Tag: Google Chrome

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Mobile Syrup

Chrome redesign for large-screen Android devices in the works

Android tablet and foldable users are in for a visual refresh if they use Google Chrome. Experimental flags in the latest stable build include interface tweaks that can be enabled with some fiddling, as uncovered by Android Police.

It looks like Google is working on incorporating elements of its Material You design language into its mobile browser. When enabled, the strip of tabs at the top becomes visually separated from the address bar. The “new tab” button, represented by a plus sign, is now filled in with rounded padding as well.

To top it off, the updated interface now appears to follow Google’s custom accent colour system. First introduced in Android 12, the system pulls from a colour palette that dynamically adjusts based on the wallpaper in use.

These changes aren’t groundbreaking by any means, but they do a good job of freshening up the look of the browser. With the flags enabled, everything looks an extra bit polished compared to before.

It is unknown when Google plans on pushing out these changes to the stable build of Chrome for Android. The company is currently also working on a visual refresh of the desktop version of its web browser.

Source: Android Police Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Chrome tries to shrug off memory hog reputation with latest update

Google’s Chrome browser is incredibly popular but has garnered a reputation for being a resources hog — particularly when it comes to memory. However, a new set of features hopes to change that by making Chrome more memory and energy efficient.

The two new features arriving in Chrome version 110 (which is rolling out to desktops now) are Memory Saver and Energy Saver. Both are exactly as they sound — Memory Saver tries to reduce the memory Chrome uses on your PC, while Energy Saver tries to reduce Chrome’s drain on the battery of laptops and Chromebooks.

Memory Saver works by sleeping inactive tabs and other applications to free up resources to use elsewhere. Tabs remain visible in the tab bar and reload when users click back on them. Plus, a notification appears in the ‘Omnibox’ — what Google calls the search/URL bar — that lets users now when a tab becomes active again. Users can check that notification to see how much RAM Chrome saved with Memory Saver.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Chrome isn’t the first to do this. Microsoft’s Edge browser — which runs on Chromium, the same underlying foundation as Chrome — has had a tab sleeping feature for a while (Microsoft started testing it in December 2020). Edge greys out sleeping tabs and users can have their cursor over them to see an estimate of save resources, though Edge is admittedly vague about what’s being saved.

As for the Energy Saver feature, it targets laptops and Chromebooks by disabling certain settings to reduce energy use. Users cna configure Energy Saver to kick on automatically when their devices’ battery falls below 20 percent. While active, Energy Saver displays a leaf icon in the top-right corner of the browser next to things like your extensions. Energy Saver disables things like smooth scrolling and website animations while also reducing video frame rates to tamp down on energy use.

The Chrome 110 release enables Memory Saver and Energy Saver by default on Chromebooks, Windows and Mac. Of course, it’s worth noting that Energy Saver isn’t available for desktop versions of Chrome, which makes sense given it’s meant to extend battery life and desktops typically don’t run on battery power.

Source: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Chrome redesign is now live in Canary build

Google Chrome, one of the most popular web browsers, is set to receive a slight redesign in 2023, and work on it has already begun, as shared by 9to5Google.

As spotted in the developer version of Chrome — Chrome Canary, the changes are disabled by default, and need to be enabled using a flag. If you have Chrome Canary installed on your computer, type in chrome://flags/#chrome-refresh-2023 in the address bar and press enter.

It should directly take you to the ‘Chrome Refresh 2023,’ flag, highlighted in Yellow. Enable the flag and restart Chrome Canary.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice that the Tab bar looks slightly different than regular Chrome, with the redesign putting more emphasis on separating tabs and the omnibar. Additionally, the bookmarks interface has been redesigned with rounded shapes for text boxes and buttons.

Although the redesign is not a major one, it is a welcome change. The redesign is expected to be released on Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, Fuchsia, and Lacros. It’s not clear when Google plans to widely roll out the redesign.

If you want to try out the redesign, you can download Chrome Canary here.

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Chrome’s new ‘Instance Switcher’ lets you have multiple instances open at once

Chrome is undoubtedly the most used browser globally, and Safari, which takes the number two spot, doesn’t even come close. 

Chrome is user friendly, with its intuitive UI, highly customizable, fast and secure. However, the Chrome experience on PC doesn’t equally translate to the Chrome experience on Android or iOS.

For example, PC users can have multiple instances of Chrome running at once, while Android and iOS user can only run one instance of the browser, with different tabs open. Android users do have a workaround, however. Installing a Chrome Canary build or a dev build allows you to run the Chrome app and the Canary/Dev app as separate instances.

Now, according to ChromeUnboxed, the days of having to find workarounds to have multiple instances of Chrome running on your Android device might just be numbered. According to the publication,  Chrome added a feature in its beta build last year called ‘Instance Switcher.’ With the feature enabled, users would be able to tap the three dots on the top right of Chrome and select a ‘Manage Windows’ option that displays ‘Windows’ in the same way that separate Chrome browser instances would appear on a desktop or a laptop.

The feature, which was limited to the beta version of Chrome, is now making its way to the stable build of the app on Android.

Tapping ‘Manage Windows’ opens up a full-screen window that shows your active instances, and you can open more than two instances if required. Opening a new instance opens the Android App Overview menu and adds the new Chrome instance below the one that you’re currently using. This makes it very easy to alternate between your Chrome instances or view them in a split-screen configuration.

You’ll also be able to sign-in to the different instances with different Google accounts, which means each instance would be able to maintain its own browsing history, bookmarks, passwords, etc.

Google hasn’t officially announced the feature yet, though according to ChromeUnboxed, the ‘Manage Windows’ option is rolling out with Chrome version 108.0.5359.128.

Source: ChromeUnboxed

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Mobile Syrup

How to use Apple’s Camera Continuity with Google Chrome

Apple’s new iPhone Camera Continuity feature makes setting up shots for video meetings a lot more fun, but unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work well with Google Chrome. However, I’ve found it works great in the beta version, Chrome Canary.

This suggests that the situation will improve with standard Chrome soon, but if you’re like me and want to jump on things early, this workaround is fairly seamless. You can also try these steps in your Chrome version since I have seen reports online of it working in the standard build.

To start, you need to ensure that you have macOS Ventura and iOS 16 downloaded on your iPhone. Once those updates are finalized, you should be able to select your iPhone from the dropdown menu of any webcam software as long as your phone and Mac are close together. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to work that seamlessly yet, but I expect that most major apps will update to support it.

What to do in Chrome?

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Once you’ve downloaded Chrome Canary, open the app’s Settings page via the three-dot menu in the top right-hand corner. From there, open the ‘Privacy and Security sub-menu and choose ‘Camera:’

Settings>Privacy and Security>Camera

Sometimes it takes a few seconds to appear, but a dropdown menu should be at the top of the page, allowing you to choose your preferred camera. If your iPhone isn’t on the list, try opening up FaceTime and seeing if it’s available there.

Once FaceTime is activated, you can open the ‘Video’ option from the Menu bar, and your iPhone should be listed as a camera.

Does it work in other browsers?

Reports show it works well in the Brave browser and Microsoft Edge. Surprisingly, I’ve had little success with it in Safari.

Apple also notes on its support page that if the feature isn’t working, you can try the following troubleshooting steps;

  • Make sure that your iPhone and Mac meet the system requirements.
  • Make sure that your iPhone is properly mounted.
  • Install the latest macOS updates, iOS updates, and updates for your video app.
  • If you haven’t unlocked your iPhone since it last restarted, unlock it, then lock it again.
  • Plug your iPhone into your Mac.
  • Restart your iPhone or Mac.
Source: RiversideFM, Apple Support 
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Mobile Syrup

The Simpsons’ latest couch gag is an homage to Google Chrome’s Dinosaur Game

The Season 34 premiere of The Simpsons on September 25th kicked off with a fun nod to Google Chrome’s Dinosaur Game.

In the intro, all five Simpsons family members appear as pixelated silhouettes and run in a 2D plane while jumping over cacti, just like in Google’s offline dino game. All the while, a chiptune version of Danny Elfman’s iconic The Simpsons theme can be heard. By the end of the gag, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Maggie successfully make it to the couch, while Homer runs into a cactus and yells “D’oh!”

You can view the gag in full on Twitter courtesy of PowerPage founder Jason O’Grady.

Titled “Habeas Tortoise,” The Simpsons‘ 34th season premiere follows Homer as he finds himself publicly humiliated once again and seeks refuge in an online group looking for a missing tortoise, only to discover something much darker.

The first 33 seasons of the animated sitcom are currently streaming on Disney+ Canada.

Image credit: 20th Century Fox

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Mobile Syrup

You can now hide Chrome incognito tabs on Android behind a passcode

Google is planning to make incognito tabs on Android a tad bit more private.

Chrome for Android is getting an option to lock incognito tabs behind a fingerprint lock, as shared by 9to5Google.

If you’re browsing incognito and exit the Chrome app, whenever you open the app again, you’ll have to go through biometrics to access the incognito tabs. According to 9to5Google, you’ll see a gray screen with an “Unlock Incognito” button at the bottom, tapping on which will bring up the fingerprint sensor. Additionally, you can also use your PIN to unlock the incognito tabs.

The feature can be enabled/disabled from the ‘Privacy and Security’ menu, as seen in the screenshot above, and can come in highly beneficial when you’re handing your phone over to someone for browsing purposes but don’t want them to peek at your incognito browsing.

It’s worth noting that Google apps on iOS like Google Drive, Google Chrome and Google Search and Google Authenticator have had the feature enabled for a while now, so it’s strange that Google is just adding the feature on its own operating system, and that too only for Chrome.

The feature hasn’t yet been widely rolled out, but you can activate it by heading to chrome://flags/#incognito-reauthentication-for-android, and activating the “Device authentication for Incognito” flag.

Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google won’t phase out third-party cookies for another two years

Google has previously stated that it is slowly phasing out third-party tracking cookies, however, it has been more than two years since the Mountain View, California-based company stated so. Now, in a blog post published earlier today, July 27th, the company says its replacement for third-party cookies, its own ‘Privacy Sandbox,‘ which can both protect people’s privacy online and give companies and developers tools to build thriving digital businesses is still roughly two years away from being launched, which means, Google will begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024.

According to Google, developers can already test out Privacy Sandbox APIs today, and beginning early next month, the company plans to expand its Privacy Sandbox Trials to millions of users globally. Moving forward, Google says it will gradually “increase the trial population throughout the rest of the year and into 2023.”

Users that join the trials, they will be shown a prompt, which will allow them to manage/alter their participation. Eventually, once publishers and developers figure out how the new APIs work, they’ll be more “generally available” by Q3 of 2023. Learn more about how you can enter the trial here.

An updated timeline for the Privacy Sandbox can be found here.

Image credit: Google 

Source: Google 

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Mobile Syrup

Google Chrome patch fixes severe zero-day vulnerability

Google released a new update to its Chrome browser for Windows with a fix for a severe zero-day vulnerability, the fourth such patch for Chrome this year.

The flaw impacts Chrome’s WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) component and was first reported by Jan Vojtesek from the Avast Threat Intelligence team on July 1st. Zero-day refers to vulnerabilities that are disclosed but not yet patched, while WebRTC is an open-source project and powers browser-based video call tools.

On July 4th, Google published a security advisory (via Bleeping Computer) noting that it was aware of exploits for the vulnerability that exist in the wild. Chrome version 103.0.5060.114 is rolling out globally to the stable desktop channel — Chrome users should make sure to update right away. Google says it’ll take a matter of days or weeks to hit its entire userbase.

To update, click Chrome’s menu button > Help > About Google Chrome. The browser should alert users if there’s an update available and provide an option to install and restart the browser. Make sure to check the version number to make sure you’re updating to the version of Chrome with the patch (version 103.0.5060.114).

It’s worth noting that Chrome auto-checks for new updates and installs them automatically on the next launch.

Bleeping Computer notes that Google didn’t share technical details about the vulnerability, despite it being a zero-day. Google’s security advisory notes that the company may restrict access to bug details “until a majority of users are updated with a fix.” Likely, Google will release the technical details once users have had time to install the update.

Moreover, Bleeping Computer notes that Chrome has previously patched three zero-day vulnerabilities this year in April, March, and February.

Source: Google Via: Bleeping Computer

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Mobile Syrup

Safari crosses the one billion user mark, still far behind Chrome

A new atlasVPN report reveals that Apple’s Safari web browser has crossed the one billion user mark, becoming the second browser to ever achieve the feat.

The report suggests that Safari has about 1,006,232,879 users, which makes up about 19.16 percent of all internet users. “The statistics are based on the GlobalStats browser market share percentage, which was then converted into numbers using the Internet World Stats internet user metric to retrieve the exact numbers,” reads the report.

While Safari has come a long way since its early day, it still has a lot of catching up to do. Google Chrome still retains the browser market leader crown, with over 3.3 billion users. Microsoft’s Edge comes in at third with 212 million users, followed by Firefox, Samsung Internet and Opera with 179 million, 149 million and 108 million users, respectively.

While Microsoft Edge recently took over the second most popular browser spot from Safari, that has yet to appear in its userbase.

Apple’s Safari comes automatically installed on every iPhone and Mac computer, giving Apple an advantage in terms of what browser software customers will use. Similarly, almost all Android devices come with Chrome pre-installed, giving it an edge that is clearly visible in the userbase disparity.

With WWDC 2022 fast approaching, Apple may reveal even more new features and improvements for Safari packed in its new iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13.

Read atlasVPN‘s full browser market share report here.

Source: atlasVPN