CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-22 20:21:25 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 33 +1s)

The Webview Tag is a nice way to actively load live content from the web over the network and embed it in your Chrome Packaged App.

From now on, we can easily insert a CSS into a webview like we would do with chrome.tabs.insertCSS() in the last Chromium build.

Learn more about the Webview Tag at http://developer.chrome.com/trunk/apps/webview_tag.html

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14617021/

2013-05-22 18:03:39 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 27 +1s)

A new Chrome API has been proposed and is named the chrome.storage.managed API.

It's similar to chrome.storage.local and chrome.storage.sync, with the difference that its values are read-only and are pulled from the configuration policy source of the native platform (GPO on Windows, MCX Preferences on Mac, /etc on Linux) or from the Google cloud policy servers (managed from the Google Apps for Business pages). Extension authors can use these settings to provide configuration options for administrators, making their extensions useful for enterprise deployments.

Learn much more about this API at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PiDVsTRMNh1MYhmcfH0ngcAE6XPxSiMYIWAX-hI_VE0/edit

Source: http://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensions/proposed-changes/apis-under-development/managed-storage-api

2013-05-22 18:02:02 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

If you go to chrome://translate-internals/ in the last chromium build, you'll be able to see some Translation Logs based on your browsing activity.

For information, the Compact Language Detector aka CLD mentioned in this page is a library that's used to detect the language of any UTF-8 encoded content. This doesn't require any internet connection and can easily be added to your C++ project or even Python. See http://code.google.com/p/chromium-compact-language-detector/

I expressly recommend you read this short blog post at http://blog.mikemccandless.com/2011/10/language-detection-with-googles-compact.html to learn more about this cool Chromium feature.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14494004/

2013-05-22 15:30:52 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 25 +1s)

Auto-updated extensions are a cool feature. However do you know what is the frequency of these updates?

- 15 minutes
- 1 hour
- 5 hours
- 12 hours

As usual, you can tweak this default value by running chrome with the switch _--extensions-update-frequency=X" where X is in seconds.

Source: http://cs.chromium.org/"int%20kDefaultUpdateFrequencySeconds"

2013-05-22 15:28:30 (9 comments, 3 reshares, 46 +1s)

In the last Mac chromium build, there is now have a proper App Launcher icon as you can see below.

To play with it, download last chromium build at download-chromium.appspot.com and run chromium with the ---enable-app-list-shim switch.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14760002/

2013-05-22 15:26:49 (7 comments, 13 reshares, 96 +1s)

28 gorgeous new wallpapers from +Trey Ratcliff and Greg Spencer have landed in Google Chrome OS this morning and the least we can say is wow!

2013-05-21 14:02:51 (9 comments, 3 reshares, 33 +1s)

The "Bookmark open pages" action has been added to the Bookmarks Menu in the last Chromium build.
For information, the Tab context menu already had "Bookmark all tabs".

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/15366003/

2013-05-20 18:40:52 (4 comments, 16 reshares, 66 +1s)

Each time Chromium code is updated, powerful bots run tests to make sure there is no regression. When all tests succeed, Last Known Good Revision aka LKGR is updated at http://chromium-status.appspot.com/lkgr

To have a better understanding of where and when some tests fail, you may want to have a look at the Status Dashboard at http://build.chromium.org/p/chromium/lkgr-status/

2013-05-20 17:43:18 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Debugging WebRTC issues has never been so easy thanks to the new button "Create dump" available at chrome://webrtc-internals in the last chromium build.

The exported dump file contains peer connection updates, stats table data and stats data series that can be used for bug reporting and offline stats analysis.

These stats may come handy if WebRTC doesn't work well inside the local network of your company for instance.

Source: https://chromiumcodereview.appspot.com/14953002

2013-05-20 17:51:15 (8 comments, 30 reshares, 107 +1s)

Rich notifications with action buttons have been added in the Message Center in the last Mac chromium build.

You can play with them by enabling chrome://flags/#enable-rich-notifications and install the Notifications Galore! Chrome App at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/notifications-galore/gclcddgeeaknflkijpcbplmhbkonmlij?hl=en

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/15024010/

2013-05-20 16:59:19 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 28 +1s)

A new "Sync nothing" option has been added into the chrome Advanced sync settings.
 
It is now possible in the last chromium build to be signed in without syncing anything. It is also possible to stop and restart sync for troubleshooting purposes, even on accounts where enterprise policy prevents sign out. For non-enterprise managed users, sign out of Chrome works the same as it did previously.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14691004/

2013-05-20 16:54:38 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 14 +1s)

Extension activity logging is improved day after day in chromium. Last nit is about the tabs API. Since this API relies on tab IDs to identify tab operations, the Activity Log displays now the associated URLs to these tab IDs.

In order to test the Activity logging, make sure you turn on chrome://flags#enable-extension-activity-ui flag and run chrome with the_--enable-extension-activity-log-testing_ switch.
 
Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14972019/

2013-05-20 16:47:49 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 23 +1s)

Importing passwords from Firefox 2 to Chrome is not possible because Firefox 2 didn't ship with 64-bit NSS libraries. Therefore, in order to clean Chromium code, Firefox 2 import is being removed. 

For information, Firefox 2 has been unsupported since December 2008.

Source: https://chromiumcodereview.appspot.com/15001036

2013-05-20 16:46:39 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

An internal dashboard to help debug the Sync FileSystem API is now available at chrome://syncfs-internals in the last Chromium build.

For the moment, it only reports if Google Drive Sync Service uses XMPP or Polling. In the future, it could also potentially show:
- List of remote files and their status
- Local pending changes status
- [Start sync][Stop sync] button

If you're not familiar with the Sync FileSystem API which gives you the ability to automatically synchronize some content across clients via a cloud backing service like Google Drive, I'd recommend you give a read to http://developer.chrome.com/trunk/apps/app_storage.html#sync-filesystem

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14825003/

2013-05-20 16:45:00 (48 comments, 63 reshares, 175 +1s)

Chrome Team is currently working on bringing the App Launcher on the Mac platform as you can see in the screenshot below.

You can already give it a try by running the last chromium build available at download-chromium.appspot.com with the --show-app-list switch.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/15303003/

2013-05-20 16:43:32 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 49 +1s)

Chrome internal page chrome://flags has been improved lately to address user feedback in the last chromium build:

- Each experiment has its own permalink. It means we can now point directly to chrome://flags#enable-webp-in-accept-header instead of saying "Go to chrome://flags and look for the WebP Header flag to activate it"
- Separate sections for available/unavailable flags have been created to make it a little easier to navigate through all the unsupported experiments.

Sources: http://codereview.chromium.org/12748002/  https://codereview.chromium.org/14746013

2013-05-16 04:12:32 (20 comments, 23 reshares, 136 +1s)

New Chrome device codenames have popped up recently and the least we can say it's that the Chrome OS Team has been heavily inspired by Star Fox. 

Here's what we know for now:
- Falco, Peppy, Slippy and Fox seem to be all upcoming x86 platforms.
- Fox (the leader in Star Fox) was the first to have Haswell, the next Intel generation of processor microarchitecture.
- Slippy is also Haswell-equipped.

Source: https://gerrit.chromium.org/gerrit/50550

2013-05-13 18:01:36 (7 comments, 5 reshares, 52 +1s)

Google Chrome Team is currently experimenting with a sample Chrome App called "Apps Editor" which is gonna use the chrome.developerPrivate Chrome API to load an unpacked Chrome App Project (a folder containing all your project's code basically) and synchronize it on Google Drive by using the chrome.syncFileSystem API. Obviously, you would also be able to export all your synced Chrome App Projects to your local fileSystem in order to work.

What it means is that my Chrome App's code would always be synced on my Google Drive (and its awesome revision history) - or any potential future backend storage behind the chrome.syncFileSystem API.

You can learn more about the public chrome.syncFileSystem API at http://developer.chrome.com/trunk/apps/app_storage.html#sync-filesystem and have a look at the chrome.developerPrivate API source code at... more »

2013-05-13 17:56:58 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 32 +1s)

Last Chrome OS Dev Update brought new Spoken Feedback keyboard shortcuts that can be used everywhere:

<Ctrl> stops current speech 
<Shift> + <Search> + <Up Arrow> navigates to previous item
<Shift> + <Search> + <Down Arrow> navigates to next item

You can give a try right now to the built-in Spoken Feedback feature by pressing <Ctrl> + <Alt> + z. And if you don't have a Chrome device, you can always play with the ChromeVox Chrome Extension at http://www.chromevox.com.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14674002/

2013-05-13 17:55:14 (19 comments, 3 reshares, 72 +1s)

Did this ever happen to you? It did to me.

You listen to a song with your headphones where the volume is such that you reached a point where you're literally in trance. While music is still playing, you put down your headphones for a rest. You come back later, forget you were listening to music and unplug your headphones.
At this point it's too late, the entire crowd around you has the high privilege to hear your loud music...

Thankfully last Dev Update of Google Chrome OS fixed that. Chrome OS now remembers your volume settings per device. It means your headphones, Bluetooth speakers and internal speakers volumes are independently saved.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14801002/

2013-05-13 15:36:20 (9 comments, 9 reshares, 48 +1s)

Chrome OS Team use powerful and big machines to heavily test trackpads on Chromebooks but that doesn't mean they didn't find other interesting applications for it too :)

2013-05-13 15:05:20 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 22 +1s)

A new Projection Mode has been added to the Touch HUD in the last Dev Update of Chrome OS. In this mode, only active touch points are shown without any trails.

If you want to play with it, go to chrome://flags, enable "Show HUD for touch points" flag, and restart.
Press twice on <Ctrl> + <Alt> + i to switch to projection mode and start to touch your screen.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14399005/

2013-05-11 20:39:03 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 84 +1s)

Here's something I've just noticed in Google Chrome OS. 

If you start to type your password in the login pad and don't press <Enter>, your input will automatically be cleared 1 minute after. 

2013-05-11 19:28:00 (15 comments, 4 reshares, 38 +1s)

Here are all the ways I know to go back and forward in Chrome OS Dev. 

First the traditional ways:

- Click or tap the "Go back" and "Go forward" buttons to the left of the omnibox
- Right click or tap with two fingers on the page and select "Back" or "Forward"

Then the cool ways:

- Scroll horizontally with two fingers on the trackpad
- Scroll horizontally with one finger on the touchscreen

EDIT: Look out for more ways in the comments!

2013-05-11 17:51:33 (16 comments, 5 reshares, 78 +1s)

Last Dev Update makes Chrome OS a Bluetooth Smart Ready platform.

Main advantage of Bluetooth Smart is that it's Low Energy. Therefore when two Bluetooth Smart devices are paired, they use a small amount of battery power since the connection is dormant unless critical data is shared.
On the other side, Bluetooth Smart Ready devices can be considered as the central device, waiting to send and receive data from smaller devices around it.

You can find a list of Bluetooth Smart Ready products at http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/Bluetooth-Smart-Devices-List.aspx#SmartReady

Source: https://chromiumcodereview.appspot.com/13927010

2013-05-11 05:27:03 (18 comments, 3 reshares, 56 +1s)

Experimental support for Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile aka A2DP has been added in Chrome OS Dev.

This profile defines how high quality audio can be streamed from one device to another over a Bluetooth connection. 
If you have a Bluetooth Headset or some Bluetooth speakers that are A2DP compatible, go give it a try and fill a bug at crbug.com/new if you encounter some issues or say "woohoo!" if it works.

Source: https://gerrit.chromium.org/gerrit/45113

2013-05-11 05:26:11 (5 comments, 3 reshares, 39 +1s)

Chrome Packaged Apps can now decide in Google Chrome Canary which files they can handle by specifying the file extensions on top of the mime types.

Cool thing is that you can specify "*" to be able to open any file with your App. It can be very useful for a binary file analyzer like HexReader for instance. See 

The full documentation can be found at http://developer.chrome.com/trunk/apps/manifest.html#file_handlers

Source: https://chromiumcodereview.appspot.com/14718014 

2013-05-11 05:24:51 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 36 +1s)

Chrome OS UI Designers are experimenting with an always maximized window mode.

In this mode hidden behind the eponymous flag at chrome://flags, the minimal and maximal window size properties of Chrome Packaged Apps will get ignored and the apps will always get maximized.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/13934007/

2013-05-11 05:09:21 (24 comments, 16 reshares, 129 +1s)

As expected for a long time, Scratchpad is moving to Google Keep.  

All you need to do is make sure all your notes are synced with Google Docs to not lose them.

Source: http://support.google.com/chromeos/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=3061306&p=scratchpad_transition

2013-05-11 02:22:15 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 64 +1s)

Here's a quick Chrome OS tip that will only be useful in rare occasions.

Perform a cold reboot : <Refresh> + <Power>

2013-05-10 21:25:47 (6 comments, 6 reshares, 63 +1s)

You can now step through all items of a pinned app with the <Alt> + <number> keyboard shortcut in the last Dev Update of Google Chrome OS.

Let me explain this one with few examples:
- If you have pinned the Gmail App and have opened a tab per Gmail account, you can now press <Alt> + 2 (if this is the second icon in your ash launcher) as many times as you want to toggle to the next Gmail account inbox in the list.
- If you have pinned the Google Drive App and opened one document, two spreadsheets and one presentation (4 tabs), you can press <Alt> + 3 (if this is the third icon in your ash launcher) as many times as you want to toggle to the next possible Google Drive tab in the list.
- Last one but not the least. If you have multiple Chrome windows opened, you can browse them one by one by pressing <Alt> + 1 as long as you want.
... more »

2013-05-10 20:07:59 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 45 +1s)

In the last Google Chrome OS Dev update, it's now possible to fullscreen a Chrome Packaged App window by pressing <Shift> + [ ] (F4).

Screenshots below show you the initial state of the Google Keep App, its maximized state triggered by pressing [ ] (F4) and finally its fullscreen state.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14389004/

2013-05-10 19:19:20 (44 comments, 80 reshares, 333 +1s)

I've created a small page to help you keep track of Chrome Channel Releases across all platforms: Chrome OS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad and Chrome Frame.

Go have a look at https://googledrive.com/host/0B8R1QvA3x5IbWll3M0hIYXVLZlk/

And if you're interested in knowing what these numbers represent, I'd recommend you read http://www.chromium.org/releases/version-numbers

2013-05-10 19:49:24 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 30 +1s)

If you don't like being notified each time you take a screenshot in Google Chrome OS, you can now, in the last Dev Update, disable these notifications by right-clicking on it and select "Disable notifications from Screenshot".

And if you want to enable these notifications after having turned them off,  you can simply display the message center, click on "settings" and check "Screenshot".

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14322005/

2013-05-10 19:06:29 (20 comments, 18 reshares, 88 +1s)

Virtual keyboard in the last Google Chrome OS Dev Update starts to look like a real virtual keyboard.

And there's even a microphone button!
Ok, it doesn't work yet but it will really soon now ;)

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14767006/

2013-05-08 14:22:52 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 20 +1s)

Running last chromium build with the --enable-memory-internals-ui switch will allow you to go to the chrome://memory-internals page, an internal page which aims to provide additional information to help you debugging memory issues.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14284005/

2013-05-08 14:15:48 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 19 +1s)

It's now possible in the last Chromium build for Chrome extensions/apps to retrieve some platform informations like the Operating System, the Architecture and the Native Client Architecture thanks to the new chrome.runtime.getPlatformInfo() API.

This new method is actually part of a broader effort to give the ability for developers to declare in their manifest the platforms they want to support. Some background is available at https://plus.google.com/u/0/100132233764003563318/posts/d6NJKkhciVQ.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14960002/

2013-05-08 14:14:23 (10 comments, 12 reshares, 80 +1s)

Chromium just reached version 29 and here are some miscellaneous facts from Wikipedia as usual:

- 29 is the atomic number of copper.
- 29 is a prime number.
- The Human skull is made-up of 29 bones.
- The Turkish and Norwegian alphabets contain 29 letters.
- Saturn takes 29 years to orbit our Sun.
- The probability of being born on 29th February is 1 in 1,461.
- A polygon made up of 29 sides is called an icosikaienneagon, enneacosagon or a nonacosagon. 

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/15017011/

2013-05-07 16:27:19 (21 comments, 10 reshares, 34 +1s)

Hackathon Chrome Packaged Apps le jeudi 23 mai à Paris

Les Chrome Packaged Apps, c'est les raccourcis déguisés vers les sites Web hein? Plus trop en fait.

Ce sont des applications écrites avec les technos web mais avec des capacités plus puissantes que sur le web et qui s'exécutent dans un environnement sécurisé. Elles ressemblent aux applications natives, sont multi-plateformes, fonctionnent hors-ligne par défaut et sont sécurisées.

Durant ce hackathon, nous vous présenterons ce que sont les Chrome Apps puis vous accompagnerons durant la création et la publication de votre première Chrome App et répondrons aux questions suivantes :

- Les drivers peuvent-ils être des Chrome Apps?
- Puis-je controler mon AR.Drone via une Chrome App?
- Le prochain Sublime Text sera-t-il une Chrome App?
_____________... more »

2013-05-07 15:22:18 (18 comments, 5 reshares, 65 +1s)

Mac users will be happy to know that rich notifications are being implemented on Mac. It's still under heavy development but you can play with them by running chrome with the --enable-rich-notifications  switch (no flag yet).

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14598015/

2013-05-07 15:21:00 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 27 +1s)

If you have enabled the new new tab page aka NTP5, you'll notice in the last Chromium build that the list of recently closed tabs is now displayed in the "Recent Tabs" menu.

Source: https://chromiumcodereview.appspot.com/14858006

2013-05-07 15:19:23 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 22 +1s)

It's now possible in the last Chromium build to download IndexedDB archives in chrome://indexeddb-internals/. 

You can actually see in the screenshot below the IndexedDB archive content of the Google Keep Chrome App.

Source: https://codereview.chromium.org/13949013

2013-05-07 15:18:04 (17 comments, 17 reshares, 162 +1s)

Last Google Chrome OS Dev Update has added support for the docked mode, a state where the system avoids suspending when the laptop lid is closed while an external display is connected. 
When entering this mode, the internal panel is also turned off while external displays are left on.

Source: https://gerrit.chromium.org/gerrit/46717
Thanks +Andrew Wickham

2013-05-06 14:20:54 (15 comments, 4 reshares, 57 +1s)

A new flag has been added in the last Chromium build to make Chrome App windows use native-style window decorations on Windows.

Flag is called "Native style window frames for packaged apps" and can be toggled at chrome://flags.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14024009/

2013-05-03 15:42:31 (30 comments, 15 reshares, 81 +1s)

Chrome OS Team is experimenting in the last Chrome OS Dev Update with a virtual keyboard behind an eponymous flag at chrome://flags

It does work as expected but it's still work in progress as you can see in the video below which also features the new Google Keep App.

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14161009/

2013-05-03 14:53:18 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 27 +1s)

Dev Tools in the last Chromium build give you an option to open the console drawer in overlay mode instead of the regular mode.
Main difference is that the window above won't be shrunk anymore.

You can toggle this option by enabling the "Developer Tools experiments" flag in chrome://flags, clicking the Wrench icon at the bottom left corner of your Dev Tools, on "Experiments" and check the option.

Source: https://codereview.chromium.org/14051002

2013-05-03 14:51:16 (6 comments, 3 reshares, 58 +1s)

In order to save you some headaches when you save a WebP image on your local disk, the Chrome browser will now register itself as a potential application to open WebP images.

And if you don't want to wait, I'd suggest you do it now manually ;)

Source: https://chromiumcodereview.appspot.com/13855013

2013-05-03 14:50:29 (8 comments, 1 reshares, 43 +1s)

Since the last Chrome OS Dev Update, the Files App displays volumes in this new order:
1) Google Drive
2) Downloads
3) Archives (if available)
4) Removables (if available)

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14242012/

2013-05-03 13:38:45 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 23 +1s)

If you were using some Chrome Commands in your Chrome App, you'll have to reconsider it since the Commands API is now reserved to Chrome Extensions only in the last Chromium build.

For information, the commands API gives you the ability to add keyboard shortcuts that trigger actions in your extension, for example, an action to open the browser action or send a command to the extension.
Go learn more about it at http://developer.chrome.com/trunk/extensions/commands.html

Source: http://codereview.chromium.org/14640002/

2013-05-01 18:32:07 (15 comments, 77 reshares, 195 +1s)

The HTML5 spec has just whitelisted the bitcoin protocol in order to allow web sites and web apps to register themselves as possible handlers for this protocol.

Therefore, it's now possible in the last chromium build to register your bitcoin app/site by calling navigator.registerProtocolHandler.
You may want to have a look at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/URI_Scheme if you're about to create one.

And for those who wonder what is Bitcoin, watch What is Bitcoin?

Source: https://codereview.chromium.org/14531004/