannounced feature, it has turned into quite a mess. Contrary to its stated goal, the new sign-in consistency only brought more confusion and the usual monopolistic accusations. Now Google is telling Chrome users to keep calm and browse on because Chrome 70 will address, not fix, those concerns.

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