Chrome OS Weekly S1 EP 6: Google Stadia-centric Studio, Google .new Domain, Chrome Game Hub, R.I.P Adobe Flash, and more
Everything You Need To Know About Stadia
Ever since Google announced when it will be fully launched Stadia, many like myself have marked their calendars eagerly waiting for November 19 to arrive.
Stadia is expected to immensely impact the gaming industry with analysts predicting that it will herald a new medium of how we access and play video.
We covered a piece tagged “Everything You Need to Know About Stadia “and here are some of the highlights.
The Stadia controlller is expected to arrive in several color variations including clearly white, just black, night blue– which is only available in the Founders Edition–, and Wasabi. It will also sport several hardware features like WiFi connectivity options include dual-band 2.5 to 5GHz frequencies and IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac connectivity with a designated Voice Assistant button and Microphone for Google Assistant integration with games and so much more.
On the subscription front, Stadia Founder and Premier Editions will both come at the same pre-order price of $130 in the US, and both include a Chromecast Ultra, Google Stadia controller, Stadia access to Destiny 2, and a three-month subscription to Stadia Pro (which provides higher resolution stream access and monthly freebies, usually for $10 a month).
However, only those lucky enough to be Founder’s Edition buyers get an exclusive dark blue controller, a three-month buddy pass, the first choice of a Stadia username for your account, and a Founder’s Badge on that account.
You can learn more here.
Google Likely Adding A Browser-Based Gaming Hub to Chrome
Chrome has deservingly positioned itself as the most powerful browser ever to grace the World Wide Web and the regular addition of new features has become a routine occurrence.
Google, the company responsible for the browser is reportedly working on a new revamped version of Chrome that could potentially feature a sport to access and play browser-based games like the ever addictive Dino Run.
Reported by Chrome Story’s Dinsan based on some code commit he stumbled upon, Chrome will get a new page called chrome://games on the Desktop version, and on Android, a “Games” hub will likely be added to the “Top Site” page of the browser.
The Project is code-named “Joy” and if accurate, indicates plans to bring games to Chrome but as of yet, it is unclear how Google will handle the browser-based Game’s Store and whether monetization will be involved.
The Pixelbook Go is Here, Now What?
If the recently concluded Google hardware event is anything to go by is that we are left wanting more from a company that likes to kill off new ideas even before they take hold.
Hardware or even news about the Pixel Slate sequel or the long-awaited Pixelbook 2 was all but nonexistent with the search instead focusing on a new iteration dubbed Pixelbook Go.
The event has been frustrating those waiting for the sequel to the original Pixelbook and since the company decided to go mute about the device, we’ve put together a few things we would like to see in future Pixel Books like biometrics and possible integration of Project Soli, dual-screen configurations like Microsoft’s Surface Neo, wireless charging and a more comfortable 3:2 Aspect Ratio.
Google Opens Its First Stadia-centric Studio, Plans to Release Games Yearly
Stadia is a little over a couple of weeks away and Google is opening up about some of the things it has planned for the game streaming platform. In other for the Stadia to succeed, it needs original content tailored specifically for it, this notion is shared by the search giant who opened its first game studio.
The studio expected to leverage the immense power of Stadia by adding some interesting aspects to games like full physics simulations and integrating Google Assistant to be the voice of NPCs in the games.
Adobe Flash is Really Dead This Time
Adobe Flash was once the internet’s most renowned technology and used in almost everything from the production of animations, rich Internet applications, desktop applications, mobile applications, mobile games and embedded web browser video players.
At its peak, Flash helped make the internet in general and web sites, in particular, less boring places facilitating the integration of media.
But, due to its irreversible security flaws, Flash slowly fell from grace and was slowly replaced by the much more secure HTML5.
Adobe announced it is killing off the platform completely in 2020 but that was after several entities like Microsoft, Apple, Google, began removing Flash capabilities from their products.
Google Brings It’s .new’ Domain to Even More Platforms Including Spotify and Microsoft
Google’s .new feature has been around for over a year, but the time-saving shortcut domain was only limited to the company’s core programs like docs, sheets, and forms.
But recently, the company expanded the capabilities of its shortcut domain to Calendars and now is allowing create shortcuts of their own that allow access to their platforms.
Microsoft and Music streaming platform Spotify have snatched up some of these domains with the former now having a “word.new” domain to start a new word document and the latter opting for “playlist.new” to start adding songs to a new playlist on its streaming app.
With other companies also following suit like eBay (sell.new), Canva (canva.new and design.new), and eight more shortcuts all already claimed.
Progressive Web Apps Comes to Galaxy App Store
Google wants its Progressive Web App platform in more places and because of this, the company is partnering with mega smartphone maker, Samsung to bring PWA to the Galaxy app store.
Progressive Web Apps was introduced by the search giant to improve the overall functionality of programs no matter where they are accessed from.
Part of the plan was to make both web-based flavors and natively variants of apps to share an identical feature set where users can get the most of them irrespective of how they want to access them.
The partnership will see Samsung allow app developers to add their own variants of a web app to its store by sharing the URL on pwasupport@samsung.com.
Also, the OEM will help in the deployment of said programs as it will guide developers through the process and even help with the needed licensing agreements of the apps.
Developers Will Be Able To Sideload Android Apps On Chrome OS 80
When Chrome OS binded with Android, the bond potentially expanded the usuability of Chromebooks by granting them access to a huge catalog of apps found on the Play Store, But, due to the Play Store’s restrictive nature like region locking, many Android users get their apps from third-party app stores, This method sometimes requires downloading the actual APK of the app before installing it.
Grabbing and installing APKs was a long sort-after feature on Chromebooks and Google is seemgingly lifting part of the embargo that made it impossible to download and install Android APKs on Chrome OS-powered devices.
WIth Chrome OS 80, developers will be able to run APKs in a dedicated Android container within Chrome OS.
Though this isn’t exactly aimed at the average users, it could be an indication that the feature might arrive in the near future.
Deals of The Week
The Google Pixel 3a can be yours for $299. The deal is being offered through Google’s Project Fi platform and it includes the Pixel 3XL as well.
Another interesting deal includes that Asus Chromebook C425 is priced at $329 (its lowest yet) over at Walmart.
