LaptopMemo | Tech & Then Some » Google

Google Chrome 17 Released With Pre-Loading And Download Screening

Stefan Etienne — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:44:00 +0000

Google has just released the Chrome 17 update, which adds pre-loading to the browser. You can now have web pages instantly load when you start typing them out in the Omnibox, and Chrome will begin to understand web pages you visit every frequently and will pre-fetch them as well. This also applies to web pages Google “thinks” you will visit, so they will also pre-load to make your visits faster, per their algorithm.

Also included is download screening for .exe files. Nice stuff for a incremental update.

Via: Google Chrome Blog

Google makes Chrome for Android a reality

Stefan Etienne — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:00:22 +0000

It has been made official for devices running Ice Cream Sandwich: Google Chrome for Android, as a beta. Features include the usual speed and performance associated with Chrome. Additional features include: a fresh UI (Duh!), Google is touting a new, more natural tab management interface, bookmark and tab synchronization with the desktop, support for incognito windows (this is Chrome, after all), and little something called Link Preview that makes it easier to select the right link in a densely-populated area of a page; a preview of sorts.

But! Chrome for Android! That’s good enough news on its own. Exciting and fast is all you need to describe it as a whole.

Via: Google, Android Market

Google unveils “Solve for X” think-tank operation

Stefan Etienne — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:24:36 +0000

This is Google’s “Solve for X”, a think-tank, TED-like operation that for the past few months has been very covert, and that by next Monday will have all of its new “shoot-for-the-stars” ideas posted on YouTube. Some of these ideas include: transforming education, improvements in agriculture, synthetic biology, and carbon-negative biofuels. There is even evidence of being able to pitch and idea for Solve for X and have a talk. And with that, we shall see what potentially innovative and groundbreaking ideas Solve for X by Google has in store.

Via: Solve for X

WHAT: Google Removes Galaxy Nexus From Its Support Pages (updated)

Stefan Etienne — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:04:17 +0000

Updated: Apparently according to Google, this has nothing to do with Google Wallet. In fact, it has to do with CDMA tech and other stuff. Also, Google will continue to support the Galaxy Nexus’ firmware updates. Whew.

This is beyond our imagination. Google has removed the Verizon Galaxy Nexus from its support pages perhaps due to the Google Wallet fiasco/delay, where Verizon has seemingly been unable to allow Google to add Wallet support to their version of the Galaxy Nexus. Furthermore, the phone (model codename “toro”) has disappeared from Google’s list of downloadable factory ROM images; all mentions of toro are “archived, for reference only.”

This all essentially meaning that Samsung and Verizon are now responsible for future updates and the Galaxy Nexus is no longer support for Android development.

This is not supposed to happen.

Via: Droid-Life

Google intent on killing Android menu button, urges dev to do the same

Stefan Etienne — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:56:56 +0000

It has come and gone: the menu button. Apparently, just a few months ago it was all the rage at Google, but now as part of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google is urging developers and designers to try and not use the menu buttons at all, to a point where it would not exist in the hardware. What the big G wants is devs to make use of the Action Bar, first seen in Android 3.0 Honeycomb. While in some apps this may prove troublesome, most of them will have to update to work on the newer software (properly, that is), so improvements can easily be made so that actions that rely on the menu buttons are switched to vertical or horizontal positions. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

At the very least Google is making Android more uniform. Via: Android Developers