You are here: Home / Archives for Chrome

Native Client turns Chrome into high-end gaming platform | The Download Blog – Download.com

December 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google’s new technology to secure the Web and make browsers significantly more powerful got its first public demo tonight at the company’s headquarters south of San Francisco after three years under wraps.

Calling it Native Client, Google says that integrating technology into Chrome is essential for the future of Web browsers.

To show that Native Client is road-ready, the company used its event to announce several new Chrome-only versions of games known for their rich and processor-intensive graphics, available immediately. It also revealed that the browser currently has more than 200 million users worldwide.

The first public demonstration of Native Client started off with Ian Ellison-Taylor, director of product management for the open Web at Google, giving an overview of the questions that led to Native Client’s creation.

(Credit: Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

The games include those made by Square Enix, maker of Mini Ninja; Wolf Toss, built with Moai; Supergiant Games’ Bastion (Chrome browser only), which has won industry awards; and the Unity 3D game-building engine. Game designer Amir Rao showed off Bastion running in Chrome via Native Client to the crowd of about 100 developers, Google employees, and journalists, and it was apparent that the gameplay was smooth and that the graphics were highly detailed. It looked as if it could’ve been running on a console, except it was being played in a Chrome tab.

Ian Ellison-Taylor, Google’s director of product management for the open Web platform, said that Native Client, also called NaCl, can currently improve browser performance by 2 to 10 times. “What would it be like if we could run native code inside the browser,” he asked the crowd, and he enumerated two goals for the Native Client project. He said Google wants to bring native applications to the Web for performance and security reasons, and it wants to enrich the Web ecosystem by bringing popular, long-in-use programming languages to the Web.

via Native Client turns Chrome into high-end gaming platform | The Download Blog – Download.com.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Chrome Remoting Is Live: It’s A PC Remote Control! | ConceivablyTech

October 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The speculation about the feature set of Chrome Remoting ends as Google has released the software as a beta extension for Chrome. Think GoToMyPC: Remoting is available as the Chrome Remote Desktop that enables a user to remote control another PC that runs Chrome. Microsoft and Mozilla, this is a killer feature that should not be underestimated.

Google released the extension last Friday and says that it is experimental at this time and it is offered to collect user feedback. We first noticed “host remoting” in Chrome more than a year ago in Chromium 7 versions. Last May, Google decided to remove remoting as a core feature from Chrome and offer it as a plug-in and later as an extension. Compared to GoToMyPC, the feature is not quite as convenient, but it is free and can be used on any computer and OS that runs Chrome.

via Chrome Remoting Is Live: It’s A PC Remote Control! | ConceivablyTech.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Technolog – Chrome inching up to No. 2 browser

October 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google’s Chrome Web browser continues to shine; it’s making its way up the list of top desktop browsers, according to Net Applications, which shows Chrome at 16.20 percent, compared to 8.76 percent a year ago around this time.

In contrast, Internet Explorer’s market share continues to decline, from 60.99 percent a year ago to 54.39 percent; and Firefox, which had 23.55 percent last year now has 22.48 percent of the desktop market share. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

via Technolog – Chrome inching up to No. 2 browser.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

‘Related’ Browser Add-On: Handy, But at Cost to Privacy | PCWorld

August 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A nifty Google browser extension called “Google Related” makes finding associated Web content a snap, but for privacy-minded Web surfers the convenience will come with a hefty cost. The Chrome Web browser extension creates a navigation bar at the bottom of the browser, and as you roll your mouse cursor over the bar Google generates content relevant to what’s on the page you’re viewing.

Google announced the Web browser extension Tuesday for its Google Chrome Web browser. The Google Related add-on takes the form of a toolbar for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. No support for Apple’s Safari, Firefox, or Opera Web browser software was announced.

via ‘Related’ Browser Add-On: Handy, But at Cost to Privacy | PCWorld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Google Chrome becomes UK’s second most popular web browser | Technology | The Guardian

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google’s Chrome is Britain’s second most popular browser, a sign of the internet giant’s increasing grip on the UK search market.

Three years after launch, Chrome last month captured 22% of UK users and marginally overtook Mozilla’s Firefox browser, according to the web metrics firm Statcounter. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is losing market share to Chrome but remains the most popular browser for UK users with 45% – although it has a head start by being pre-installed on almost all computers sold in Britain. Apple’s Safari is UK number four, with a 9% share.

Google’s rise in the browser market is in part down to nationwide advertising – Chrome is the first Google product advertised on British TV – but is largely attributed to its speed.

Lars Bak, the Google engineer responsible for Chrome, said the goal had never been to attract a huge user base, but to energise a dormant browser market: “Speed is a fundamental part of it, but it’s also about the minimal design and the way it handles security. If you as a user try [to load] a webpage and it feels snappy, it’s really hard to go back [to another browser]. It has shown that people spend more time interacting with the web.”

via Google Chrome becomes UK’s second most popular web browser | Technology | The Guardian.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Mozilla to add built-in PDF viewer to Firefox – Computerworld

June 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Mozilla is working on a project that will add PDF rendering to Firefox using HTML5 and JavaScript, eliminating the need for users to run Adobe’s own plug-in.

The PDF reader may be included in Firefox within three months, said Andreas Gal, a Mozilla researcher who on Wednesday unveiled work the company had done quietly for the last month.

If Mozilla follows through on its plans, it would make Firefox the second major browser — after Google’s Chrome — to offer in-browser PDF rendering.

But while Chrome relies on an API (application programming interface) to craft its own native-code plug-in, Mozilla will exclusively use HTML5 and JavaScript to display Adobe’s popular document format.

via Mozilla to add built-in PDF viewer to Firefox – Computerworld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Everybody’s talking (and translating) with Chrome – Google Translate Blog

April 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Today, we’re excited to make a nifty feature widely available in today’s new Chrome stable release: speech input through HTML.

Curious about how speech input can be used in real life? Here’s one example: Using Chrome, you can now translate what you say into other languages with Google Translate. If you’re translating from English, just click on the microphone on the bottom right of the input box, speak your text, and choose the language you want to translate to. In fact, you can even click on the “Listen” feature to hear the translated words spoken back to you!

Speech input through HTML is one of many new web technologies in the browser that help make innovative and useful web applications like Google Translate’s speech feature possible. If you’d like to check out more examples of applications built using the latest and greatest web technologies in the browser, you can check out more than 200 submissions by web developers on chromeexperiments.com. If you’re not already using Chrome, don’t forget to first download Chrome at google.com/chrome.

via Everybody’s talking (and translating) with Chrome – Google Translate Blog.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Google patches 27 Chrome bugs, pays out record bounties – Computerworld

April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google today patched 27 vulnerabilities in Chrome as it boosted the “stable” build of the browser to version 11 on Windows, Mac and Linux.

The company paid out a record $16,500 in bounties to researchers who reported a majority of the bugs, beating the previous biggest payday by several hundred dollars.

Wednesday’s 27-patch update fixed 18 vulnerabilities rated “high,” the second-most-severe ranking in Google’s scoring; six labeled “medium”; and three pegged as “low.”

None of the vulnerabilities was ranked “critical,” the category reserved for bugs that may let an attacker escape Chrome’s anti-exploit “sandbox.” Google has patched three critical bugs so far this year.

via Google patches 27 Chrome bugs, pays out record bounties – Computerworld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Chrome tips users to dangerous Windows downloads – Computerworld

April 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Google on Tuesday said it will add malware download warnings to its Chrome browser.

The move has Google following the lead of rival Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) also alerts users of questionable downloads.

Google will use its Safe Browsing service to flag sketchy downloads, the company said in a post on a company blog. Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari already tap into Safe Browsing — which identifies suspicious or unsafe sites, then adds them to a “blacklist” — to warn of dangerous sites before users actually reach those sites.

Safe Browsing will also provide the data for Chrome’s download blocker, said Google.

via Chrome tips users to dangerous Windows downloads – Computerworld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Google jumps into ‘Do Not Track’ debate with Chrome add-on – Computerworld

January 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A day after Mozilla said it was exploring a “Do Not Track” feature for Firefox, Google today announced a Chrome add-on that lets users opt out of tracking cookies that monitor their movement and behavior online.

One privacy expert called Google’s new extension a “marginal improvement,” but applauded the browser maker for jumping into the privacy discussion.

Chrome’s “Keep My Opt-Outs” add-on leverages the self-regulation efforts by the online advertising industry to let users permanently opt out of ad tracking from the companies that participate in various programs, including the Network Advertising Initiative, said Google in a blog post Monday morning.

Google made it clear that it sees its strategy as walking the line between privacy and keeping the Web — which largely relies on advertising — afloat.

via Google jumps into ‘Do Not Track’ debate with Chrome add-on – Computerworld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts