Chrome Blog
The latest news from the Google Chrome team
More fun in the living room with Android TV and with Google Cast speakers
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Android TV
and
Google Cast for audio
devices were introduced to give you more freedom and control over your entertainment. Today we’re bringing even more TV and speaker makers onboard for both Android TV and Google Cast.
When it comes to home entertainment, the living room is more connected than ever. Approximately 88% of consumer electronic devices shipped in 2015 were Internet-enabled.¹ When devices in the home are connected, it’s important to have platforms that make it easy for you to stream your favorite digital music and movies.
Android TV
Android TV brings apps, games, movies, shows, music and more to the biggest screen in your home. From smart TVs to cable box operators, many devices support the Android TV experience. Now you’ve got even more options to find the device that’s right for you. If you’re looking for a new TV, you can select an Android TV from Sony, Sharp and Philips. Later this year, Android TV will be available from Arcelik, Vestel, RCA, Hisense, TCL and Bang & Olufsen. And, for our users in Indonesia, Linknet now has an Android TV offering.
Google Cast for speakers
Google Cast, the same technology built into Chromecast, is now embedded directly into speakers, sound bars, and A/V receivers so you can cast music from your favorite app on your phone or any music streaming website on Chrome. Throughout 2016, you’ll be able to enjoy Google Cast speakers from B&O Play, Harman Kardon, Onkyo, Philips, Pioneer, and Raumfeld.
Sony
and
LG
, who were among the first to include Google Cast in their speakers, are also refreshing their speaker lineups. Cast-enabled software and hardware from Frontier Silicon and StreamUnlimited will make it easier for more audio companies to join the Google Cast family.
Recently, we announced that multi-room synchronization is available on Chromecast Audio. Multi-room sync lets you group speakers connected to Chromecast Audio devices together so you can listen to the same song throughout the house. In 2016, multi-room sync functionality will come to Google Cast speakers, allowing you to mix and match Cast-enabled speakers from your favorite brands with speakers connected to Chromecast Audio.
Check back for more hardware and content news throughout the year.
Posted by Adrienne McCallister, Streaming Media Maven
¹/
Strategy Analytics Connected CE Devices Market Forecast, July 2015
Endless fun for this holiday season
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Whether you’re cozied up at home or on the road, Chromecast has a bunch of new goodies for you and the family. Just in time for the holidays, we’re adding more Chromecast-enabled games for both Android and iOS to the list.
Now casting is Rovio’s
Angry Birds Friends
, featuring everyone’s favorite red bird, where you can compete in weekly tournaments. Also available is Ubisoft’s
Driver Speedboat Paradise
, where you race your boat through beautiful canals and waterways around the world.
Angry Birds Friends, by Rovio
We’re also introducing several new family-friendly Hasbro games which have been remastered for the big screen experience, including
Monopoly Here & Now, Yahtzee Blitz, The Game of Life,
and
Scrabble Blitz 2.0
. These are perfect companions for the downtime before that ball drops this New Year’s Eve. And lastly, we’re excited to introduce a new way to play
Risk
-- on Chromecast. Now you can compete for world domination with friends and family. (Hasbro games available in the US and CA only)
With Chromecast, you can get a great split-screen experience for your mobile games. For example, if you are playing
Monopoly Here & Now
, only you can see your cards on your phone while the moves you decide to make get displayed on the big screen. It unlocks fun multiplayer experiences, and the ability for you to use your phone or tablet as the controller while gameplay takes place on the TV.
Monopoly Here & Now Big Screen, by Hasbro
Many games now work with Chromecast, and many more will continue to be made available.
So whether you’re playing with friends or by yourself, you can now play mobile games on the biggest screen in the house. Check out these great games and more on
chromecast.com/apps
.
Posted by Wendi Zhang, Chromecast Business Development Games Lead and Ultimate Bird Caster
Wield your lightsaber to escape the First Order
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
You don’t need to be a Jedi to master a lightsaber — just go to
g.co/lightsaber
on your phone or desktop to wield your very own lightsaber in our latest Chrome Experiment, “
Lightsaber Escape
,” built for your phone and computer.
Inspired by
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
, “Lightsaber Escape” immerses you in a galaxy far, far away, bringing the film to life through modern web technologies. Your adventure begins in a Star Destroyer, where you’ll need to use your phone as a lightsaber to escape the First Order.
The experience was developed in collaboration with Disney, Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic. The rich 3D graphics were built with
WebGL
, enabling beautiful, high fidelity 3D renders within the browser. We’re also using
WebRTC
and
WebSockets
to enable high accuracy, real-time communication between your mobile and desktop devices, reducing latency and improving interactivity. Plus, building with web standards means the experience works across browsers, and without plug-ins. For a more in-depth tech overview, you can check out our
technical case study
on developers.google.com.
Visit
google.com/starwars
to experience
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
across your favorite Google apps and explore Jakku Spy, a Google Cardboard Experience.
May the Force be with you!
Posted by Paul Irish, Product Manager & T-70 X-Wing Cadet
Even more to love about Chromecast Audio
Thursday, December 10, 2015
A couple of months ago we launched
Chromecast Audio
to provide an easy way to stream your favorite tunes from your phone, tablet, or laptop to your existing speakers. At $35, Chromecast Audio is an affordable way to connect your speakers via WiFi so you can stream tons of popular apps including Spotify, Pandora, and Google Play Music from anywhere in your home. Today we’re starting to add two new features to the latest software update to elevate your listening experience.
Introducing Hi-Res audio support
Close your eyes and imagine the musician is playing in the room. Today we’re rolling out high-resolution audio support, which gives you even higher quality music playback using Chromecast Audio. With support of up to 96KHz/24bit lossless audio playback, you can enjoy higher-than-CD-quality audio on your existing high fidelity audio equipment.
Blast the same song in every room
Now you can easily fill every room in your home—bedroom, kitchen, living room, or wherever you have a Chromecast Audio connected—with synchronous music. Multi-room lets you group Chromecast Audio devices together so you can listen to the same song on multiple speakers.
Setup is simple. Connect and setup a Chromecast Audio device for each of your speakers, then use the latest
Chromecast app
to create a group. You can cast to the group the exact same way you would cast to a single Chromecast device. Since anyone with a phone can easily cast without pairing, you can sync your home speakers together and invite your friends to be the DJ.
So grab your hairbrush microphone, dust off your tennis racket guitar, and jam out to your favorite tunes at amazing quality and in every room of your house.
Posted by Tomer Shekel, Product Manager and Patron of Loud Music
A new way to save data with Chrome on Android
Monday, November 30, 2015
Accessing mobile websites on a slow connection can be frustrating: it can eat up your data, and it takes work to keep track of your usage. With that in mind, we created Data Saver mode in Chrome, which reduces the amount of data used when you visit a webpage.
Now, we're updating this mode to save even more data – up to 70 percent! – by removing most images when loading a page on a slow connection. After the page has loaded, you can tap to show all images or just the individual ones you want, making the web faster and cheaper to access on slow connections.
Chrome users in India and Indonesia will be the first to get this expanded Data Saver mode, with additional countries in the coming months. Just flip on
Data Saver mode
in your Chrome app on Android devices to get rolling!
Posted by Tal Oppenheimer, Product Manager and Speedy Saver
Safe Browsing protection from even more deceptive attacks
Friday, November 13, 2015
[Cross-posted on the
Google Online Security blog
]
Safe Browsing
has been protecting over one billion people from
traditional phishing attacks
on the web for more than eight years. The threat landscape is constantly changing -- bad actors on the web are using other types of deceptive behavior to trick you into performing actions that you didn’t intend or want, so we’ve expanded protection to include social engineering.
Social engineering is a much broader category than traditional phishing and encompasses more types of deceptive web content. A social engineering attack happens when either:
The content pretends to act, or looks and feels, like a trusted entity — like a bank or government.
The content tries to trick you into doing something you’d only do for a trusted entity — like sharing a password or calling tech support.
Below are some examples of social engineering attacks that try to trick you into thinking the content is delivered by Google or Chrome. Other trusted brands are also commonly abused for social engineering attacks.
This page tries to trick you into downloading and executing malware or unwanted software. It uses Chrome’s logo and name to confuse you into believing the site is operated by Google. Content like this may include an inconspicuous legal disclaimer that states it is not affiliated with Google. This does not change the deceptive nature of this content -- as always, use caution when downloading files from the web.
This is a fake tech phone support page. This page mimics a warning and may trick you into calling a third-party company that pretends to be Google or some other trusted entity, but charges a fee for support. (Chrome does not offer paid remote support).
This is a fake Google login page. It might trick you into disclosing your account login credentials. Other phishing sites like this could trick you into giving up other personal information such as credit card information. Phishing sites may look exactly like the real site -- so be sure to look at the address bar to check that the URL is correct, and also check to see that the website begins with https://. See more information
here
.
If we identify that a web page contains social engineering content, Chrome will warn you by displaying the following interstitial.
(If you believe Safe Browsing has classified a web page in error, please report it
here
.)
We'll continue to improve Google's Safe Browsing protection to help more people stay safer online. Check out the
Safe Browsing Transparency Report
to find out more.
Posted by Emily Schechter, Program Manager and Noé Lutz, Software Engineer
Updates to Chrome platform support
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Earlier this year, we
announced
that Google Chrome would continue support for Windows XP through the remainder of 2015. At that time, we strongly encouraged users on older, unsupported platforms such as Windows XP to update to a supported, secure operating system. Such older platforms are missing critical security updates and have a greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware.
Today, we’re announcing the end of Chrome’s support for Windows XP, as well as Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, since these platforms are no longer actively supported by Microsoft and Apple. Starting April 2016, Chrome will continue to function on these platforms but will no longer receive updates and security fixes.
If you are still on one of these unsupported platforms, we encourage you to move to a newer operating system to ensure that you continue to receive the latest Chrome versions and features.
Posted by Marc Pawliger, Director of Engineering and Early Notifier
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