Showing posts with label chrome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chrome. Show all posts

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings

The best meetings are face-to-face—we can brainstorm openly, collaborate closely and make faster decisions. But these days, we often connect with each other from far-flung locations, coordinating time zones and dialing into conference calls from our phones. Meetings need to catch up with the way we work—they need to be face-to-face, easier to join, and available from anywhere and any device. Starting today, they can be: Any company can upgrade their meeting rooms with a new Chromebox, built on the Chrome principles of speed, simplicity and security. 

Chromebox for meetings brings together Google+ Hangouts and Google Apps in an easy-to-manage Chromebox, making it simpler for any company to have high-definition video meetings. Here are a few highlights: 

  • Instant meeting room. Chromebox for meetings comes with a blazing-fast Intel Core i7-based Chromebox, a high-definition camera, a combined microphone and speaker unit and a remote control. Set up your entire room in minutes and easily manage all meeting rooms from a web-based management console. All you need is the display in your room, and you’re good to go.
  • Simpler and faster meetings. Walk into the room, click the remote once and you’re instantly in the meeting. No more complex dial-in codes, passcodes or leader PINs. Share your laptop screen wirelessly, no need for any cords and adaptors. Integration with Google Apps makes it easy to invite others and add rooms to video meetings, directly from Google Calendar.
  • Meetings with anyone, anywhere. Up to 15 participants can join the video meeting from other conference rooms, their laptops, tablets or smartphones. Need to meet with a customer who doesn’t use Chromebox for meetings? That’s easy too—all they need is a Gmail account. You can also connect to rooms that have traditional video conferencing systems using a new tool from Vidyo, and participants who prefer phones can join your meeting with a conference call number fromUberConference.
Chromebox for meetings is available in the U.S. today starting at $999, which includes the ASUS Chromebox and everything you need to get going. That means for the same price that companies have typically paid for one meeting room, they'll be able to outfit 10 rooms—or more. CDW and SYNNEX will help bring Chromebox for meetings to customers and resellers, and Chromeboxes from HP and Dell will be available for meetings in the coming months. Later this year, we plan to launch in Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the U.K. 

Companies like Eventbrite, Gilt, oDesk and Woolworths have been testing Chromebox for meetings, and have told us that they love the simple setup, the ease of use, and being able to see their colleagues in other offices. More importantly, the low price will enable them to extend these benefits to even more employees, rooms and offices. Find out how Chromebox for meetings can help you and your coworkers see eye-to-eye. Happy meetings, everyone! 

Sunday 13 April 2014

Chromecast: now casting in 11 more countries


Superheroescliff diversfearless reporters or pop icons—whatever you like to watch, Chromecast makes it easy to bring it from a phone, tablet or laptop to the biggest screen in your house: the TV. Since announcing Chromecast in the U.S., we’ve grown to include more of your favorite apps and websites. Those numbers will continue to grow, and we want to bring Chromecast to more people around the world. Today Chromecast is available in an additional 11 countries—Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. 

In addition to your favorite apps like YouTube, Google Play Movies, Google Play Music and Netflix (where available), we’re working with local content providers to bring even more of the movies and TV shows you love to Chromecast. Apps will start rolling out today, and include BBC iPlayer in the U.K.; France TV Pluzz and SFR TV in France with CANALPLAY coming soon; and Watchever in Germany with Maxdome coming soon. So instead of huddling around your laptop to watch Sherlock solve the next crime or getting caught up on all the workplace drama in Stromberg, you can cast it, sit back, and watch together on the big screen.

Chromecast will keep getting better. We recently opened up Chromecast to developers, and in a few short weeks more than 3,000 developers worldwide have signed up to bring their apps and websites to Chromecast. You’ll soon have more TV shows, movies, videos, sports, music and games to choose from. Stay up-to-date on the latest apps that work with Chromecast at chromecast.com/apps.

So if you’re in one of these 11 countries, look for Chromecast starting today at Amazon, Google Play, Currys PC World, Elkjøp, FNAC, Saturn, Media Markt and other retailers.

Saturday 12 April 2014

Chromebooks compared: New and upcoming Chrome OS laptops

Sarah Tew/CNET
With a small but growing slice of the PC market, Chromebooks are finally a viable choice for anyone looking to buy a secondary or travel laptop. Unlike the similarly priced netbooks of old, these systems, running Google's Chrome OS instead of Windows, tend to focus on doing one thing and doing it well -- giving you low-cost access to online tools and services.
But with myriad models available from Acer, HP, Toshiba, and even Google -- many with annoyingly similar names -- which is the Chromebook to beat?
Compare our hands-on reviews and impressions of the major Chromebook entrants below. These models are all still widely available to buy (the ambitious Samsung Chromebook 2 will be out in April 2014), and offer largely similar onboard storage, low-power CPUs, and basic plastic bodies.
The differences come in around the edges: the touch screen on the Acer C720P makes it our all-around favorite; the 1080p 13-inch display on the upcoming Samsung Chromebook 2 is better for HD video and long typing sessions; the latest HP models add some serious design flair.
If Chrome OS continues to capture market share (some say it could hit 17 percent of the total PC market in 2014), we'll likely see more variations on screen size, features, and design, giving PC buyers even more options for skipping Windows and OS X.

Dan Ackerman/CNET
Samsung Chromebook 2
Samsung says the answer to Chromebook uniformity is its next-gen version, called Chromebook 2. These new models, in 11.6-inch and 13-inch versions, make some notable tweaks both outside and in, including a faux-leather outer finish with a soft-touch feel and "stitches" molded into the outer edge, and a full 1,920x1,080 display on the 13-inch model. Note that both are powered by Samsung's home-grown Exynos 5 Octa chip, rather than an Intel chip.
Read more about the Samsung Chromebook 2.

Sarah Tew/CNET
Acer Chromebook C720P
Though this may be the best Chromebook we've ever seen, that doesn't change what it really is: a touch-enabled update to the Acer Chromebook C720 that's been around for a few months. But battery improvements, Chrome OS improvements, and a combination of extra storage and a touch screen make this Chromebook package a lot more palatable than its predecessors.
Read the full review of the Acer Chromebook C720P.

Josh Goldman/CNET
Toshiba Chromebook
If you buy into the Chromebook argument, that of a system that lives 90-plus percent of its useful life online, running Web-based in-browser apps and using cloud-based storage, the 13-inch Toshiba Chromebook offers a bit more functionality than rock-bottom 11-inch versions, for only a little more money. 
Read the full review of the Toshiba Chromebook.

Sarah Tew/CNET
HP Chromebook 11
The HP Chromebook 11 isn't much more than a redesigned variant on the hardware already in other Chromebooks -- an ARM processor, similar battery life, and a low-res non-touch display. But, the new HP version looks a lot better. Rather than seeming like a cast-off Netbook with a Chrome OS brain-swap, the Chromebook 11 is cute, compact, simple, and attractive.
Read the full review of the HP Chromebook 11.

HP Chromebook 14 (Fall 2013)
James Martin/CNET
HP Chromebook 14
The second-gen 14-inch model from HP steps it up in the design department. The newer Chromebook 14 comes in three cool-looking colors: snow white, ocean turquoise, and coral peach. It also includes 200MB of 3G data/month for two years. Surprisingly, HP doesn't sleep on ports. The Chromebook 14 seats two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, HDMI, and one full-size SD card slot.
Read more about the HP Chromebook 14.

Sarah Tew/CNET
Samsung Chromebook Series
The classic first-gen Samsung Chromebook is still available from $199 to $249, depending on where you look. Remember that Samsung's Chromebook uses a low-power processor, Samsung's own Exynos 5 Dual, which is built on ARM's dual-core system-on-a-chip Cortex A15 design. That's good for battery life, but don't expect zippy performance.
Read the full review of the Samsung Chromebook Series.

Josh Miller/CNET
Google Chromebook Pixel
This is the first Google-designed laptop -- not one farmed out to a partner like Acer or Samsung. And Google has upped the ante, adding a high-res touch screen -- with a pixel density greater than that of Apple's vaunted Retina screens -- and a real Intel Core i5 processor. Even a year after its initial release, the Pixel is still $1,299. 

Friday 21 March 2014

Editors Spotlight: AdBlock Plus (Download)

Adblock Plus (ABP) is an open-source content-filtering and ad blocking extension for Mozilla Firefox (including Firefox for mobile), Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari web browsers.

Adblock Plus is the world’s most popular browser extension, and is used by millions of users worldwide. It is a community-driven open source project, and hundreds of volunteers are contributing to the success of Adblock Plus to make sure that all annoying ads are automatically blocked.

Adblock Plus blocks:

  • Banners
  • YouTube video ads
  •  Facebook advertisements
  •  Pop-ups
  •  All other obtrusive ads



Michael McDonald of Provo, Utah, created Adblock Plus 0.5 that improved on the original AdBlock by incorporating the following features:

  • whitelisting
  • support for blocking background images
  • subscription to filters with a fixed address and automatic updates
  • the ability to hide HTML elements, allowing a greater range of images to be blocked
  • the ability to hide ads on a per-site basis, instead of globally
  • memory leak fixes
  • improvements to the user interface.
PC World chose Adblock Plus as one of the 100 best products of 2007.


A site with and without AdBlock Plus
The owners of some websites which use third party hosted online advertising to fund the hosting of their websites have argued that the use of ad-blocking software such as Adblock Plus risks cutting off their revenue stream.While some websites such as The New York Times and The Daily Telegraph have successfully implemented subscription and membership based paywall systems for revenue, many websites today rely on third party hosted online advertising to function. In 2007, web developer Danny Carlton described the use of adblockers as tantamount to theft, and called for other site owners to block the Firefox web browser from their websites to deter its use.


He also stated that "We have an initiative called Acceptable Ads to support websites with unobtrusive ads. Every website can participate. The [Pallenberg] article on purpose just slanders our good name".
In response to the "acceptable ads" whitelisting, forks of Adblock Plus were created such as Adblock Edge and the now defunct Adblock Lite.

Download AdBlock Plus For  :

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Dayframe makes Chromecast slideshow free for all users

Dayframe

Prime upgrade $0.99 for a limited time


With version 2.3 of Dayframe, out now in the Google Play Store, we're treated to a couple of new features, but best of all everyone gets Chromecastsupport for free. Free version users will get no time limits or ads interfering with their pictures, but instead will get a small logo on the screen and a "pop-up reminder/nudge" about the Prime upgrade once in a while. The Prime upgrade itself is going down to $0.99 for a limited time as part of the update.
So, what else is new?
  • Can now add multiple Facebook friends at a time
  • Better support for wireless chargers (i.e. the Tylt)
  • Faster and easier to create playlists (as part of Prime)
  • Slideshow lighter makeover
  • Bug fixes

Monday 3 March 2014

Chrome OS may soon let you run multiple profiles at once



Miultiple profile experiment in Chrome OS
If you have a Chrome OS system, you know it can be a hassle to sign out just so that someone else can borrow the computer for a few minutes. That may not be an annoyance for much longer, though. A new developer version of Chrome OS includes experimental code for running multiple profiles at once; after others sign in, you can switch between users at the drop of a hat. You can even send windows to different profiles. There's no certainty that Google will bring multi-account support to a polished Chrome OS release, but those willing to take some risks can switch to the Dev channel to try the feature today.

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