Chrome OS 78 has arrived for Chromebooks and Google touts four new features. Of course, there’s always more in the software updates, so here’s what you need to know about them.
Browsing: Productivity
Want Gboard, SwiftKey or another Android virtual keyboard on your Chromebook? The Dev Channel of Chrome OS 79 will let you do that, but bear in mind, it’s a bit of a work in progress at the moment.
Chrome OS 79 is expected to add custom settings to the Reader Mode on Chromebooks, including choice of font, font size and more. Here’s a great example of what it should like, based on a currently available Chrome extension.
Earlier this year there were references to a “Click to call” feature for Chromebooks and it appears that Click to call will arrive in Chrome OS 78. Once it arrives, clicking a hyperlinked phone number will place the call on a supported Android phone.
Last year I said every Chromebook user should carry a USB stick in case they need to recover Chrome OS. That advice may be going out the window because your Android phone could be used in the future for recovery.
The Chromium team is working on a new feature for Chrome OS 79 that will scale down CPU resources for Linux apps running in the background. That should improve browser and Android app performance on Chromebooks when needed.
Google has quietly rolled out the Stable Version of Chrome OS 77, which is available now for nearly all Chromebooks. Here’s what in, and not in, the new software release.
Chrome OS 78 is expected to bring a shared text clipping feature that will let you send clipboard contents to or from a Chromebook to any other device running Chrome, including Macs, PCs, and iOS devices.
Can you code an Arduino using a Chromebook? It’s possible with Linux but not until USB support is expanded. Here are three ways to program an Arduino using Chrome OS today, with options ranging from free to a few dollars a month.
Now that Linux on Chromebooks is available for the enterprise, how do IT admins plan to manage this feature? Recent code commits suggest that Red Hat Ansible will be integrated with Crostini for centralized, secure Linux app deployment.
I’ve been pondering what a Chrome Phone would look like since 2013. We’ll probably never see one but if you want to get an idea for the concept, look no further than Samsung DeX, which bridges the mobile and desktop computing paradigms.