May 29
May 28
Google’s Roll It Chrome Experiment brings skee ball to your phone and browser
Posted in: Today's Chili
Google’s continuing to romance the casual gaming world with the unveiling of Roll It, the company’s latest Chrome Experiment. The title emulates that old boardwalk classic skee ball, utilizing your smartphone to aim and pitch the ball and the browser to emulate the familiar ring-sporting game alley. You can also play along with friends by sharing your handset, because there’s nothing sadder in this world than solitary skee ball. Google’s pitching Roll It, along with the recently announced Racer, as “a hint of what’s possible when web experiences are designed for a multi-player (and multi-device) world.” In the meantime, you can access the game at the source link below — or just check out a demo video after the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Software, Mobile, Google
Source: Roll It, Chrome Blog
May 28
Most everyone we know will play a browser-based game from time to time. While there are plenty to choose from, there are some from Google that are a bit more unique. These, while games, are actually experiments. To be specific, Google launches these games as Chrome Experiments. We got a look at one called World Wide Maze a few months back and Google was showing one called Racer during I/O.
As of today we have one that should be familiar to anyone that has spent time playing games in an arcade or at a carnival. The game is Skee-Ball, though Google has it listed as Roll It. Regardless of the name though, the concept is the same, you roll the balls down the lane launching them to the score buckets above. The unique part about this version is how you play. The game requires the use of a desktop browser and a mobile device.
The game play is pretty simple, using your mobile device you set the angle to roll the ball and then swing to roll the ball. The obvious bit about holding your device tightly should go without saying, but that was the warning just in case. While the game play is simple, so is the setup process. Taking a step back and looking at that, you begin by launching the Roll It experiment from the Chrome Experiments website. From this point Google will take you step by step, which is really nothing more than launching Chrome on your mobile device, surfing to a website and entering a code to pair with your computer.
Once at this point you can begin playing. While fun to play, we cannot imagine many spending all that much time using this. In our time playing the game ran nice and smooth, though it did have the fan on our MacBook Air screaming. Perhaps key though, Google uses these experiments to highlight the ease of use. That is to show how you can run these types of games with nothing to install and no real configuration of any kind.
In this case, the Roll It Chrome Experiment is showing off the following items; WebSockets, HTML5 Canvas, Three.js, Go,Google App Engine and Google Compute Engine. Otherwise, while the process to get up and running is rather simple, you can get a brief look at the process as well as the game play in the video sitting above.
SOURCE: Chrome Experiments
Chrome experiment Roll It brings Skee Ball to the browser is written by Robert Nelson & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
May 28
Bringing its Chrome packaged app family closer in line with the functionality of Android programs, Google’s prepared a new Chrome Wallet App to offer in-program payments. If you’re looking to try it out early (and you don’t already know the drill), ensure you’re running Google’s Chrome Canary iteration and install the In-App Payments sample files found over at Github — we’ve collected all the necessary links below.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Francois Beaufort (Google+), Chromium code review, Google Wallet Service (Chrome), In-app payments sample app (GitHub)
May 24
While it’s known that Google Glass has in-testing features just waiting to be exposed, we haven’t seen many attempts to reveal them all. Zhuowei Zhang has stepped in with a complete list of what’s under the hood, and it turns out that some of those features work… more or less. After modding the latest Glass firmware, Android Police can confirm that there is a functional Chrome browser lurking inside; Google just hasn’t woven it into the user experience. Other Labs features produce similarly mixed results. OK Glass Everywhere lets users easily start a voice command chain from anywhere in the interface, but a video stabilization mode clearly isn’t ready for prime time. Although you’ll want to visit the source links for the full rundown, it’s evident from just a cursory glimpse that Glass has plenty of room to grow.
Filed under: Wearables, Google
Via: Android Police
Source: GitHub
May 24
Chrome OS updated with new panel window and launcher options, other minor improvements
Posted in: Today's Chili
It’s fairly minor as far as operating system upgrades go, but Chrome OS users can expect to receive a new update in the stable release channel sometime in the next few days (if they haven’t already). It brings with it some added panel windows for things like chat, along with a new positioning mode for the launcher, autocomplete in Drive search, a new three-finger gesture to move between tabs, and expanded support for wireless mice and touchpads, among other minor fixes and additions (including some promised memory management improvements). You can find the full rundown at the source link below.
Source: Chrome Releases
May 23
Chrome 28 beta for Android adds translation bar, fullscreen mode for tablets
Posted in: Today's Chili
Internationally savvy Chrome desktop users are well acquainted with the translation bar’s ability to quickly make sense of sites using foreign languages. Courtesy of the new Chrome 28 beta for Android, they can take that linguistic power on the road: the translation bar now shows up on mobile when visiting pages in non-native text. The test release also gives tablets the same fullscreen mode that phones have in the stable build, and everyone can see graphs illustrating the data usage savings they get from compression. Those who want to better understand their mobile world just have to swing by the source links to get the latest beta.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Via: Android Police
Source: Chrome Releases, Google Play
May 23
This message will self-destruct: OTR plugin brings Snapchat fuctionality to browsers
Posted in: Today's ChiliLike something out of an Inspector Gadget cartoon, a new plugin for browsers called OTR allows users to send messages to other users that will self-destruct a few seconds after they are read, (hopefully) disappearing forever. The plugin was launched today by Lamplighter Games, a company run by two brothers who wanted to bring Snapchat-like functionality to Web browsers. We’ve got a demo of it in action after the jump.
For those unfamiliar, Snapchat allows users to send each other images, which are supposed to disappear forever. It was this principle that inspired Andy and Kris Minkstein, two brothers who co-founded Lamplighter Games, which is operated out of New York. According to Kris, the two “love” Snapchat, and wanted to bring it to browsers. “We figured since you’re in front of your computer all day at work that you’re going to end up sending a lot of these photos to probably the guys sitting next to you at your cubicle.”
You can check out OTR in action in the demo video above. Downloading and installing it is as simple as adding the relevant plugin to your browser, of which Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer are supported, as well as the Yammer App available from the Yammer App Store. Once installed, clicking on it the first time will pull up a registration window.
You’ll need to create a sign-in account, or you can sign in with Yammer if you already have an account. Unlike some apps, the only information you have to provide is your email address. Once you’ve got your account, the interface has three buttons, one for inviting contacts, one for sending a picture, and one for sending a message. Contacts can be discovered by both username and email address.
From there, you simply start sending messages. Anything you receive will be available until you click on it, at which point a timer counts down, then the message disappears into nothingness. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, and as has been demonstrated with Snapchat multiple times, even self-destructing messages can be kept. It is worth noting, however, that the app monitors for any signs of taking a screenshot, and upon detecting the action, immediately deletes the message.
SOURCE: Business Week
This message will self-destruct: OTR plugin brings Snapchat fuctionality to browsers is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
May 23
Latest Chrome beta for Windows and Chrome OS brings richer notifications, coming soon to Mac and Linux
Posted in: Today's Chili
It’s not quite ready for the stable release of the browser, but Chrome beta users can now get a taste of a new notification system that should be rolling out to everyone sooner or later. Currently limited to the Windows and Chrome OS versions of the browser (Mac and Linux support is promised “soon”), the new notifications offer richer options than before, including formatted text and images, as well as the ability to incorporate actions directly inside the pop-up — Google offers the example of responding to an email right away. A new notification center will now also let you view a list of all notifications you might have missed, and you can thankfully disable notifications from as many sources as you like.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Google Chrome Blog, Chromium Blog
May 22
Today the Android version of the Chrome web browser has been updated to “Chrome 27″, this bringing with it the first wave of desktop abilities promised at Google I/O 2013. This update will be a free update for users – as always – and is optimized for both smartphone and tablet-sized devices. As it is in Chrome on one platform, so too shall it be on the other.
As outlined in bits back during the Google I/O 2013 main keynote, this mobile experience will be expanding to work with expanded abilities in the webGL department and more Google Wallet features than you can shake a finger at. For now though, the upgrade begins with autocomplete action.
In addition to the autocompletion of forms run by Chrome’s cross-device abilities to remember what you’ve saved, you’ll now have client-side certificate support. When a site requires you to use a certificate, Chrome for your Android device will now be able to assist you – and install, too.
This upgrade will allow Tab history on tablets – just a long-press on your browser back button will pull it up. You’ll also have a bunch of fixes on the back end you’ll never see – performance and stability updates, for the most part.
Chrome 27 bring with it Fullscreen on phones – this is the first time you’ll have been able to pull up and allow the internet – not your tab bar – taking up your entire display. Unfortunately it does appear that your notifications menu – set by Android itself – will have to stay.
Finally you’ll be working with simpler searching. If you type a term into the box that Google calls its “Omnibox”, also known as the URL bar, you’ll find your search query to remain there as you’re searching. While some platforms require that you type your term over completely each time you want to search, this allows you to make minor corrections in spelling or spacing, if need be.
This update to Chrome is available right this minute through Google Play for Android devices. If you don’t yet have Chrome on your Android device, picking it up at any point is a totally free affair as well.
Chrome 27 brings desktop features to Android, we go hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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