chrome

Chrome 68 adds native Windows notifications

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Chrome 68 adds native Windows notifications 1

Earlier this week, Chrome users using the newest version of Chrome on the Windows 10 platform began seeing notifications from the world’s most popular web browser in their Action Center. Chrome notifications will use the same design and style as the standard Windows notifications and will show up in the Action Center (the bottom-right corner of the screen on a traditional desktop layout).

Google is rolling out the new version in waves. The update was released on August 8th and 50% of users with the stable and most updated version of Chrome (Chrome 68) will be automatically opted-in to the new notifications system. Chrome users who don’t want to wait for the rollout and want the update right now can easily do so:

  • Update to the newest version of Chrome- Chrome 68.
  • Launch Chrome and type in “chrome://flags” in the address bar and hit Enter.
  • Turn on the “Enable native notifications” option.

This will force Chrome to enable the native alerts immediately.

This update will make Chrome’s notifications work with Windows settings.

For example, if you’re a user of Focus Assist (AKA Quiet Hours), which allows users to block notifications during a videogame or when the screen is being mirrored, Chrome won’t bug you with notifications and will respect your Windows settings. Users with lots of notifications from Chrome (Facebook, Twitter, Calendar, Slack, Stocks, Gmail, etc.) will have all their alerts silenced when needed rather than showing up when they’re not welcome.

Source: ArsTechnica

Chrome Browser getting a new UI overhaul with Google’s Material Design Theme

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Chrome Browser getting a new UI overhaul with Google's Material Design Theme 2

The Chrome Browser is getting a major UI redesign soon. New changes have already been live in the Canary build. The new version is focused on Material Desing across all its products for a similar look and feel. It’s officially dubbed the Google Material Theme after already being debuted in Android P and Gmail. Now it’s going to roll out to the Chrome Browser.

The tab and address bar are underway for some significant changes. The tab bar now shows a rectangular shape with rounded corners and tab separation is also different. If you’re using a single tab, there’s no distinct tab shape at all. The focused tab is white and the background of the tab bar is also white so it blends into one bar. If you’re using only a single tab, it makes sense.

Chrome Browser getting a new UI overhaul with Google's Material Design Theme 3

When you have multiple tabs, then the background switches to a light grey and then background tabs will get vertical pipe separators rather than their own tab.

Getting a new tab has also been replaced with a huge plus button rather the current blank, unlabeled button. On Macs, it’ll be on the left-hand side instead of the right.

The address bar is rounded now just like on Android phones. The autocomplete drop down is a rectangular box instead of a bar. A new account button for Chrome Sync is also more apparent and shows your profile picture instead of the name.

Material Design is Google’s new theme and they’re really pushing it out. It’ll roll out to Windows and Mac platforms soon after it gets into the Stable channel for release.

Google blocks crypto miner extensions from Chrome Web Store

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Chrome is blocking crypto miners from the Chrome Web Store.

Google has finally decided to get rid of any Chrome extensions that are mining for crypto.

Before this removal, Google allowed Chrome Web Store extensions to mine for cryptocurrencies as long as they clearly stated that they did such a thing and did nothing else but mine. This was the strict rule. Guess how it went?

Only about 10% of extensions actually followed this guideline whereas the rest didn’t. They would mine surreptitiously without user consent, which often increased resource usage and drained batteries faster.

Now, Google has decided to just cut off any crypto miners on the platform. You can now no longer submit your extension if you’re a developer and any current ones will be removed in June 2018. Sorry to the 10% of you. It’s the 90% that did this. Google has done right in this manner with the majority clearly not playing by the rules. They’re doing it to protect the end user anyway.

Google has announced that they would begin blocking any third-party applications from injecting code into Chrome. Accessibility and input software will be fine, but everything else will be halted. This is to stop malware from stealing passwords, tracking users, and doing other nonsense that harms users. Chrome 66 will warn users about injected code. Chrome 68 will only allow code to run after a warning. And in 2019, Chrome will block code injection completely.

Photo: Pixabay.