Hasta La Gadget!

Ever wondered what the World Wide Web’s illustrious history would look like if plotted in timeline form? Well, thanks to Google’s “Evolution of the web,” you won’t have to. The delectable chart traces the evolution of HTML, the web technologies that came alongside it and the browsers that’ve held it all together — all in a seriously meta HTML5 package. Ready for a trip down memory lane? Hit the source, friend, and revel at how far we’ve come.

Visualized: an interactive timeline of the web originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since the death of Gears we’ve been, rather impatiently, awaiting the return of offline access to our Google apps. Well that day has finally come — provided you’re a Chrome fan. The fine folks in Mountain View just unveiled a new app for their browser (which means it also works on Chome OS) called Offline Google Mail that will keep you connected to your all-important messages even when you can’t get a connection. You’ll notice the app looks a heck of a lot like the web app for tablets, and that’s because that’s basically what it is. There are some differences — keyboard shortcuts work — but at it’s heart it’s the same HTML5 browser app mobile users have been enjoying for some time. To install the offline version you’ll have to uninstall the standard Gmail Chrome app, which is a little odd, but there’s nothing stopping you from typing Gmail.com in the address bar. Docs and Calendar are also going offline. Starting today the feature will be rolled out to users over the next week. To activate it just look under settings for an offline tick box. At the moment Docs is view only when disconnected, but Google promises offline editing is coming soon. Hit up the more coverage link to install Offline Gmail now.

Update: Google reached out to us and it turns out both can run side by side just fine. We were experiencing a bug that shouldn’t effect most users since we hadn’t let the Gmail app update recently.

Gmail, Google Docs and Calendar finally regain offline access originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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South Korea brings the big guns to the mobile OS knife fight originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It didn’t make launch as was originally promised, but today the Netflix Twitter account officially announced streaming access is operational on Chromebooks (when it’s not suffering an outage, like it was last night during Amazon’s cloud server troubles). The Netflix ChromeOS plugin jumping to 1.0.2 a few days ago was a good indication it was on the way, but now you can take your CR-48s, Series 5s and the like straight to the Chrome Web Store and get outfitted for some Watch Instantly streaming. Unfortunately, despite rumors that it’s on the way in the next year or so, there’s no change for other environments outside of Silverlight-compatible OS X and Windows, but Linux users can always dream, right?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Netflix Watch Instantly streaming now works on ChromeOS, when it’s working originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a rough Black Hat conference for Google. First, FusionX used the company’s homepage to pry into a host of SCADA systems, and now, a pair of experts have discovered a way to hack into Chrome OS. According to WhiteHat security researchers Matt Johansen and Kyle Osborn, one major issue is Google’s vet-free app approval process, which leaves its Chrome Web Store susceptible to malicious extensions. But there are also vulnerabilities within native extensions, like ScratchPad — a note-taking extension that stores data in Google Docs. Using a cross-site scripting injection, Johansen and Osborn were able to steal a user’s contacts and cookies, which could give hackers access to other accounts, including Gmail. Big G quickly patched the hole after WhiteHat uncovered it earlier this year, but researchers told Black Hat’s attendees that they’ve discovered similar vulnerabilities in other extensions, as well. In a statement, a Google spokesperson said, “This conversation is about the Web, not Chrome OS. Chromebooks raise security protections on computing hardware to new levels.” The company went on to say that its laptops can ward off attacks better than most, thanks to “a carefully designed extensions model and the advanced security available through Chrome that many users and experts have embraced.”

WhiteHat Security hacks into Chrome OS, exposes extension vulnerability at Black Hat originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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