If you use these features in Chrome you should get a Chromebook before 2018!

Google announced that it’s planning to phase out support for its browser-based Chrome apps for every single OS except – of course – Chrome OS proper. That means no Chrome apps will be available to download on Windows, Mac or Linux starting the second half of 2017, and in early 2018, existing apps won’t load at all on those platforms.

The reason? People just didn’t use them. According to Google:

There are two types of Chrome apps: packaged apps and hosted apps. Today, approximately 1 percent of users on Windows, Mac, and Linux actively use Chrome packaged apps, and most hosted apps are already implemented as regular web apps.

Instead, Google will be doubling down on extensions and themes, which are getting a more prominent showcase in the Chrome Web Store.

The company says the Web has matured enough to support experiences that used to require dedicated offline apps, such as sending notifications or connecting to hardware. Still, the company is keeping native apps on Chrome OS, saying they play a “critical role,” — clearly there is some advantage to them, but that’s simply by virtue that Chrome OS can only run Chrome apps.

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Chrome App Launcher Retirement

The app launcher makes Chrome apps easy to open outside the browser, but Google has found that users on Windows, Mac, and Linux prefer to launch their apps from within Chrome. With Chrome’s continued emphasis on simplicity and streamlining browser features, the launcher will be removed from those platforms and it will remain unchanged on Chrome OS.

Beginning in a few weeks, Chrome will no longer enable the launcher when users first install a Chrome app. Anyone who currently has the launcher will receive a notice informing them that the launcher will be going away. In July, existing instances of the launcher will be removed.

Google Chrome Tips:

Since Google Chrome can be used to do almost anything, as you’re using Chromebooks, find below some tips that you can benefit from while using Chrome:

New Tab Window

Google tries hard to make new tabs useful from the outset but there are some Chrome extensions that can make it work even harder. One of these is Momentum.

Upon opening a new tab, instead of the spartan slate of recent sites and Chrome apps you get Momentum, your personal dashboard presenting a Things to Do list, quote of the day, favorite links and, to top it all off, a beautiful landscape.

Chrome shortcuts

Any power user worth his or her salt knows the keyboard is still king. Knowing the right Chrome key combos can save you a ton of time across your day.

Here are a few shortcuts you should definitely know (PC/Mac):

• Ctrl/Cmd + L – highlights text in the address bar
• Ctrl/Cmd + T – open a new tab
• Ctrl/Cmd + W – close current tab
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + T – reopen closed tab
• Ctrl + Tab – switch tab one tab to the right
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab – switch tab one tab to the left
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + B – toggle the bookmark bar visibility

And here’s where you’ll find the whole shooting match.

Smart Search

You can use the top bar on Google Chrome to directly search for anything you want, and its a smart search. Go ahead and try to enter a simple or complex Math expression or convert currencies or simply search for the weather!

• Calculation (2+2) * (4-2)
• Beirut Forecast
• Tilt (Be careful it will tilt your screen!)
• 100$ to AED
• English to Indian

Google Chrome will soon run much faster thanks to Brotli!

Chrome is about to load web pages a lot faster than you’ve experienced up until now. A new compression algorithm called Brotli will help making this possible. Google introduced Brotli last September, with it Chrome will be able to compress data up to 26% more than its existing compression engine, Zopfli, which is an impressive jump.

According to Google’s web performance engineer Ilya Grigorik, Brotli is ready to roll out, so Chrome users should expect to see a bump in load times once the next version of Chrome is released in the coming days or weeks.

Google also says Brotli will help mobile Chrome users experience “lower data transfer fees and reduced battery use.” The company is hailing Brotli as “a new data format” that Google hopes will be adopted by other web browsers in the near future.

Firefox seemingly next in line to adopt it. But for now, expect to notice your web pages loading a bit faster in the coming weeks.

Best tech-related April Fools’ hoaxes 2015!

Remember Google Maps Pokemon Challenge? It’s that time of the year, folks. Outlandish news, imaginary products unveilings, and outrageous announcements – tech companies are trying to one-up each other with the wildest April Fools’ day hoaxes. Some have even jumped the gun by a day, or in the case of OnePlus, by a few weeks.

If you don’t have the time or patience to sift through all the fake news today, we’re doing the hard work for you. Here’s what transpired so far.

Chrome Selfie

The Google Chrome team thinks it’s too damn hard to share what you really feel when you read the news online. So it’s fixing things with a new feature available now in the Chrome for Android app. Chrome Selfie lets you take a selfie, along with a screenshot of whatever your reading, and send it to whomever you want. Handy! All kidding aside, we can totally see some cash-flush venture-funded startup trying to make this into a real product.

Amazon Website

Retro style Amazon.com website, that introduced a new Dash button with future of Shopping for everyday shoppers.

Google Panda

Google Japan thinks the best way to spur the adoption of Google Now is to put Google’s virtual assistant in a cute and fluffy panda body. They even got bigwig Chris Yerga to introduce in on stage at a press conference.

Google Panda has three main functions: cuteness (“soft, rounded design”), mobility (it hugs you!), and durability (fluffy fur absorbs shock! if only smartphones had fur as well…). More about the groundbreaking new Google Panda here.

Google party horn keyboard

Typing is too hard! How about if, instead of pushing inconvenient keys, you could spell out words by blowing into a party horn? Not satisfied with Panda alone, the Google Japan team is introducing a Bluetooth-enabled party horn that will make tedious key pushing a memory.

Google Smartbox by Inbox

“Introducing a new way to interact with the mail you love. The good old-fashioned kind of mail that you touch with your hands… and smell with your nose.” Thank you Inbox team!

Moto Selfie Stick

Hipsters of the world, rejoice. You will definitely appreciate Motorola’s new product: handmade, leather-bound, custom selfie sticks. Because when you have to embarrass yourself with a selfie stick, you should at least do it in style.

T-Mobile Pets Unleashed

Your carrier hates puppies! So put it to the doghouse and switch to T-Mobile, where Pets Unleashedlets your favorite furry friends get their paws on their dream devices, starting at five bucks a month. What would your pet do with a smartphone or tablet, you ask? Easy – swipe through Pet Tinder, use FitPet, and watch zebra porn. Yes, really.

MS-DOS Mobile

Microsoft has had a hard time with its mobile operating system, so it’s going back to basic with MS-DOS Mobile. Black and white text has never looked so good! Launch apps or send messages, with a simple text command!

Reddit invasion

Visit r/Android today, that bastion of all things blessed by Duarte (okay, that’s r/AndroidCircleJerk actually) and you’ll be in for a nasty surprise. At least r/Apple users are probably just as confused.

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Updating with more silliness as it comes! Missed anything? Tell us in the comments.

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Official WhatsApp for PC is coming soon as shown in these leaked screenshots!

Alleged screenshots hinting of an upcoming WhatsApp web client have surfaced. Shared on Google+ and shortly removed, the post shows WhatsApp settings screen prompting to pair with a web browser and a trusted computer for a secure connection.

The web client itself hasn’t leaked yet. Sadly, there’s no further information when we can expect WhatsApp to expand beyond smartphones.

The company provides one of the most popular messaging services worldwide and by the end of August, 2014 reported 700 million monthly active users. Recently, WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption on Android and the latest rumor is that it will soon offer voice calls.

This puts WhatsApp in a direct rivalry with the likes of Viber and Skype. It’ll be interesting to see where the competition among these messaging services will take the segment.

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