Google finally unveiled Chrome OS Beta 43.0.2357.65 update. Don’t get scared of the huge name, it has got a simple and elegant pet name and that’s Chrome 43 Beta, or simply Beta 43.
Interestingly this new OS update has instantly garnered appreciation from even the hardest critics; they can no longer call Google Chrome a sluggish browser; not even on an Android or Linux device. Although the new update can be installed from Google Play Store now, all features of the update will be available by the last week of May.
When Google Chrome started its journey as an internet browser it was used by a measure 0.3% internet population, despite of the Google’s already established online reputation. However, today about 23.2% of the internet population uses this explorer, which means 37 out of every 100 users choose Google Chrome as the medium to use internet, pretty interesting, isn’t it?!
To help you decide wether you should install a beta version of the Chrome OS, we’ve chosen the top three features for Chrome OS Beta 43! And why you might want to consider this update on all of your devices.
- Chrome Beta 43 update is Available for Android, Windows, Linux, Mac and Chrome OS
We couldn’t love this update more! All the goodness of the update 43 is available to the users on different platforms. it doesn’t matter which platform you are using you can still access your Google Wallet and enjoy all the other features of Beta 43. Let’s have a look on some of the features of this new update that are available on all platforms:
- Beta 43 has refreshed files app to follow the suit with Material Design
- All password protected zip files are supported by the new update
- The calculator app has been updates and is now supported by interface tweaks
- In order to make the Material Design more consistent with Chromebook typeface, the Chromebook typeface has been updated to Roboto for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts.
Indeed Chrome 43 Beta is a promise fulfilled by Google. It offers unparalleled adaptability that makes it the best internet explorer update ever!
- Beta 43 Has Got Some of the Most Exciting Features:
For quite some time now Google was receiving complaints regarding sluggish performance of the browser while online shopping. Customers complained of slow speed, sluggish process of putting in data each time you make a purchase and the dead slow speed on android. Some other issues were related to the slow performance on Android phones and sporadic attacks of bugs that caused data loss.
Hence, the new update primarily targets these three areas as is mentioned on the official Google website. These primary updates include:
- According to official Google update, previously reported notorious and malicious bugs are now fixed, besides, the user can complain about any new bug by filling a bug information form.
- Beta 43 update is specially designed to better the online shopping experience, hence, whenever a user wants to fill the online information form, the chrome will automatically connect to the Google Wallet, retrieve data and fill in all the forms thereby making the entire checkout process swifter and more secure.
- The chrome now works faster; all the performance issues are resolved so much so that one of the commentators on the Google website compared this update with HTML 5.
Appearance:
Beta 43 has got some visual changes as well; let’s have a look on new physical features of chrome.
Color:
For those users who have their “Recent” and “Chrome” tabs merged the color of the status bar will be of gray opaque color that completely overlays the top of the screen.Earlier the color of the status bar was decided by the header color of the website; for those who had merged their “Recent” and “Chrome” tabs it was similar to the color of the website header, however, for others it was black. Some of the users have also noticed animation and sprinkles along with disappearance of the keyboard preview when the Reader mode of the device is on.
Playback Changes:
Chrome Beta 43 has also introduced three changes (so far) in audio and video playing on the browser.
- While playing an audio a notification pops up. The notification is usually silent, unless you click it and then it will take you back to the tab from which it originated.
- While watching a video when you choose to switch to the full-screen mode a new permission bar appears asking for the permission or to exit the mode.
- Chrome 43 Beta gives you mute option while on YouTube full-screen mode; you can see the option next to the full screen.
Basically Google releases all of the features of an update in sporadic episodes and it might take a week before you can actually witness these changes, so cross your fingers and let’s see what else is in the pipeline.
Let’s move to the third exciting feature.
- Beta 43 Offers Support for External MIDI Keyboards, Permission API and Separate Paths for HTTP Connections
Now this is definitely a new era of relationship between the web developers and the browser. Google has announced that Beta 43 will offer Web MIDI support, new API permission and changes to existing APIs as well as will also assist in upgrading legacy sites to HTTP.
Even before the announcement of this update web developers were quite fond of Chrome because of its developer friendly approaches. With this new update chrome has went several steps ahead allowing the web developers to see chrome as something more than just an internet browser.
Let’s have a look on how Chrome Beta 43 will help web developers.
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI):
MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. These instruments use web audio API and are also known as web-based virtual instruments. MIDI denotes protocol, connectors and digital interface and thus, allows various devices and musical instruments to connect and communicate with computer.
Google Chrome Beta 43 supports MIDI, allowing you to connect your MIDI – compatible keyboards and other instruments and play music online. Beta 43 supports MIDI hardware and does not create any trouble or demand any further expenses to carry on your musical passion.
This new Web MIDI API allows websites to communicate and connect with MIDI devices; most commonly used MIDI devices are USB-MIDI instruments that you usually plug-in your computer, tablets and mobile phones.
Permissions API:
With Permissions API developers can ask questions and observe changes to the requests they send for geo-locations, push notifications and MIDI requests. Before Beta 43 Chrome just popped up a permission message requesting to know your location. This message usually appears at top of the browser window in all the chrome browsers which haven’t yet upgraded to Beta 43.
With Beta 43 developers can ask queries that means they can ask for permissions in context, improving the user experience, as pointed out by Google. Asking for permission in context refers to an approach that will reduce unnecessary and untimely prompts for users. Besides, this will also abolish website’s previous practices of using API’s immediate after page load that caused to send too many confusing requests to the user without any explanation.
Want to know more about how API permissions work? Have a look on this information:
Updating Insecure Requests to a Secure HTTP Connection:
Chrome Beta 43 offers the developers a unique way of mixing and securing HTTP requests and insecure connections. According to Google:
“Transitioning large collections of un-modifiable legacy web content to encrypted, authenticated HTTPS connections can be challenging, as the content frequently includes links to insecure resources, triggering mixed content warnings,”
Thus, Beta 43 automatically upgrades insecure requests to a secure alternative even before the browser starts downloading them, and thereby allows the user to have a safe experience without any mixed content warnings.
Here are some other features of Beta 43 for web developers:
- In Beta 43 Document Object Model (DOM) have been moved to the prototype chain, thereby allowing the developers to efficiently override DOM objects and enhance compatibility between different other explorers (i.e. Firefox and Internet Explorer) and Chrome.
- The update also provides developers with Cache Storage API, which was previously available in service workers This feature provides developers full and imperative control over their in-page caching.
- The update support autocapitalize on input as well as on textarea elements and allows the sites to suggest default capitalization with on-screen keyboards.
- Beta 43 eliminates the need to use Flash-based workarounds thereby allowingdevelopers to programmatically trigger copy and cut actions with the help of document.execCommand(‘copy’) document.execCommand(‘cut’) on request of a user.
- With the help of this new update Chrome OS allows developers to track device’s acceleration concurrent with the tracking on other devices including Chrome for Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- With the help of Web Audio API developers can selectively disconnect specific connections. This is done by first disconnecting all AudioNode and AudioParam artifacts and then manually reconnecting those that need to be retained.
What do you think about this latest update? Is this all that Google can do to make your online shopping safe? As a web developer what would you ask Google to add, remove or update in their next Beta update? Let us know your opinion about Chrome Beta 43 in the comments below.